The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop AD truck to latemodel 4x4 chassis

Hello all.

I'm looking into swapping my 49 AD truck over to a 4x4 chassis. After looking around at some of the other member's trucks, I noticed that several swaps have been done to S-10 chassis, and some to the mid 70's-80's Chevy Chassis.

I haven't found any info, however, on switching to a late-model chassis, and was curious if there is a reason for this.

I would like to switch mine over to a 90's or 2000+ bodystyle chassis, and was curious if anyone has any info on this. If this is not a good swap to do, what are the reasons?

I appreciate any feedback, thanks!

Price. 73-87 Chassis are cheap,They are cheap to get, modify and repair. 88+ are not. I have played with the idea of finding a 88+ 3/4 or 1 ton 4x4 to put a 46 1.5 ton cab on (still working with the County to get that truck). On occasion I find the 88+ chassis in the junk yard or cheap on Ebay. In fact the 88+ have a straighter frame rail under the cab than a 73-87 which makes it easier to swap an older cab onto.

Price is certainly part of it.

When I was looking for one of those trucks a few years ago there were very few under about $4,000, which is a little much for a parts car in my book.

I think there are two more reasons.

First the front track width is pretty wide. You'd need to widen the fenders quite a bit to cover the front tires. The rear is quite wide too and would also cause some problems.

Second the motors are EFI on most of these trucks. That adds more complexity to any swap that uses the motor from the donor truck.

I bought an '89 K3500 (1-ton 4x4) which I use for pulling my car trailer or when there is snow on the ground like there is today. It's a good truck with an aging body and someday it may become a chassis donor for a project like this.

While my projects are mostly AD based, my thinking is that this chassis would make most sense under something newer. Maybe a '67 because I really like that body...

If you use a big bolt for the cab it will fit width wise better since they have fatter fenders. EFI swaps aren't as scary as they seem. Just pull everything from the donor. Otherwise pop a carb'd motor in there, same mounts for all SBC's.

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for the help!