The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Frame swap Samurai style

This part of stovebolt looks to be the area for me, as for modified trucks I’m worried will it still feel like a classic. I read hear in HiPo that chassis swaps are common and not frowned at. I’m posting my build as if anyone wanted an option besides a s10 if not avalible.

Don't know what you posted and deleted, but looking at your pic album, that is an amazing BIG install in your truck. I can't imagine the problems you had to work through to achieve that install.

no delete, just didn't change the drop box to Using HTNL and UBBCode when pasting here from another text app:



Bill

Thanks bill Hammers and computers dont mix, yeah i was cutting and pasting as no spell check on the sight and spelling is not great, So as you where saying i need to drop the box using a ubbcode, i will givit a go.

Frame swap Samurai style.
This part of stovebolt looks to be the area for me, as for modified trucks I’m worried will it still feel like a classic. I read hear in HiPo that chassis swaps are common and not frowned at. I’m posting my build as if anyone wanted an option besides a s10.
Growing up in Australia I drove some cool old cars, the need to get anywhere quick and mod cons in a daily drive did not seem to bother me. Now getting older and driven reliable new cars and with the comfort the romance of a classic ride for a daily driver slipped away. The car manufactures have tried to make a modern classic like the PT cruiser etc. but my opinion they still don’t have the good old lines. So I set to build my own modern classic. To take the guess work on how it will drive and how to wire it all up was to use everything the donor car had to offer (maybe not the safety air bags). The donor car for me had to be four wheel drive, manual gearbox, good on fuel, air/con, cable throttle not fly by wire and spare parts to be cheap and readily available and the wheel tack to be the same as original truck it was an added bonus that the standard Chevy rims fit Mitsubishi hubs.
The Mitsubishi shogun/ Montero/ challenger / L200 / Trojan is sold worldwide under different names but lucky my mate had one that had driven around for 6 months so that where it started.
Please get in contact if you have any questions or suggestions , I have loads of step by step photos if needed.

Japco what year did you use? Any pictures of what was necessary for body mounts?

Bourbon, year 2000 4x4 , I used the donar cars mounts ,unstiched the welds and moved them back and in matching the meausement from the center line of the front wheel as the datum , the hard part was the head scratching for the radiator mounts and inner guards. I have posted more pics of that area of the bulid and when it all comes apart again for painting and fully welding I will make drawings ,as it is a cheap build once all the thinking has finished. when i have more time ill add the blue type for the photo im talking about in depth. Off to Australia in 4 day to have christmas with my family can't wait !!! , and i know of a right hand drive glove box lid for a AD i hope to get my hands on , as at the moment im turning a left hand drive glove box lid up side down,

At the moment I'm down under spending Christmas with my family ,but a million miles away from my build ,so I have had the time to post the chevys video of the first stepsShe got pushed in the shed and came out sounding like a tractor. I love this video my little girls giggle makes it a real family afair for me.

Thats a lot of work! Looks good, sounds different, looks like everything fits back on the front.

WOW! I thought I had some crazy ideas (like a Riviera front wheel drive mounted in place of the rear axle, complete with rear steering capability). Nice work! I will now stop whining about how hard it is to put a stock one back together.
Carl

Riviera rear steer ? 4wheel steer? and what tuck was that in, I love a good prodject ! Well if i get the ride height right I hope it will look like a stock one. Fuel is realy expencive over here so
that is why it sounds diffrent, I love sound of a V8 but the donar truck are cheapish here and pleanty of them so for a long time repairs it was a no brainer. Maybe a little turbo whistle or blow off valve may confuse the punters. Thanks eveyone and all have a safe Christmas !

That project is just a dream. The other part of the dream is clear bed 'wood' made of bullet-proof glass to show off the mods. (Man I need to wake up!)

What a swap, wow.
I am totally impressed, talk about metal work, wow.
Can't wait to see the finished project.

In the quest to have the stock look on new running gear and to give my daughter more room in the center seat I cut the top off the chevy gear box, opened up the inspection plate of the donnar car gear box to find if I pick up that linkage, the old stock gear leaver would be in the original postion. I welded a new socket to the cast selector. Made an adaptor plare. welded the ball to the chev gear leaver. a little fine tuning with the gates and all work well. As i have made a right hand drive the foot emregency brake would have crowded the go peddle so with the help of classic truck parts ( james ) and US ebay I had a old hand brake sent over, with the donnar cars hand brake and the stock they blended to gether to make me happy the finr toothed ratchet sounds sweet on the old stick, Was it only the big bolts that had the hand brake leaver? Has anyone a photo of a NAPCO 4X4 leaver as I have not seen one, Thanks, and then all top off with a 1950 penny, hopfuly picking up an overdrive for her , yeah and going to wire it up to the original head light dimmer switch,

Hi , I,m looking for some feed back to see if anyone has installed side window defrost in this postion. I have never driven the truck and dont know if the side windows fog up ? but England is a wet old place , any sugestions welcome !

On the arrival of the after market window wipers they did mot look Man enough for the long days driving in the rain, I found small wiper and after some madgic they fit As for the donnor car wiper motor install it all messed with my mind, then had to modify the modify so to fit the origanl radio in, but happy to say its all up and running. I have a video but it takes for ever to load , ill try it again. Well I hope there is nothing else to fit under the dash as there is no more room and I am welding the dash back in next week.

Dude, you are Batman!
Carl

Thanks Carl, Im sure Batman could use a computer as these videos are doing my head in, If it works this is home made wipers
first attempt now and then it would be working prefect the would like to wipe half the hood as well? So I went back to the drawing board for the
finished product, this gives me access to the motor and alot stronger, the old chevy wiper switch now is the A/C fan control, can you let me know if the videos work, Thanks
Keep on Truckin !

Videos work, Batman.

That's a crazy build! looks great! 'cept for one problem, you got the steering wheel on the wrong side. ;-)

4 years ago lay my copped up dash with the dash removed I filled it up a load of moden crap. The A/C fan had to draw in some fresh air and here was good as any spot, with that completed it gave me room for some side window defrost. The hunt for right hand dash parts was not good, so I filpped the dash leaving the Chev print up side down, a bash on the anvil and a polish it just may work. To make it look right I had to cut out the throttle cable support and plug and weld. Finaly and hope I have not forgoten anything it was time to stich it all back together again. I thought I would never see the day to drive with the dash fully welded back in. Thanks. now for a moden twist to the doors.

Nice work Batman!

Good show old boy!

The original Batman, as Batman purists all know, has no super powers, just gadgets and deep pockets. I don't know if Japco has deep pockets. Looking at his pics, it appears he is making some of his creations from what he has swept off the floor. Keep us posted Japco!

Darren,I'd have left the Chevy Logo upside down as a little tip of the hat to your southern antipodean roots.....

Keep up the good work,this is certainly going to be one of a kind in the UK,if not the world!

Man ! your going to make me well up ! Many thanks for the encoragement! Yeah Johno ! that,s aussie for john that was a good idea ,but i had to stainless weld some 1/8 holes in that pice, as someone tought it was a good spot to mount a CB handset. Hay Irnbru the Chev sign on your shed is that your old tail gate ?

Yeah Darren,the tailgate was the worst panel on the whole truck. It was bellied out about 4" just too far gone for my 'skills' to to save i'm afraid.

It seemed a shame to waste it so I cut the logo out.

"Hay IrnBru the Chev sign" You mean paint it in the colours? Hmmmm.

The only thing frowned upon anymore it seems, is the car crusher.

Amen to that,although there are some interesting debates about S-10 swaps on other forums...

It seems to divide many folks.

Given your location Darren,you gotta work with what ya got!

I had never seen a mobile car crusher till i went to Tennesse, so sad to see all that old iron dragged from the scrub to the main road to become flat.
yeah the s-10 debates dose get a bit heated, the hot heads forget the many variables why they have gone down that avenue,
It is great to see all the diffrent uses of the AD, drag racing, stock trucks, monster trucks ,low riders, rat rods, 4x4,s , work trucks, some setups are more like a racing car not a truck i would like to drive one of these on a track, have i forgoten any other setups?

The choice was to spend money or keep scratching my head on how to fit the donor cars door latches. the doors latch with no effort which will be great for my litle girl, and as a bonus we will have central locking. The original door handles will work the latches and electric windows, now just to blend the steel work so it looks like it always was.

Thanks for the update Batman. Keep them coming.

One of the things that amaze me is the size of your shop. If you can do that with just that much space I'd like to see what would happen if you had a big 30 x 40 ft space.

Keep up the good work. I like different.Larry

Thanks larry , the only good thing having a small shop ,is less places to look if I have missplaced something, it dose make it easy to weld and cook at the same time. As the donor car wiring had to get into the door this is how I went about it. To use the power windows I had to make a box to step out the unit as the glass hit the motor on the way down. Hopfuly with a little filler and paint, full door cards the doors will look stock ish ? I have the chassis cut into two at the moment for lengthening to achive the correct wheelbase and fit the overdrive. it only just fits in the shed now.