When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I have an 88 Iroc that I would like to put on a corvette rolling chassis. I have found one with the LS7 and a 6spd. Does anyone know if this has been done or can be done?
its goin to be VERY difficult, im guessing you have the c4 chassis for a c3 vette? vettes are cars on frames, the 3rd gen is a unibody, so your going to have to do some serious cutting to make it work if your saying what i think you are. it would be AWESOME to see done, but it seems like alot of work imo
The most involved project requiring putting corvette parts on a thirdgen was when someone swapped the rear suspension from a C4 into their IROC-Z. There was a lot of custom fab work and a ton of man hours involved. If I remember right, the swap took a couple years. The swap is more common on 4th gens. There was a link to LS1tech about the same swap but into a black 4th gen. I'll try and find the link somewhere.
it would be newer than a c3 since it has a ls7. i think it would be all but impossible (not impossible with enough money) to put a camaro "body" on a corvette frame since f bodys are unibody. it would take a huge amount of fabrication.
I've seen a '65 Mustang body dropped onto a SN95 Mustang chassis, so the F-body to C-Chassis would actually be easier, since you have a frame to "set" it on.
why wont you take the LS7 and 6 spd from the corvette and swap it in to the camaro?..it would be less work IMO
hoping to see the outcome of this one....
63-82 Corvettes have a 98" wheelbase. The C4 from 84-96 have a 96.2" wheelbase. C5 have a 104.5". C6 and probably the C7 is 105.7"
I swapped a 51 Chev body onto a 84 Buick LeSabre chassis back in the early 90's. The wheelbase was the same. Cut the Buick body off leaving the floor attached to the frame. Cut the floor off the 51 Chev and drop the old body onto the newer floor and chassis. Everything including the firewall lined right up.
The right way to do it is build a tube chassis with the C5/C6 suspension and put a third gen camaro body over it. Sort of like how the big red camaro was built using a 68 body, just 20 years more updated.
This would be a $100K project.
Or you could just swap in an LS3/LS7 and have a chassis shop fab up some major reinforcements for your present car.
i also heard of this being done to a corvair on hotrod. Except it was a corvair body on an 80's G-body frame and buick 455.
According to all these "transplant" jobs ive read about, the two hardest parts are the firewall and the floors. So try to use the floor from the car thats on the frame, and you'll probably have to blend the firewall.
Atleast you dont have to worry about creating a trans tunnel .
But if its the transaxle youre dealing with, you may have to shift the gas tank around or something.
I bet you can get some pointers from the "civette"
little late for this, but can this be done??
yes it can, if u was doing this yourself, have the time, months to years to dot his and a lot of money, it can be done no question about it, have the proper tools, welding equipemts, and the time to re-do a lot after its done, yes it can be done,
if u have about 80k-120k yes to,
cost of vette ls7 donor used about 40k for a used one, fair condition 2006 model,
or a nice 2001 to 2004 z06 about 18k to 24k,
or a auction damaged one but not frame damaged salvage title type for about 8k to 12k
so lets say 10k u found a nice insurance one z06 low mile car all complete with about 40k miles 6 speed. minor damages lets say, ok,
3k to take off the iroc z body,
we are at 13k plus bs money 1k for the unknown,tow, fees, ect...
we are now at 14k with the body off, donor z06, bs money and a ton of picts of both cars, will tell you why the picts a little later,
fab, cutting welding experts, ect..... 2500 to 4k min,
blue prints, wheels, parts, ect...... 2k min,
we are now at 20k and all the parts are there, and off and ready to mount up.
to install, 4k to 8k at the most, lining up, again cutting, aliments, ect.....
wire harness from painless, yes u will need one forsure, no question as the iroc tail lights, and all els will need to be wired up, all els can be used from the z06,
and again a ton of picts needed to show for the dmv to show that what all u done for your title work, after the conversion all of the vin numbers needs to be properly done, as these cars (both) carry more vin numbers then the norm, so with that said, the picts will show proof of whats been done to get a title done, once your vin is removed from the chassis, expect it to be a little bit of work with the dmv, as they will check both up to wazoo. have all your paper work in order, not a big deal, but be smart, have a file folder for the both cars, just in case they might flag it, inspection too....
can this be done? yes sir, anything can be done, as a member here stated in the upper pages, u just need a deep pocket, as me and i speak for us all here at third gens, we would love to see someone pull this job off, as this gives us iroc z and all of our third gen viewers of trans am's formulas and even our v6 guys hope, there was a guy who done the impossable c4 rear end swap, in his home, he also made some mistakes along the way and posted it, so that we wont do the same if we decide to take it on, but after seeing the job, labor, and especially the time he went threw,,, i couldent do it,
(he was a young guy and had the stamina)
he pulled it off and had a iroc that was the best one on here as far as the best rear end, so plan on about 40k to be safe for a 04 z06, or add an additional 30kto40k for the ls7 505hp vette frame swap,
if u build it we will come! and claim it the iroc king of the road.....
It would take about the same amount of effort as building a time machine. The time machine would be a great venture, and besides being far more practical than a Cor-maro, you could speak to the OP directly as he hasn't posted in nearly 7 years. Until then, could you outline the procedure and likely cost for building said time machine? Thanks!
I dont think he was very concerned about style when he put that car together. At least he wasnt concerned about appeasing purists. I dont really like how he did a lot of stuff on the exterior of that car, but mechanically it's very interesting. Note he has a real SLA front suspension on that car.
I think the front and rear frame members would actually weld-in quite nicely. The torque tube would need to be a custom length (easy: http://c5-c6torquetube.com/). The rear tunnel would have to be widened to ensure the gearbox can fit - that might be very difficult if one would want to keep the rear seats (I would definitely try to keep them). The front firewall needs to go and that is the main issue in my view. It would make more sense to try and modify the front C6 engine cradle to move that engine forward. I would not attempt it with the engine that far back. The engine in the front cradle, however, can only be moved forward with a custom oil pan. It would be an oil pan with virtually no oil volume unless one would utilize that square space between the front and rear cradle members for the oil pan drop down volume. Then one would probably raise the height of the engine in that cradle anywhere between 1 to 3 inches to help the oil pan volume a little. If we do not want to relocate the steering rack, which is right infront of the engine, it would need to be lifted a couple of inches. If we are really lucky, we could get away making custom engine mounts that would move the engine forward by 120mm (4.7"). If that is enough to clear the firewall, then there would be no requirement to cut the torque tube and the driveshaft, it would be the original length.
In summary, best case would be:
- do not cut into front firewall or transmission tunnel, this requires:
moving the LS engine forward in front C6 cradle by hopefully no more than 4.7" and accept that a custom oil pan (and potentially a custom pick-up tube) needs to be made
- C6 torque tube and driveline remain the same and do not require modifications, wheelbase is adjusted by above modification of engine mounts to front cradle
- frame rails can be welded into chassis, possible with some craftsmanship
- rear driveline tunnel needs to be cut and enlarged such that we do not lose rear seats (difficult and probably not possible)
Hi there I am new to the forum. I created a long post with an introduction of myself, but that is somehow gone. I am the proud new owner of an 85 Camaro and have a C6 rolling chassis here that I virtually have no use for. I found this thread looking around if anyone has attempted this before.
09-06-2008, 07:29 PM
. this is definitely going to be interesting. 
.
