I went to the Jefferson, WI swap meet today and as I was coming down one of the aisles I saw a cut in half old truck. When I got close enough I saw it was a late '40s, early '50s Chevy. The vendor had the truck mounted on an S-10 chassis. He designed and was selling a kit to mount the Chevy truck on the chassis. I stopped and talked to him about the kit and asked if he had one for the Bonus Built Fords, 1948-52. He said he was in the development stage and had a customer's truck in his shop right now, using it as a prototype.

He said the kit for the Chevy is around $1600 and it takes him about four hours to install it. He said he believes the kit for the Ford will be about the same.

Here are a few pictures of the kit he had at the swap meet:



















The vendor's kit includes all the "Red" parts in the pictures. He said they had to be a few inches taken out of the length of the frame. He said this is done by removing section of frame. The area in the last picture shows a section of frame that is "tube and socket" connection that is modified.

I talked to him for a while and he sounded like he has it all figured out. Each kit has to be custom ordered depending on the engine/transmission being used.

You can check out their web site EZ-Chassis Swaps

 

S10 seems to be a good platform for the AD chevy and GMC trucks, but from the attemps I have seen I think the S10 track is just too narrow for the bonus build trucks. The kits have been around awhile for the AD on the S10 chassis.
The Dakota chassis is a better choice for the Bonus build trucks from what I have seen, track looks right and wheelbase is easy enough to deal with.
Now that I am building a couple of the Fords I know the next one I do will be a chassis swap. The Ford frame is the easier way to go but I really want an older truck that I can tow a loaded car trailer with and the Ford frame just doesnt look up to it IMO.
Good to see you got out to have some fun, I was supposed to go to a swap meet today but stayed home to weld on the F1 chassis, pushing to get it painted quick before it gets cold.

 

That's the right way to do it, but I just don't get it. I own an S-10 (a '98, which has several significant improvements over the '84 he's using). It is a wonderful little truck, but it's just not what I'd call "over-engineered" to the point it will be adequate for a V8 engine and a taller cab. People have been putting V8's in S-10's since they came out and it's easy to overwhelm the stock suspension and brakes. A Colorado/Canyon would be a better choice IMO, but I have no idea how the dimensions work out. I bet they are closer.

 

I looked at the S10 and went with a Dakota, I think no mater what you use its going to be a lot of work, I went Dakota for the better track width, and I ended up using my rear rails of the panel truck because I did not want to loose any realestate in the back end. Still lots of work. but I think the Dodge is a better fit for a ford truck out of the two choices. Just my 2 cents.

 

I don't understand the strength concerns about the stock Ford frame. I have towed F-1 pickups on a two wheel car trailer behind another F-1 pickup. Both pickups were stock. It was a bit slow, but nothing dramatic,