1948 Chev coupe "Mabel"

GFaRT

GFaRT

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Starting a thread on my project. Hopefully will be an incentive to keep moving along with it. Found a good solid car to work with.
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Then picked up doners for parts. First a '94 F150 for power train (and a utility trailer).
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Surplus turbos from Western Star army trucks (Iveco)
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And then a cop car / taxi a 2005 Crown Vic for front suspension.
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First order of business is to narrow up the Crown Vic suspension 4-3/4" and install. I expect to reverse engineer the suspension crossmember with a steel center section and wind up with a end result that is stronger than the original. Another thread here has taken a similar approach. http://www.canadianrodder.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11535
 I've also seen examples where the aluminum crossmember was cut and re-welded, but I'm not fussy about relying on an aluminum weld in this case. So here we go.
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And this is the memory bracket for the radiator horseshoe mount.
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BTW, I just switched to Imgur from Photobucket, and it's much quicker and easier to use.
 
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fraso said:
You might find this useful: HOT ROD Garage: Body Swapping a ’66 F100 with a Crown Vic
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Thanks Fraso, but the Crown Vic is just too wide overall to fit the '48 Chev body. My friend here put a full width CV front end in his '58 F100 pickup, but the widths matched up fine in that case. I need to be about 5" narrower for the Chev.
 
Good looking project.

That will be nice and different....a Ford in a Chevy, plus a Ford suspension to boot.

Should make the Ford guys happy.
 
1Kool52 said:
Should make the Ford guys happy.
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Yeah, the Ford guys at the coffee shop are just giddy.

Offering up the Crown Vic crossmember to the Chev frame confirms that there's room to narrow it 4-3/4" and still have some clearance. Apparently 4-3/4" is the difference between the CV rack and one from a T-bird or Mustang. So now off to Pick-N-Pull to find a rack.
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GFaRT said:
rack from a T-bird or Mustang.
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......I have a used one (with new tie rod ends and rack extenders - cheap) but unfortunately;

Some old FOOL in a moment of inattentiveness allowed his truck to slip off the floor jack and crack the bottom of the steering rack.

.......guilty as charged your honor. :eek:
 
Made an alignment fixture to keep the two halves aligned and square after the crossmember is cut in half. I picked up a '94 T-bird rack at Pick-N-Pull and my measuring says it's 4.625" narrower than the Crown Vic (not 4.75" stated earlier and from other forum postings). Located the first holes in the cross bars with a transfer punch through the bolt holes in the crossmember. Then a second set of holes is drilled 4.625" in from the original position using a mill table on the drill press to get accurate 4.625" spacing. Front and back hole spread on the CV crossmember are not equal.
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I cut 4-5/8" out of the center of the Crown Vic crossmember and put it back into the alignment jig with the T-Bird rack. Looks like it all lines up fine. Now to drill and bolt the splice plates on.
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Nice job! Are you not welding the pieces back together?. You mentioned splice plates??
 
It'll be bolted together with steel splice plates, like a bridge girder. I don't want to trust aluminum welding. I've done the strength calculations for the bolted connection and it'll be more than twice as strong as the original CV crossmember. Just in case I'm challenged at the BC safety inspection.
 
GFaRT said:
It'll be bolted together with steel splice plates, like a bridge girder. I don't want to trust aluminum welding. I've done the strength calculations for the bolted connection and it'll be more than twice as strong as the original CV crossmember. Just in case I'm challenged at the BC safety inspection.
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I like the jig you made and the fit looks great! It's nice to see a planned out approach to cutting and modifying something so important. Sounds like you've done the math to make sure it's safe but I gotta ask.....why don't you trust the aluminum welding?? Nice project BTW!
 
hooligan said:
I like the jig you made and the fit looks great! It's nice to see a planned out approach to cutting and modifying something so important. Sounds like you've done the math to make sure it's safe but I gotta ask.....why don't you trust the aluminum welding?? Nice project BTW!
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Two reasons, first, I'm not equipped and skilled to do aluminum welding myself, so would have to farm it out. Did I mention that I'm really cheap.

Second, Not that it can't be done successfully with well designed doubler plates. But you have to deal with the heat affected zone having reduced material strength. Old aluminum that has been dirty, can be very hard to weld and if it does crack, you've got a big problem making a repair. I've seen lots of truck and trailer bodies that crack, and the repairs don't last.
 
Here's the Crown Vic crossmember spliced back together. Still have to finish welding the splice brackets, zinc chromate the joint faces and seal paint everything. Bolts are 1/2" unf GR-8 with hardened flatwashers against the aluminum and deep nuts.
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Offered up to frame to check clearances with T-Bird rack on.
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1Kool52 said:
Now that's heavy duty.

Being in BC, will you have to get it safetied?

If so, is that an acceptable repair to the suspension?
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i know you said you would,nt trust just the welding of the aluminum up but wouldn,t you do it anyway just for extra piece of mind? not knocking what you have done, looks super strong
 
GFaRT.............nice fabrication on the doubler plates! I will be interested to find out what the inspector says about this, having no weld between the two aluminum halves. Hopefully all goes well. On a side note: I dropped in to Fastenal on the weekend to pick up some "hard" washers, and the sales person said, "Oh, you mean Williams washers, don't you". Had never heard the term. They are thicker, and hardened and plated. Will be picking them up today, so am keen to see if they are what I need.
Keep up the good work................Bgbkwndo.
 
Unless there has been a change in BC you have to have M11 kits, subframes inspected by a body shop (?). I had mine done on the '52....the guy laid under the car with a flashlight for about 30 seconds..........!
 
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