Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis

[AllenF]

Hi Folks,

I will try to put up only relevant photos in this string. I am well into a Frankensteinian project to morph together my 56 big window 3200 onto a Tahoe chassis. The objective is to keep it looking completely stock on the outside and use as much of the Tahoe equipment as possible, including air bags, HVAC and wiring. I plan to tow a 1966 Airstream 24' behind it.

I tried for years to find a new (under 10k miles) roll over Tahoe at auction but prices just went crazy on them. And since I am running out of time to do the project I settled on a Tahoe with a tired motor and blown up 4L60E. So I just bought the thing and tore the engine and tranny out and rebuilt those myself, put them back in and test drove it (all's well). Then, I ripped the thing apart and cut the floor out of the Tahoe and started fitting.

Lots of engineering involved, patch welding, etc. It turns out that the 3200 with the long bed allowed me to cut the bed length to fit the wheel base just right. I had to raise the floor a bit on the bed, and I decided to go with a new steel floor as opposed to the wood.

Any suggestions welcome.

Allen

[AllenF]

Obviously I am fast forwarding here, but I essentially whittled away the Tahoe and the Cab until I got the front fender/ wheel fit right and the ride height where it made sense. Seemed a shame to throw away a perfect Tahoe body, but it was for a good cause. Those things are plentiful and cheap.

[AllenF]

Had a lot of gaps to close up, reinforce, and engineer. The AC area was pretty complex. On the old vehicles, air and water just runs into the A Pillar pockets. They were not worried about things like leaves, debris, dirt, mice or rust or any of those issues back in 56. The Tahoe (like all modern vehicles) keeps the water out of the vehicle and only lets air in. So I had to weld shut the plenum at the cowl, and build a dam and an input air pocket to connect to the Tahoe HVAC system. Still need to put the drains in, but it all fit. I had to reinforce several areas, and preserve parts of the A pillar on the L side so the emergency brake pedal brackets would work. It's about twice as strong as it was in 56...

[AllenF]

This sort of project sure makes a mess of the shop.

[Old57]

Looks like you're not afraid to tear into something! Subscribed to your build...

[3757chevy]

I'd like to watch.

[dsraven]

looks like fun. always nice to have a big work area with a hoist. gonna keep an eye on you.
from experience, do yourself a favor and install the doors,adjust for gap, then brace and cross brace the cab so stuff will still fit when you're all done. then you can remove the doors again. it would suck to do all that work and then have more waiting because the doors won't fit.
keep posting pics, looks great so far and you have our interest now!

[AllenF]

Yes, the cab was hit on the right side in its prior life, so I expect I will be force fitting the doors anyway. Since I didn't want to modify any of the mechanics on the Tahoe, I needed to make a few tweaks to the body on the bed to make it fit over the emergency brake cable bracketry. I actually made the be dual wall, and I intend to weld it all together into one piece.

Had to cut the dash into several pieces in order to align the instruments with the wheel. Designed it such that it is now a "bolt-in" dash as opposed to welded in. Hand fabricated all the brackets and such. I will try to get photos of that.

I used all of the factory body mounts and repositioned them as needed to accommodate the 56 bed and core support.

[Indychus]

Subscribed! Cool project!

[mikebte]

Very note worthy build. Subscribed.
Love projects such as this.

[joedoh]

cool project! I especially like the "reuse everything you can" method

[Russell Ashley]

Interesting build, suscribed. Looks like you have done this kind of thing before.

[dsraven]

whats the deal with the dual; wall box, tire clearance?
is the floor going to be the same height as the old one? will you use the new style seats and still have clearance for the headrests or use the old style seat that is low back?
nice pics, is this over a time lapse or are you going ape s**t on it? lol. looks like really good progress.

[AllenF]

I started this back in the late summer. And yes, I am moving pretty quick. I have only done restorations for fun over they years, and never attacked anything quite this ambitious. I restored the SL and the GTO that can be seen in some of the photos. I think this version of Chevy truck is probably the best looking of the lot, and just wanted to have one that I could drive like a daily driver.

The reason I extended the bedside to dual wall was for a couple reasons. There is a bracket on the left side that protrudes into the space claim for the left step. So this gave me just under 3/4" extra width. It's 18 gauge on 5/8 square tubing supports. It also solves the dents on the inside/outside problem you get with a single wall bed. It didn't really add that much weight.

I will still need to customize the steps, but less so now with the bedwall extended. The tires fit perfect under there as well.

[dsraven]

check your messages box, sent you a pm yesterday

[dsraven]

looks like you started off with a pretty good truck, body wise, so not a bunch of time spent on fixing holes etc. thats nice. mine was pretty bad to start off with, like so many others.
pretty interesting build. nice to see how you planned it all out andmade things work.

[dsraven]

it's interesting to note the centerline of the trans hump is offset to the pass side.

[AllenF]

Turns out the door openings did shrink a bit. That's a nuisance. Not sure how given I never removed the steps or the pillar apertures, but so be it. They all needed to be force fit anyway.

Turns out that the Tahoe fuel filler location puts it right at the back of the LR fender, so I cut a fuel door assembly out of a 99 Chrysler Minivan and flipped it vertically. Fits perfect.

Lot of wire in this thing, but other than fabricating mounts for the two A Pillar fuse and junction blocks, it goes in OK.

The bed height is changed, but it turns out that I incorrectly set the bed position level at rest, and it should have had a fair amount of rake to it. So once I repositioned it, I probably could have almost left it the original height.

[dsraven]

I found one thing that works well for getting the cab and box in the same plane is a sting line set along the body line from front to rear. I know the rear fenders have some adjustability in their mounting but you could also use a digital level along the front fenders body line or simply the floor pan or running board step in the door opening then match the angle on the box rails. the string line does help for the box fenders alignment though

[joedoh]

Originally Posted by AllenF

Had to cut the dash into several pieces in order to align the instruments with the wheel.

This I feel is an underrated comment. when doing these kind of firewall transplants the steering and pedals almost never line up 100%.

I did a lot of the same work a few years ago, carried the floors and firewall of the modern donor to a 65 SWB big window, and this was the big hurdle, with the pedals/steering column/cowl in the stock donor position it was several inches too low and several inches too far inboard. we chose to move the column and pedals.

coincidentally, I did the same as you to keep the HVAC fresh air inlet, a tunnel between the donor cowl and the 65 cowl!

[Nut Case]

Allen

Fun, fun, fun, this aint your first rodeo!!!!!

Strong work.

Nut Case

[Fast Chevy]

Did your donor vehicle come with a clutch type fan and if it did are u reusing it or u going with an electric fan?

[AllenF]

The clutch fan won't fit. With the electric fans I only wound up with about 1/2 inch clearance.

I got it blasted today. Best 1200 I ever spent.

[Fast Chevy]

Thanks for the response. I am morphing a 55 2nd series short bed on a SS TrailBlazer. When doing measurements I couldn’t see that a clutch type fan would work, it takes up so much room. I will post photos when I get further along. Great build can’t wait to see youcomplete the build.
Jeff

[dsraven]

is that water blasting you are getting done? do they coat it with something right away then?