47 chevy panel

[LUCKIN-FOU]

So this panel came in the shop awhile ago then the ecomony went south. I had to scale back because of no work. My shop is full of stuff so I had to make room. Now I'm back on it. Anyway somebody put a 1st gen Camaro clip under it and they did a BAD job. The front end runs down hill so the anti dive is gone. When the guy got the truck the old owner told him "Man we had a Big Block Chevy in here" you be the judge. Oh yeah the bottom of the chassis was 15.5" off the ground. That will be changed I got a nose bleed just looking at it.













After alittle plasma action we set the panel at ride height.





I'll post some more later.

[ratty 46]

From the design & weld work it looks like it was done some time ago .... I'm in on your progress!!

Ratty 46

[52 Rat]

You never know what your going to find when starting these projects. Good looking panel. Keeps the pics. coming.

[suville]

Hey pard check this cat out.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=317178.
He builds a nice x-member set up that uses G body,S-10 components and it sets the track width correctly without spacers or special control arms looks to be a very nice alternative.

[ratty 46]

I checked it out too .... it appears a bit MORE involved that say a: POTERBILT or SCOTTS HOTRODS or even a Fatman Fab front X-member set up (IMO).

So the advantage would be ......

Ratty 46

[suville]

For those of us on very limited budgets all of the suspension parts are available in most any JY and there are from time to time many components (drop spindles etc) available on CL and other sources. To each his own YMMV. As a side note the thread over on the HAMB is somewhere around 70 + pages and some good info. Do a search for S-10 frame swaps, S-10 swaps BTW are to narrow and camaro/nova too wide this set up eliminates all that so you dont end up with spacers or 2" offset wheels for a much more desirable track width and in keeping with the "Make it Handle" thread would seem to be an acceptable and affordable alternative for some. To say nothing of the safety factor!

[suville]

I might add in Lou's capable hands Im sure which ever direction he takes it it will be spot on!

[LUCKIN-FOU]

Here is the deal with this panel the owner has Champagne taste with a Ripple budget. So I have to be creative on this one.

[suville]

Ha, the ripple comment reminded me of Jerry Garcia! But thats a whole nuther topic.

[RootBeer 6117]

It was this kind of frame sawppin crap that turned me off to subframe scabbin. In the
80's I had a regular customer with an AD truck with a subframe it was total crap, I kept telling him it was going to break and I hope no one got hurt when it did, well it did but thankfully no one was hurt. After seeing how the pros on here do it I am warming up some to sub frame swapping, cant wait to see this one come together
Not a pro Just a Joe with an S10 frame.

[LUCKIN-FOU]

ROOTBEER 6117, I agree I've seen some pretty ****ty work when it comes to clipping a car or truck. I've always gone out of my way to brace and gusset the hell out of them when I do them. Some people shouldn't work on cars. Then again some people shouldn't allowed breed, but thats the world we live in.

[Russell Ashley]

Wow, it's hard to believe what some people will do to a truck, and then admit they did it, LOL. At least the good news is that body looks to be really straight and solid.

[52 Rat]

Originally Posted by Russell Ashley

Wow, it's hard to believe what some people will do to a truck, and then admit they did it, LOL. At least the good news is that body looks to be really straight and solid.

So true, I keep going back and looking at the photos of the panel. Awesome truck!

[LUCKIN-FOU]

2) I've got some more Pictures for you guys. The 4-Bar is one of my designs I make my own rod ends. The brackets are laser cut. I have over 50 different brackets that I sell.











I'm going to run a track bar like the old C-10's. The mount on the rear end is temporary. I have to make another one.

[LUCKIN-FOU]

3) I put some of the boxing plates in today. I'm not going to box the whole frame it's a money thing. As you guys can see in some of the photos I welded the front 4-Bar brackets right to the frame a lot of people were tell me hey you need gussets well here it is. I like to weld the bracket then take the boxing plate around the tubing this way it is welded at two points. Then I’ll put gussets on them.





The boxing plate is 1/8" plate. The next thing is cap the end of the tubing then the
C-notch.

[Tchia65]

What was your rate? Airframer? Do you have a website for the parts you sell?

[alwaysbroken]

sweet milk van. haha cool truck.

[ratty 46]

Lou ... very nice braketry .... Simple but very functionable. I like the addt'l strenght work around the 2X3 mounted to the frame.

As with the others ... web site to sell?? More pix.

Ratty 46

[LUCKIN-FOU]

4) I’m in the middle of expanding my shop and ran out of money. So I had no place to work on it. I’m going to put an S-10 front end under this panel. I know what you’re thinking that front end is 5” to narrow. Your right but that’s ok I have a plan.





It’s just a plain Jane S-10 frontend. I had some Global West upper control arms.



For those of you that haven’t done this swap the frame horns are a little long so they need to cut back just a hair.





Now we all know the S-10 is narrow so I decided add 4.25” to it





I had too many pictures so I’ll do another thread.

[LUCKIN-FOU]

5) I put the engine so I could mock up the engine mounts and the tranny mount. I was going to use a piece of round tube but I decided to go with 2x3 I’ll notch it later to clear the exhaust.









I set the ride height 6” I think it would be perfect the running boards will get the panel a lower look.

[LUCKIN-FOU]

6) As I said before the ride height is 6”. I know there are tons of drop spindles out there. I’m using Bell Tech Drop Spindles this way if the owner wants to raise the right height it’s as simple as putting on a stock set of spindles.







I always build something like this at ride height for one very simple reason there will be no surprises.

[LEEVON]

Looks really good, glad you got this one off the road! Subscribed.

[ratty 46]

Oh Lou .... what a tease shot with the fenders!!!

I see you've cut out more of the inner frame that the outer & left more lenght to it overall. Is your intention to modify the original to kind of slide into it??

Ratty 46

[troy54gmc]

Hey Lou, great build. are u the same Lou that was on the musclecar tv show on spike cause your picture looks really familiar. or is that ur picture? either way great build man. love the 4 link pieces, very cool.

[LUCKIN-FOU]

7) So here is the deal. This crazy rig that you are looking at is simple. These pointers are from an alignment rack that was going away. The shop I worked at got a new one so they didn’t need them they are for checking toe. I made some longer pointers and got some conduit from home depot. Now I can check my wheel base by myself. The axles have the machine center, the spindle has one also. I’ve used this thing for years. Set it were you want and lock it down.







This is the kinda stuff you come up with when you work alone.



The body isn’t all the way down on the frame. So it looks funny in the pictures.