wanna combine a 93 RCSB with a C5 Corvette chassis

[Devs93]

http://www.gmt400.com/forum/showthread.php?6554-94-Silverado-Body-Droped-full-Tube-Chassis-IRS
http://www.fullsizechevy.com/forum/...-restorations/430722-89-stepside-project.html

Not perfect examples but should give ya some options and ideas to choose from

 

[Rewind]

Let me see if I have this straight............you basically want a truck body with corvette eng. and suspension underneath it...............hummmmmm.

 

[scorpio82]

Well this certainly generated alot more response than I thought it would!! I like the input I'm getting, but it seems like most of the responses have been to stick with going the easy route, well, here's my response to the "just go with a four link" and "go with a cobra IRS".... there's nothing more exciting in life than doing what people think you shouldn't be doing. After serving in the Army Special Ops for nearly a decade I've learned one valuable lesson; when you go against the grain it's going to be painful and filled with insurmountable difficulties, but when the smoke clears you usually end up becoming the new standard for others to follow. Long story short, I'm sticking to the C5 chassis, LS1 or LS3 engine, and all the rediculous fabrication work that it entails. My goal is to maintain a functional bed, get a bitchin street performer stance, and maintain that legendary vette performance in every aspect. Going the easy route will only degrade that. So thanks everyone for your input, but hey, anyone got any of those schematics, that's what I really need. This will in no way be a quick project, but I'm staring at yet another deployment to Afghanistan and I will want to do nothing but design my dream truck in whatever spare time I end up with. First step though, having all of the info I will need to generate the perfectly designed, AutoCADD generated, work of mechanical art.

 

[Wagonbacker9]

Unless you jack the truck up about a foot, there is literally no way you will be able to retain more bed than your average bagged and notched truck will, if that. You will CERTAINLY need to either sacrifice the usability of the bed (look at the pic I posted above, you see the upper control arms.. they have to be mounted to something, plus theres a transmission back there), or you will lose the handling.
Now, getting past that, you will STILL lose the handling, accelleration, and braking performance of the vette due to the fact that your truck body simply weighs more than the corvette AND has a higher center of gravity. Some of that can be overcome by replacing your metal parts with fiberglass, chopping the cab down, etc, but you will NEVER get all of it back.

The only way your plan could be even remotely executed is to take something like this:

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And try to graft a truck body onto it. Now.. the 2 vehicles are roughly the same trackwidth, so your fenders to the wheel faces would be pretty close but the wheelbases are drastically different (truck is 115", corvette is 104.5). You're going to have to figure out how to take 10" out of the body between the wheels and have it not look really stupid...). Now, after you figure that out, look at the pic above again, and figure out how you are going to fabricate a bedfloor that will accomodate the driveline and suspension. You will also need to build in a frame, as you can see the subframes on that have been cut. Don't forget a place to put fuel, since you want to keep the bed usable you can't put a fuel cell in there, and there is no room left under the truck. Fairly minor by comparison, but you need a cooling system as well Now, onto the real fun... figure out how to mount a cab on it. The only thing working in your favor here is that there isn't a transmission in your way anymore, but the frame you design has to accomodate the cab.

Now, go back and figure out how to drop 500 lbs (at least) from everything you just did, because you're going to still be WAY over the vette weight even with all the fiberglass work you did as previously mentioned... In order to keep the vehicle center of gravity even anywhere NEAR where the vette was, you're going to have to body drop the truck body so that you are probably tucking the tires in the fenders. That means that instead of having a partial bed... you may now have a bed between the rear axle and the tailgate, because everything forward of there will be occupied by frame rails, driveline, and suspension. Your best bet will be to suspension drop the vette as far as possible before building your body on it, just to give yourself whatever room you can... but there is still simply not enough room there to do what you're talking about.


Don't get me wrong, I love your idea, I do... its just not going to work the way you think it is, no matter what you do.

 

[scorpio82]

Oh I'm fully prepared for things not to go the way I think they will, wouldn't be any fun it it did! But I have already considered everything you've brought up, and yes I realize I will not get absolutely 100% vette performance, but I will get damn close. So lets address the problems you have brought up:

Retaining the bed; no I will not retain 100% of the bed, but with raising the bed floor 6-8" I think most of the issues in that area will be solved.

wheel base differences; don't chop the truck, stretch the chassis. i know easier said than done, but cutting the torque tube and driveshaft and welding in the 10" needed will be a hell of alot easier than shortening the truck.

fuel; with all the room on either side of the torque tube, I would definitely go with 10 gal or so twin tanks. That would add to the overall balance of the truck too.

mounting the cab; the frame I need to design will be integral to ensure proper connection of all chassis components as well as the correct mounting locations for the bed and body.

weight reduction to salvage performance; i happen to be very good at carbon fiber composite construction techniques. by the time I'm done every body component other than the cab itself will likely be carbon fiber. I'd say that would pull down at least 500 lbs. But thats the last thing I will be worrying about

Thanks for the input man, so anyone have some schematics out there so i can get started showing all of you how I plan on doing this?

 

[Wagonbacker9]

You may think you've considered these things, but.. you really haven't.

You're going to have to raise the bed floor at LEAST that much, probably more. And you'll need to drop the body that much as well in any attempt to retain handeling. So.. you've lost 12" (give or take) of your bed... that leaves you about 4" of bed between the wheels and forward, maybe a little more behind it. So your cargo capacity is going to be SUBSTANTIALLY diminished vs a stock C1500.

My point is your goal of retaining the benefits of both vehicles, is basically going to result in you retaining the benefits of neither. Short of building an entire carbon fiber bed, you will not be able to save 500 lbs. I would be willing to be there is not 500 lbs in the doors and the doghouse to save.. (even if you left them off completely). Now, say you do build a carbon fiber bed (read: $$$$$$)... you now have no weight over the drive tires (no, the transmission is NOT enough), so your handling has gone to complete ****. Bottom line, your end product is going to be a LOT heavier than a vette. So, your performance is going to be significantly diminished vs a vette.

Now, for lengthening the torque tube. That tube is made of Aluminum Metal Matrix Composite which requires a very specialized process to weld it with the proper strength. The only way to really do it, is to have the housing lengthened with a section of 5" 6061 alloy (read: very easy) and then have a carbon fiber shaft made (alloy won't handle one longer than stock). The factory length one offered by driveshaftshop is $1300... I don't even want to know what a custom length shaft would run.

At the end of the day, this is a cool idea, that will cost you at ABSOLUTE MINIMUM like... $20K? (Buy a corvette chassis for 7K, buy a truck for 2K, buy a driveshaft for 2K, 2K in a custom chassis build, 1K for a fuel system, 2K minimum for interior needs, 1K for gauges, 3K+ misc bullshit, etc etc...) That all assumes you have access to EVERY tool you'll need... and no matter what you have, you don't. And then.. you will have a truck, with very little cargo capacity, that doesn't handle, brake, or go anywhere near as well as the corvette, for double what it woulda cost you to buy corvette, and a truck. If I thought that I could be helpful in making this project successful, I'd be ALL about it. You need to realize that your cool idea, is never going to get off paper in a functional capacity.

Do what I did... go buy a truck, and buy a fun car... and spend your money modding them both to be good at what they are, don't try to make either of them what they're not. You will end up much happier in the end. I'll even take you for a beat run in the GTO to prove my point.

 

[Devs93]

Its a c10 chassis but its the closest your prob gonna find for what your wanting to do
http://www.facebook.com/?action=rea...57765290&set=o.134320163330471&type=1&theater

 

[badazzbulldog]

i think if they can adapt an olds tornado to a c5 it can be done with a truck heres a write up on it http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/113_0502_1966_oldsmobile_tornado/viewall.html

 

[Uneek98]

Its a c10 chassis but its the closest your prob gonna find for what your wanting to do
http://www.facebook.com/?action=rea...57765290&set=o.134320163330471&type=1&theater

WOW if I had 10k id be ALL over that...........woooot wooooo its nice

 

[ccreddell]

I know this is old, but Ive been doing a bunch of research on this idea. My thinking is that the late C4 suspension makes more sense. The rear suspension is almost a bolt in and the front is all on its own subframe-which makes it fairly easy to weld between frame rails. And actually, if my measurements are correct, using a 4X4 frame will work the best. Oh, and I found this;

http://www.trucktrend.com/cool-trucks/1992-chevrolet-c1500-sport-truck/