SO! Anyone know if this will work? If so any particular year that works best? Pure desperation forcing me to try to kick start my project before I run out of money and time! Appreciate ANY help or advice!! All I wanna do is drive my car.........
Why do that? The early 50s mopar frames are factory boxed, Beefy and have a decent ifs just swap the rearend for something More modern and rebuild the ifs or clip it with something else but You dont need to swap the whole chassis...
Your about to get a shit storm of no's... Most are saying that from a traditional stand point, which is correct from a certain frame of mind. I will say no simply because it looks like you have a complete buildable car from your avatar pict, and swaping out a full chassis would be much more work, time, and money than building what you have. Most seem to think that you can just pop a body off of a given chassis and set it on another and go... Aint gonna happen. There is always something that is going to trip this deal up, whether it is the shape and reshaping of the floor, or the most common, hanging the front sheet metal and bumpers and such. Oh, and engine posistion too. by the time it all adds up, you have spent more time and money than just building from the chassis you have already. If someone dropped an early fifties Dodge body in my yard with no chassis or underpinnings of any sort, and it was a clean buildable body that was worth doing something with, I honestly might look at an S-10 chassis as a base. Taking it off a usable chassis that it fits in my opinion is going backwards.
Floor and trunk rotted out. Chassis needs work. A lot of work. I'm now on a tight schedule and budget.
Thanks man! I was just looking for advice from guys who knew their stuff on here. It was a suggestion that popped up in a conversation so I thought I'd ask around. Appreciate your honest input.
Yes it can be done. But you will regret it later. Chassis swaps don't magically make things easier.A chasis swap also won't make repairing the floors easier. Take your time, research what you have and if it's worth spending the money you have to fix what you own. Sell it, save your money and buying something when you have more time and money. EDIT- I assumed you are putting a truck on the frame. Putting a car body on an S-10 would be a nightmare.
S-10/Dakota/Ranger frame swaps are sort of like masterbating. If you do it, well that's your business, but damn don't show me. I do NOT want to watch.
Go over here their are a few guys in your area that are parting some out and i am sure one of them will have a good frame. as far as the floors you will need to cut them out and redo them anyway even if you do the S10 swap. http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2
If you really want to have it on the road as fast and cheap as possible keep the original chassis. What is wrong with it anyways? In stock form it already has a good IFS, and about the best brakes of its time. Replace worn out parts, including a new set of shocks, have an alignment done and you are ready to rock and roll. Parts are available and they are not even expensive.