The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Frame help

After a year and a half to get a title for a 65 stepside I am finaly ready to begin the rebuild the first question I have is does anyone know the latest year chassis I could use to swap my body onto? I've heard of many people doing this in the mags. I would like to do this so the brakes, suspension, ect.. will already be updated a little. Would a 80's chevy pickup work?

No I realy don't want to keep the orignal. I will be doing a compltete bagged setup front to back and want to get rid of the old setup. Newer suspensions are easier to mod than the older style. But thanks for the info. Nice talkin with ya

The fact of the matter is, the front suspension is basically the same from '63 to '87 or so. You'll be saving yourself work by modifying your existing frame. As Toomanytocount says, the front crossmember will bolt in thus giving you disc brakes. The rear trailing arm suspension of the '65 is easier to bag then the parallel leafs from a 80's chassis I would imagine.

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That is exactly it I want to get rid of that hudge rear trailing arm suspension. Newer setup are far easier to bag. I can't even imagine what it would be like to notch the frame with the rear trailing setup. With that trailing arm I won't be able to go as low as I'm wanting also The hudge front cross member will limit the drop as well. I've heard of people changing this but I feel I could kill quite a few birds with one stone. It will have newer engine, front and rear suspension, smaller crossmember no trailng arm, already have discs on the front and 80's aftermarket parts seem so easy to come by. Swaping body is very easy in my opinion. And I wanted to take the body off for paint anyways.

If you really want a custom frame that will lay really low, look into the aftermarket like TCI. You could buy a finished product for the same money (including labor) as building one from pieces. All the factory frames are simular in construction, don't think any will accomplish what you want with out heavy modifications,
Just my 2 cents,
Scott

1972 would be the latest chassis that would keep the wheelbase corrct. Anything later has a longer wheelbase.
I agree with the others, swapping out the crossmember on the existing frame will get you the disk brake/power steering upgrade, it isn't any bigger or smaller than the original, and out back it would be simply a case of replacing the coils with the bags. Since the cotrol arms connect forward of the axle centerline, notching the chassis shouldn't be as bad, no sping mounts to keep in line, and you wouldn't have to convert anything to make it work. One more thing, the rear suspension on the '60-'72 Chevy truck is identical to the suspension that's under every Nextel, Busch, and Craftsman truck Nascar racers. It'll go very low. Swapping the body will require fabricating all of the mounts, especially if you go with the '80s chassis, on top of the mods for the bags.