bolt in chrysler clip?
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From: San Diego CA
bolt in chrysler clip?
While in Tacoma Wa. getting my unibody I met a man with a 54 that had a volare clip in it. What was odd is that he had retained the stock mounting rubbers and bolted it to his frame. He had boxed the frame as usual, and notched the top of the frame where the top inide of the upper A arm sits. The notch was only half as wide as the frame and only as long as the upper A arm shaft. It looked real clean and had some obvious advantages over notching the bottom. He was able to keep the front sump pan on the Windsor engine and he did not have to offset it to the right to clear the steering box. The ride heighth was low enough to look right and he got some extra dampening with the subframe mounted on the stock rubbers. He told me that set up would work on my 61. Does the 61 and 54 have the same frame ? Has anybody else done one like this ? I'm thinking of going this route and would like some feedback. RICH.
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From: Virginia
bolt in chrysler clip?
I have been wondering why they cut the bottom of the frame off myself. Some guys out in California probably started this whole volare swap thing, and I'm sure they know what they are doing, but like you I want to know why? I have a magazine where a guy bolted his volare clip in with little pieces of angle iron welded to the side of the frame. Only thing is, you can't relate to what the actual ride height is, because he then channeled the whole cab/bed over the frame to lower it. I have two theories: 1. ride height and or 2. a-arm angle/anti-dive characteristics. I did see a 53 delivery with a volare clip cut up into the frame, and he still had room for a front sump 390 engine. But it was close! Also, I wonder if the owner of the truck you saw, adjusted the torsion bars down? They say this is a great feature of the volare's but I would think you would run into handling/bumpsteer problems if you didn't keep the lower a- arm close to level (or parallel with the ground).
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From: San Diego CA
bolt in chrysler clip?
The 54 was not channeled or chopped the owner said that the frame rails sat at the same heighth as the mopar donor and the torsion bars were not dropped.
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From: Illinois
bolt in chrysler clip?
No, the 61 and 54 have completely different frames. I have done Chrysler swaps on both frames and there is definetily a big difference. On the 53-56 frames, you notch the frame to get a decent ride hieghth. If you took as much out of the 61-64 frame, that truck would drag the ground.
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From: San Diego CA
bolt in chrysler clip?
Truckfarmer on the 54 I saw there was about 1 inch of daylight between the truck frame and the subframe. He had no notch on the bottom of the frame. The upper control arm shaft was about level with the top of the frame rail and a recess was boxed into the top uoter corner of the frame rail. It looked real slick and I wanted to do the same on mine. Just wondered if any one had done it on a 61-64. He said he frabricated it from scratch and had nothing to pattern his after. I would have liked to have gotten some pics but didn't take my camera to the cruz, oh well live and learn. Rich.
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From: Virginia
bolt in chrysler clip?
Cobraguy, this sure is a coincidence. I just got back from a show today and everytime I see a pickup like mine, I check out the front end. There was this supernice 56 f100 in the show and when I got a peek under the front what do I see?; a volare front suspension mounted with the original rubber donuts. The ride height was just right and the lower arms WHERE parallel with the ground. The frame looked boxed and he had one u-joint tying the steering together. The fit between the exhaust manifold and the steering was tight, and it still had the front sump pan. I saw some other stuff there which made me realize, if you have the skill, anything is possible.
