Volare Front end

[Dano51]

Has, Any one tried to put a volare front end on there truck.

[OrrieG]

Local guy had one under his AD when he bought it. Either it was done wrong or a bad application but after it randomly pulled him across the center line for the third time he got another frame and is doing another swap based on MII. Wouldn't be my first choice.

[maynardtruckin]

There used to be a guy here that had one he said it worked great on his 68 short step side. He had a big block blown. It's all in how it is set up.

[tmoble]

best you're ever gonna get is for it drive like a Volare. Is that what you want?

some report having to move the engine over to the right because of the massive steering gearbox.

[Trucknut57]

I currently have a volarie under my 57, that I installed.

Installation was easy, you can adjust the ride hight, and yes the engine needs to be moved to the passenger side due to the gear box.

I like the ride quality of it and the fact it has disc brakes.

If you need some questions answered let me know.

[robnolimit]

they will fit nicely on a 55 - 59. But on a 47-54, its a disaster, too much work for a bad outcome.

[mr48chev]

Originally Posted by robnolimit

they will fit nicely on a 55 - 59. But on a 47-54, its a disaster, too much work for a bad outcome.

They do work well on the 55/59 trucks with the wider frames just like they work very well on the 53/56 F100 Fords and are very popular there.
"BUT" with the AD truck frames being quite a bit narrower they end up not fitting an AD frame very well without a lot of headaches.

I've also read somewhere but don't know how much truth to it there is, that some of the replacement parts for the Volarie style front ends are getting rather hard to find. Anyone who has Mopar stuff out in the driveway can tell you that the factory quits supplying replacement parts for older Mopars as soon as regulations say they can. And the aftermarket may have followed suite.

[Kabwe]

I done it on a 55-59 truck before. You have to offset the engine because of the big steering box. A volare is the clip same as a 5th avenue thats what I used. You have some adjustment because to the torsion bar suspension. You don't have to cut your frame only notch the bottom of it and slide the volare in place and weld it in. The sheetmetal all fits just as before.

Its mostly done on Fords but it works well if that's what you want to do. I do believe there are better options, but that's just me. The guy that I did the clip for loves it and that's all that really matters.

Here is one I did.

[Rusty Hooker]

My 57 came with a Volare clip and the first thing I did was to remove it. I went with the Camaro clip for several reasons. Big block and r4 bolt right in. Wheels are cheap and easy to come by. The whole clip with master booster pp and steering box was $120.

[OrrieG]

UPDATE I had lunch with the guys brother I discussed above. He said the the big problems they had were the clip was installed wrong so the torsion bars had to be cranked to the extreme to keep it level. That gave it to much camber which equated to bump steer. It was also getting pretty worn out so the decision was to start over with another frame with a professionally installed Firebird clip. He said the big reason for the Volare is adjustability but they have to be done just right or the geometry is off.

[55dude]

the volarie front end is really a pain because of the huge steering box and the area where the idler arm mount is weak and should be reinforced. install is easy but i can't really say what front subframe to use. i have driven many clipped trucks and they were usually done wrong and sucked and redoing somebody's botched install usually results in that vehicle becoming a parts donor! i really recomend going to a show and talking to somebody that owns and drives a clipped truck because when nobody is around they usually will disclose how crappy their truck drives and what they would do different. taken rides is some badly done ones and yikes!!!

[Kabwe]

I have installed volare, gm clips and aftermarket kits and all of them ride nice if done properly. I personally prefer the aftermarket kits because of the ease on install and sheetmetal installation. If I was going the clip route I would chose the 78-88 G-body over the camaro only because I like the track width better. I also like the carmaro clip and I would chose it over the volare for several reasons. The first reason is that bulky steering box will require you to offset your engine and mess with your choice for headers. Second parts availability, is not that of a GM clip. Third you can't bag if in the future if you decide you may want to go there in the future.

I have installed and rode in trucks with GM Clips, Volare, and aftermarket kits, and if the work is done correctly they all ride nice. I rode in some crappy ones also and once I got under that car I knew why they road like that the work was awful.lol

[Trucknut57]

I would have to agree with Kabwe. "IF" installed correctly, all clips ride nicely. Problem is, most are not installed correctly.
There is, as far as I know, NO aftermarket or upgradeable parts for the volarie clip.
My volarie clip has been under my truck for over 15 years and the only thing I have done to it was change the rotors and pads. I haven't had to readjust or replace any other parts and thats a good thing because there aren't any parts to replace them with.

[Russell Ashley]

I've never clipped anything with this suspension but have had five different Mopars with one in them, and never had a problem at all with it. I put over 200K miles on a 76 Aspen and never even had to have it aligned.
One thing to know is that some of the big Mopars with this suspension came with twelve inch discs instead of the eleven's that are on most of the cars. All you need are the caliper mounting brackets and a set of rotors to change to twelve inch brakes.

[55dude]

heard somewhere that "rare parts" might soon be supplied with aspen/volare front end parts, bet their not gonna be cheap!