Loved that story also. Been there but seems like a long time ago. Our 56 Chevy got creamed behind the left front wheel, bent the frame and front crossmember bad. My builder friend and I plus the driver were depressed Sunday night, thought our season was over.
Monday afternoon I got and idea and told it to the driver as we worked close to each other and that night we went back to the car, cut off the front piping and took out motor and tranny. Went back the next afternoon, after work with an acetelyene torch. Went up the road a couple miles where there was a junked 57, same frame. Put a chain over the roof and rolled it up on it's side and cut the frame off in under the front floor. Got that back to the shop quite late, that was a pretty massive piece to wrestle into the truck. Next evening we cut off the race car frame and trashed the bent part. Carefully measured and cut the donor frame front end to match ours, got it rolled into place and the two halves lined up. Next night I did all the welding including fish plates inside the frame. By then my other buddy had got his courage back. Friday we pulled an all nighter getting front suspension, motor and trans back and front piping back in place and running again. weren't too many wires to hook up on a 1950's motor.
Showed up at the track Sunday morning and a whole lot of grown men stood around in awe of what a couple of kids had pulled off in a week of spare time. They had figured up that we were finished. Ahh but racers never gave up then and don't give up today either.
MB