I picked up a 05 Salvage/insurance rebuild for purposes of using myself. Its specs are as follows:

05 4WD, crew cab short bed, lariat
116k miles, diesel, auto

It was hit on the passenger outside the frame rail and shoved an oversized 35" tire up into the cab and busted the blower motor and housing. blew the air bags, trashed the bumper, and bent the passenger control arm bracket. And a power steering gearbox. It bent the passenger front wheel, and appeared to bend the front axle a bit. From first appearances, it really appeared no frame damage and I emphasize "appears".

I've done lots of jeep salvage rebuilds before so I certainly aware of all the possibilities of gotchas and all the things you find after you get it home. Certainly aware of titles all that. But this has been my first full size truck rebuild. The idea was to have a bit lower mileage truck, for a little less money and have it of course paid for in cash etc being full aware it had a salvage title etc.

Got it home, and got another front axle and replace it and the control arm bracket. got some air bags, all the parts, and got it drivable again. started right up after the pump reset. Did not replace the air bags, but went to get front end aligned, and noticed that by the time I got the all size tires mounted, the rear axle was not tracking correctly.

I've had it to 3 different frame places and none of them yet to have actually put it on the frame rack and spec/measure it out. All three not energetic to work on it because it isn't insurance work so just getting a bit irritated at the whole thing. About to just give up and replace the frame with another used one. So, the questions about that are:

a. found a 06 F350 crew cab/4x4 frame w/ diesel engine. This truck is a F250. From several postings, everyone mostly is saying that the frame is identical,its the running gear below that.. ITs actually about $125 cheaper but know if its worth the risk having something slightly off for mounting.

b. actually considering do the swap myself at our shop. I don't have a car hoist/lift but we do have a 5000 lb forklift. thoughts?

c. If the body is going to be off the frame, and this is a virgin 6.0 engine, worth to go ahead and do the head studs and EGR delete while the cab is off?

d. if we do it in our shop, and remove the bed, then cab. Can the complete front clip just be left on the cab? IE hood, fenders, grill, etc all left on the cab and just pull it off all together? But assume the cab has to be lifted fairly high to clear the motor and roll the chassis out from under it

My biggest challenge I think would be getting the cab removed. i think I can handle transferring over the motor/engine/xfer case and axles if they are sitting side by side.

am I nuts, or should I pay someone $2500 to do this?

 

Pay it.
By the time you finished it you would have wished you did.

 

Why won't a frame shop rack it up and pull it if it isn't insurance?

Sent from my Telegraph using IB AutoGroup

 

two of the places basically flat out told me they were going to put anything that was insurance work ahead of this because it pays more and they get more business from the insurance companies. This even after they told me that it would go up on the rack but never did. Both of those places did tell me they could pull it but never measured on it or anything.

3rd place guy just visually looked at it without even measuring or putting on rack and said it was diamonded and didn't want to touch it. and recommended replacing it.

In the long run, if I'm end up keeping the truck, replacing the frame is going to be better option just sucks because I wasn't planning on having to replace it vs having it pulled.

 

it looks great.. just doesn't track..

 

anyone confirm or deny that would be a valid frame swap candidate?

06 156" wheelbase F350. I don't think the donor is a dually but would it even matter?

Found one that was a cab fire..supposedly not paint scorched or anything for $500..

 

Frame width difference.

 

Chassis cab trucks are narrower at the rear from behind the cab I believe.

 

F250 and f350 are 100% interchangeable. Just make sure it's the same wheelbase and cab config

The 250 and 350 is just a numbers game for

 

Yes, frames are interchangeable--

250/350/SRW/DRW DOES NOT MATTER

Chassis cab vs truck with bed DOES MATTER- you don't want a chassis cab frame