Rons S-10 project Henry J

   Here is a picture of my '51 Henry J.  I am the second owner. My dad bought it for me in the early 70s from a neighbor where I grew up in Minnesota.  I drove it for a couple years while going to college but have had it in storage ever since.  Because it was a Minnesota car it had all the usual rust (floor pans, inner/outer rockers, fender seams, etc.) so I have been spending the past year replacing metal.  The Henry J is sitting on an S-10 frame and has a Chevy 350 under the hood with a 350 turbo behind it.  I sand blasted the under side of the car and fenders as well as all the superficial rust areas and then shot a couple coats of epoxy primer on it. What you see is what you get.  I do not intend to paint the car and will instead drive it as is.  The interior will consist of the original brown gator which I have been able to buy on eBay and through various vendors.  I have a continental kit for it and will be running 8 inch rims on all four corners.

Ron Lambrecht
Bonita, CA   
Date: March 22, 2007

    Here is some of the work itsd taken to adapt an S-10 frame.  I tried my darnedest to not have to cut my fire wall but at the end of the day I ended up moving the center section back two inches.  I kept all the original metal and just added a 2 inch spacer where required.  I will take some pics and send them to you.  The mods to the firewall are just tacked in place at this point and I will do the finish welding after I get the engine positioned in relation to the radiator and the body mounts finalized.  At that point I will lift the body off the frame and weld every thing in place.  My lessons come from the Ron Lambrecht school of hard knocks!!  For instance, not all years of the S-10 frame are created equal......which will drive the type of headers you can use. I found a set of 3 3/8 diameter gauges that fit quite nicely within the original instrument cluster bezel.  I also found a set of Allstate front signal pods that I am fitting to my fenders so I have front as well as rear signals and they look like they were meant for the car......as they were.  I would prefer that my email address not be posted on your site because it is my work address but if you get questions you can't answer about doing an S-10 conversion pls feel free to forward my address to the individual asking the questions and I will do my best to provide the answer. 

Ron




UPDATES
April 24, 2007
Feb 03, 2008
Aug 22, 2008 Power Point      Web Page     Allow active content to view