Custom Frame with SFBD

Courtesy of ArtosDracon

The more and more I go over what I want from my build, the more I think it may just be easier to build a custom frame that incorporates everything I want out of the build all at once. Plus it will mean that the truck can be on the road in close to stock form while I complete the frame and drivetrain then just transfer the body over and re-wire her from scratch.

This however is bringing to light the option for a SFBD. With how low the frame sits anyway and the fact that I'm already going to be chopping the entire body up for tire clearance, I'm thinking that a SFBD would help bring the CG down and sure wouldn't hurt the looks in the meantime. What are your thoughts?

I have been debating it as well.
Seems a roll bar is a must.
Even thought the stock frame isn't very rigid it seems to me that 2x2 or 2x3 box would make the problem worse. A 2" profile just doesn't seem that good for a frame rail. I'm not an engineer so I hope someone can tell me I'm wrong.
The truck won't be low enough for my liking, can't live with a traditional body drop.
Even thought of cutting out the trans tunnel and building a back bone to add rigidity.

dont waste time with a stock floor.
if you are doing a full frame, it needs to be a space frame.

Call NASA 

But yeah I'm with Ryo. Might as well just build some crazy toob chassis.

By the time you get done chopping up and re-enforcing the stock frame, you might decide that a full frame would be easier & possibly lighter too(?). Plus if designed correctly, much stiffer.
I can't speak of the FULL frame, but I already can tell w/ my current project, it would have been much easier & efficient to just back half it IMO.

redoing the floor and a custom frame would allow you to move the motor back in the bay, better weight distribution...although leg room is bad enough as it is. lol

Being short has it's advantages.

Front and mid plates with the engine back and down as far as I can manage with a chopped up firewall are already on the agenda, hoping to retain most of the stuck tunnel, but if I don't it's really no sweat off my back. Just hoping to lighten the frame and lower the weight as best I can.

If I go blazer then wheelbase will be stock, but if I do go with a truck, it'll be extended cab short bed and the wheelbase will get reduced via bed shortening, factor that in with the rear-mounted fuel cell and battery, three or four link, custom coil-over mounting, and I may as well go custom frame and move the control arm mounts to make life a little easier, and make the wide track much easier.

Well if your doing a custom frame, get a standard cab. Do a floor pan drop. 13" steering wheel. And you'll have more room to curl up your knees under the dash. 
j/k.... hope the house hunting is going well.

I don't know about the emissions laws in your state, but in mine, 1st gens are starting to become exempt from smog testing. Might be something to keep in mind for your purchase?

I wish, you have the 25 year law there I take it? We have sever laws, but none of them could make an S10 exempt in any way, unless I convert it to propane, which I've considered.

On the bright side, one of the houses I'm seriously considering is in another county, a county without emissions unless the vehicle is used to commute into the county with emissions.

With what you're proposing you might as well start with a Blazer frame no matter if that is the wheelbase you want. Going to have to do custom body mounts and bed modifications anyway.

Yeah, the wheelbase, or how to make the body match the wheelbase isn't the issue, it's finding a useable donor with a good body around here that is from the proper year range to make this as easy and painless as possible.

Thanks for moving this discussion over. With the added year under my belt of examining these trucks in pictures and in person I still feel that doing a body drop to some extent, likely a combination of SFBD and traditional will be employed on my blazer. The body is heavy, and while I'll be replacing as much glass with lexan as I can manage, there is a lot of steel on the roof and pillars of these trucks and I'll take any advantage that I can. I'm still debating whether to go full frame or just firewall back. The discussion of full frame always ends up with someone asking "well if it's a custom frame, why use the stock front suspension geometry? Why not go mustang II or.....etc?" I can always justify keeping the stock front suspension simply because without it, it's not an S10 frame anymore, it's a hot rod chassis with a truck dropped on it. From everything I've read, I'm definitely going 2x3, but for the sake of rigidity on a ladder frame, it will be with the 3" on vertical and I'll drop the body mounts as far as I can with as minimal of floor modifications as possible, hopefully as little as a custom tunnel and some floor humps for the frame rails, but if push comes to shove, I'll move the framerails to just inside the rocker with the bodymounts inside the frame and drop the floor inside the frame for more leg room. I am 6' tall unfortunately, so losing too much interior space is not an option.

Digging a bit here but I've been considering doing something very similar to this as well.
I've been contemplating doing a body off restoration next year and I thought while I was at it I would narrow the back half and do coil-overs. The biggest dilemma is the front end. I guess it all comes down to how far you want to go, or how much money you want to spend.  
You mentioned the mustang II ifs. I've read a lot about that and a couple of people leaning towards the corvette irs. However the only one I could find completed was some fellow who bagged his truck and it was all for show and there was likely no function at all. Is there any project threads or articles involving something of this magnitude?

personally it is my belief that retrofitting IRS to a ladder frame truck is not worth the weight it adds.
if you really want to run IFS, full custom frame from at least firewall back is necessary to reap any benefit over working on the solid axle.
again, my opinion

as for front, don't know much about the mustang2, but why bother getting a generic kit if its not too much more trouble togo full custom?
 

I think he was just talking about retro-fittinga custom IFS(front) to the truck to avoid even having to deal with the crap stock geometry.

Personally, I'm surprised it's not done more, especially when you look at the ammount of work that goes into a lot of guys back halves, the total welding on the front would be 10% of what it was on the back. Cost doesn't seem to me to be that limiting of a factor either, since once you add up $200 in TBJs, $300 in adjustable UCAs, $100 for delrin LCA bushings, $100 for springs, $400 for good adjustable shocks, $50 for swaybar bushings, $50 for a ZQ8 swaybar, you're pretty well into what junkyard C5 or C6 front suspension parts are, with some decent coil-overs and a custom bar.

^ that's just it. By the time and money you spend on getting the front to be somewhere in the range of good. You could almost have gone with a different ifs all together and start with a great base. I did mention doing the rear as well. Greencactus, I agree. It would take a lot to get it done right but it could definitely have great benefits if done properly.