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Thread: '59 Corvette chassis mods

  1. #1
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    '59 Corvette chassis mods

    Thought I'd post a couple of pics of some chassis work my son and I did on my interior guy's (Larry) 59 Corvette AME chassis. We had already built a C4 conversion for Larry for a 55 Chevy which he ended up selling because he decided he has too many projects. This project started with an AME chassis with a C5/6 front end but with bare frame rails in the rear. Larry had a few C4 rearends and decided he wanted one in his '59 without paying the $10K for the AME IRS.

    The work involved putting the chassis in our frame jig at the stock 102" wheelbase. We did that by placing the chassis over the IRS we have in the jig, and locating the front spindles at that wheelbase, then building stands to hold the front end at the correct ride height. The rear ride height was kept at AME specs with some mods to the jig. Larry bought a CNC-machined batwing for the early C4 Dana 44 IRS that was narrowed about 9" from stock. It's a beautiful piece...

    IMG_1103.JPG

    We started out by narrowing the rear frame rails 4.5" and building the batwing brackets to position the center section at the correct height. Then we moved and narrowed moving/narrowing the shock crossmember.

    Larry mocked up some 4" narrowed (2" per side) halfshafts so we could use them in the build. He's going to have new ones built for the final assembly.

    Then we had to locate the dogbones and build the structure for them. We used a splined swaybar and fabbed some threaded plates we welded to the frame. Then we added axle bumpers, built custom shock mounts, and removed the adjustable transmission crossmember brackets and built a custom crossmember. Larry's happy as a pig in sh*t.

    20190911_010.JPG


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    Last edited by chevynut; 09-30-2019 at 12:24 PM.
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


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    It doesn’t look like any 59 vette chassis that I ever seen. Looks like a lot more frame than the 59 ever had. Looks like some body fitting issues in the rear trunk area. Will the corvette body fit?

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    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gmvette View Post
    It doesn’t look like any 59 vette chassis that I ever seen. Looks like a lot more frame than the 59 ever had. Looks like some body fitting issues in the rear trunk area. Will the corvette body fit?
    It's an AME (Art Morrison Enterprises) chassis as I said in my post, not a stock one. Yes it's a lot more frame than the 59 ever had....and a lot more engine and transmission going into it.....LS3/TKO600. Larry will be doing some body mods in the rear area to make everything fit. We consulted extensively on how to put this all together and it's not the first time someone has done a C4 rearend conversion to a C1. He should be able to fit a 305 tire under it in the rear.
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

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    Registered Member NickP's Avatar
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    You need a set of my dog bones for that thing. Or, as you may know, RideTech is building some C4 stuff now.

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    Registered Member NickP's Avatar
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    Who did the BatWing

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    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NickP View Post
    Who did the BatWing
    Larry bought a set of CNC machined dogbones from Street Shop, which is who made the batwing. Don't ask me what it all cost, but I'll bet it wasn't cheap.
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

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    Registered Member NickP's Avatar
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    It would be interesting to know what the prices were, especially the dog bones. We have the plate waterjetted for them, still working on the program. They are 7075 T6. The bearings are rebuildable.


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    I’m assuming the dog bone are the 4 bar links? Would big rod ends and adjustable tube be better suited for dial in the suspension?

    It would seem motion in more directions is necessary with a shortened swing half shaft suspension. I don’t really know but picturing the motion would be logical.

  9. #9
    Registered Member chevynut's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gmvette View Post
    I’m assuming the dog bone are the 4 bar links?
    Yes

    Would big rod ends and adjustable tube be better suited for dial in the suspension?
    If you wanted to rattle your teeth out. There are companies that sell them and reports are they're pretty harsh for street use and wear out quickly. They would be great for autocross racing. I'm using urethane in mine and I don't remember what Larry's had for bearings/bushings. I don't know what you could "tune" by having adjustable dogbones except for compensating for the pinion angle, which is fixed on these rearends. We install a bracket from the pinion snout to the shock crossmember and you can see the urethane bushing boss tube in the pictures. You would have to change the location of the front dogbone attach points to affect anti-squat and camber can't be adjusted with the dogbones. So what "tuning" would you do?

    It would seem motion in more directions is necessary with a shortened swing half shaft suspension. I don’t really know but picturing the motion would be logical.
    I don't know what you mean by "more directions". The motion is still the same but some of the angles change slightly. Keep in mind that these suspensions typically travel 2" up and down total range of motion so angles are not severe. The halfshafts are shortened 2" out of 18.125" stock length which is a little over 10%. Lots of cars have been set up with narrowed C4 suspensions, some up to 3" per side shorter. Mine is narrowed 1.5" per side which puts the axle at almost stock tri5 60" width.
    Last edited by chevynut; 10-01-2019 at 09:35 AM.
    56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


    Other vehicles:

    56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
    56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
    1962 327/340HP Corvette
    1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
    2001 Porsche Boxster S
    2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
    2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

  10. #10
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    What is the big benefit of a narrow axel over a wide axel, especially on an IRS? Seems backwards to me. Something to consider, with your single shear dog-bone mounts, it would be a great application in which to use spherical bearings on., which would eliminate the twisting forces. A little noise is just part of the mechanical symphony.
    Last edited by 55 Rescue Dog; 10-01-2019 at 05:02 PM.

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