GEN III IV to GEN V Frame Conversion

[viperguy69]

Bought a Gen 5 salvage about a year ago. The Gen 5 frame was bent on the drivers side (front and back) then spun around and damaged the front passenger side as well.

As a result, straightening the current frame was a non-starter.

However, I had a brand new Gen IV frame I purchased a few years earlier... frame had never been VIN'd or had a single part put onto it. So, I decided to embark on a restoration project using my GEN IV frame and GEN 5 salvage with parts I had purchased over the last year.

I knew there would be some differences between the last generation and current generation. However, at every turn I am discovering some other issue or difference.

So, I am looking for someone who has gone through the process to tell me where not to waste my time or where I really need to make an adjustment to the frame because if I do not make the adjustment it will not work based on experience.

What I am going through at this moment... and if anyone out there already did this conversion please advise...

Current issues:

1) Door Strikes on GEN III/IV vs GEN V... old straight up and down... new are on a diagonal?

2) Rear Panel and the extra 4" in cabin of the new viper vs old

3) Emergency Brake setup

4) Seats and seat rack... new viper is at 19" and old Viper is at 18" and the new viper mounts front rack almost 2" further to the rear... now the 4" cabin addition is starting to make sense...

5) Engine Mounts... I was going to convert to new mounts but is the loss of 3HP worth it? The issue with cutting the old engine mounts for new style engine mounts could result in a negative gain if you are off on your new welds by a degree or two...

6) Gas pedal at a different mount point, needs to go left about 1" vs current mount location.

added on 28 July 2017...

7) The Cowl does not align perfectly to the frame. Two of the mounts on the passenger side are out of sync by about 1" and the gap after mounting is off a little as well. The two alignment bolt fit very snug and could use a little more play for adjustment.

8) The Gas tank bolts to mount the gas take are inverted... no issue, just mount the strap the other way.

9) The rear bumper tub mounting brackets need to be moved about another in to the rear and cut down about 5/8"

10) The Gen V oil cooler bracket needs to be remounted.

11) The Gen V ABS bracket needs to be remounted.

12) The Gen IV frame front bumper needed the ends cut off, the Air Bag sensors remounted, the horn bracket cut down, and the front bumper mounts cut to allow the front opening hood hinged and mount to be installed without obstruction.

13) Various holes had to be drilled into the frame to allow for brake line mounting and air bag sensors.

14) Transmission Tunnel - electrical harnesses and other mounted hardware mounting studs had to be cut from the GEN V frame and remounted onto the GEN IV frame.

15) Carpet in the GEN IV frame is shorter then the GEN V Carpet. And the mount point holes are in a different location.

16) Rear brake line mounting point does not exist, the mount is steel on either side of hardware. Gen V uses a metal tube in the same area and the brake line is mounted to the face of the metal with a rivet nut.

17) Rear brake line aluminum block has needs to be mounted into the frame and the brake lines need to be bent very slightly at the angles to be mounted to the inside acing surface as there is no room to mount under rear brace due to differential support bracket configuration in the GEN III/IV.

added on 18 AUG 2017...

18) Transmission Tunnel - transmission cross member support is over two inches short of where it needs to be - redesign in the GEN V puts the brace at the rear of the transmission and as a result the support has been moved further back.

19) Inner Wheel Wells - had to drill 2 holes and insert 3 x rivet nuts into frame to support new structure.

20) Mounting Points - various holes had to be drilled into frame to properly mount brake lines, electrical cables and other hardware.

21) ABS module is different and mounting bracket is different as well. Using GEN IV brake lines is not really practical - issue I had was that MOPAR does not have driver side front driver's side brake lines available for the GEN V Vipers!

added on 9 OCT 2017...

22) Rear frame is about an inch Longer in the Gen IV then the Gen V... having bumper mounting issues with. Current solution is to do away with the Styrofoam Bumper support to see if it will mount without modification.

23) Rear brake lines had no frame location near the rear wheels to mount the brake hoses. The pillars in the Gen V are solid tube steel. The Pillars in the Gen IV are plate steel and no not have any face steel to mount to. So, I mounted flipped the brackets, bent them at 90 degrees and mounted them to the side plate steel structure.

24) Door latches are different. Using the existing latches with current mount points do not allow the doors to be pulled fully closed, about 1/8 slop. Looking to buy either Gen IV door mount brackets or to widen the to top mounting screw point to allow the bolt to move the 1/8 it needs to properly close.

25) Gen V has so many more mounting holes for electrical lines, brake lines, fuel lines that I wish I had paid more attention when the frame was bare... you need every mounting point holes drilled!


more to follow....