Call me an old fuddy duddy, but I have to agree with Jerry (Hotrod Lincoln). If you have an "original/complete" 38 Chevy it would brake my heart to see it cut up for an IFS. I know, I know, it's your truck and you can do what you want. That being said, there are very few original trucks of that vintage left. They are gold nuggets for guys that are trying to do a real restoration.
I know nothing about your history/experience with trucks so don't take any offense to my questions. Why do you want to install an IFS in your truck? I ask because I thought the exact same thing when I bought my all original 58 Suburban. From watching the TV shows and looking at all the truck magazines, you get convinced that the IFS is a mandatory install to make an old truck driveable. After spending some time on this site, I adjusted my mindset and ended up falling in love with the truck as it came from the factory. When it is in tip top shape and set up correctly, these trucks are a joy to drive in original condition. You don't "need" and IFS. A properly set up strait axle frond end rides and performs just fine. If you want your truck to be more sports-car-like an IFS may be the way to go. If you decide to go down that road please look for another project truck that you can grab that already has the "doctored" frame. That way you can preserve the original and sell it to someone that really needs one. As Jerry said, there are tons of stalled projects out there with "butchered" frames that people lost interest in.
I may be an old purist, but I feel it is our duty to preserve old original trucks as much as possible since there aren't that many left. After some deliberate thought on your motives/wants/needs for the truck, if you still want to do an IFS, please find another donor frame. In the mean time, tune up the front end (king pins, tie rod ends etc.) with new parts and get it back to factory. Drive it for a while and you will probably fall in love with it. Think about it...
Good luck with your project!!
He said nothing about the condition of his truck. That's a lot of assumption.
Sure, there are some trucks that are better to restore, however there are also a limited number of people that want to restore them. In most cases they also have the same opportunity to purchase them, so if they miss out they miss out. I appreciate restored and modified trucks, but I'm not going to miss out on a project because someone some day might want to restore it.
I bought a very nice Model A roadster pickup project and it's going to be rodded. There are plenty of original examples around. I've had lots of people ask why I didn't restore my truck to original as well. They don't realize when I got it, it was just a shell.
