Urgent help needed

[shelbyeuropa]

Hi I'm Edwin from the Netherlands (Europe) and new into the classic pickup scene.
I'm about to purchase a '52 lwb GMC, at least thats what the Nevada title says.
I'm wondering if it is a '52 and not a '50 because one door has the vent window and the other one does not have it.
Other than that the truck is rough but very solid and complete, except for the exhaust pipe.
The chassis plate says FC102 134705.
Does anyone knows what year it would be and if this is a half or three quarter ton truck??

The plan is to offer my 1992 Typhoon for engine and drivetrain, including AWD.
Could I use the Typhoon chassis or should I stick with the original chassis and put the engine and drivetrain in it.
Included in the purchase is a very rusty C10 LWB pickup from 1973 with solid chassis, would that be a better option as chassis?
I like the finished primer look wedsanded so it looks like the paint has fainted away and underneeth a modern fast truck.
Does anyone has a copy of the GMC chassis specification, I have the specs from 1950 Chevrolet, is that the same chassis?

Can anyone offer me some help on these questions??

Edwin

[sgtusmc]

Edwin, I'm not sure if you are aware that the vent window in the doors is removable. There is a rubber seal around the top area of the vent window that ataches to the door to keep out the weather. Once you remove the inner window ring. There are bolts to remove the vent (also some inside the door for the window channel). Without seeing it up close It's hard to say. They might have swiched the door to a non-vent or removed the vent itself.

Don't go by what doors you have, go by what the title states. When it comes time for you to register the truck it's the title along with the vin tag on the drivers front door post that you need (doors are interchangable & easy modded).

[dwcsr]

The FC102 134705 makes it a
1950, 100 (1/2Ton) series 125" wheel base long bed. It should not have vent windows. It should have full side windows with turn down outside handles

[sweet70beast]

50 and earlier have a vent on the driverside right infront of the door that swings out. 51 and later no vent. They got rid of it because with the wind wings (vent window) it wasn't needed. This is also a good way to get a rough guess as to the year of a cab that doesn't have any doors.


Does the vin # on the title match the vin # on the truck?

[mr48chev]

This a list of pretty decent info on telling the differences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Advance_Design

I've seen several trucks with missmatched doors including my grandfathers 48 one ton that he swapped a later door on after he rolled the truck.

It is pretty common for guys around here with later trucks to swap on the early doors to get rid of the vent windows.

[shelbyeuropa]

Ok, so I'm sure it's a 1950 truck now with a 1952 registration.
Both title and plate have the same VIN number and the truck has a little vent just in front of the drivers side door.
I've attached some pic's (sorry for the quality, they are taken with Mob phone).

[shelbyeuropa]

Does anyone have some information about the Chassis questions I've made?
I don't want to wait to long with my desision weather I should buy it or not.
Edwin

[BarryB]

I would leave the typhoon alone. Is it the same as a typhoon, over here? I would find a trashed extended cab s10, and put that whole frame and chassis under the GMC. There are several member here that have done this swap on here. Do a search, for that and see what you think. Nice find by th way. If the price is right I would buy it.

[shelbyeuropa]

The Typhoon is the same over here, there are only a few around because they are very expensive to drive in my country.
They run about $220 a month for tax and insurance while the gas prices are over $6 a gallon .
An old truck like this is very cheap to drive, only about $120 insurance a year and that's it.
What year S10 do I search for?, the thing is that you don't see them so much here.
Is a 4 door blazer the same chassis, they are easier and cheaper to find.
The guy that has the truck for sale told me the 1973 lwb C10 would be a nice fit.
About the price of the truck, when I compare it to the prices you pay for them trucks you could call it expensive but again that has to do with the rarity of these trucks here.
I think when I offer him around $4700 I get it.
Seen the shipping from the US to Europe and tax about $2000 I think this is a fair price.
Normally these kind of trucks run from about $8700.

[BarryB]

Wow things are expenesive over there looking at from my standpoint. The reason I said leave the typhoon alone is because they are starting to be a collectable. S10 years to look for 82-until the swapped to the colorado/canyon I am unsure if a blazer chassis will work i am thinking it will be to short.
I am also thinking the 73 chassis will be to wide.The S10 swap fits nicely and is relatively easy.
I don't know your fab skills or equipment you have so It's hard for me to say what to get and works. And not knowing how far you want to take the truck. If the stock frame is ok. you could use it, and possiblly just get a frontend kit something that fatman Fabrications carries. There are alot of options in getting this truck "modernized" all depends on your skills , and budget.

[mr48chev]

It appears that at one time the original cab may have been damaged or deteriorated and was replaced with the earlier cab.I have one of those same frames here that I intend to use to build an extended cab truck.

If it were me, and the Typhoon was in pretty decent shape I would get it looking great and then sell it to finance the building of the 52. The Typhoons are pretty desirable collectors items here and command a pretty good price even now.

The 4 wheel drive chassis S-10 rigs are a few inches wider than the two wheel drive and you wouldn't have to use spacers to make the front wheels fit the wheel well correctly.
They do have torsion bars instead of coil springs and that may cause some issues depending on the engine and transmission you run.

I have and 86 S-10 Blazer parts rig and I am trying to figure out how to adapt the front suspension to the early frame or use the Blazer frame with modifications and eliminate the Front diffetential and axles.

As many of the European countries have pretty stringent laws concerning modifications to vehicles it may be better to keep the stock frame that matches the title and install a Mustang II style crossmember and then get an S-10 4X rear axle and what ever engine and transmission you decide upon.
If you want to run a short bed instead of the long bed the frame isn't that hard to shorten.

[54 jimmy]

s10 pickup is the only frame that fits those trucks to do that swap. blazer frame is too narrow in the middle and too short. go with a 2wd frame their alot eaiser to work with. the tortion bars and the wheel bearings will be a bit of a problem if you go with a 4x4 s10 chassis .you will need to swap the front wheel bearings out for different ones and the price would exceed buying the wheel spacers for the front and a 4x4 rear axle to swap for the 2wd one. you can buy a kit from www.e-zchassisswaps.com for about $1700.00 and that is a complete kit. if you are looking for swap ideas like said before their are alot of us doing this swap. i know i'm one of them.

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by 54 jimmy

s10 pickup is the only frame that fits those trucks to do that swap. blazer frame is too narrow in the middle and too short. go with a 2wd frame their alot eaiser to work with. the tortion bars and the wheel bearings will be a bit of a problem if you go with a 4x4 s10 chassis .you will need to swap the front wheel bearings out for different ones and the price would exceed buying the wheel spacers for the front and a 4x4 rear axle to swap for the 2wd one. you can buy a kit from www.e-zchassisswaps.com for about $1700.00 and that is a complete kit. if you are looking for swap ideas like said before their are alot of us doing this swap. i know i'm one of them.

I can't warrent spending 1700.00 US for the kit when any competent metal fab shop can use the patterns That Jeffs51chevy shared with us in this thread http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=294539
I'd think that even a somewhat expensive shop could build you a set with from those drawings for under 300.00.
If you just have them cut out and form the metal and weld them yourself it would be considerably less.

As for using the S-10 Blazer chassis. the only bad spot I can see at the moment is clearance between V8 exhaust and the torsion bars on some installations.
The front wheel bearing thing isn't an issue as those bearings are usually good for 100k plus miles. Similar bearings on my wifes 88 Cadillac have over 200 K on them with no end in sight. Yes they are a bit expensive to replace but the hubs are easy to find either new or used. And they get the tread width out where it belongs on AD trucks without using the inch and a half spacers that the guys with two wheel drive trucks use.

Yes a guy would have to stretch the frame in the back to make a Blazer chassis work but long bed 4x4 S-10 trucks are pretty easy to find and if the drive train is bad they are inexpensive.

I'd still check into the legalities of a frame swap before I started. It may be that the rules in your country would create a vehicle that couldn't be driven on the roads.

As far as simplicity, there are bolt on Mustang II suspension kits available that two guys with a tape measure, a half inch electric drill and a hand full of wrenches can install in one day's work without straining themselves.

[shelbyeuropa]

In our country it is not legal to swap the frame, you can do that but you have to get the goverment label the new chassis so they are sure you use that one.
You need to prove that the car has not been stolen etc.
The big disadvantage is that the car is going to carry the buildingyear of the frame so if I do that then it's going to be a 1992 truck fitted with old body.
You can do this illigal by swapping the frame later on and change the chassis number but when they catch you then the car is taken away and crushed.
What you can do is cut the front and back of and make a new frame, as long as you use 1/3 of the original frame.
I think the best thing that I can do is modify the original frame to the new spec so I can use the AWD system.
My Typhoon has some rust (not rot) around the windows (yes they use salt on our roads in the winter) so it needs an expensive repair and a respray to make it nice again.
I just made the guy an offer so I hope he accepts this, otherwise there is no project at all.

[shelbyeuropa]

I was able to make a deal on the truck yesterday, I also desided not to take the Typhoon apart to get this thing runnin.
I'm thinking to swap the 6 for a warmed up 454 running on liquid propane gas (cheap and good for the enviroment).
I'll pick the truck up on the end of May because I'm doing some construction work on my house at this moment.

Edwin

[dan42]

Congratulations and welcome to our addiction. Keep us posted on your progress.