1957 chevy longbox to shortbox

[billrobbobjo]

Ya I will post some pictures tomorrow for ya, the track width is only like 2 inches wider across so its like 1 inch difference on either wheel. I'm not building a 100k truck, something that will look and have fun with. for the most part I will be the only one who knows it going down the road.

[billrobbobjo]

Ah Rude dude, next time I will do it, never can be to careful i guess haha.

[Valarius_Starchaser]

Nice looking truck keep it up I'm interested on the crown vic IFS too I already having a 74 nova sub in but it's always interesting to see what other people do plus I couldn't help but notice your just a ways down the road not to often that happens on here being from the "nearly great white north"

[billrobbobjo]

Well its coming along, here is kinda what I did next, I decided to try to save as much of the frame as I could to give it the most support when it lays ontop of the CV front axle, by the way i'm already a lot farther than what i'm posting. Just makes it easier to say well its done cant change it now than trying to change to everyones liking, haha. Let me know what ya think though.Its spring break and gotta get it done in a week, Steering, full axle, breaks. The part I'm stuck at right now is does anyone know a good way to put a pulley from the CV and convert it to V drive belt, I was looking at pulley's but I don't think any V pulley will work because most will be unbalanced, so I might try to spin it on a lathe to make the V grove, just pulled the part to day so we will see what I can think of tomorrow. These pictures are after I heated the frame with a torch to bring the frame up from where it dropped into the cross member from before.

[billrobbobjo]

I also flattened the curve for the steering box on that last post.
In these pictures I took a 1/2 by 3 inch thickest tubing I could get. I drilled holes in the bottom as close to the size of the round tubing I got to run the bolts through which the inside was the size of the bolt, be careful to make sure if its a seemed welded tube you can still get the bolt through. I also then went forward to drill a hole the size of the bolt on the top. I found it really hard to get it all to line up because the tolerances. If I were to do it again I would just drill larger holes, but with larger holes there is more to weld and I would believe less strength. So I thought having the pipe run all the way from the frame to the top would give the most support though the frame to prevent it from collapsing. I think the tubing was 1 1/8 inch on the outside or so, and I think the bolts are a 5/8, or maybe 3/4 I forget. But once I lined it all up I tacked it and checked to make sure the bolt would drop all the way though with the axle on.

[billrobbobjo]

From these pictures you can see the frame gets smaller as you go towards the front, It goes from like 5 1/2 inches to about 4 and 1/2. I welded a lot to try to prevent if anything were to break it wouldn't slip so from the bottom of the frame to the top bar the tube cannot go though cause the holes are to small. I then continued by adjusting it to fit the bolts in the last picture you can see the top tube is not quite straight but the wholes are straight in the frame. Today I fixed this problem by grinding it down and putting plates on both sides of the frame, inside and out.

[billrobbobjo]

That bottom picture is wet paint, which looks like a second hole. My bad

[Kim57]

Looks like that should work pretty good.
Kim

[billrobbobjo]

Been awhile, here an update of what I did last week. This is what the outer tube of the steering column is going to fit into with a bearing at the end to keep the steering column centered. I used a 3/4 inch bearing from Northern tool which is a trailer axle bearing it fits the steering shaft perfectly. Then I also cut the back mounting brackets for the support arms that hang under the frame, I just cut them to the shapes that fit the plates that came from the crown vic and welded them in after I bolted and measured where they naturally sit.

[dubds10]

Why do you have plates on the bottom now too? In the other pics you had the box on top and the IFS was flush with the bottom of the frame.

[billrobbobjo]

I did this because as you can see in these pictures, On the top as the axle sits under the frame, the frame gets closer together making gap bigger between the top of the frame and the axle bolts farther apart. So I needed to fill the gap on the top or I suppose you could choose to do the bottom if you wanted the car to ride higher. On the crown vic the gap of the frame is 6.5 inches and the 57 frame rails where the axle needed to placed to match the old placement of the axle is about 5.25 inches in the back and about 5 inches in the front. The pipes I welded into the frame are all the same size to fill the gap from the bottom of the frame to top of the rectangle plate i welded on top to make the frame the required 6.5 inches, this includes the width of the frame with the steel on the top. When holding the truck up from the crown vic axle to make sure the frame is flat on the top of the new axle I had to extend rear of the frame downward to meet the support arms, or what ever you wanna call them, because if you look at the crown vic the frame it bends upwards over the axle. The bottom of the axle isn't the same height of the arms that go back when laying it flat on your square frame you can see this in the 3rd picture on someone else doing it too. If I had the truck with me I would take you more pictures. Let me know if you got any more questions. I will try to explain them.

[dubds10]

I see now. Didn't realize the bottom control arm extended backwards like that & required a second frame mount. Makes sense in those pics you just posted.

[billrobbobjo]

Once I had it all welded how I wanted it, I continued to plate the frame up just to make everything look a lot nicer and reinforce it.

[Kim57]

Looks very stout.
Kim

[billrobbobjo]

When I started to work on my steering column, I had to extend the steering shaft by about 2 inches to make it long enough to reach the old crown vic steering linkage. I welded the old ford steering linkage arm and made it fit my DD 3/4 joint. Both sides are DD 3/4 fittings it costed me about 40 bucks for a Stainless steel one.

[billrobbobjo]

Then here it is all finished up. When you cut the outer shaft of the steering column aka the tubing, I placed it back into the the car to see where the upper bracket "under the dash" around the steering column. From there I cut the shaft so it was the right length to sit in the upper bracket. I had to add some washers to the inside because the steering column doesn't go through the firewall at a perfect 90 degree angle. After I got it fit to the right length, I placed my bearing into the bracket and ran the steering shaft in it. When doing this part this controls the placement of the steering wheel. I also put the ford power steering pump onto my motor and now have power steering, I can turn the wheels with 1 finger as before I had a steering wheel knob on it and had to use both hands to turn it because the joints had to be redone. I think in total I have about 500-600 dollars into this project minus the time. I bought the axle from a junkyard for 180, the power steering pump from the same car for about 24, the metal was about 70 dollars, the linkage was about 40. Welding gas and stuff too and other misc stuff such hoses and stuff from the auto parts store to make the power steering work was about 100 dollars. If you got any questions, let me know I can take more pictures or measurements if you want. Took me 9 days to complete this project at about 8 hours a day, including tearing apart and putting it back together.

[billrobbobjo]

Now back to body work, and I'm going to lower the back axle a bit so its not so tilted forward.

[dsraven]

have you thought about boxing the inside of the frame in an area longer than what you have on the outside there? it would help reduce stresses at the corners of that work area. since a lot of stresses are concentrated in that area and it is relatively small it may be something to think about and could stop a possible stress crack in the frame later. I am just thinking that the rest of the frame that is open channel is allowed to flex up to the point that is boxed, which is now really beefy in comparison, and this may cause some stresses and/or cracking. if you notice many of the after market mustangII or other types of "add on" suspensions usually have a longer inside boxing plate and I wonder if that is the reasoning.
miller welding has a whole section on welding fishplates and gussets etc onto frames for repair or modification and how to alleviate the stresses that welding has on the frame. this may be relative to your project. google miller forums welding discussions fish plate welds??? and see what come up for you. some good thoughts there. also be aware of the thickness of material used for modifications because too stiff will make that short section flex differently than the area around it which may cause cracking. I thought a longer boxing plate on the inside of the frame may help to move that stiffer section over a longer area to lessen the risk.cutting rosettes into the scab plate and plug welding them may also help a lot for strength as well. I just thought that me be of help to you. it also talks about how you can finish a weld so it is not inline with the main bead just laid and how that can be beneficial to the quality of the final product.
anyway, keep having fun with your project. just adding a few thoughts.

[dsraven]

sorry, posted that last one AFTER I seen you have it all back together. looks good.
are you planning on swapping the rear out so you have matching wheel bolt patterns, 4 wheel disc brakes? crown vic may have had an 8.8 with posi, rear discs and big axles. I have an explorer 8.8 in mine that came with 3.73, posi and discs but the center section is offset. some mustangs were centered though. my next question. what did you use for a master cylinder, or have you gotten that far yet. drum/drum versus disc/drum versus disc/disc masters are different, just a heads up. master on frame versus master on firewall may also include the need for residual valves inline to keep fluid where it needs to be. hopefully you have that all thought out already though.

[billrobbobjo]

I probably should box the frame in longer, when I do, I will probably make a U shaped plate to extend out to the frame. I probably won't do it till I put a new motor in because it is a lot of work to pull it all a part.
I was also wanting to put a c4 or c5 rearend under it. From what I have seen the C4 is not to bad for bolting in and welding up. I haven't looked to much into it. For this summer I'm just going to pull a few rear springs to allow the back end to sit down a bit because its really high compared to the front end right now. For the bolt pattern i'm hoping that I can extend the 4.5 5 bolt to a 5 by 5 bolt pattern to match the corvettes rear end but this is in the future hopefully in a year, then I don't have to mess with getting rims. Which then I will have to have the rotors redone as well with the hubs.
For my master cylinder in the frame, when I bought the 235, the previous owner bought a new one and used it for about a year or two before he swapped so he sold it to me. At some point I would like to change that as well. I hope to swap to all disc breaks at some point. My real next project will be doing the cab and floor w/ the cab corners w/ the steps. When it rains the tire throws water on you lap. Its about a 2x 1 inch hole so not to bad. Thanks for the advice, once I get to some of these other problems I will try to fix them.

[dsraven]

My advice is get the brakes proper first. You Got to match the master cylinder with the brake system that you have, disc front drum rear is a different master cylinder than drum front drum rear. you have to be able to stop properly because if you are driving it and something happens it could be a bad day for more than just your truck.

[billrobbobjo]

Okay after reading on it I see the difference now on the master cylinder between disc and drums. So I guess its time to install one soon.

[dsraven]

thats why I mentioned about the difference. hate to see a guy spend time and money changing something and then have a issue with something else because he didn't know it was even affected. if you plan on running drum rear brakes later then the disc front/drum rear master will have longevity. if you plan on changing the set up to disc front and disc rear then you might as well spend that time and money on those items now so you can safely drive it and spend less overall. the bodywork can wait, in my opinion, because it isn't any good without brakes that work. there are all kinds of dark scenarios that could be thought up if the brakes don't work properly and you are still driving it.
when you do the rear end make sure to check the pinion angle so you don't get a vibration. it should match the trans output except it will be opposite. if the trans is angled down 3 deg the diff should angle up 3 deg. at ride height and rake angle. best to do this on a level floor. the fix is tapered steel shims between the spring and the spring pad on the diff. be aware that an old spring pack may not "like" to be messed with so it may break a spring down the road if you change the dynamic back there by removing a leaf. the change will, theoretically, allow the remaining springs to flex more than they are used to so they may crack, usually near the spring pad. especially over speed bumps. some guys will wrap them with rubber, like a band, so if they break the spring part doesn't come out and eat a hole in the tire. the lowest spring is sometimes a thicker spring and is meant to be like an overload. when the spring pack flattens out this is the spring leaf that keeps the pack from going "too far" and absorbs a bunch of the load. not great to remove this one for that reason. also, check what you will have for clearance above the axle tube, you may be bottoming out a lot more if there is no "C" notch above the axle. rubber or urethane joince stops may be in order. newer vehicles have some nice ones that look like little bee hives. mine are from an S10 blazer. lots of give in them and they have pretty tough bolt on mounts.
holy cow, I feel like such a downer.

[yossarian19]

Any updates? Very cool project - how's it been driving this summer?

[billrobbobjo]

I have done some stuff, my old phone broke with the photo's I have rebuilt the bottom of the doors, I have been rebuilding the box to a more correct way of doing it, When doing it I have decided to delete the pockets, a well as add inner wheel wells. I am still working on the inner wheel wells. I will show those later here is some stuff I have photos of stuff I have done. I did add a 5 speed from an s10 with a jeep input shaft.