'55 Chevy Chasis

Hey, thanks for dropping in the horsepower shop. Today. We're gonna launch a project here. That's like none we've tackled before

and it's all about an icon of American Iron, the tri five Chevy,

you know, no doubt this thing's got a look that lives on almost 50 years after it first hit the streets.

It's great to see restored beauties like this on the concourse or even modified bad ass Bel Airs on the racetrack.

Now, the convertibles and hard tops are cool, but we think nothing says classic shoe box like the two door post. Now, wouldn't it be great to keep the original character? But uh wrap it in a more modern day box. Well, here's a rendering of what we hope to eventually wind up with

and of course, to make classic beauty with contemporary technology,

but you've got to start with a frame. Now, the stock classic Chevy frame was state of the art for the time.

It used parallel leaf springs out back to locate the rear end

and give a reasonable ride.

What you're gonna find up front are a pair of unequal length, upper and lower control arms with a captured spring in the middle. Now, that's pretty standard stuff. But where this frame really falls down is in the area of torsional stiffness. If you'll check this out, you'll notice there's only one cross member up front here and a spreader bar out back. But what that does is allows the frame to really flex and it also keeps a lot of the weight right up here on the front of the car.

Obviously, a lot of room for improvement. That's why for the foundation of Ir 55 we're going with this new GT sport chassis from Art Morrison. This is the way it ships out the door. By the way,

it starts out live though as a computer designed two by four man

bent frame

that's jig welded with moss

for the transmission,

the engine and of course, the core support and like the original, it features a front cross member, but a whole lot of the weight's been taken off this front end.

Some of that weight winds up here where these internal frame supports virtually eliminate flex and provide a good mounting place for the transmission. By the way, this mount is designed to accommodate just about any dry frame combination you come up with. Oh, and here's a cool feature, the exhaust passes through this

structure for a cleaner look and a low ride height

out back. It doesn't look like the original at all. The leaf springs are gone in favor of a coil over set up that will show you later

and the nine inch rear end. Well, that's held in by a computer design, triangulated four bar set up. This chassis has been designed to fit all tri five body styles, whether you're building a convertible coupe wagon or even a sedan. What we'll get is classic styling with

temporary handling.

Well, here's our 55 chassis that we just got back from the paint shop. Now, as you can see, it's already been stripped of all the components. And what I'm doing here is running a tap down all of the thread holes to make sure that we clean out all the paint and any debris that might have gotten stuck in there. Here we go.

Now we're ready to start assembling our front suspension. Here's a little tip for you.

Let's put a little bit of wheel bearing grease on each one of these bushings here

about like that

to keep them from binding up once they're installed. Now, you also wanna make sure that you go ahead and put a little bit of an I CS

on each one of these boat threads here to keep them from galling as well.

The upper and lower control arms are the first to get bolted up.

Then the spindle

and the rack and pinion

followed by these coil overs from strange.

Hey, before we go any further, I wanna show you this recirculating ball steering box that comes stock in all classic tri five Chevys. Now, this thing is ugly. It's heavy and it's old technology. So what we've done is replaced it

with this

rack and pinion set up here from a gr of course, it's power assisted and you can get it in a couple of different ratios. You can get in a quick 15 to 1 Corvette style ratio, like what we've got here or you can get a more conservative 20 to 1 ratio. So

there's nothing

about our brake set up. That front suspension uses a Mustang two spindle and that allows us to use a system like this one from wood

engineering. Now, these rotors measure a massive 13 inches and of course, they're drilled and slotted for improved cooling and the gassing of the pads calipers. Well, how about this six piston design for improved clamping force? Now, while we are building a lighter, more contemporary version of the shoe box, we need some heavy duty brakes to bring it to a halt.

The first thing to go on is this caliber bracket

followed by the rotor

and the caliber,

by the way, we're loading these calipers with some polymatrix low noise load, dust pads with a special material to increase the friction coefficient and decrease our stopping distance. Right now, we need to stop for a different kind of break, but we still got the rear end engine trans and a lot more to go. So stick with us

later in the show. We'll see how they build a unique new body for our shoe box from filling the fiberglass molds to popping out the finished pieces.

These guys have our 55 chassis covered in style.

Hey, welcome back to our try five chassis build up. Now, if you're just joining us, you better sit down and strap in because we've just launched one of our most exciting projects ever. It's a nut and bolt build up of a contemporary classic 55 Chevy. Now we've just finished bolting up the front suspension, steering and brakes on our art Morrison chassis. Now it's time to move out back.

The centerpiece of our set up back here is this Curry track nine rear end

spending a set of 370 gears and a Detroit locker boat to to it.

Now, later today, we plan on dropping in that 502 ram jet into our frame, so we need a rear end that's up to the task axles. We're going with these hefty 30 five flying pieces also from Curry and we notice how the bearings are pressed into the axles and

well, it's all held in place with this retaining plate

that way in the unlikely event, this thing snaps, it stays in the rear end and you stay in your lane. Well, we can't install these though until we do some work on the brakes.

Now, we can go ahead and install the last rear control arm and with all that power going to the rear end, we're gonna need something pretty beefy to keep it planted and give us a good ride. Now, Morrison designed these using an engine 38 seamless steel tubing with a 95 wall thickness and to top it all off, he even included an adjustable poly bush stainless steel end to help us fine tune the suspension a little better.

Yeah,

we're using strange coil overs out back too. And one of the nice things that I like is you can get the springs and a variety of rates here to help compensate for the suspension load. Now, that's really gonna come into play later on when we show you the fiberglass body, we're gonna bolt onto the frame. Now, here's something else I really like too. You can actually control the ride height by adjusting on these nuts right here and this knob controls your ride quality.

Now, if you remember we used wool wood brakes up front and we're gonna follow

up with a set of their dyno

Light Pro rear brakes out back here. These are designed for the street with an integral parking brake and these 12 inch rotors

come with a internal drum that makes it all work. Now for calipers, we're gonna go with this four piston design that will also fill with those Polymatrix pads. Now, you might notice here that I've already got the parking brake preassembled to the caliper bracket and this thing gets bolted up first,

then we can slide in the axle,

followed by this retainer plate.

Next is the rotor

and finally the caliber

so far we've bolted up a lot of high tech hardware all in the name of helping our 55 really carve those corners.

But you know, the 55 never came with a sway bar. So we're gonna add a couple of them. The front one measures an inch in diameter and the rear one

is a full three quarters of an inch. Now, here's something that's pretty cool though. They both use urethane mounts where they bolt up to the frame and the end links use spherical rod ends here. And what that's gonna do is virtually eliminate all the body roll and it's really gonna help keep that rubber glued to the road.

Speaking of rubber, check out the rolling stock, we're gonna use BF Goodridge just came out with a new line of their popular G Force T A performance tires called the KDW. Now, this thing is an all weather directional open tread design

and they got them to fit rim sizes from 15 to 24 inches

for our rooms. We went with a set of nostalgia GTs that measure 17 by eight up front and 18 by 9.5 in the rear. Now, they are rotary forge billet design that are available in diameters that range from 15 to 20 inches.

Now, you can get them polished like we have here or with a gray powder coated center.

Yeah. Well, like our 55 these wheels are a timeless design with an up to the minute twist that allows us to run high tech rubber

in case you're wondering about the sizes back here, we've got a 2 85 60 R 18.

And here we've got a 2 25 45 17 that goes up front.

So I guess I'll have to be up front with you about this too. We're gonna take a short break, but when we come back, we're gonna bolt in this 502 and an automatic overdrive transmission. So, stick with us.

Hey, we're back and ready to drop some big block power into our 50 fives frame. Of course, today is the first time we've had some fun with one of these 502 ram jets here in the shop.

A few seasons ago, we staged a big block crate engine shootout where we showed you all the parts, everything from the steel crank and forged pistons

to the roller cam and aluminum heads

before those parts were put to the challenge in competition on our

dyno jack.

So we got GM performance parts to send us this one for the 55. Now we know it's a powerful package but one that's easy to get up and running. All it needs is 12 volts of fuel and an exhaust system. Now, once installed, it's gonna make about 510 horsepower at 5100 RPM. S

565 ft pounds of torque at 3200.

I'd say that's a lot of grunt for about nine grand.

And what GM sent is, is the latest

version of the Ramjet. Now, they've made some improvements to the computer that include provisions for an 02 sensor. And, well, that's gonna allow the EF I to operate in a closed loop mode.

Now, you may not know this, but some of the earlier ram jets had a problem with a fat fuel mixture. And, well, these changes are going to improve the cold start and the idle quality while sharpening up the throttle response. Now, they've also added a diagnostic port right here in the wiring harness that's going to allow you to monitor the trouble codes.

Well, we've already gone ahead and removed this top plenum as you can see. And

that's gonna allow us to put the chain to it, get the motor over here so that we can

made it up with our transmission

to make our 55 truly road worthy. We wanted an overdrive transmission to make it a long range cruiser,

but we also needed one that could hold up to the massive power of that big 502.

So we went with this four LAE from TCI,

it's an electronic transmission that's controlled by the computer. And since it was designed for medium duty trucks, it'll be more than enough to handle the torque of our 55. Let's get it bolted up.

All right. How are we looking there, Joe? Looking good, good dude. Keep it going.

All right.

All right. We're gonna come down with it a little bit now.

Looking good in the back. I think so. All right.

Yeah.

With the engine and trans vaulted down, I can go ahead and measure for our drive shaft

and it looks like about 51 and three quarter inches. I'll go call that in.

Well, looks like we made a good call on our headers too. Now, what we were looking for was a set that would tuck up nice and tight to the block here and still give us plenty of clearance around the frame and access for our steering shaft.

So we went ahead and specked out a set of these hooker block hugger headers with the optional metallic ceramic coating.

We're fing up the exhaust today using some 2.5 inch manual bent tubing from Flowmaster. Now it involves a lot of cutting and fitting, but once we get it all pieced together, Flowmaster will use it as a template to bend up a system out of aluminized tubing.

Hey, Mike, you did a great job on these pipes here, man. Everything is fitting up just like it should.

Well, you guys are ready for these. Now, our mufflers are gonna be these flow master hush powers that we showed you a few weeks ago on hot parts,

they're designed to fit in tight places and that whole outer wrap is an integral heat shield. And that's particularly important with the fiberglass floor.

That's it for the exhaust. And man, those pipes should do fit nice and tight through the chassis. No ugly pipes hanging down here.

Yeah. And you know what else?

It's gonna look even better once the final version gets bent up.

Well, that's about all the time we have in the shop for today. But after the break, Joe's gonna take you on a bodybuilding exercise for our super shoe box. Hey, super shoe box, you know, I kind of like that

gives a whole new meaning to the term Chevy Ss.

Hey, welcome back to the show.

The original 55 Chevy had a pretty cool classic look. Right. Well, our 55 Ss is gonna be even cooler. Thanks to this chop top and a bodybuilding exercise you're about to witness here at Bohannan Concepts.

Let's cut it off right here.

Ok.

Ok.

John Bohannon has a reputation for being one of the best in his business,

crafting fiberglass to replicate cool car bodies

and turning an idea like the 55 Ss into a reality requires his kind of experience.

Everything has to fit perfect,

everything has to be co ordinated. You can't build one thing and then build another thing. You have to build it all

together

to make everything match up and work.

John has incorporated some cool touches never featured on the original 55 like this dash top that comes off. So you can work on things like the AC or even the master cylinder.

Of course, the process starts with a series of correct molds from a 55 that are sprayed with gel coats.

Then three layers of fiberglass bonded with resin

along with a catalyst to prevent shrinking.

The mold must set up overnight before they're ready to come out.

How about the one piece floorboard for the 55 Ss?

Now, after a little trimming with the grinder to smooth the pieces out, they're ready for the next step,

which in our case is a coat of liquid insulation called lizard skin that we're trying out.

It contains tiny ceramic particles filled with air to shield the body from heat

and act as a sound deader.

Ideally, we would put it on both sides of this floor bed. Right. Absolutely. Because

the

single place that you have the most heat and noise gain is the bottom of your car.

We've never been able to insulate or sound, suppress the bottom of the car before, but now you can't.

And because it forms a seamless membrane

and it won't crack or come apart, so you can do both sides

and then you end up sandwiching the floorboard

with insulation and sound suppression material.

Well, in a couple of weeks, we'll drop this body onto the chassis we built and John's dream and ours of the new 55 super shoe box gets closer to reality

to make you feel good to see people

that has your car and people that look at your car and brag on it, it really

makes you feel good.

Rainx has a reputation for a treatment that repels rain from your car's windshield. Well, now they got something that'll keep the elements from attacking your car's paint.

This ultra wax is a specially form related liquid wax that uses a polymer coating to seal your vehicle surface and it'll protect it from all the elements, including those harmful UV rays

that goes up uneasy with the sponge applicator and it leaves a long lasting high gloss finish.

You know, anybody who's tried to turn a nut in a tight spot has probably said some words they wouldn't want their mother to hear.

So you're gonna be glad to hear about this open and ratchet from Alden Wrench.

Now, it features a movable head that actually locks on the faster and increases the grip as more torque is applied.

It only requires a 30 degree swing to rotate the faster and grip the next flat on the nut.

Now, they're available in both standard and metric sizes and both of them come with a lifetime guarantee.

And I tell you what, I also guarantee you're gonna like the price too at under 30 bucks. Well, we got a great start today on our 55 Ss Yeah, we did and we're gonna bring back in a few more weeks for the next phase of our build up. It's time to go. But like the old maid said to the peeping Tom, thanks for looking in.