What all is involved when you Body Swap a car?

I think most of us understand that when you perform a body swap on a classic car or truck you are pulling the body off the factory chassis and setting it on a new aftermarket chassis. Is it as simple as that? Let’s dive in and see what all is exactly involved.

Here is our customer’s 1957 Chevy that was set up as a mild gasser.

The 57 was the perfect candidate as our customer was happy with its overall esthetics. It had nice paint a good bright work, it just needed a new foundation which came in the form of an Art Morrison chassis powered by a 495hp LS3 engine.

The first step is removing the body from its current chassis.

Prepping the new LS engine and manual trans.

 

The raw Art Morrison chassis gets the brake lines mocked up and mounts welded in for the gas tank before being torn down for coating.

 

The 57’s firewall and part of the transmission tunnel were replaced/modified to clearance of the engine and larger transmission.

Mods were made for hanging components on the new firewall.

New front body mounts are fabricated and installed.

New transmission tunnel fabrication.

Brakes, steering, and Vintage Air air conditioning are mocked up.

Body back off the chassis.

Body work and paint performed on the firewall.

Under carriage prepped and sprayed in Raptor undercoating.

Body back on the chassis.

New exhaust fabricated along with new drive shaft.

Assembly  and wiring.

Hand built wiring harness.

Fabricated air intake. New radiator installed with new hoses.

Dakota Digital gauges

Finished photos.