For those of you that don't know, I have a 1948 Chevy Coupe as well and have a few questions on this. As soon as I get the next few things done on my 66 Ford truck I am going to start this 48 and get the chassis all done before the end of this year I hope. Anyways, when I bought this car, all I got with it was the frame, a 57 car rear end with 3.73 gears, the body with no floors, fenders, hood and trunk lid. The body is in great shape with very little rust, only needs new rocker panels since the body was sitting on blocks and were crushed from all the weight. The owner before me put on a 79 Z28 Camaro front end and it looks to be done pretty nicely with solid welds and welded on straight. But here is where my problem starts. I am looking at all these frames of 47's and 48's and the front of them look and step in much skinnier than mine does... My front end is the same width as the rear of the whole frame and I think I am going to have a problem with the width here... Does anyone have any info on this or if it will work? I have posted this question before on another forum and still trying to get more oppinions. So far half the people say it wont work and the other half say it will.
Of course I hope it WILL work but if not then I'd like to know so I can fix it. Also I plan to just throw a 454 in the thing anyways and going to put airbags on it. At first I planned to go with a pro street car here but now after adding everything up it will be too much money to do that. I have no springs, shocks or brakes to the frame so though I'd just spend a little over a grand or whatever I need and get the entire air bag system and get stock brakes from Auto Zone or something. Before I do this though I need to find out if the front clip I have now will work.
Thanks for any help!

I finally gave up on my 41 which had a Camaro clip. Basically, the Camaro clip measures 62-1/2" hub to hub. I think the stock 41-48 measures 58-1/2". Of course it also sat pretty high. You can cut the Camaro down to 60-1/2" with Fatman control arms. You can probably buy custom wheels and get it down to a width which will work. I spent a day out at the salvage yard cutting a frame out of a 41 four door, leaving $315 (incl. tax) for the privilege. I went with a TCI MII which measures approx. 56-1/2". Hopefully I have uploaded a photo of what the tire looked like with the suspension in the fully compressed.

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If money is not that much of a problem I would ditch the Camaro front end and go with a Heidts Super Ride with coil overs. Of course that is considering your frame is indeed a 48 frame.

Vince

I would suggest a Heidts Mustang II IFS as well but if you're not building a "show car" you really don't need the super ride system. A simple Mustang II IFS system will work very well and cost about a grand less than the super ride system. Here's a pic of my '41 Pro-Street Chevy Coupe (exact same frame you have) equipped with a simple Heidts Mustang II IFS, 454 and TH-400.

If money is a big factor (when isn't it?), How about considering an S10 frame?

Shouldn't be too difficult, since you will be building the floors too. I think that the width would be much better than that Camaro clip.

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I really can't afford a new front clip at all! Sucks that this camaro front end wont work now! The frame is in great shape and I'd hate to trash it. Your 41 is sweet by the way. I like that thing a lot and wish my 48 would look like that. Kind of hard when I am only 17 (almost 18) and don't have the money or help around here. I figured the guy that put this on before me was an idiot because I don't even have bolts to this car. The guy gave me a bucket of old rusted bolts and said he THINKS some of the bolts in the bucket are for the car. He was totally unorganized and everything. I don't want to give up on the car and sell it like most people do but it sure does suck. If I found someone willing to trade an older car for it I would do it maybe but I would rather just build it instead of selling it to someone else that may ruin the car.
So no way to make this work out? I don't think I have the money or will be able to find a S10 frame around here. It is hard not knowing many or any people here into hot rodding that are willing to help me out with this sort of thing.

Thanks for anymore info!

Oh and by the way, Fatman Fab isn't too far from my house, do you think if I used the narrowed control arms that this will work and that I can still use air bags in it? I don't want to have to run really skinny tires in the thing either but I do want skinnier than the rear of course. I am not going with the pro street theme on this car anymore either.

On one of these streetrod sites, there are some very nice pix of a 48 Chev coupe with an M2 Heidts IFS installed. The guy is from Florida, and I've been trying to locate the site to no avail. BTW, I'm also going to put a Heidts IFS in my 48 Chev convert............Zoomy

SMF
You could check your measurements on the frontend you have or assemble the front to verify whether the frontend you have will work or not, once you have the fenders on check your grill and hood for fitness also, if the widgth is only a few inches off, the shorter bars from Fat Man will help some and you may make up some inches with your wheel backspacing. the big thing is that all your body panels fit properly, fenders hood and grill are important so make sure your frame is not to wide and all your body parts line up correctly. And yes even with the shorter arms from Fat Mans you can still have air bags, also check your ride height you may want to go with dropped spindles to get the height you want. There is a vast knowledge base here and you can search out a lot of questions. You might also go on line to google and search for streetrod clubs in your area, you would be suprised at how many are around.
Wish you the best of luck on your rod and welcome aboard
30dee

A S-10 chassis should cost LESS than the Fatman A Arms and you would be OH so MUCH BETTER off......trust me...

I think this front end will be fine. I have seen that about 4 people used this 79 front end already and have heard of no problems. If it doesn't fit then I will buy a new chassis and trash this one.

A few years ago, I finished a car for a friend that was started by someone else. It was a 40 Chevy, similar frame and front end, and it had a 78 or so Camaro clip on the front, with a 454, and a 400 turbo. We made it work.

The width problem can be fixed by using C4 Corvette wheels, they have 2" more offset than Camaro wheels and move the tires in enough to clear the fenders nicely. The inner fenders can be trimmed to clear the subframe, but there won't be a lot left of them. The biggest problem is mounting the core support. The core support ends up right over the drag link. What we did was build a triangulated mount off the front crossmember that would support the core support, which is the main mount for all the front sheet metal. For the front bumper, we made L shaped extensions that the stock bumper brackets would bolt to off the inside of the subframe, and bolted the stock brackets on the inside of the extensions. You will have to cut the subframe off just in front of the steering box.

[QUOTE=Centerline]I would suggest a Heidts Mustang II IFS as well but if you're not building a "show car" you really don't need the super ride system. A simple Mustang II IFS system will work very well and cost about a grand less than the super ride system. Here's a pic of my '41 Pro-Street Chevy Coupe (exact same frame you have) equipped with a simple Heidts Mustang II IFS, 454 and TH-400. [/IMG][/QUOTE

It's refreshing to see someone talk positive about an aftermarket MII setup. After close to 20,000 miles of hammering on my 53's shadetree installed Heidt's set up, I think that's the way I'd go too. I've been-there-done-that twice and I'd do it again. Frame graft jobs and doner chassis' are all fine and dandy if you got the doner laying around and don't mind re-hanging your ride's entire front clip, not to mention, the whole car. I've heard a lot of negative comments about the integrity of some of these MII packages - some of them well founded. In fact I've taken some of the credible problems people have had with aftermarket MII retrofits, especially on this particular site, so seriously, I've had my 53 up on the scissor-lift countless time in the last four years, looking for all those inherant 'killer' defects and in the old 53 hardtop's case I've found none.
I'm just running a 400hp 350 mouse motor in front of a TH400 but I push it hard every once in a while, not to mention playing at the drags from time to time.

I'm happy as a clam at high tide with mine.http://hotrodders.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/2162

That is another problem too I think I will have is the core support. I don't know how core supports normally are mounted since I have never done a full frame up project yet so not sure AT ALL where to start with it and mount it. I think the 48 is a TAD bit wider than the 40 though don't you think?
Thanks a lot for the help here though guys. I forgot about this thread (because it is kind of old LOL) but glad I am back to it. This 48 is going to be on hold for another year most likely. I have way too many things going on right now and 2 other projects and possibly ANOTHER one after christmas (1929 Ford Hi Boy) so it will take me a while to get around to it. I don't want to end up just selling it because if I complete it then I will learn SO much from this thing that it will be worth it in the end. The biggest thing that is holding me back is money. But then again I am not the only one that is held back by that problem. Haha. I spend EVERY bit of money I have into my hot rods and I need to stop doing that and save because I have 76 bucks put away in the bank and that is it.... LOL Got the bank statement in the mail a few weeks ago Haaaaahaha.

Oh and ONE more question. Do they make a rack and pinion for this front end instead of using the big gear box? I think this would help make things more simple for me and possibly a cleaner look... Any oppinions on what I should do with the steering? I will go power steering on this since it's a big and heavy car but other than that what else will be involved?