'54 Chevy Sedan Delivery

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Looking really good

[Greg Pugh]

Thank you everyone for the kind words! It is very motivating to hear!

Trying to figure out what I was going to do as far as a chassis went was a real head-scratcher. But, I think I finally found something that will fit the bill. I was wanting an Art Morrison style chassis and rather than investing all of the time and effort needed to convert the kit-supplied piece, I turned to the Wagon Rod. Not only does it have the frame I want but it also has airbags already and seems how I'm wanting to lay this thing out, that's perfect! In addition to that, it comes with disc brakes, a four-link, and an LS7 Chevy engine! Bonus!

So with just a simple spindle flip on the front, I'm good there. The rear however is a bit different. In the pic below you can see the height difference between the front and rear axles. The bags are already in a "deflated' state and the rear axle tube is almost touching the frame. Now, that would be all fine and dandy if I was happy with the current position. Which, I'm not.

Must. Go. Lower.

So anyways, be watching for a C-notch and a few modifications in the back...

[GoatGuy]

I love where this is going. Can't wait for more. My stupid question - the '39 Wagon Rod is what ? Ford?

[Greg Pugh]

It's a heavily customized '39 Chevy.

[mustang1989]

And therefore and a heavily customized '54 Chevy.................in the works. Thumbs up Greg!

[mustang1989]

Anything on this one?

[Greg Pugh]

YESSSS!!! It's model building season again!!

So we're gonna kinda pick up where we left off. I determined that I wanted the frame to set about a popsicle stick's thickness off of the ground. So with that figured out, I then had a starting point to figure out front spindle and rear axle heights. As I mentioned back in May, after flipping the front spindles, the front was pretty much dialed in. The rear however, is a different story. 

Here you can see the difference between the front and rear with the body on...

From the top, you can see how far we've got to go to reach the center of the wheel...

Time for some surgery on the frame. Using a razor saw, I cut a section out of the frame...

I didn't happen to have the correct size rectangular styrene laying around and because it's a 3-hour round trip to the LHS, we're just going to make our C-notched frame inserts. I cut and glued together 3 pieces of .040 styrene sheet.

I then cut, filed, and sanded til I had my desired shape...

I did that another time and I had these...

I know it looks a little crazy right now but wait until our next installment...

[Greg Pugh]

After some flying plastic, I had this in front of me;

[mustang1989]

It's really good to see you back on this one Greg! That sir, was a very interesting way of achieving the outcome with that rear frame section.

[Lanny Haas]

Great job staying with this! Did you consider making it a Olds panel, grafting the olds front to the Chevy panel? wonder if they even made one?..Now the wheels are truning in my head...Humm

[oldnslow]

Hey Greg , any updates on this ? 

I'm fighting the same battles with the sedan I'm putting together . 

[Greg Pugh]

No unfortunately. I've got a couple I need to get knocked out and then I'm back at this one. Soon, I'm hoping!

[damodelguy az]

this panel is really a cool shape.  ive used it for a few conversions.  then i used the piece from the olds on a 53 chevy coupe look   i love cuttin um up!

[Greg Pugh]

I own a 1:1 '53 Chevy 210 Club Coupe so I have plans of building that body as well!