Thread: 56 chevy truck cab to a 1994 frame

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If eerything is the right dimension, putting an old vehicle on a modern frame is a great way to go. I have seen folks that not only used the modern frame, but the floors and the firewall also. That way you have all the later HVAC, steering and brake controls as well. If you start with a donor that is close to the same size you can really make a well riding vehicle. I don't care how good you are, you will be hard pressed to weld together frame pieces from mulitple cars or the aftermarket and come up with a better performing frame and suspension than one designed by the automakers. Not saying those can't be improved, but they are a great place to start from where everything is designed work together.

Get to measuring and see how well it will fit.

Pat

The frame rails on the '56 are straight (level) with no rise or dips from front to back. If you look at that '94, you will see that the frame rails rise (from back to front) just aft of the front wheels. This will cause clearance problems for the bell housing of the transmission because the motor will rise up higher into the engine bay. Also, it may become very difficult to get a distributor into the engine block because of the lip area on the firewall cowl where the aft portion of the hood mates to the cab when the hood is closed.

This is not something that can't be fixed obviously, you would have to do some modifications to the firewall area and quite possibly to the motor mounts, but it will not be as simple as bolting the cab to the frame and running it that way.

Again, as stated before, if you are interested in going this route it is time to start measuring to get an idea where else you may run into problems.

Like I said before, measure from the center point of the front wheel to the center point of the rear wheel and compare it to the same measurement of the '56. Next, measure the width of the frame rails from the outer edges, and again compare. Also measure from the front edge of the frame to the center point of the front wheel, and from the trailing edge of the frame to the center point of the rear wheels and compare all of those measurements with the '56.

Because this is a '94 1500, and the frame rails rise take that into consideration as well when making the measurements so that you can determine how much the motor will rise up in the engine bay and how much you will need to modify the firewall to accomadate the change in position (raised) for the tranny. Other items like the radiator support and radiator (for example) will most likely also be affected due to the frame rail rise as well.

In any event, this will give you some idea as to what you are facing (chassis wise) with this project.

I still think that you would probably be better off with a Mustang II IFS kit for less than $2500.00 simply because all of the hardware/calipers/brake pads/rotors/shocks/a-arms etc. are all new. But it doesn't really matter what my opinion is, if it's what you want to do, I am certain that it could be done if the dimensions are close.

Cheers,
Dutch