Full-width S10 Blazer

Small Chevy Ifs to Solid Axle Swap
 

- Verne Simons

SOLID AXLES ARE SIMPLE AND strong. And while swapping a driven-beam front axle into a modern 4x4 may seem like a step back in time to an automotive engineer, we don’t care. We know how we will use a vehicle. While an independent front suspension could be built to withstand our use and abuse, it wouldn’t be cheap or easy to build and would probably be quirky at best while on-road (where we spend a lot of time). Solid axles are readily  available and a well-known commodity with a variety of suspension setups that afford differing performance, so we can hone a project to behave the way we’d like. Sure, a few recent factory 4x4s have solid front axles, but each has a downside that makes converting an otherwise reliable and desirable older 4x4 to a solid front axle more sensible.

Our platform of choice begins with a few simple criteria: We wanted four-doors (and seats) and enough space for some gear, a body-on-frame construction for durability, and a vehicle that has some familiar parts that aren’t too expensive to replace or maintain. We don’t want anything too rare or expensive, for a couple of reasons.

First, we’d like the engine and transmission to be easy to adapt to 4WD parts we like. Also, we’d like to be able to get an alternator (or other parts) at just about any parts store in the nation if need be.

We have owned fullsize trucks and tiny Jeeps and knew we wanted something near the middle in terms of size so the rig would fit on trails without being too cramped inside if friends and family were to accompany us on our adventures. We didn’t want to spend much money for the initial purchase of a vehicle that we knew would shortly be under the knife.