Thread: 1934 chevy

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I'm thinking about purchasing a 1934 chevy coupe that has a S-10 frame and and supension already installed. The car sits high. The current running engine is a V-6. Two questions. Can the car be lowered by using a lowering kit on the front supension and lowering blocks on the rear, and if I were to remove the v-6 engine and replace it with a 350 crate engine, can the new engine be hooked to the existing S-10 auto. transmission or would I need an adaptor or maybe even a different transmission?

Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your reply. The car is a driver and it appears that the body is setting on the frame. Everything looks OK except that the body sets high and needs to be lowered. No channeling has been done. To give you an idea, I believe that in order to get the edge of the fender to touch the front tire would be about 6 inches. The rest of the car is proportional to that. The engine is a small V-6, I would guess a 2.3 liter and the transmission also an S-10 auto. I would hate to buy the car and find out that the frame and supension will not allow the things I want to do.

Take a look at the body mounts. Most cars need to have the rear floor notched out for clearance where the frame kicks up to go over the rear end. If you don't you have to put blocks on the body mounts to get clearance.
Ive seen some pretty low S-10s but i think most of them use hydraulics. They have dropped spindles available that will lower the front a couple of inches but that isn't enough to fix the 6 inch gap.
You could always change it to 4 wheel drive and put 33 inch tires on it and go mud racing.
Is it a finished car or a project that he gave up on when he couldn't get it right?
Whatever you have to do to make it right would be a lot of work and lots of money.
AL

Thanks for your reply Al. You bring up some good points and I think you are right on. I will have to look a lot closer to see what really is there. I like your thought on whether or not the original owner gave up when he found out he could not get it right. That may be the real reason it was sold to the present owner in the first place. The guy who presently owns the car has purchased a lowering kit for the front and I'm not familiar with the kit. He made it sound like it would work, but I'm not sure in my own mind. Want the car to set right when finished and should not be a cobble job. Maybe a new type of front clip would need to be installed to make it right? It is a beautiful car and would be a shame to not get the right look.
Thanks
Cash

"The guy who presently owns the car has purchased a lowering kit for the front and I'm not familiar with the kit. He made it sound like it would work,......... "

Cash, ask yourself...........
If it would do the job why didn't he install it before trying to sell it? This is like the guy who notes something wrong in his ad and then says "it's an easy fix". If it was so easy, why didn't he do it?

What you've described is a classic example of why swapping these later model chassis under much older cars, especially the "square" body kind, is not a good solution. Some very skilled people have pulled it off with a lot of modification, but most are done by limited skill dreamers who end up with a situation like you're looking at.

Don't fall victim to GFT!! That's Greater Fool Theory. The guy who built it was looking for one and found him. Now he's realized what he did to himself and is looking for that guy. Don't be that guy. Trying to figure out if a different clip, or a different lowering kit, or any other patch work change will work is only rationalizing a bad situation.

The only way this could make sense is if the body is really nice, it has a good title for a '34 Chev, and you only paid the value of the body. Otherwise it can't be cheap enough to be worth the trouble, there's too many other better choices out there. Even experienced people almost always underestimate how much $, work, and time it takes to fix up a car. If you have only the limited experience that your questions imply there's no way you can imagine what would be needed to undo this mess.

Thanks for you reply Bob. You are a smart man and I hear what you say. The body and car itself is very good and is worthy of a really good street rod. Would you say that the best thing to do is to remove the car from the present frame and suspension and install it on another more reseptive frame and suspension? If you do, what would you recommend? I would rather start over and do it right than mess around with something that will not produce the end result I'm looking for, and that is a very driveable and fun street rod with the right look. Or are you really saying scrape the whold idea and start looking for something else. Your opinion matters.

Thanks
Cash

Cash,
You asked, so here goes.
If you can buy it cheap enough, and the title is right (don't underestimate the value of that), then yes, switching to an appropriate frame could be a solution.

If it were my desire, I'd get either a very solid stock frame and put better suspension and the V8 it deserves, or get an aftermarket frame made for the '34 Chev. There are several companies companies who make those frames, the most experienced is Outlaw Performance http://www.outlawrods.com/ .

Which you choose should depend on your experience or what experience your friends have. Modifying a stock frame could be less expensive, if it's very sound, and you have the skill. Otherwise, you'll be dollars and time ahead buying a professionally built frame, building it up, and swapping the body.

Without seeing the car it would be hard to tell you what the body alone would be worth. If you have to repair ANYTHING (such as modifications the other guy did to mount it to the S10), that's a negative. If you have to paint ANYTHING, or redo the upholstery, those are negatives. The seller won't see it that way (remember, he's looking for another GFT), but after he see's nobody else is willing to bail him out reality might set in. And don't expect to get much out of the discard chassis and running gear. Remember, people who think that this chassis swap is a good deal are basing that decision on the S10 being cheap. And as Streets pointed out, the 2.8 V6 did not have a lot of fans, the 4.3 was way more desireable.

Choose wisely, it'll increase your enjoyment.

Is that the one that's on streetrodding.com ? Some other things to think about. If your going to put a 350 in, Youu have to check out radiator supports.
The price he's asking to is to much for what your getting and all the work you'll be doing. What was said before about aftermarket chassis would be the way to go if you buy it.

Just my 2 cents

Originally posted by Streets
My books show that the 2.3 is an Inline 4 banger engine and NOT a V-6.. IF it's the 2.8 V-6 engine in reality... then NO.. The transmission won't fit on a 350 Chevy and you'd need a 350/400/200/700R4 transmission for it also 2.8 liter V-6=60° and 350 V-8=90° engine...
PS. IF it's the 4.3 liter V-6 engine then YES!! THAT will interchange with the V-8

Many thanks for the time you took to help me out with this problem. I really appreciate your help concerning the 34 chevy. You info has been most helpful.
Thanks
Cash