Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis

[mikebte]

Your making some progress and fast. Way to stick to it and get stuff done.

[AllenF]

Quick update:

I have been helping a buddy put his 60 Eldo back together for a few days so I have been off duty on the 56. But I have sorted out some of the remaining mechanical issues. I had to position the air cleaner inside and behind the right headlight. There was no where else to put it and still get cold air. I also integrated the Tahoe fender liners up front and will send photos of those once I get it back on the lift. I now have the hood straightened out. The steel bed floor is also finished but I have it full of crap so I couldn't get a shot. I had to finish each of the channels in the back since they don't come with a solution to do that.

[dsraven]

looking good. holy cow that is one loooong car.
looks like you may need to custom fab the lower grille connector that connects the 2 lower parts of the fenders. will the frame horns be in the right place for the bumper mounts or will you need to massage that area as well?
keep the pics coming, it may get me fired up on my frame swap. man, it's been busy around here, no time.

[AllenF]

I will grab a couple close up shots, but the brackets for the front bumper worked out with a little fab. I will need to fab up the panel between the grille upper panel and the top of the radiator to keep air flowing properly. But everything else fits nicely.

[Advanced Design]

Nice work on the floor. Did you have to fill in for each rib?

That Cadillac is sweet? Any details?

[AllenF]

Yes, I will send a photo of how I did it. It wasn't all that bad really. I cut tabs and folded them down and stitched them to the sill. It turned out well.

That's a 60 Eldo Biarritz. We call it Christine. It's a monster. Harley Earl was a genius. But it's a bear to work on. Thank god I don't have to straighten those quarters!

[AllenF]

Here's a shot of what I had to do on the hood. It was pretty much garbage. I think someone walked on it at some point and the whole thing oil canned. Couldn't shrink it enough to make it solid. This is the channel steel they use to hang drywall on ceilings in steel buildings I think.

Worked great.

[dsraven]

good thinking on the hood supports. did you get those pieces at home depot?
I may end up doing something like that for my ext cab roof. possibly using small square tubing withing 1/16" of the roof structure then a piece of firm rubber and some kind of material between those so the roof doesn't actually get bonded to the sub structure but will sit against it. that way there shouldn't be any noise or distortion as the roof expands on a sunny day or contracts on a cold day. I wonder if some of the sound deadening material may work in the back side and then some hard thin weatherstrip like material on the substructure. what have you used on the back of the hood, panel adhesive or seam sealer? I kind of liken it to a modern hood or trunk lid. the large steel skin has some foamy looking gobs of stuff, like a sealer or silicone but different, that keep it sort of stuck to the substructure but then if you push lightly from the back side it is not stuck, just spaced away from the inner panel.

[dsraven]

here is the info on the drywall furring channels. looks like 22 gauge steel.

http://www.bmp-group.com/docs/defaul...t.pdf?sfvrsn=0

[AllenF]

Quick update:

Doesn't look like much progress but the front end mechanicals are all buttoned up. You can see how I constructed the core support and the structure for the various accessories. It's pretty tight in there, but it all fits with safe clearance. Going with the medium green metallic from a 2003 Tahoe.

[dsraven]

does your intake system have some sort of baffle in it to stop water mist pick up? I would be iterested to see how that was put together snce I will also have to figure something out. was thinking of using the gmc hood hole for the air intake but it may be turbulanet air and disrupt the maf sensor.
nice job, do you sleep also? lol.
keep posting the progress, it may get me off the couch.

[Fast Chevy]

Coming along, love it, great minds think alike lol, here a photo of mine.

[AllenF]

I hadn't thought about the water ingress problem until you mentioned it. The location of the intake air filter is very protected, as it will sit high and inside the fender well which is fully protected by the Tahoe fender liner. That said, I am not sure about what would happen if that filter did manage to get wet. The intake tube has a high point so theoretically water would have a hard time making it over the "hump", but maybe I need to examine this problem further. Not sure there is room for a trap...but maybe.

[joedoh]

looking good! the super full engine compartment club meets thursdays. there is punch and pie

[AllenF]

Well, it's alive and moving. Got the electric fans working, AC charged, and a few of the exterior lighting issues solved. Grabbed a photo of how I finished the rear bed floor ends. I had to extend some of the switches and I cut and extended the 4X4 control before realizing GM used some wires of the same color? Who would do that? So, I need to find a detailed schematic for the 4WD switch. Otherwise, it's going OK. Also, turns out that GM uses the ground to switch High/Low beams on, so converting that to the LED round light will require some additional relay crap. More stuff to cram in the engine bay...

[AllenF]

Oh, and those wheels are off my Denali. I just stuck them on there to see how tight it would be with 22"s...fughedaboudit.... I still need to solve the wheel problem but that's not on the critical path right now.

[AllenF]

Ooops...

Here are the right images...

[dsraven]

Is that green grassinthe background? It's -40C with the wind chill in Calgary this morning. That's the same as -40F.

[dsraven]

you're getting some big jobs done. nice to see the progress. maybe i will be able to find some time for my project soon.

[joedoh]

if your LEDs have separate grounds for the high and low beams (4 wires) you dont have a problem.

well except that the DRL system might use the high beams as DRL and if so it puts the high beams in series to lower the voltage, and that wont work with LEDs if that is how your donor works. some of those trucks used a dedicated DRL light in the turn signal buckets though.

the trucks I do (98-03 s10s) have the same switched ground headlights, and have the series DRL setup. I tried for a long time to get a relay system to work with a 3 wire 7" headlight, I quit at 5 relays and the DRLs still needed disconnected. what has worked for me is I buy a two chamber 7" headlight that has an H4 high/low and an H3 driving light, and wire the low beam to the low H4 bulb and the high beam to the H3 bulb. easy peasy, done wiring in a few minutes and the DRL still works.

[Mains52]

This thing is so rad !!

[AllenF]

Hi Folks,

Got waaay side tracked on this. Had a career change and wound up getting tied up with a couple caddy projects (as well as other crap) that kept me off the 56. Got it painted and now I need to move to the interior. It's a dark green 02 Tahoe color. Had to spray it black first because the green was so transparent.

Still need to sort out the wheel situation, but I think I am going to use 4 of the spare alloy wheels they came with and just paint them black, and then put the hubcaps on those. The police type steel wheels don't have a lip, but I think the spare alloy that just has the holes in it will do.

Onward and upward.

[Yah's2thmaker]

Great job Would like to hear-see what you have planned for the interior.

[Oldtruckwelder]

Read your entire build with the morning coffee....
Outstanding craftsmanship skills.
Makes me want to go to the garage this morning and cut something apart..
JT from SC

[AllenF]

Been making progress. Had to buy a commercial sewing machine to do the interior. Shots coming soon.