(By Loren Krussow) – I’d been looking forward to checking out a project truck that a friend was going to pick up as part of a trade, an early-‘50s Chevy half-ton that was said to have been tricked out a bit but never finished. “Chopped top” and “sub-frame” were part of the description, making it interesting but also tripping the caution lights. Unfortunately I’ve seen more screwed-up tops and subframes than I’ve seen good ones on partially finished cars/trucks; if the project was never completed it often means the work that did get done turned out so horrible the owner couldn’t bear to go on with it. I hadn’t been able to get any more info except to hear that it had been running at one point then the motor was removed.

The Monday after the truck was deposited into a bay in my bud’s body shop, I got a call. “I got the truck! Come on over after five.” According to him, the good news was the top had been done pretty well, especially for a five-window. The bad news was that “subframe” wasn’t any subframe. There was a complete ‘70s Chevy full-size chassis sitting under it. Groan…not another one. This is a commonly done thing and the fact is that the newer chassis is just too wide for a ‘50s truck. The wheels are guaranteed to stick out too far.

When I arrived to see the truck, it wasn’t as bad as I though. The builder had the height about right and most of the construction details were done well. Not pretty but not un-safe. However, the wheels were where I expected, and worse yet, the front fenders had been stretched and tweaked outward in an attempt to frame the stuck-out tires. This really looked strange. My first thought was to re-do the whole chassis but my friend doesn’t want to make that much more work out of this so he’s going to get the wheels/tires he wants first (probably 20s, gulp) then decide what to do. We may be able to narrow the lower a-arms, and narrow/re-mount the uppers to bring the spindles in, or just splice in another front clip. The rear will be easier as there is room for enough tire provided the rearend is changed

I suppose a lot of work can go into giving a car/truck the right stance, starting with cut springs and non-stock wheel sizes and offsets and continuing with things like dropped spindles and narrowed rears swapped into the original frame. When necessary and practical the ultimate is to tear the entire chassis out and start over with something else. This can be relatively easy in the case of a truck with lots of room under the cab and bed and with easy and obvious mounting points to pick up. Cars, tighter for room and with varied construction styles, are much tougher.  Ideally when it’s all done the choices one has made add up to that perfect stance and also a rigid and weather-tight package that’s safe to ride around in and won’t rattle apart or rust, and won’t kill you if you crash it.

I think for most people they don’t really hit it the first time they try.  There’s just too much to think about – too many decisions, and parts, to make – then some opportunity to purchase a particular frame or component comes along and the whole project is altered to accommodate something which doesn’t really fit.  So a guy had the guts, initiative, and room in the yard to get that far and now he’s faced with having to throw half of it out and start over. Often as not, the whole mess winds up in the Trader or at a swap meet and woe be it to the potential buyer who stands there with that same gleam in his eye as the builder once had before sending the once-virgin car or truck body down its seeming road to ruin.

However, it’s all just metal. It can be welded back up after being cut apart, new brackets and filler pieces can be made in a shop or with hammer and vise. If the guy who did it first doesn’t want to re-think and have another try, the project might get passed along to someone who’s able to tear up previous work without emotion. In this case the pushed-out fenders of an old Chevy truck are going to get hammered back in again by a new owner and we’ll tweak away on the frame and suspension until the right wheels and tires fit under them. Someday the guy who first hacked on it will see it and say, “You know it was I who first built that” and the fact will be that he did indeed do some good work.  But the man who finished it off will be the one driving it.

And the dang wheels will be where they belong.