J.M. Laflamme Build

[71'tahoe]

Looking good..Im curiously waiting to see this come together!

[Kim57]

Your making nice progress.
Kim

[drivea55]

Thanks you guys!

Today we could not help but to go ahead and give her a 4 inch chop.

bare with me on the pics, she is in place but will get better fit tomorrow.

thanks for looking !

Brian

[drivea55]

With using the 92's floor and shaving the seat frame down, you sit pretty low. It gave me about a foot of head room. More pics of the seated position coming soon.

a lot of work to do...

Brian

[drivea55]

Today we got the drivers side door chopped and fitted. This took most of the day, tomorrow we will finish the passenger side and start fitting the nose.

[Fat Mike]

How far forward are you going to have to move your motor because of your firewall?

[drivea55]

That's the beauty of it all.

none!

The chassis and firewall / floor are in its stock location for a 92. The whole drive train fits in its stock location.

It "appears" to have lost 5 inches in the engine compartment, but in reality it has not at all.

I think I know what you mean though, If you have a stock 55 than yes the engine is 5.5 inches forward from where it would be if the truck sat in its stock position.

What I did lose was 5 inches of the front frame, which I am going to start to tackle once the cab is finished. It is tight with the steering box. Nothing unexpected, But another project for sure.

Thank You for your post.

I hope I answered your question.

Brian

[Fat Mike]

Yes thank you for the info!

[71'tahoe]

I see that you had to cut the back of the cab for clearance,how close is the back of the cab to the rear frame mount?

[drivea55]

Very good question,

It's close almost no clearance as of now, but should be fine after the final trimming. It sure does give it a different look though.

Thanks for looking!

Brian

[71'tahoe]

Brian
Thanks for the reply! I keep waiting to see how you finished out the back of the cab.As I stated before,Im interested in this swap as I have a spare 96' frame in which im thinking about a swap.

Greg

[drivea55]

Greg,

The nice thing about dropping the 55's rear cab panel over the newer floor pan is it allows it to drop. It also allows the cab to sit correctly on the 92's floor pan.

Once I get all the sheet metal done, I will remove the cab and turn her on its back. Then I can take it to the final trim and roll it or butt it. Then It will look a lot higher for sure!

Since your interested I will start taking more detailed pics.

I have been leaving a lot out.

If there is any particular pics you would like, Just ask and I will take them for you.

Thanks for looking!

Brian

[71'tahoe]

Brian,
I appreciate what you are doing and offering. Im sure Ill be asking for a few pics along the way! Id imagine the extra leg room gained by using the 92' firewall and the 5" filler will be nice for sure!

Greg

[drivea55]

I will have to mock up a pic for all to see, dropping the seat frame 4 inches you sit low or shall I say, you feel low.

funny how I am using the stock floor and bench seat for mock up and still cut out the lower frame for the drop out of the stock seat.

It works guys...

I will get some fun pics soon!

If this storm stops anytime soon we shall be able to make progress.

keep your eye on this, more who know what know to come.....


ta da......!!! or .... uh oh! to come...

thanks for looking

Brian

[Spackle100]

Subbed...i'm diggin' it!

[drivea55]

Well today when fitting the pass. door I got sick of fighting with the hinge bolts.

So we figured it was easiest to cut out skin patches and weld in new nuts and use new hardware.

The doors are now a breeze to adjust and play with. here is what I did.

I drilled out the old nuts re secured them and welded the new nuts on top of the old.

[drivea55]

Now that the hardware is "user friendly" It was time to start fitting doors again.

I did not take any in between shots of the progress but here is how the pass. door sits as it is now.

[drivea55]

Here are a couple shots of the seat lowered. I may not use this seat, but it makes a good test fit for now.

[drivea55]

As frustration grew playing with the doors, sometimes you just have to change it up a tad.

So, We test fitted the nose and took a good look on what we are dealing with with the front end.

Not too bad for a first fit, The last pic you can see how the steering box does invade the radiator support.

Using this chassis the way I did, The nose sits low as you can see with where the brake master is.

Finding a radiator that fits will be the hardest part of the nose project.

enjoy the pics...

[drivea55]

Thinking a lot,

the repositioning of the radiator support is making the fit impossible for the stock radiator to fit.

so, we will be off searching for a radiator in the near future.

i will get some pics of the clearance issues.

[OrrieG]

Looks like you might just need to get a stock one recored but shorter height. Big truck radiators are much thicker (3" vs 2") and wider (about 2" on each side), I'm using one in mine, but use the same bolt pattern. A good radiator shop should be able to get a shorter, thicker core, for your tanks to give you the same or better amount of cooling. I just did that in my 64 Chevelle and it was $375. Another alternative is a custom aluminum unit, lots of guys making those but they are not cheap.

[drivea55]

thanks for the tip!

looks like it should not be too much of an issue.



Today we got the nose of the frame boxed in.

We then figured that by cutting out the radiator support brackets and putting them in the front, reversing them. They would then work just fine.

here are a couple pics of the progress.

did anyone catch what I used for the bottom frame brackets???

*hint* its a stock piece from the 55.

[drivea55]

here are two quick shots of how the nose is fitting.

We mocked up the engine and auto trans I found locally and they slid right in.

[dicer]

Just curious where do you get a windshield for something like that? Nice bit of fitment there. Keep the pictures comming, that is a good candidate for the 59 car dash, I can't wait till see the finished product.

[drivea55]

If you are lucky, You can have a local glass craftsman cut your stock windshield down.

Yesterday was more fitting, got the drive train to fit nicely. The nose just drops right on now.

Going to spend the next week catching up with all the finish welding I have to finish doing. UGH!

Brian