frame for truck

have someone offered a 51 truck so was looking for a frame to attach this to. Was wanting to know if a full size chevy would be easiest to use so could have better brakes rear end. motor steering everything. Basically just use body and bed to put on a newer frame. am partially disabled so need to get away from manual tranny

 

I put my 53 truck on an s-10 frame, it is a little narrow compared to the original frame. The place it matters is in the front wheels. I plan on adding spacers to the front wheels to move the tires to a better visual location.
The back wheels will be a little off, but you can re center the axle on the leaf springs. I chose to use a camero rear end to get the disks in the back. This width works better than the stock s-10, I hear the 4x4 s-10 axle is wider than the 2 wheel drive axle. What I have hear about full size frames is that they are to wide.
Hope this helps
Steve

 

S10 is narrow but popular, Dakota is near perfect but a pain, full size is too wide. The tires will stick out of the fenders a bit.

 

It seems to me some people were using the wide track Blazer II chassis, and it was near perfect.

 

It seems like most people do the long box regular cab s10 frame. So you can either do that or cruise all the AD truck forums and find a guy close to you who is doing the swap and pick up a stock frame cheaply.

 

I can get a straight stock frame, already stripped and ready to go for $100.

 

frame

I have done several frame replacements using the 83-90 s-10 standard cab,long bed chassis......The wheel base is about 1/2 inch difference.There is a company in california that makes all new body and bed mounts for this but I've allways made my own.I heard the ready made makes an easy swap.The rear end out of a 4x4 s-10 blazer is 53 inches hub to hub and the late 60's early 70's nova ,camaro,monte carlo,etc. is 54"......These work best just check the offset on the wheels so you don't get bedside rubbing..Same with the front to get the look of the tires sitting right in the fender.....use the proper offset on the wheels and everything works good......Some modifying of the front and rear frame rails are necessary as is making a radiator saddle mount.There is usually a small amount of modifying of the saddle needed to clear the steering box......

 

I used a 77 Nova rear in my 53. It took only minor notching of the spring perches and I bought custom width wheels from Wheel Vintiques.

 

full size frame

i have biult one on a 89 full size frame it worked well. you can find pics at photobucket.com/ball48pu/album. good luck with yours