The donor truck I am working with is a 1987 R20 Silverado, R is the 2WD designation for ‘87-‘88, the 20 means 3/4 ton as per usual. Originally, I was having trouble finding any donor cross member, I had a lead on a ‘79 1/2 ton crossmember and was trying to see if it would work out of desperation. The 73-87 trucks prices are high these days and I had trouble finding anything affordable. Several ads for part outs on Craigslist already had crossmembers gone for similar swaps, or so I heard.
But just to reiterate I’m working with a 3/4 ton now!
I’ve had my mind set on this a while, much longer than there have been good rebuild kits for the front end. I’ve got the thing all torn apart in my driveway so I’ve got the momentum and I like the idea of working with 26 years newer parts.
Depending on how the crossmember shakes out I may just end up rebuilding what I have.
It’s got a lot of surface rust so if I can clean it all up and verify it’s solid I plan to go forward with it.
