57 NAPCO rebuild

[Blackie]

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

[Blackie]

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

[Blackie]

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"

[Dieselwrencher]

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

[Blackie]

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

[Blackie]

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

[Blackie]

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

[Blackie]

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-

[dsraven]

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.

[dsraven]

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.

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by dsraven

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.
keep posting up your progress, looks interesting for sure.

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.

[dsraven]

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?

[dsraven]

nice shed!
i like your trailer too. lol

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by dsraven

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?

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

[dsraven]

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.

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by dsraven

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 corners first though, when you get that far along.

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.

[dsraven]

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

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by dsraven

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

Steering box is on the RIGHT side

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 -

[Blackie]

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.

[dsraven]

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.

[B52bobardier1]

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

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by dsraven

Cut a big hole in the floor and replace it with a piece of floor/firewall from the donor
I did remove some of the floor from the donor vehicle but the trans hump is about a foot tall - this will not need anywhere near that much so I will cut to suit then fill as required.
Fab your own rad support. Not much to them
Looks like I will just need to raise the mounts on the rad support an inch or 2 and reuse the existing with a bit of luck
There are ls rads built for these trucks I think. Otherwise use the donor stuff and fab a support that fits it all.
I have a mate who builds radiators for a living, will get the body mounted then work out a plan from there, if there is enough clearance to the underside of the hood I might still be able to use the donor stuff.

..

[Blackie]

Originally Posted by B52bobardier1

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

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

[Blackie]

Got a delivery at work just now - no wonder freight is expensive - the box is about 1/4 full 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

[dsraven]

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.