Chevy Ambulance: Chassis and engine

A lot of things up in the air here, as I get started on this project for a close friend, a recently retired paramedic.



Height of the ambulance box relative to the chassis: The box has to be high enough off the chassis to allow the dual rear wheels to sit nicely inside the wheel wells. It looks like a 0.060" spacer made up of sheet glued to the bottom of the flimsy box floor, followed by I-beam and flat stock totalling 0.375", will do nicely. The rear floor section from the Chevy can then be deleted, except for the gas tank and (perhaps) the inner fenders.



Amount of the floor to remove from the rear of the cab, and height of the cutout between cab and box: this is going to require that I build up the engine and interior. In turn this required stripping chrome off a bunch of bits that would not have been chrome on the ambulance, such as air cleaner and valve covers. So things are snowballing ... while waiting for the Easy-Off to remove the chrome, I got brave and sliced up the cab.



Chopping stuff up is exhilarating. Progress can be quick, but the risks are high if you cut too much off ... I seem to have got this one straight, at least.



Fit of the 8-lug wheels and associated tires (from Scenes Unlimited) in the Chevy wheel well also needs to be verified. They are nice big tires and clearance may need to be reviewed. Stay tuned!