Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Hi Folks,

I will try to put up only relevant photos in this string. I am well into a Frankensteinian project to morph together my 56 big window 3200 onto a Tahoe chassis. The objective is to keep it looking completely stock on the outside and use as much of the Tahoe equipment as possible, including air bags, HVAC and wiring. I plan to tow a 1966 Airstream 24' behind it.

I tried for years to find a new (under 10k miles) roll over Tahoe at auction but prices just went crazy on them. And since I am running out of time to do the project I settled on a Tahoe with a tired motor and blown up 4L60E. So I just bought the thing and tore the engine and tranny out and rebuilt those myself, put them back in and test drove it (all's well). Then, I ripped the thing apart and cut the floor out of the Tahoe and started fitting.

Lots of engineering involved, patch welding, etc. It turns out that the 3200 with the long bed allowed me to cut the bed length to fit the wheel base just right. I had to raise the floor a bit on the bed, and I decided to go with a new steel floor as opposed to the wood.

Any suggestions welcome.

Allen

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Obviously I am fast forwarding here, but I essentially whittled away the Tahoe and the Cab until I got the front fender/ wheel fit right and the ride height where it made sense. Seemed a shame to throw away a perfect Tahoe body, but it was for a good cause. Those things are plentiful and cheap.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Had a lot of gaps to close up, reinforce, and engineer. The AC area was pretty complex. On the old vehicles, air and water just runs into the A Pillar pockets. They were not worried about things like leaves, debris, dirt, mice or rust or any of those issues back in 56. The Tahoe (like all modern vehicles) keeps the water out of the vehicle and only lets air in. So I had to weld shut the plenum at the cowl, and build a dam and an input air pocket to connect to the Tahoe HVAC system. Still need to put the drains in, but it all fit. I had to reinforce several areas, and preserve parts of the A pillar on the L side so the emergency brake pedal brackets would work. It's about twice as strong as it was in 56...

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

This sort of project sure makes a mess of the shop.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Looks like you're not afraid to tear into something! Subscribed to your build...

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

:agree:I'd like to watch.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

looks like fun. always nice to have a big work area with a hoist. gonna keep an eye on you.
from experience, do yourself a favor and install the doors,adjust for gap, then brace and cross brace the cab so stuff will still fit when you're all done. then you can remove the doors again. it would suck to do all that work and then have more waiting because the doors won't fit.
keep posting pics, looks great so far and you have our interest now!

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Yes, the cab was hit on the right side in its prior life, so I expect I will be force fitting the doors anyway. Since I didn't want to modify any of the mechanics on the Tahoe, I needed to make a few tweaks to the body on the bed to make it fit over the emergency brake cable bracketry. I actually made the be dual wall, and I intend to weld it all together into one piece.

Had to cut the dash into several pieces in order to align the instruments with the wheel. Designed it such that it is now a "bolt-in" dash as opposed to welded in. Hand fabricated all the brackets and such. I will try to get photos of that.

I used all of the factory body mounts and repositioned them as needed to accommodate the 56 bed and core support.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Subscribed! Cool project!

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Very note worthy build. Subscribed.
Love projects such as this.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

cool project! I especially like the "reuse everything you can" method

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Interesting build, suscribed. Looks like you have done this kind of thing before.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

whats the deal with the dual; wall box, tire clearance?
is the floor going to be the same height as the old one? will you use the new style seats and still have clearance for the headrests or use the old style seat that is low back?
nice pics, is this over a time lapse or are you going ape s**t on it? lol. looks like really good progress.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

I started this back in the late summer. And yes, I am moving pretty quick. I have only done restorations for fun over they years, and never attacked anything quite this ambitious. I restored the SL and the GTO that can be seen in some of the photos. I think this version of Chevy truck is probably the best looking of the lot, and just wanted to have one that I could drive like a daily driver.

The reason I extended the bedside to dual wall was for a couple reasons. There is a bracket on the left side that protrudes into the space claim for the left step. So this gave me just under 3/4" extra width. It's 18 gauge on 5/8 square tubing supports. It also solves the dents on the inside/outside problem you get with a single wall bed. It didn't really add that much weight.

I will still need to customize the steps, but less so now with the bedwall extended. The tires fit perfect under there as well.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

check your messages box, sent you a pm yesterday

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

looks like you started off with a pretty good truck, body wise, so not a bunch of time spent on fixing holes etc. thats nice. mine was pretty bad to start off with, like so many others.
pretty interesting build. nice to see how you planned it all out andmade things work.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

it's interesting to note the centerline of the trans hump is offset to the pass side.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Turns out the door openings did shrink a bit. That's a nuisance. Not sure how given I never removed the steps or the pillar apertures, but so be it. They all needed to be force fit anyway.

Turns out that the Tahoe fuel filler location puts it right at the back of the LR fender, so I cut a fuel door assembly out of a 99 Chrysler Minivan and flipped it vertically. Fits perfect.

Lot of wire in this thing, but other than fabricating mounts for the two A Pillar fuse and junction blocks, it goes in OK.

The bed height is changed, but it turns out that I incorrectly set the bed position level at rest, and it should have had a fair amount of rake to it. So once I repositioned it, I probably could have almost left it the original height.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

I found one thing that works well for getting the cab and box in the same plane is a sting line set along the body line from front to rear. I know the rear fenders have some adjustability in their mounting but you could also use a digital level along the front fenders body line or simply the floor pan or running board step in the door opening then match the angle on the box rails. the string line does help for the box fenders alignment though

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

This I feel is an underrated comment. :lol: when doing these kind of firewall transplants the steering and pedals almost never line up 100%.

I did a lot of the same work a few years ago, carried the floors and firewall of the modern donor to a 65 SWB big window, and this was the big hurdle, with the pedals/steering column/cowl in the stock donor position it was several inches too low and several inches too far inboard. we chose to move the column and pedals.

coincidentally, I did the same as you to keep the HVAC fresh air inlet, a tunnel between the donor cowl and the 65 cowl!

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Allen

Fun, fun, fun, this aint your first rodeo!!!!!

Strong work.

Nut Case

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Did your donor vehicle come with a clutch type fan and if it did are u reusing it or u going with an electric fan?

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

The clutch fan won't fit. With the electric fans I only wound up with about 1/2 inch clearance.

I got it blasted today. Best 1200 I ever spent.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Thanks for the response. I am morphing a 55 2nd series short bed on a SS TrailBlazer. When doing measurements I couldn’t see that a clutch type fan would work, it takes up so much room. I will post photos when I get further along. Great build can’t wait to see youcomplete the build.
Jeff

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

is that water blasting you are getting done? do they coat it with something right away then?

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Cool project! I will be tagging along.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Very cool. I'll be watching.

As an aside - I had design/release responsibility for the GM full size trucks/Van/SUV underbody structure, so I'm getting a kick out of this.

K

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Yes, that's "Dustless" blasting. Seemed faster than regular, and a lot less dust. They spray it with an anti rusting treatment but I doused it with phosphoric acid (metal prep) immediately following the blasting. Locally it was $225/hour all in.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

That's why I went with traditional blasting...cost...my blast guy charges 40/hr...I checked into dustless, but when they quoted total cost it didn't take long to make my mind up...
This will be an interesting build...

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

has anybody heard of the home pressure washer wet blasting attachment they sell? it looks like an easy to use system but not sure how good it works or how much sand it goes through comparably.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Guy I work with has one raven...he said it works great...

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

I have one of those pressure washer blasters from Northern Tool. Uses a lot of sand and is only marginal with a 2500psi machine, but it works in a pinch or for small jobs.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

I was wondering about that. I would likely have to rent a pressure washer, mine is a little small probably.
I have a small pot blaster but have never even tried it. too busy getting things to fit before worrying about the finish.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

any news on the morph?

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Had to cut the dash into several pieces in order to align the instruments with the wheel. Designed it such that it is now a "bolt-in" dash as opposed to welded in. Hand fabricated all the brackets and such. I will try to get photos of that.

Subscribed.

I have virtually the same project on my hands, a 59 on a 97 Tahoe. Getting ready to section the dash and I would love some more pics on how you did/are doing it.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

I will take a couple more over the coming days. I used the Tahoe driver's geometry, so the 56 had the driver more in the center of the vehicle (bench seat, narrower vehicle) so i had to cut the dash into a few pieces and relocate the center of the instrument cluster to the left. I am also engineering it such that the dash will now bolt in. I will grab some shots as to how I did that, but the short answer is I cut it along the front, extended it, and welded bolts to it. I am in the midst of roughing out some of the heavy metal changes and dents after the sand blasting so I can get it in rough primer. I will be back on the dash and interior in a week or so. I had to delay until I sorted out the stereo. I am hoping to have a fold down panel that replicates the original radio and conceal a modern Sony double din media player behind it. I am also cutting and reusing the Tahoe instrument panel behind the 56 cluster. Any gauges that don't make it, I can display on the media player via a blue tooth OBDII connection.

Allen

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Oh, one other thing. I cut the ends of the dash and actually brought it out about an inch and tipped it up just a bit to clear the Tahoe steering mounts. More photos later.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Made some progress on straightening and priming the panels. This thing is pretty much one big dent. I guess I need to remember it lived its life as a truck, but I have seen hail damaged vehicles with fewer dents. 3 gallons of plastic so far.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

Here's a couple of shots of how I set the dash up to be a bolt-in solution. Just welded an extension onto the front edge and welded studs on.

Re: Morphing a 1956 Chevy 3200 onto a 2001 Tahoe Chassis
 

3 gallons of plastic, but how much is now sanding dust on the floor? lol.
keep those pics coming. great to see progress somewhere. (none at my shop lately).