Some things to consider with airbags and dropping it when parked etc, you have to have the drivetrain high enough in the chassis that you don't crash any parts when fully dropped, this could get into your cab even more than usual. ideally you want a short, as in height, engine.
The caddy is a unibody, would you build a frame to mount the caddy stuff to?
The caddy or other fwd will have fwd wheels that have the offset wheels, may not be what you want, but to change them to reg wheels would goof up the geometry of the susp.
the fwd will have a rack and pinion steering that is most likely behind the engine, may be fun to rework a steering system.
i do not like it myself, but consider setting the engine back some so it is not so instrusive in the cab. you gain cab space, but loose some bed space, then you may want to cover it up too.
I keep coming back to a fullsize van chassis or even an astro van. this would be the best all in one shot donor. you won't have to completly redo steering, suspension is known and readiliy available, you can probably even buy the air suspension parts to bolt in without mods. you can get drop spindles cheap, any chevy parts are cheaper than caddy parts. it has a full frame under it to bolt and weld stuff to.
northstar engines are great until you have to fix them. the starter is under the intake manifold for example.
now the wild card idea is to put the engine in the rear like a covair pickup, any fwd power unit could be used. the northstar would be a great candidate for this. look at dune buggy sites for examples, they also use the supercharged 3.8L gmv6 alot.
you could even go oldschool and use a corvair engine.
jason
