Project 55 on 77 frame...

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I have been a member here for awhile now but have not posted anything yet, until now...

I have been building this truck for about a month now, i do not have a penny
in either trucks (77 or 55)... i done some trades for them, the 77 i traded a junk car, extra frame, 350 trans for it, and i traded a junk minivan for the 55.

The 77... it was a good truck, ran and drove great, clean title, etc... the 55 was just a mostly complete truck, minus engine and trans.

Plan was to keep the 77 running/driving throughout the swap process, and using the 77 firewall and floors... which worked well until i got the 55 sitting on the frame... after alot of thinking i went ahead and decided to remove the 77 firewall and floor alltogether, since i'd be body dropping it anyways it would be much easier to build my own floor and firewall...

I will start posting pictures in a few minutes...

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First off pics of the 77 chevy silverado longbed:

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and, the 55 chevy longbed... complete truck minus engine/trans and front suspension the fenders and doors are in the bed of one of the other 55 chevy's we have...

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first thing i done was brought the 77 to my place and started selling everything off of it on craigslist that i wasn't going to use, i sold everything except cab, chassis, engine/trans... i don't really have any pics of the teardown on it, but will start with a few pics of it blown apart, clip removed, doors removed, glass removed, bed removed, gas tank removed, etc...

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Now onto the fun part... breaking out the plasma cutter and cutting away the dash

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Off with the roof and back wall of the cab!...

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Then i cleaned up the cab floor and started the truck up and pulled it out of my shop and unloaded the roof, then drove the 77 back into the shop.

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like my new gas tank? and battery holder? LOL...

[63chevyll]

i tried putting a 55 cab on a 68 frame.

The wheel base is wider on the front,
you'll need some offset wheels to make it work if your going to lower it.

Id like to see how you mount the cab. My project is still sitting, but may be rollin later on

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actually, before i drove the truck out and turned it around i cleaned up the wiring a bit, eliminated the heat/air wiring and anything else that wasn't needed, then it was safe to put the battery back in and fire it up...

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Originally Posted by 63chevyll

i tried putting a 55 cab on a 68 frame.

The wheel base is wider on the front,
you'll need some offset wheels to make it work if your going to lower it.

Id like to see how you mount the cab. My project is still sitting, but may be rollin later on

i have a set of 22's that set in a little... not sure if i will use them though, also have a set of chrome/gold 15's... may just find some skinny stockers for the front... i knew about the track width problem before i ever started.

and at the moment the body is bodydropped on the stock 77 suspension, sitting about 6" off the ground under the rockers.

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The rear section of my 55 floors were solid, so i opted to cut down the 77 floor and only use the front

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then cut off the pass side section... and drivers side too... and drove it back out of my shop so i can work on the 55 cab...

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Then moved the 55 cab to the middle of my shop so i could cut out the firewall and front floor section...

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The rear floor was solid, but the front wasn't... i don't have any pics of after i cut out the firewall or floor, but the next pics i post you will see the body on the frame!

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After cutting the firewall and floor... i removed the repo style wheel lift on my 83 chevy tow truck and put on the 12ft stinger, then used it to lift the body and sit it down on the frame, i love owning a tow truck! LOL makes things soooooo much easier.

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a few more shots... i know it is not sitting on it level... that is because i left extra metal on the floor/firewall of the 77 and left extra on the 55... my only goal here was to get the cab sitting on the frame, so i could then drive it back into my shop and raise the body on blocks while i done the final trimming...

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then swept out my shop and cleaned up a little bit... still a mess though!

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pic of the fenders, core supprt, inner fenders, etc...

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after driving it back into my shop... cab is just sitting on there.

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a few pics of it as it was just sitting on the frame...

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after some trimming i got it to sit somewhat level...

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i am going to stop posting pics for tonight... i will post more tomorrow...

however, i will post a couple pics of how it sits as of right now though,
as a sneek peek it will be sitting 1" or 2" lower than what is shown
in the pics below because if you look close you will see the floor hitting
the trans, so that is keeping the body lifted up some... it will be cut
out tomorrow... this is just a mockup...

Bodydropped!...

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also, i NEVER would of attempted this if i didn't have my plasma cutter, makes things
alot easier! i would of went through tons of cutoff wheels if it wasn't for the plasma.

[Pop's C-10]

nice work sofar