57 NAPCO rebuild
 

OK, figured I would be best to start a build thread to keep everything in one place. From the beginning I bought this thing on a whim sight unseen from the other side of the country - the seller was pretty creative with how he took the photos, a lot of the carnage was JUST out of frame in the pics I received.......

Anyhow , whats done is done - this is what turned up on the day it was delivered to the depot in Perth, sitting on 4 flat tyres as the shipper let them down for overhead clearance on the trailer :mad::mad::mad:

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Has NAPCO underpinnings - but the rust has gotten into the chassis and patching chassis over here is a no no so the decision was made to fit the body to a 1994 Nissan Patrol chassis. These are coil sprung cars with significantly stronger diffs, 4 wheel discs, right hand drive obviously , power steering, gas tank mounted on the chassis from factory and an LS1 conversion kit is readily available so it ticks all the boxes except the originality one. Wheelbase is 3" longer on the Nissan and track is close enough - the plan is to move the front wheels 1" forward from stock and fit a 2" filler piece on the front of the stepside bed

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Has PLENTY of body issues to deal with, my original plan was to leave it and do the absolute minimum to get it licenced and use it as is but that is no longer an option sadly. Its coming apart tonight and the cab will be mounted onto the Nissan chassis before the Christmas break so panelwork can start during the Xmas/new year break which will make it a "NIPCO" :lol::lol::lol:

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Man, sorry to hear the chassis is too bad to use. That's the coolest part about a NAPCO IMO.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

We blew it apart tonight - damn these things are easy to work on, 21/2 hours from driving it into the shed to stripped :metal: My son Chevy and my neighbour Mick helped out which made life easier

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Not as terrible as we expected........
floor is solid, except for one corner that can be patched
Passengers fender is good in the bottom corner, shame about the fact it has been a 2 for one deal at some stage in its life and is junk
Cab corners are no worse than anticipated

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

The chassis on the other hand is well and truly buggered ....... paper thin in places

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

This was the only real surprise of the night, hidden by the fuel tank in front and the cab behind, no patch panels available that I know of so will need to fabricate this part or simply weld it back together as it doesn't seem rusty-

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

wow, that was a quick strip job.
i gotta say i have never seen a frame that bad. I've seen a lot of frames in my day too. I am a heavy duty mechanic before i became a pro fire fighter, retired from both proffessions, but that one wins.
looks like it also had a body lift since the rear cab mounts are usually just a piece of rubber, like conveyor belting.
moving the front axle cemterline 1 inch ahead is a pretty common thing thats done to these trucks when the body is lowered. it's to keep the wheel looking more centered in the opening as the rear part of the front fender tapers and as the wheel goes up inside the fender it looks like it is going to hit the rear of the opening. should look ok on a tall truck too I would think. not sure what you mean by adding an extension to the front of the box. will you make the whole box longer or just add an extension to the outside of the box but the inside will remain styock length?
not sure about how solid the box is but a sheet metal or welding shop could likely fab up some new box sides pretty reasonably compared to buying the sheet metal and spending a bunch of time welding filler panels to the old box sides. possibly you could re-use the original stake pockets etc.
I seen one stretched TF truck that added a filler to the rear fenders in the middle of the wheel opening. it looked ok because it was also a 4x4 and it had large diameter tires
keep posting up your progress, looks interesting for sure.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

since I wasn't sure what a nissan patrol looked like I did a quick google search. on this side of the world they are called armada. good choice for frame swap i think.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Thanks mate, just my luck hey ? Was hoping to spend a swag of cash at LMC on suspension bushes etc and rewire and do the brakes and that would be it - not to be .........

Back in the shed this morning to strip the Nissan , took this chassis up the back and wheeled the next victim in, yanked the body off it - which took a LOT longer than the Chev, then took it down and gave it a bath at the local carwash with very limited success.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

after doing a frame swap (not completed yet), and having a rusty looking donor mess (even after pressure washing) I would try a wet sandblaster on the donor frame prior to starting the process of making it fit under the project. thats just me though. i plan to get the project done to primer, then take the body off and paint the pieces. while it's off i will blast the frame, rebuild whatever needs work on the chassis, get the chassis painted and then assemble everything again for the final time. what kinda plan do you have? will you be just getting a driver or do you plan to do something like that as well?

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

nice shed!
i like your trailer too. lol

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

My plan is to make the body mounts and weld them on , get any other mods done then once its sorted I will strip it to bare and have it blasted and powdercoated. While its away will reco the diffs etc and have all new bushes and brake components etc so it all goes together with new gear. Not building a show car just want it tidy underneath and keep it as close as possible to how it is now up top but with a nice interior, air cond and cruise control. Thanks for the kind words about the trailer, its the 4th one I have built so you would hope I would have it close to right by now ;)

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

sounds like a plan. is the frame on the donor boxed or C channel shaped?
I wonder if you could reshape your cab back to square, if you find it has been made into a parallelogram, by using jacks from lower front to upper rear in the door openings. maybe you wanna brace the front lower coners first though, when you get that far along.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

The Nissan frame is fully boxed and pretty stout - my next door neighbour is a panelbeater and once this body is mounted to this frame we are going to get stuck into squaring it all up over the Christmas holidays. I have a portapower so hopefully it will all end up where it needs to be - we are just arguing about the paint - he wants me to have it blasted so we know what we are dealing with and I want to leave it looking just like it is as much as possible. I think the paint from the beltline up is going to HAVE to come off to see whats under all the bondo plus it needs a new roof skin and inner skin.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Hey, your steering box is on the wrong side haha
Looks like new paint is in your future. Or home made patina, if you like that look

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Steering box is on the RIGHT side :lol::lol:

Not a fan of home done patina, the natural stuff is miles better. I like the weatherbeaten look of this thing and will hopefully preserve it , except from the beltline up and the repairs on the doors and fenders - that's the plan anyway.

Had a play last night with getting the body in place, I just lowered it down until it hit the top of the trans - need to come down another 3 inches ideally but I am going to run into trouble with the radiator support panel because the frame rails on this chassis are higher at the front than in the middle.

Question for you guys running an LS - do you use a wide late style radiator or can they be sufficiently cooled with a stock style radiator? The reason I ask is I could raise the mounting pads on the rad support to lower it and the stock style radiator will fit between the frame rails - I was planning to use the Patrol radiator and condenser but if i lower the radiator support too much I doubt it will fit.

Gonna need to cut a BIG hole in the floor -

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

From the outside - I got the cab square to the chassis using the original dimensions taken off the truck before we blew it apart, engine was tight to the firewall but not too terrible. The rear cab mounts are sitting directly above the frame so will make the mounting bracket with a captive nut in it for ease of installation. Mocked up the front fender so see how it looks - the research I did before starting this project told me that its fairly common to shift the front axle line an inch or so forwards to centre the front wheel in the wheel arch so I played around rolling the chassis back and forth with the cab still suspended on the hoist to see what looked "right"

See below - I think I am happiest with it as per the last pic, with the wheel about 3/4" forward of stock - it also gives me a little more room between the firewall and the engine which is nice. The tradeoff is the further forward the chassis goes, the higher the rad support mount become as the chassis rises up towards the front coil pockets. Track is looking good too , these tyres are 35"tall and 12.5" wide - I want to use 33" 11.5" so should have adequate clearance to the front of the fender when turning.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Cut a big hole in the floor and replace it with a piece of floor/firewall from the donor
Fab your own rad support. Not much to them
There are ls rads built for these trucks I think. Otherwise use the donor stuff and fab a support that fits it all.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Hello,

For my two Gen 3 engine LS swapped vehicles - an El Camino and a Pontiac Catalina - I'm using a Cold Case radiator part number "GMA546AK". This is an aluminum radiator that is a two core but the tubes in these cores are a width of 1.25 inches. Overall, its the same thickness as a four core. This radiator also uses two electric fans with a tightly fitted shroud and it has no internal transmission fluid cooler - external fluid cooler required. It also has a port in the passenger side radiator tank for the LS engine steam vent to dump hot steamy and sometimes foamy coolant bubbles.

Two Davies-Craig electric fan controllers to manage the fans. I had to go with e-fans because there was no room to retain the donor truck thermostatic engine driven fan. The motor had to move forward to provide room to fit the 4L60E transmission in the El Camino and even that would not work in the Catalina. The Cat needed a cut to the forward floor pan hump and a patch panel to get a good fit.

Rick

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

..

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Googled the part number, found them on the Summit website - nice looking bit of gear but they are too wide to fit between the frame rails. I will see what else is available, the stock radiator will fit so if someone makes a radiator the same size as the stock radiator I could use one of those

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Got a delivery at work just now - no wonder freight is expensive - the box is about 1/4 full :lol: I remember once I ordered a headlight switch from Danchuk I think it was and it was a little headlight switch sized box inside something about the size of a shoebox

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

wheels look good at that spot in the front fenders. since it has trailing arms, which run the axle through an arc, i would say to remove the spring and run the axle through a full suspension traven run just to be sure it wont rub a tire with wheels turned to lock, both ways. it would be great to have the correct size tire for your wants but the larger size tire it has is just some built in assurance.
thanks for posting your progress, it helps the rest of us get off the couch and out in the shop. lol.
curious what engine and HP the stock donor came with too. was it roughly the same dimensionally as the LS? the hole in the floor would work either way?
nice to see your parts arrive, even if the box was only part full. hopefully everything is still straight and it will fit well.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Good idea re the coil spring removal, will do that before welding any mounts to the chassis. I do all my posting at work, when at home I spend my time in the shed not in front of a computer or a TV :-) . Stock Patrol had either a 3 litre turbo diesel 4 cylinder or a 4.2 litre petrol 6 so engine wise nowhere near the same dimensionally. The trans was either a 5 speed auto or a 5 speed manual and they are much the same size as the 4L60 that is in here now. No idea what sort of power the original engines made other than not much :lol: there is a good reason why LS and Barra engine swaps are so popular into these things :metal:

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Spent a little time last night getting the body mounts correctly lined up so see how I am going to mount it - the front ones are near on exactly where the Patrol body bolted on - will just fill these holes in the chassis and redrill in the correct spot about 1/2" away :metal:

The rear mounts are directly on top of the chassis so a simple saddle mount with a nut welded into it should suffice there, and bolt it down from inside the cab.

Had a dig up inside the plenum chamber - not much stuff up there!!! Guess this is a common rust spot for these things with a big plenum and a tiny hole that looks like it would block up pretty regularly!!

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

looks like an easy fix.
bear in mind that the original mounts were set up so the cab could pivot on the driver's front mount in order to get hood alignment etc correct. not that your new frame and engineering wouldn't account for that.
curious if you will use donor body mounts, since you may need to move the rad support mount anyway. it would be more modern than the old metal on metal front cab mount and the rubber conveyor belt style rear cab and rad support mounts.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

I did buy a set of cab mounting rubbers from LMC but you are correct I will most likely stick with the Nissan ones - they are quite a bit taller which will help my cause and obviously a lot newer design which should make for a smoother ride.

We knocked off early and had a beer in the shed last night ;) my neighbour/offsider is off on holidays for a couple of weeks so it would be rude not to

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Got the body mounts dummied up yesterday, started off by clearancing the floor and thought I would drop the oil pan off the trans - a 5 minute job that turned into an hour long ordeal due to the stupid design of the exhaust system - th ecrossover pipe runs an inch below the rear of the pan making removing the bolts difficult and getting the pan itself off impossible :mad::mad:

Had to fire the oxy set up to remove the seized bolts in the exhaust flanges to get the pan off - bolts aren't tight when they are a liquid :metal: lots of VERY rude words and the designers parentage was questioned on more than one occasion............

Anyway the trans is toast as expected - oil is filthy and there is glitter in the sump. Having the exhaust so close to it would not be helping its cause no doubt.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

So down it goes and mounts mocked up ready to be CAD (Cardboard Assisted Design) drawn ;)

Good clearance around the trans , front mounts will be a walk in the park.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Out with the CAD gear and into it .........

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

BUT - and there is always a but, I think I have outsmarted myself here, the body is too low on the chassis now, have big clearance issues for both the tray and the front clip - we started sorting out the radiator support and things are getting ugly up here - simple option would be to shorten the front frame horns but I very much doubt the engineer will allow that - need to bear in mind as well that the chassis has 6" raised springs in it and I am hoping to run 2" or at worst 3"

Inner fenders are going to need some big cuts in them to give clearance for the coil towers and shocks on the front.

Other issue is the rear - owing to the kickup in the chassis I am going to lose around 8" of depth in the bed which will make it virtually useless .......

Looks like i just made some more work for myself welding the floor back in - I cut it out in 2 pieces with 1mm cutting discs so not a train smash but there is at least half a days work gluing it back in ......

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

"lots of VERY rude words and the designers parentage was questioned on more than one occasion............" :haha: I'm glad someone else has these thoughts as well

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

personally i would try to keep the lowest part of the body just a little higher than the lowest part of the frame, just marginally higher. otherwise the frame sticks out like a sore thumb below the body, door step/box step area. body lower than frame can result in some body damage because it can get high centered before the frame does.
you can always make a new rad support that will fit the frame and connect the fenders. it if doesn't work you still have the original that way. square tube and a little flat sheet is pretty cheap, compared to a new rad support for you. mock it up in CAD first, LOL
there are lots of raised bed floors in older trucks. some because of frame swaps and some because of crazy built rear suspensions. you gotta decide if it is something you want or not. without it your truck will need to be jacked up off the frame quite a way or the rear frame area will need to be re-engineered. that frame kicks up quite a bit. can you remove the bed and just use the box front and sides for mock up?
you can also fab up a set of inner fenders pretty quick with some flat sheet, or even your CAD mock up system, lol. i've been using CAD for years. works great with using the donor body mounts you may see more body flex than with the original body mounts that were pretty stiff. maybe you wanna use a few more connection points on the firewall to inner fender so that there can be less flex in that area. making it more like a unibody. the original cab simply sat on the frame mounts with a few shims to level things up. it basically became the teeter-totter pivot point. you may not want that with mounts that are taller off the frame mount AND are flexible. on my frame swap i plan to use a length of flat stock welded to the firewall so that the inner fender has a strip to bolt to, more full length top to bottom, than the simple "L" bracket that came stock on the lower end of the inner fender
great engineering and CAD build up. keep plugging away and solving issues as they arise and soon you will br driving. oh, and keep posting up your progress of course.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

Did exactly that DS, is why I was aiming to get it where it is - its a little hard to see in the pic but its about 1" above the bottom of the rail. Thinking if it has to go back up I might put a step rail or rock slider on there if the chassis looks too exposed - I am with you on that mate - they look awful if the body looks like its sat up on top of the chassis.

No real progress this week as I had to go away for work replacing a transformer - picked up my donor dash on the way up, it probaby looks abit weird to you lot being RHD :lol:

Spent Sunday dodging road trains on a warm day - about 110 farenheight on the way up to site .......

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

wow, thats crazy. 43C. the semi must have a super cooling system to drag a train in that temp.
I tghnk you nailed it with the body height off the frame.
is the donor dash about the right width? will you remove the glass and drill all the spot welds to get the old dash out, or do you plan to cut the dash and graft the donor dash to the lip remaining after cutting? glass will likely need to come out at some point anyway, so you can weld properly

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

I'm running a stock GM LB7 Duramax radiator in my '55 front end and it just fits between the fender lips. So the opening is plenty wide.
We just came back to Canada after working in Brisbane for 5 years. Love your country mate.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

I made the rad support out of 1" square tube. I'll post a pic if you'd like. Don't want to hijack your thread.

Re: 57 NAPCO rebuild
 

..