47-55.1 My Impressions of S10 vs MII

[MiraclePieCo]

Over the years I've seen a number of threads in this forum from AD builders asking whether they should go with an S10 chassis swap or a Mustang II suspension. I'm now in the unique position of having owned and driven both and can provide some perspective.

I had a '50 AD pickup with an S10 chassis swap for a couple of years and a couple of thousand miles. It rode and drove great - very straightforward, just like an S10. Now I have a '51 panel truck with a Mustang II front end - nothing fancy, just OEM Ford parts. Both rigs have 350/350 combos. Even the same wheel-tire combos (right down to the hubcaps, ha ha!). I have 200 miles on the MII panel truck now, so I've gotten a feel for how it compares, and I must say that the rack and pinion front end is amazing. Mine is manual, but it turns as easily as the S10 with power steering. It's very quick and precise, like the proverbial go-kart. The MII front end simply begs me to seek out twisting roads for some canyon carving. The turning radius is astonishingly small - I can whip a U-ee in half a cul-de-sac.

Both the S10 and MII have an abundance of aftermarket handling, lowering and performance parts available, so that's a tossup. I liked my S10 truck a lot, but I gotta say this MII rack and pinion kicks butt!

[Kermitt47]

Thanks for this post. It is always good to hear from someone who has had the experience and can compare the results in real world and not just be comparing specs.

[Rude Dude]

IFS Camaro S10 or Mustang II is far superior than the straight axle, all IFS have a their own quirks but at least with good info like this we get to choose!

[mr48chev]

There are solid reasons for running either or swapping a Jag XJ front end or going to C-4 Corvette.

The Honest reason for running an S-10 Chassis is that you don't have a good solid 3100 short bed frame to begin your build with. Back 20 years ago the swap was cheap because you could drag an S-10 out of someone's yard that had a broken 4 banger or 2.8 that was more expensive to fix than the value of the truck after it was fixed but those days are gone. You just don't find dead ones sitting out beside guys driveways for cheap prices anymore. f
There are guys on here who have paid a couple K for a good running S-10 driven it home and pulled the body off to use the frame then paid 1500 for the kit to do the swap and another 300 tied up in dropped spindles plus another few hundred rebuilding the front end and then spent the money for bags and did a complete rear suspension change including a different rear axle when they could have bought a bagged MII front end 4 link rear suspension set up for bags C notch for the rear and the same rear axle for not much more than what they paid for the S-10. That is something to think about if your truck is sitting on a solid 3100 short bed frame now.

[MiraclePieCo]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

There are guys on here who have paid a couple K for a good running S-10 driven it home and pulled the body off to use the frame then paid 1500 for the kit to do the swap and another 300 tied up in dropped spindles plus another few hundred rebuilding the front end and then spent the money for bags and did a complete rear suspension change including a different rear axle when they could have bought a bagged MII front end 4 link rear suspension set up for bags C notch for the rear and the same rear axle for not much more than what they paid for the S-10.

Ha ha, many of the S10 trucks the guys are scraping out for their builds are FAR nicer than my family car!

You want to know the real reason for the popularity of S10 chassis swaps? It's the graduation of the lowrider mini-truck crowd into our trucking genre. Lowrider magazine once said, "There's S10s, and then there's everything else." The mini-truck generation knows and reveres S10s; they are familiar and comfortable with them. Then one guy blogs how he built an AD on an S10 chassis and thanks to the internet, a million copycats duplicate his build verbatim. Don't misconstrue: I loved my S10 AD, but my MII AD is lots more fun to drive. I have a friend whose entire occupation consists of building hot rod AD trucks. He does them however the customer wants: original frame, clipped, or S10 chassis swap. He is a professional who totals every hour of his shop time, and he says that when you factor in all the donor car disassembly, body mount fabrication etc, the S10 is the most labor-intensive way to build them. But you'd sure never think that from watching how fast joedoh cranks them out!

[MARTINSR]

THIS IS MY OPINION AND NO NEED TO ATTACK ME AS WE ALL HAVE ONE!


I am sorry, I have never "got it" with the whole S-10 money, time, work swap. Just don't get it, I want an OLD truck, how it drives is part of it. I get it, ok, I get it, I can get seeing it differently, my 65 Buick Gran Sport is set up for handling and it's FUN to drive.

My big thing is SOOOOOOOOOO many of these S-10 money, time and work swaps don't matter because the guy isn't going to be driving it every day, he's not going to be towing a boat on mountain roads, you know what I mean? And ALLLL TOOOO OFTEN it just doesn't need to be done. But soooooo many think it MUST be done because of all the hype and the crazy over thinking disc brakes and crap. Sunday at the Goodguys I was looking at a fully "restored" 57 Chevy Belair two door hardtop, it had the original motor. And as my son and I are looking in amazement that it didn't have an LS motor I spot that it had friggin disc brakes! WHAT? I wasn't going to ask but I will bet he would have said the common joke "You can't drive on modern highways with drum brakes" geeeeez.

Nope, the MII front end is the way to go if you want IFS because that is the ONLY difference you get with the S-10 money time and work swap JUST the IFS, that is it! It's not like you are putting a Corvette chassis or something, it's the same friggin thing with JUST the IfS, that's IT. So the MII makes way more sense.


Brian

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by MiraclePieCo

Over the years I've seen a number of threads in this forum from AD builders asking whether they should go with an S10 chassis swap or a Mustang II suspension. I'm now in the unique position of having owned and driven both and can provide some perspective.

I had a '50 AD pickup with an S10 chassis swap for a couple of years and a couple of thousand miles. It rode and drove great - very straightforward, just like an S10. Now I have a '51 panel truck with a Mustang II front end - nothing fancy, just OEM Ford parts. Both rigs have 350/350 combos. Even the same wheel-tire combos (right down to the hubcaps, ha ha!). I have 200 miles on the MII panel truck now, so I've gotten a feel for how it compares, and I must say that the rack and pinion front end is amazing. Mine is manual, but it turns as easily as the S10 with power steering. It's very quick and precise, like the proverbial go-kart. The MII front end simply begs me to seek out twisting roads for some canyon carving. The turning radius is astonishingly small - I can whip a U-ee in half a cul-de-sac.

Both the S10 and MII have an abundance of aftermarket handling, lowering and performance parts available, so that's a tossup. I liked my S10 truck a lot, but I gotta say this MII rack and pinion kicks butt!

Thank you so much for posting this, very good information!

Brian

[Matt_50]

Thanks for the post. I think if a found a good running s10 for a good deal I'd want to try it someday but I have started to wonder if it is the same amount of work either way.

In the threads I have read it looks like a lot of the s10 stuff needs rebuilt and the drivetrain moved back and most swap in a new rear axle and a driveshaft is needed. Plus new mounts for body.

MII swaps. Usually the guys doing this are also doing a lot of other stuff. Swapping in another drivetrain, changing rear axle, need driveshaft, welding in the MII setup and moving gas tank...

But.... I have seen a few completely stock trucks that had a MII only added. That seems like a nice upgrade for less work.