I have to opportunity to buy a 97 crew cab for 450$, good title, no rust or dents, has all 4 doors, good seats, floors, no door panels headliner or dash. I want to change all of those so its not even a loss. I want to know how hard it would be to mount onto my 85 regular cab long bed f250 4x4? Obviously ill need new cab mounts. I want to keep my 85 steering column and put an 87-91 dash in it and keep my 85 front clip but if keeping the 85 dash would be easier then I will. I want to get this done and then prepare for a cummins swap on the same truck after a few months. Money isn't an issue ATM.

 

Is it a f250/350 crew cab? I believe they carried the old body style a little longer on those trucks, so the body lines and frontend might match up. Mounting the crew-cab is going to be difficult, you will need to miss the kick in the frame on your truck behind the regular cab. That usually means using a body lift of some kind on the front mounts to lift the body high enough to miss the frame in the rear.

Not a easy project by any means.

 

I planned to do as minimal body lift as needed as I hate the looks of them. It is a OBS, all OBS from 97 were leftovers from 96 as I heard it and there was no true production 97/98 f350s. My friend said hell trade me a good 7.3/auto/tcase setup for the cummins setup and he's even got the harness, might do that downthe road idk, I want to do this CC swap. So asid from clearing the hump what other things do I have to worry about for the cab itself? This doesn't sound all that hard sofar except for custom cab mounts and a body lift(and normal body lift things).

 

Am I understanding this correctly, you want to mount a crew cab onto a regular cab frame??????????????????????????? WTF? What are you planning on doing with this project? What about the bed? your gonna have like a 4 ft bed, thats not a very big load of firewood.

 

I don't have to haul firewood... Like ever. All ill really need is to haul a cooler or 2 maybe and then occasionally my 4wheeler which is only like 4 foot wide. The truck is wide enough to where I can put it on it sideways.

 

That's the way all the trucks are going. They are people haulers more than the old way of thinking where a pickup was made to haul stuff.

I challenge you to try and buy a new regular cab 8 ft bed pickup. The only ones you can buy are the fleet type that are stripped down with the black bumpers. All the nice trucks with all the bells and whistles are all 4 door type trucks now.

 

Well a lot of what your describing is just more space, regular cab vs crew cab is basically the same as 6.75 or 5f bed vs 8ft bed: more space. The guy with the cab offered me a crew cab frame for 100$ if I buy the cab, he just has to get the existing cab off.

 

Its a damn shame too! Thats why i don't drive a new pickup, first off they are grossly overpriced and second, they aren't made for work anymore, and finally they are almost impossible to work on in the comfort of your own driveway! But more power to the PO, not knocking your project, I am happy you are working with one of these old trucks. I'm just ole skool, and was trying to understand.

 

Oh I totally understand where your coming from thoughts wise. Just being 16 its not like I can even legally get a job driving in florida practically, and actually, if I had my choice I would be on a farm in the middle of no where workin sun up to sun down. I see a crew cab as more space, and MANY times so far I've run out of room using my grandmas exploder in about every way possible, and you can only hide 2 cases of beer behind the seat LOL(you didn't read that). I also love the way the crews look honestly.

 

I miss my ole crew cab, and am kicking myself everyday for selling it



One day I might run across another one and ****** it up.

 

Ooo bullnose crew lol, that's yet another reason I want a crew is I want to keep the bullnose front and have a bullnose crew as I feel they look the best of them all and they are rare.

 

I would get the frame that fits it also. But that's just me. You need to have a eye for these things if you are going to build a custom truck. What are you going to do for the bed? If the proportions are off, it never looks "right".

 

The frame is a 97 CClb frame and the cab is a 97 CCLB 4x4(or was). I'm going to the machinery auction and ill see of I wind up buying something there lol, next Saturday that is. There's a few crewcabs up for sell there.

 

i have a 92 CC dually 2wd, love the space, and have pondered how i would love a CC F250 4x4 with a shortbox. my dually serves as a great interstate cruising tow rig tho.

 

Well a dually was meant to tow after all. My dad has an 01 f250 CCSB, he's got a toolbox and he still can carry his 4 wheeler in the bed if he wants to but usually just tows a trailer. That 1.25 feet you lose with a short box isn't really a lot.