lots of questions and concerns...please help

[67cst]

k guys i have some important questions and need some awnsers asap...first off the main question...will the front end of an 85 2wd truck ( like the crossmember and a arms .. pretty much everything off the 2 frame rails ) bolt to a 71 2wd frame? whats happenening is me and my dad are building me a 67 swb 2wd truck, we got an 85 swb frame thinking we could use it and somehow fudge the 1.5 inch wheel base difference, well turns out its possible but we ran into a HUGE problem this weekend, whats going on is the frame on a 67-72 is pretty much flat below the cab, well our 85 frame rises up before the rear cab mounts, we thought we could just raise the front of the cab up a bit to account for this, well turns out its too much of a rise in the frame so we then thought we could channel the floor of the cab enough to drop the rear of the cab so the body lines would line up with the box body lines...but today our body man said that would be foolish because we are hacking up a perfectly good cab. i also agree with him, so does my dad, so the next plan is we are going to get a 71 lwb 2wd frame shortenend, the body guy gave it to us today! and its all there, this gets back to my first question, we wanna put the 85 front end on the 71 frame because its all cleaned up, painted and lowered, this way we wont have to do all that to the 71 frame...if its a direct bolt up thing we would do it but if it will throw off any ride heights or geometry we will have to use the 71 front end and ill have to clean that all up and get a new lowering kit for the 71, which leads to the second question, will the 3" lowering coils off the 85 frame work on a 71 frame? also will 85 v8 motor mounts and auto crossmember work on the 71 frame? the body guy that gave us the 71 frame said the v8 mounts out of the newer trucks make the engine sit way too high..is this true? and he also said we need a 67-72 auto crossmember for the th400, he said the newer one will make the tranny sit too high and it might cause clearence issues with the floor of the cab? can someone please shed light on these points ... im pretty frustrated right now and any posotive comments or awnsers to my questions would be great, btw we fired up the 327 this weekend and she purrs, so that is great news i guess, anyways sorry about the long post but if you know anything please let me know,

Thanks, Derek

[Dean23]

pull the whole front susp. including x member and it is a bolt in. You will have to drill 2 holes and oblong 2 others, it is a easy swap. I put a 79 front end on my 68

[67cst]

is your truck a 2wd ? which holes did you have to drill and which holes did you oblong?

thanks, Derek

[67cst]

ttt, come one guys, i need some help here

[67cst]

just talked to my dad, we are getting the 71 frame shortened and we are goign to put the 85 front end on...guess it could be worse...dam nset backs eh

[Longhorn Man]

Be sure to write down some where in your records exactly what year your front end is off of....makes it easier in a couple years when your doing brakes or ball joints.
just an observation from experiance.

[Old Chevy Lover]

is there much of a difference between the 69 and 71 frontends (bolt holes for a arms, cross member, so forth)? If not, I might do a swap like this on my 69...

[67cst]

longhornmail- thanks for the tip