I have an odd situation with a crashed 2000 Ex. The rear section of the roof was crushed pretty bad, but the rest of the truck is repairable. I chopped the top off mainly for access to the interior and for a short while thought about "bobbing" it. I gave up on that due to time, or the lack of. I purchased another 00 with all the same features, sight unseen, but it was cheap. Shipped it on down (yes, I used UShip, as seen on tv). The problem is that this particular truck was a semi-northern truck and is rusty beyond expectations. Not the body, but everything else. I am using most of my existing driveline.

So here is the big question; would it be easier/better to just do a body swap since my Ex is nice and clean underneath or should I just pull all the stuff and install it into the rusty crusty salt mobile? The problem is that pulling the body is way more time consuming than I ever expected. I started on "my" truck today since its crashed and somewhat lighter, and I don't plan on scrapping the frame anyways. It took me all day and I still have brakes line and some electrical to disconnect. I don't have a lift, however I do have access to a large wrecker...

What say you?

 

I'd body swap it.

 

Side note:
The Misses just stole my iPad and was reading the post. She noticed (since I haven't updated my profile) my garage is empty and said " your garage is empty? That's a freaking lie". Too funny.

 

Is the body on the new one rusted/crusted underneath?

 

As far as I can tell its not too bad. The rust is mainly concentrated towards the front end. The guy started an engine pull and never finished. I wonder if maybe it sat for a while without the hood on it. The back has some rust, not as bad though. Mainly frame and components, no so much on the body.

 

I Would also go for the body swap. It shouldn't be that bad and you only need to lift up the body a few inches to roll out The old frame. You could piece back together the donor ex, re sell it and prolly get your money back! There is a thread on here where a user did a similar project. I cant find a link but it's called " swapping 02 7.3 into 02 v10 excursion" something along those lines! I hope that helps!

 

First body is off. Scary the way it was done, but it's done. The second one won't be so easy, and it's going to take me awhile..."should only have to lift it a few inches", funny. Engine is still mounted to the chassis, so it was more like 72 inches. Anyone looking to buy a complete, running chassis with 170000 miles( V10engine, trans, tcase, axle combo)? Everything, but the wheels...

 

Body swap is complete. Not a terrible job, but not real fun either. I would strongly recommend using a two post lift. I didn't, but it sure would have been nice. I'm just too impatient. The biggest problem I had was with some of the rusty components and rusty body bolts, the rest is just time consuming. There is a lot of stuff to disconnect and/or remove to complete the task. It's fairly simple to figure out what has to be removed, unplugged, or disconnected. Just take your time. I will say that if you're planning on doing this while the engine is still mounted to the chassis, the body needs to be at least 3.5 feet off the ground. 4 feet would be much better. I raised the body from the front and the rear, meaning the chassis had to slide out sideways (with the use of garage dollies), because the two lifts had me blocked in, so to speak. The chassis is heavy, even with the dollies under each wheel, it was hard to move around. Even harder was trying to line up the second chassis with 2000 pounds hanging over head (no, I never got directly under it, still kinda scary tho). There are 10 body bolts total, (4in the rear, 2 mid, 2 front, and then two in the engine bay) the ones in the mid section of the truck are the hardest to get to, unless you remove the seat and roll up the carpet.