2WD to 4WD conversion, need frame

[Texas Girl]

im looking for a frame to fit my '63 chevy, its only 2WD right now but im looking to change that.
instead of chopping and welding to the existing frame, i find it will save me time to just put the body on a new frame.
does anyone know where i can get a 4WD frame that will fit a '63 chevy stepside? hopefully somewhere in texas?

[Chevy Fleetside]

I heard the blazer frames work the best for this swap. Finding a 63 4x4 in itself is kinda hard.
Even if you find a blazer frame it is still alot of work. You might be able to get a doner truck from the 70's and swap out some front end parts but I know that the frames on the later trucks are taller and the engine mounts don't seem to work.

[Chevy Fleetside]

Aucally I think you can use a frame all the way up to 72 year model. You would have to swap out the body mounts though. I am not 100% sure of this though.

[70 Suburban]

there are lots of things they changed when the went to 67.. I would just swap parts from a doner to your fram. I have a 72 blazer parts truck.... front end and rear suspension.. the rearend is shot.. but its a doner if you need one

[Captainfab]

The easiest frame for your swap would be a '69-'72 as the frames are nearly identical and require the least amount of fabrication to do a swap. I left out the '67 & '68 only because if you want to do a lift, kits aren't available for those, but they would certainly work if you were OK with stock height. I would take a look at what 70 Suburban has.

The '73-'87's can be used, but they are more work, plus you will end up with a body lift by the time you get done fabricating the new body mounts BTDT. It all depends on what you can find in your area and how much fabrication you want to do.

[BTCHN 1963]

Texas Girl
I am new here also. I have been reading the threads but I have never taken the time to post until now.
My brother and I converted a 1966 suburban from 2WD to 4WD a few years back. At the time we did not have a welder but made up for it in ambition. What we did was take all the brackets and suspension off a 73-87 chevy truck and bolted them on the frame of the 66. First we removed the rear suspension and got the rearend of the burb up as high as we could with his tow truck. We left the springs and all the brackets on the axle and rolled it under the truck. Once we were happy with how it was centered, we clamped it in place and drilled and bolted it in. We then went to the front and removed the suspension and did the same thing. After that we pull off the front clip and removed the motor/trans and the cross members. We then placed and clamped the engine and trans cross members from the doner truck. Then put the motor/trans/trasfercase in to make sure everything ligned up and there was enough room for the distributor cap by the fire wall. And ofcourse we drilled and bolted the mounts in place. Last but not least we installed an adapter plate and put in the steering box. This all took us one weekend and a case of mountian dew. Remeber though that we both measured everything indepentantly so that we had a good double check on all our measurements. We also made cardboard templates of the holes for the suspension, with a center line mark so we could get an idea of where things would go.
The reason we did it this way was it seemed to be easier than trying to adapt another frame to the suburban, ie: radiator, bumper mounts, body mounts and so on. I hope this will help in your goal. Its a lot of work but I think the end product is worth it.

[70 Suburban]

Great first post.

[Joey~AP]

Ive done it.

Build in my sig.

[Chevy Fleetside]

I was thinking about doing that myself with my 79 4x4, but wasn't sure if swapping out the axles and stuff would work. Well now I know it can work. Maybe I will do it someday and maybe not..

[Texas Girl]

wow thanks everyone!

[dallas71]

also dj-66 had a rolling chassis at one time ... might want to send him a PM