73-87 cab/bed on late model chassis

[turbo350]

Anyone here looked into this or actually done it? For example rather than trying to install a Duramax into say a '78 C20, how about taking the '78 cab/box and putting it onto the frame of the Duramax truck? Would the wheelbase and other pertinent measurements even allow for this? Would be kind of nice to have the looks of the box trucks on the chassis/drivetrain of a modern truck.

[longbedrick]

Never seen it, but that would be nice. the guys on SPIKE TV's "TRUCKS" are putting a '79 Ford truck body on a '97 Dodge Cummins frame and drivetrain.
http://www.powerblocktv.com/site3/in...06&ep_sea=0901

[misternash2]

a guy here in my town put a 65 shortbed chevy body on an 04 chevy chassis. i don't know him very well, so i don't know how much work it was. he also put the dash and seat in from the 04. the dash looks really good, considering he had to section it. the wheels line up very well in the 65's wheeltubs. next time i'm in town during the day (i work nights and sleep all day) i'll snap a pic or two, if he doesn't mind. i'm sure he wouldn't. to the naked eye, it looks stock (albeit very nice) with late model wheels. i'd say it's very possible if you're handy with welding and fabrication. like i said, his looks amazing.

now that i think about it, the diesel may be alot tougher. due to the size mainly, and i may be wrong, but don't they sit farther back in the engine bay? i mean rear of heads to firewall is a tighter fit? interior would be pretty simple. just a repin and an 88-91 insturment cluster and brake switch. the more i think about it, the simpler i think it would be. modify the frame for the 87 body, use an 87 radiator and shroud, (wait-you guys think that will be enough to keep a d-max cool??) light harness should be okay from the 87. would you need to delete anything from the computer? vats, of course but what else? hmmmm...man you really got the ball rolling in my poor soul. i'll be up all night thinking about it now. what a wonderful idea. not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but superb idea.

[turbo350]

I'm not sure if its more $$$$, time and effort as compared to swapping in a late model drive train into the older trucks but just throwing it out there to everyone. I don't ever recall anyone on this board doing it. First you'd have to find a wrecked late model truck and yes you'd have to be more than handy with welding and fabbing skills. Todays new trucks are pretty powerful and smooth when driving down the road. That smoothness and driveability can be hard to duplicate when you're redoing an older truck. Dropping on the older bodystyle onto a modern chassis with all the modern bells and whistles sounds good in theory but not sure how it would turn out in reality.

[68 TT]

I thought about the frame swap too. A friend had a 2001 2500HD 4x4 that was totaled in a roll over and he offered it to me for a good price.

I think you could just build new body mount stands for the frame to match up with where the square body mounts need to be and everything would work out.

It might require some floor pan surgery to clear the Allison trans but I think the engine compartment is plenty big enough. You biggest problem might be firewall placement relative to the front wheel location.

I really wanted the newer dash but without major surgery to it there isn't enough room to get behind the steering wheel with the newer dash in a square body cab. A couple guys on here tried it and gave up on it due to the lack of space.

I didn't go through with it because I decided I wanted to keep the solid front axle on my K20 and because of the driver side drop transfer case issue plus the dash not fitting. I wanted to drop the new drive train into the older frame but didn't want to mess with changing out my front axle for F*rd part.

I should have taken the deal any way and just done an engine swap but I didn't think about that at the time.

[ghettoluxury]

I have put a 88-98 on a 78 frame and it was not so easy. The 88 and up frames are much wider so all the body mounts had to be custom made and extended outward. So going the other direction the mounts would need to be moved in, but if you were going to incorperate a body lift I guess it would work out nicely.

[Lonnies Performance]

I'm sure it could be done, but the newer frame is drastically different in shape & width. I thought of this, but decided on the drivetrain swap instead, to keep from butchering the floor of the cab.