Great site here guys. I'm 30 yrs old with a 1946 dodge d24. Im thinking about a new chassis under this thing. The chassis I'm going after is a 1985 old cutlass. Which has a 8 in shorter wheelbase. I'm thinking about shortening the body to fit the new frame.
Uh... Why? Wouldn't that make it look.. Um wierd? Just my opinion but what's wrong with the frame? At least get one that fits Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The thing is,a car as old as 1985 is going to have shitty,worn out suspension too. So you'd just be going through a HUGE amount of work to absolutely butcher the car....and still need to rebuild te suspension and brakes. Why not just save your nickels and dimes for a while longer,and rebuild the stock stuff,not maim the shit outta some cool old car,and gain the satisfying experience of learning something new,and saving old cars and parts from the crusher and the junk pile..? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
My '48 Plymouth sits on an '83 El Camino chassis and suspension (except for the dropped front spindles). It's very strong and I think the stance is excellent.
I am on my second 48 Plymouth coupe. The first I had professionally subframed with a Nova unit after I had driven with the stock suspension for about a year. Only real benefit I saw was the disc brakes. On the one I currently drive, I just rebuilt the stock front suspension and added an Olddaddy disc brake kit because of my experience with the first build. For about 4 years the 48 was my daily driver in and around Dallas traffic with absolutely zero issues. As long as the frame in is good shape, I would never even think of swapping to another frame. It fits the car like a glove. If you absolutely have to have a newer front end for some unknown reason a subframe would be a much better option than a new frame. A subframe would be a ton less work as long as you are qualified to do the work. Either way if you swap the frame or do a subframe, you will have to design and fab new mounts for the front sheetmetal, bumpers, core support etc on top of a likely rebuild of the "newer" suspension. If you do a frame swap you will possibly have to do new floors on top of new body mounts. Why go to all that work when a rebuild of the stock independent front suspension is a ton less work. Rides just as good and fits the car like it was made for it, which it was. Once you rebuild the stock front end, add disc brakes then do a simple relocation of the upper shock mounts and you are good to go.
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