[burnin oil]

If you have to replace the front crossmember look and see if the 73-87 crossmember will fit. I snagged a swaybar off a blazer and installed it on my K20. It works well but I had to fab the mounts for the original crossmember. Might be a good bolt in swap with an easier to find piece. Once again a frame shop can fix the part in the middle of the frame really quick. Mine was estimated at less than an hour if I pull the crossmember out of the way. My truck also has the full body on it as it is a daily driver. Another thing is that the crossmember up front doesnt need to be straight as long as it is solid up there and the frame is in proper plane and alignment. Mine was notched for a PTO and flexed alot and was twisted pretty bad without hampering the frame. Eventually I straightened it back as good as I could and welded a chunk of metal to it to reinforce it. There is alot of metal bolted up there to help things stay in plane. The motor and bumper also do a good job of keeping eveything spread out without letting it contort to much. The biggest problem that frames have is twist from the motor shoving the right front down and pulling the left side up. Frames need to be stiff but allowed to flex. To much reinforcement and things break in a really bad way. Most frames are twisted after some use. the big question is how much. Rivots at the cross members usually tell this story pretty well.