Thread: Whats your take on this?

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Originally posted by iceburgh
to this....

That looks nice iceburgh. building a chassis or replacing a clip is half the fun. If I couldn't do that myself I wouldn't build it. I built a mod. race car and replaced the clip on it 2 times. No, it didn't fall off, I knocked it off.

"building a chassis or replacing a clip is half the fun."

Bingo!

Originally posted by BigTruckDriver
What are the advantages over this IFS set up?




http://www.streetrodengineering.com/.../ultraride.htm

whats the dif. in replacing a clip or a crossmember. i dont see no dif. all of it is about cutting and welding.

CAR frame welded to a TRUCK frame

Now it starts to get down to personal preference. Assuming good mechanical and welding skills being equal, what's your objective?

While the clip is generally considered "more economical", there's more work involved in making one fit. While the initial buy in price is seemingly lower, odds are it needs to be rebuilt to some degree, plus clean-up effort and material. If you don't have to get a rebuilt steering box, just bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints, and so forth you get to about 1/2 the cost of the kit you showed. If a box is needed, then you're closer to 3/4 the cost. More labor is needed to refit the front sheetmetal and core support/radiator since the original mounting points are gone with the old front section. So the clip can be about 3/4 the cost, and twice to three times the labor. If you do it yourself and don't value your time, you save a few bucks. If you have to hire out the whole thing, then the clip isn't such a deal.

Next thing is esthetics. Personally the aftermarket setup you showed looks better to my eye than the clunkier clip. Since it's mostly out of sight, that may not be much of an issue. Again, pretty much a preference thing.

Then your comment about car vs truck. Pretty much a nothing argument. Both setups, either clip or crossmember assembly, will handle the light duty of a half ton, street driven truck. In fact, if you listen to some they'll try to convince you that the Mustang II/Pinto geometry setup, such as you showed, is too light duty. What they don't realize is that some of the V8, A/C, PS, PB, etc MII's got close to 3500# curb weight, and with the fabricated tubular control arms, they're plenty stout for normal street use.

Now, if the vehicle in question is the '65 Chev pu you list as your ride, there's all sorts of rebuild, disc brake, lowering, etc. conversion kits available for that chassis. That would be the least amount of effort and expense if the existing frame is good and you don't have some weird agenda.

"Then your comment about car vs truck. Pretty much a nothing argument. Both setups, either clip or crossmember assembly, will handle the light duty of a half ton, street driven truck."


But now with a clip the truck is more nose heavy,right? A truck does not need more weight in the front part of the chassis.Now you have a heavy duty (stout) front end ,and stock back half.

It all depends on what you're after. If weight savings and a good clean look is what you are after, then an MII set up is what you want. As Bob said, I don't believe weight of a 1/2 ton pickup on the street is a problem, put too many of the MII kits on pickups and sedan deliveries.

the camaro clip has been around since the 70's and has been done to death i have never seen a failure on an overlay. you have 20+ in of double frame welded. not much chance of a failure. as for weight theres not that much difference. it's a hot rod now not a truck. if you want to keep it a truck use a mid 80's truck saddle.

Large truck frames are routinely cut and stretched,converted to tandems ,tri axle,etc, so the idea of cutting and welding on a frame is not instantly taboo. It's all in how,and by whom. If your welding skills aren't up to the task ,don't do it. On a chevy p/u,the entire front suspension comes right off,leaving a nice clean platform to add mII type crossmember and suspension. As far as weight is concerned,I'd be very suprised if the entire package wasn't at least 100lbs less than the original.

Originally posted by BigTruckDriver
CAR frame welded to a TRUCK frame

And I promise you it is stronger than anything. If this truck is ever in an accident the failure of the frame will be far enough behind the cab that the passengers will not have to worry.
Part of hot rodding from way back ( according to my dad and uncles ....I am only 33) is to have fun , build something cool and safe and save money as much as possible.
To each their own I guess but I have built a killer Vette that makes 500 + hp and won over 120 awards and I am building now a '32 and thsi truck and I have never had as much fun as I am now