'48 Olds

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Jake stick welded up the tube frame that he could take with him. He brought that back and we discussed how to hook it in with the original frame. Decided he'd need more room to work, so had to come up with more structure so I can cut out more of the old frame. I still had part of another g-body frame, so that's what I used - worked perfect, but looks kinda WTF?

Just had to update so I could show off this abomineering.
 

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Couple more frame pics - moving right along. Hope to have it all welded up before next week.
 

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Well! Last weekend we finished the frame. This week I got the bags, rear axle, and tires back on it. Moved the Olds inside on a day it was 5 degrees - excellent choice there! And the last couple days I've been tearing it down.
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Door screws were a pita! Finally resorted to welding a bolt on 'em to turn them. Bought some adapter/spacers to get the old rims to fit on the rear. Gonna see if I can get the rotors redrilled for the front. Trying to keep the same track width.
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My garage got real small all of a sudden!
 
Whew!! Got the body unbolted from the frame and the rest of the fenders, etc. off. Hope to move the body over tomorrow. Frame lays out. My new 4.75 to 5on5 adapters and why did GM put a 1/16" groove in their drums??? [S
 

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Got the body moved over onto the new frame and the old frame out the door. Took 2 days to get the garage cleaned up and re-organized! Spent another day figuring out [S how I am going to cut the body up to lower it onto the frame and also brace it up.

Decided I need to fix up the door steps before cutting into the body too much. So removed the door pads:
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This is what I found - not bad...I thought:
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You cannot deny the brutal truth of the screwdriver!
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I've got steel Diamond Plate - that'll work I think. Underneath I'm going to see what I can find in rectangular tube to run for support. And while I'm at it, guess I should look at some sheet steel. Time to hit the local surplus store!
 
Went and got a 4x8 of 18ga. and 40ft of 16ga. 1x1. I've got a 4x4 sheet of steel diamond plate, some old truck bed floor, more 1x1, and the roof and floor from an 85 Cutlass. Ought to be able to fab a floor with that.

Need to fix the rocker/door step areas first. The rockers are semi-solid yet, but I'm gonna beef it all up with diamond plate steps and a 1x1 ridge.
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Got the step plates and the 1x1 welded in. The drivers side was worse - kinda expected that... The diamond plate and some temp. bracing made it so I could cut out the rest of the floor. Got the body down to where I want it - ON THE GROUND! [cl The trim is about 1-1/4" off the ground - eventually I plan to lower it another 1" by cutting out all but the outside of the rockers and making new underneath - pretty much making a full box under the steps. (they're fairly rotten underneath).

Right now I have the frame up on 1" blocks.
 

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I'm waiting for the snow to clear a bit so I can get my transmission from the neighbor. Kinda need that now for mock-up so I can figure where the floor can go. In the mean time, I re-used the rear section of the old frame and Z'd it onto the new one. And now I'm working on the trunk floor. Gonna use part of the Cutlass trunk floor and the Cutlass gas tank. May have to eventually go to a fuel cell....
 

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