They said it couldn't be done...

[CDN_Redneck]

...So we did it!

My 1968 GMC 3/4 ton, 2wd officially became a 4x4 last month. We started with a 2wd, inline 6, '68 frame, and finished with a 4x4, 350 chevy sb and '84 frame. It took us 6 weekends, including a weekend "borrowing" a bobcat excavator, help from friends, and lots of beer (to convince the friends to help ). We had to find a way to hide 6 inches of frame as the '84 is longer than the '68 and I still need to put different tires on it, but that involves cutting the front fender a bit as I want 35's on it. Here's a link to the pics : http://community.webshots.com/user/mzdiddl There's also an album there of the first build a year and a half ago.

We ended up doing body lifts in different parts of the truck as the frames are completely different and making new mounts for the cab and front clip. There's still a bit of work left to do, but it's back on the road now. Overall I'm incredibly happy with the outcome!



Dana

[rage'nrat638]

sweet...

[Palf70Step]

Nice Job. It looks ready for action!

[hd78glide]

Nice...

[Karl Hoh]

Sweet, sure would like to know the details. I had planned on doing this with my 69 and 80 4x4, but the rad brace mounts on the front spring hangers have me concerned. Everything else should just be changing mount locations and spacing,?

[CDN_Redneck]

Originally Posted by Karl Hoh

Sweet, sure would like to know the details. I had planned on doing this with my 69 and 80 4x4, but the rad brace mounts on the front spring hangers have me concerned. Everything else should just be changing mount locations and spacing,?

We fabricated new mounts for the front clip, and it ended up having a 3" body lift. For the front of the cab, we pulled the old mounts off the '68 frame and mounted them on the new '84 frame (there was slight modification to these mounts). You have to take off the '84 mounts as it's literally a few inches they have to move. That ended up with almost 5" of body lift. The rear of the cab mounts to the stock '84 mounts (which are directly on the frame). For the box, we used 4 of the stock mounts on the '84 frame and a 3.5" body lift. We are still currently manufacturing the other 2 mounts as the '84 frame curves more than the '68. We had to extend the steering arm. The clutch and throttle linkages we had to fabricate. This may have just been for our truck as the donor frame was off an '84 diesel, and I blew up the old clutch on the '68 We had no problems with the rad mounts, so I'm not sure if ours are different than what's on your truck.
Essentially, we had a lot of luck on our side as we had no idea if it would work when we started. We just pluncked the body on and leveled it by eye. At least the old trucks have nice lines to go by!

Dana

[Karl Hoh]

OK, Your details of the cab mounting have me confused. My 68 & 69s rear cab mounts are outside the frame and my 80 4x4's are inside on a crossmember. Are 3/4 tons different than 1/2 ton ?

[special-K]

What was the reason for raising the cab and core support mounts?Was it to get the bed to line up?I`m asking because I plan to swap a`69 cab/clip onto a`91 Suburban frame and won`t be using a p/u bed.It will have a utility bed(service body),so body lines aren`t an issue.

[CDN_Redneck]

Originally Posted by Karl Hoh

OK, Your details of the cab mounting have me confused. My 68 & 69s rear cab mounts are outside the frame and my 80 4x4's are inside on a crossmember. Are 3/4 tons different than 1/2 ton ?

Sorry about the confusion.. it was a little confusing doing it.. heh

Ok.. So I shouldn't post in the morning before coffee. I got to work and had a look at the frame pics... the 84 frame front mounts are on the outside, just not in the right place for the 68 cab. I've attached pics so it's easier to see. (http://community.webshots.com/photo/...51728284KsOsvn I couldn't resize the 68 frame at work, so here's the link)The rear cab mounts on the 68 are on outside of the frame, for the 84, they are on a crossmember inside the frame, which happened to line up with pre-existing holes in the 68 cab. I would assume that 1/2 and 3/4 are different, mine were both 3/4 ton so I"m not sure what yours would be.. as I mentioned, we had to modify the front cab mounts, they used the '68 mounts, but cut and welded to make them fit. I wasn't part of that, my boyfriend and his buddy built those.

Hope that helps a bit? There is a pic of both frames without a body on, so if you have time take a look.

Dana

[CDN_Redneck]

Originally Posted by special-K

What was the reason for raising the cab and core support mounts?Was it to get the bed to line up?I`m asking because I plan to swap a`69 cab/clip onto a`91 Suburban frame and won`t be using a p/u bed.It will have a utility bed(service body),so body lines aren`t an issue.

If you have a look at the pictures labeled April 1, you'll clearly see why we had to lift different parts of the truck! hehe.. The front of the cab needed to be lifted as the frames bend in different places and the cab was very nose down. The only part of the '68 cab that sits properly on the '84 frame was the rear of the cab. It's a bit difficult to explain, there's lots of pics of both frames, and how the truck sat before and after the lift went in. I've also posted the frame pics in the post above, you can see how the '84 frame dips down in front.

Good luck in your swap, we just went with it, and modified what we needed to as we went along.

Dana