camaro front clip on a 56 transtar

[Alan]

Slick; As you go along take plenty of pics. we love pics.

[gordr]

The nice thing about the Volare clip is that basically the frame rails of the Stude truck just lie on flat surfaces on the top of the Volare K-frame, and you line everything up, make sure it s square, and weld it up. Not quite that simple, but close. No butt welds, no fish plating, next to no cutting. Pretty hard to make a complete hash of it.

[slick138]

The 56 pickup I have that was built by the late Ray Clerici has a 77 (or thereabouts, only made them for 4-5 years) Volare front suspension. It looks like a pretty nice fit to me (keeps Stude frame). The Volare set up used transverse torsion bars that cross under the front of the "axle". It rides and drives very good and has the Volare disc brakes. I drove it from CA to NH last year plus another 500-1000 miles last summer, no strange tire wear or anything like that. I'd prefer it be sprung a bit stiffer, but it rides and handles pretty well. I have been told that others have used this swap on both Stude's and early Ford pickups.

IVE DONE A COUPLE STUDE pickups with Camaro subs wasn't hard at all lined up good great ride I did a volare not as nice a ride didn't care much for it if you do the Camaro youll like it

Slick; As you go along take plenty of pics. we love pics.

Will do Allan

[GCurtis]

We did a Mopar front suspension on a 53 1/2 ton, worked out great like mentioned above we notched the frame to drop onto the Mopar front, squared everything up and welded it in. Left the Mopar power steering inplace, even used the slant 6 that came in the donor car. I would not do that again, the slant was so long we had to put a 55 Grille on the truck and put the radiator in front of radiator frame and use an electric fan, push style.

A firend of mine just bought a 41 Champion frame that has a early 70's Camaro sub in it, along with the Chevy rear end. This was an old school rod, that the new owner decided to switch to the S-10 set up. So, we got a really nice head start on his 41 Champion rod project!

[gephet]

My pickup, again built by Ray Clerici not I, has a complete drive train from the Volare, not just the front suspension. I would not have done that, but I must say that while the 318 is not a big improvement over a 289 Stude V8, the torqueflight is a vast improvement over the Stude auto, flight-a-matic or whatever it was called. The TF shifts perfectly, twice not once, and downshifts right when it should. I've always been a big fan of the Torqueflight, having rebuilt many, it is light years ahead of the Borg Warner auto of that vintage. A simple and very effective design.

[52 Ragtop]

We used an 84 Corvette front suspension, the cross member is a 1/2" narrower than the inside of the frame rails. A 1/2" plate welded in the correct place, then the Corvette x member, bolts right in.

Jim