Unless your original frame is wasted I'd think it would be cheaper to stay with that. A friend rodded a 40 Chevy truck (in his family since new) by stripping the frame of crud and rust, squared it and boxed for strength. They used a Pacer front suspension, V8 etc etc and it's been run hard for many many years. This prep work only took a month, a rod shop could futz around with your NEW frame for a year.
