2wd to 4x4 conversion

[pointbreak]

Hey everyone, been a while but I have a question.
I'm thinking about.converting my 2wd C20 to 4x4. It's a 76 regular cab long box. The body and interior are in awesome shape.
I found an 81 4x4 3/4 ton with a good chassis and rearend with a 700r4 transmission with low km. But the body is beat to hell and the box is rusted away.
How rough is it to swap by body and 454 over to the 4X4 chassis. And is there any big differences in those years I need to k ow about. Judging by some of the research I've done. Pre 83 is pretty much the same when it comes to these trucks.

Thanks

[cal30_sniper]

Originally Posted by pointbreak

Hey everyone, been a while but I have a question.
I'm thinking about.converting my 2wd C20 to 4x4. It's a 76 regular cab long box. The body and interior are in awesome shape.
I found an 81 4x4 3/4 ton with a good chassis and rearend with a 700r4 transmission with low km. But the body is beat to hell and the box is rusted away.
How rough is it to swap by body and 454 over to the 4X4 chassis. And is there any big differences in those years I need to k ow about. Judging by some of the research I've done. Pre 83 is pretty much the same when it comes to these trucks.

Thanks

There's as many frames as there are colors under the rainbow. I found the GM Heritage website to have good info on what's what for the various years. I know that K10s, K20s, and K30s all had separate frames (K10s and 20s vary in thickness, K30s have a deeper and thicker frame). Crew Cabs are really beefy frames.

Your easiest bet is to find a K10 or K20 long bed pickup frame. I can't speak for the pickups, but for the suburbans, the K10 frame is thicker than the C10 frame (it's almost as thick as the K20 suburban frame). Don't be suckered into using a Suburban frame though. Even though the wheelbase of a single cab long bed is almost the same as the Suburbans, there are significant differences in their shape and body mount locations.

As far as the swap, it's not bad. Most say it's much easier to swap the frames than try to get all the 4WD stuff onto a 2WD frame. I'm doing the same thing with my C20 Suburban right now, and I'm going a K20 frame swap route.

[pointbreak]

Thanks,

The donor I'm interested in is actually an 83 K20. I thought it was an 81 at first but I was mistaken. It comes with a lot of spare parts and apparently the frame is good. I'm hoping it's a viable option. I know lotsa people say just buy a 4x4 and have both but good k20s are tough to find for decent price and I have a pretty strong emotional attachment to my truck. So I have 0 interest in selling her. Lol

[RyanNewberry]

Swap should be pretty straight forward, just make sure you use the body mounts for the year of the donor frame. I just put a 84 into a 76 chassis. Pretty simple. Since yours is a 2wd to start you might also need to swap out the transmission tunnel to a taller one. I believe for the yet of your c20 you could find a bolt in one pretty easy.