Body Swap
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New User
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 14
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Body Swap
I have a 69 perfect body and bed no p/s or brakes 3 on the tree. I just bought a 71 with p/s power disk brakes auto trans. NEWLY REBUILT 351 W rebuilt trans,and rear axle. Cab and bed was removed fom frame .Frame stripped and painted,all new brake lines and bushings front end completely rebuilt.I want to know if it would be more work to remove both bodys and put my 69 on the 71 frame or more work to strip everything off 71 and put on my 69 ? The 71 body is rough and the guy got burned out and low on money so what would be easyest and cheapest to pay someone to do?
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,815
Likes: 248
From: Piney Woods of East Texas
The cab swap is not difficult, but there are a lot of little things that have to happen. Every thing will move a cross. The 67-72 models have connectors (electrical) under the hood to disconnecting the cab from the rest of the truck. This is a source of electrical problems. There are 4 bolts that hold the cab to the frame. If you have AC you will need to recover the freon and recharge once swapped over. heater hoses, controls, petal disconnects, front clip, bed ..... The steering column is different between manual and PS. If your does not have disk brakes you will need to either swap the spindles or the complete I beams. The cab weighs around 500lbs, more if the doors are on. Just to give you an idea of what is involved. It is time consuming to do.
Other who have done it may be able to give you a time estimate on the swap.
Other who have done it may be able to give you a time estimate on the swap.
Fleet Owner
Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 24,552
Likes: 74
From: Creedmoor, North Carolina
Micheal, I might suggest that if you have a place to lift the cab and roll the chassis out and the other under I would thing long and hard about doing that. I would take the two bolts out of the core support and the four from the cab and lift it all in one piece. That way there is no re-aligning of the finders to the cab.
You can do this lifting with straps without damaging the paint.
If you got more questions fire away.
John
You can do this lifting with straps without damaging the paint.
If you got more questions fire away.
John
Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,724
Likes: 1
From: Butler, IN
Here are some pictures if you are interested when you get to lifting the cab. It worked for me. There are other ways but this was the only way available to me.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...4x4-frame.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...4x4-frame.html
