The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Lowering a stock COE

Hello All,
I recently purchased a 49 Chevy COE. I want to lower it using the original frame. The lower the better! Any suggestions on what I can do.
Thank you in advance for all your help.
Don Jr
[email protected]
413-246-8452
Agawam, MA

This is the low mileage original you want to make safe and dependable in your other post? My suggestion is keep the low mileage original stock and find a rust bucket to make your low rider from.

I agree.

If you want a little drop and disc brakes you can switch to the front axle from a P30 chassis, but it will need to be narrowed. With the original springs it gains you a 2" drop, as it has (if I remember right) 4" of drop from centerline of wheels, while your stock axle has 2" of drop from centerline.

If it really is a nice truck, would be best to leave it as is. And if you must modify it, tasteful and discrete is always better than loud and ugly..

Grigg

lets see some pic's!

How do I post pics on here???

post pictures on a hosting site such as photobucket then post a link here

More information would be helpful here.

Using the original frame you could chase ideas such as Z'ing and dropping the front axle. You could do things like cut down the cab support framework, bringing the cab down with no modifications to the frame itself or the suspension.

You can channel the cab over the frame.

Why do you want to stay with the original frame? Do you want to keep the stock motor and motor location?

We could spill ideas here all day, but not knowing what you are trying to accomplish, and what you do not want to change, its hard to know what direction to go with those ideas...

And yes if you have a stock original truck some are going to complain when you modify it. I've tried to avoid 'hacking' any nice originals and as a result passed on buying what would likely have been the perfect truck for my COE project. Instead I bought a rusty pile of junk that will take years to repair, and once I'm done it will look nice enough they will still be offended.

I've been kicking myself since, and will likely buy the next cheap clean '54 GMC COE I see and ignore the the stock and resto guys as I cut it up.

Steve, That snub nose I sold you for nothing was not a rust bucket...but close. At least our modified COE's will reach freeway speeds, handle better and stop sooner.

Dallas

Dallas I was referring to the one I paid good money for. I think I paid $200 plus about that much in gas. Turns out it was rotten rusty.

The one I got from you is much better and probably won't be modified much when the cab is on its new frame. Don't tell my wife but you aren't the only one building two COE's!

Both my COE's have been at highway speeds. Setting on my trailer...

Steve,

Now I feel I over paid for my two COE's. My wife is fully aware of the fact that I have two COE's (she's not happy about it though). If it were not for you, there would be three of them in the garage and I would probably be sleeping in one of them.

Dal

I try to be real cheap about this hobby, so I don't have a lot of money tied up in any of them.

Recently someone commented on how many cars and trucks I have, and I pointed out that I've paid less total for about two dozen trucks, a Corvette and a Cadillac than I did for my wife's Subaru. I did the math twice and its an accurate statement. I recently committed to buy a '57 Chevy, and it should still be true after I pay for that one.

But my wife doesn't care about the money aspect so much as she does just knowing how many of them we have. Two or three of mine are out at Jeff's and I have mine parked in different areas of our yard just to keep her from having to confront the real count...

Or you can order a complete IFS from Fat Mans Fab for about 3500.00