74 NovaMan's 1979 Chevy Truck - LS Swap - 5/6 Drop

[74NovaMan]

This weekends progress started with a master cylinder replacement (hoping to stop the brake fluid dripping on the Nova). Also installed the new washer fluid jug:

[74NovaMan]

Did William approve that installation?

He put up with the noise I was making while doing it! I'll take that as approval!

[cstmwgn]

New crossmember in:

Did William approve that installation?

[74NovaMan]

After that I moved the pivot for the factory 79 shifter (about 2" forward). Looks to line up nicely and should clear the collector fine. I'll probably need to shorten the rod from the column.

[74NovaMan]

Since the 79 lines fit inside the 03s, I cut them for some overlap and soldered them together. If they leak, I'll take them off and weld em.

[74NovaMan]

Trans Lines - It's important to start with the right set. In my case the 79 ones were way closer:

[74NovaMan]

New crossmember in:

[74NovaMan]

After that I pulled out the trans cooler lines from the donor and the truck, hoping for a reasonably quick victory. Nope - Headers are in the way. So I sat down in front of the truck and had a cold snack and called up a buddy of mine to say hi. While catching up with him I finally found the perspective I was looking for on the frame. The other angles were like "something is off here but I'm not sure it's a big deal". These pics are more like " Wow! That's F&*@%d up".

[74NovaMan]

Passenger side clearance is the same. Drivers side is much better (exhaust going over the crossmember) but the crossmember hangs a bit to low with the drop spindles and springs. So I ordered the crossmember I should have in the first place:

[74NovaMan]

So I figured I'd try the factory crossmember:

[74NovaMan]

Worked on the truck a bit more. I got the converter to flex plate bolts in and the starter installed. Installed the bed bolts and reinstalled the rear bumper. Then looked at the crossmember that is in it and contemplated the exhaust routing and the e-brake cable location and decided that they probably needed to share the same real estate. Reminder:

[silver_bullet]

With all of the demo'ing that Bob and family have done, I'm sure he has seen almost every conceivable angle in which a frame could be distorted!

[Deaf Bob]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Here is a picture of the other side showing the deformation:

Where it is rusty and deformed on bottom, on top it might look like that too. I suspect 6”-foot from where it is on bottom

[74NovaMan]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Here is a picture of the other side showing the deformation:

[silver_bullet]

As I have been working under it while on the lift, I have been wondering about the shape of the drivers side frame rail just under and behind the cab. The lower edge is not square and has a rounded look as you go from the bottom part (which I think should be flat but isn't) as it transitions into the vertical bit (which looks fine). I also notice that there is a wave/kink right under the cab mount bracket.



The other side for comparison:

I took another look at it this morning and in addition to the kink directly under the body mount, it seems that there is a significant bow in the bottom of the rail about 12 inches forward at the lowest part of the frame... Bob may be right, that a frame shop may not want the box on for this...