First off let me say this is a great site. I have been reading it for a couple of years on and off, but this is My first time posting.

My latest project is a 1983 f-series 4x4, I guess it's a f-100, but has F-150 emblems on the fenders, altough they could be from another truck. Anyway It originally came with a 6cyl, and manual tranny. The motor was swapped with somewhere around a 87 302. The harness was rigged to work with the motor instead of that being swapped from the correct truck to fit the motor. It runs good, tranny and all the drive train works on the truck, but some of the body has seen better days.

I found a 84 2wd with automatic, and v8 stock, for 400 bucks at a salvage yard, and I can pull everything I want off the truck, so they can dispose of what I don't use. Motors blown, but everything else minus carb and bed is there, still stock, and is in excellent condition (even the ac looks complete). I stripped the doors & front clip already.

My 83 4x4 cab needs a windshield, and other various parts, but the rockers, and door tree on the driverside are rusted out with a poor fiberglass job done before it was painted. to make things worse the drip edge on the roof is starting to rot, so I know what's coming from that indication.

The cab on the 84 2wd looks to be perfect and can't see any major rust at all. the rockers are very solid good windshield, decent interior, the whole 9 yards.

The problem is the parts truck is a 3 hour round trip away from Me, so I want to maximize My time pulling parts from it to bring back.

I have access to a trailer, and wondering If I should just pull the cab and do a swap. I guess I know it's possible to swap, but what Kind of problems may I run into?

I know I'll have to switch My pedal & clutch assembly out, possibly the steering colum, and might even have to cut a few holes to except the 4x4 stuff on My 83.

Is there any other stuff that may cause problems, and do you fella's even think It's worth the effort to do this swap? The cab is very nice on the 84, and basically needs no body work except for the paint job to match when I get to that point in time, altough I may would treat the floors with something as a precaution.

Also I still need to find and run the vin #'s, but If the v8 turns out to be a 302 will the harness work with the motor in My 83? The 83 (87 motor I think) just has an edlelbrock carb with duro-spark ign. I believe. Return lines & any emissions are even missing or shot out, and not too much original left that's still in good shape, however the 84 componets are nice & solid.

I'm basically wondering what others would do in this situation, and what to look out for if I decide to just go with the cab swap? Should I just strip the cab, try to cut the rockers and other parts to patch the old one, or is the entire swap more feasable in this situation? also It took a impact to get the radiator support off, and that barely moved the nuts for the full lenth of the threads on the 2 mount bolts, should I expect the cab mounts to be that hard to get off also?

My appologies for all the questions here, but alot on My mind, and want to make sure I pull everything I might need while the getting is good.

Thanks Guys,
Greg C

 

It would be easier for me to swap the cabs. I am not too fond of body work. I would see if you couldn't bring the whole truck home, that way you will have everything you need. If they want the frame for the scrap metal, you could always bring it back when you were done. Your clutch pedal assembly should bolt into the new cab, and I don't know if the T-case lever hole will be there, but there should be a stamping on the floor to let you know where to cut.

If your motor is still carbed, there shouldn't have been much if anything to splice. The PO should have been able to drop in the original distributor and everything should have plugged right up. If it has an aftermarket intake, it was probably easier to lose the smog junk.

 

Thank You sir,

Yes both trucks are carb, My old 83 has just had the harness chopped up & in bad shape. they also added an electric fuel pump run straight off the fuse panel instead of installing a relay, and I guess they (PO) had to modify the harness from the ecu/ecm to dist. because it has been taped up. they did a 6cyl to v8 conversion. Some of the harness was dry rotted also, but I have since replaced alot of the running light sockets and wiring already. My truck has also been modified with a single tank, but has a short bed with both filler doors on it, and the 84 has duel tanks that look like they are in reallly good condition, so I may pull all that also.

The motor in My truck now has no emissions, and we have no test here, but I still need the correct valve covers, because it still has the fuel injected versions on It, also need to find out if it's a roller motor, and If I need to worry about clearing the rockers with the covers. I rebuilt the edelbrock that was on it, and have a brand new one just in case I need it. The 84 parts truck has most everything there stock, except the carb had been pulled already. If it were still there, I may have just tried to switch intakes and go with the stock carb on It. The valve covers and pcv stuff is still there, so I may be able to salvage some of that to set up some sort of positive crankcase pressure for the edelbrock, but not sure if the valve covers will work. I'm still not even positive that it's a 302, but they told me it was 5.0L so I'm just assuming, and still need to run the #'s to be sure, because I'm not sure what all signs to look for to tell for Myself.
I was just going to strip whatever I can and bring It back with me, but may take a few more trips. Sad part they offered to tow it to me for 75 bucks, which considering the distance sounds very reasonable, but where I live you can't have a unregistered vehicle in your yard, and no room in My garage to store the whole truck. I'd hate to bother a buddy with storing My junk in his yard.
Oh My motor now also has the tubes coming out of the back of the heads, so I have to figure out what to do with those also.
There's alot of work there to do, and I don't want to waste My time with a rusted out cab, so I'm seriously considering the swap.
Thanks for the info.