Has anyone ever tried to transplant a unibody truck on a 4x4 frame of the same year? I saw a 4x4 on craigslist & thought it would make a cool looking unibody, but didn't know if it would match up very good. Probably wouldn't be too practical to actually use it for off roading, because of the twisting of the whole truck.

 

Man, I ve thought about doing something like this for a long time. I ve always wanted to build a retro Mercury unibody type thing.
The only difficult part is what meets the eye, and that is the unibody construction and how to keep it from twisting like a pretzel when the frame twists right?
Yup, thats it, keep the frame from twisting, by making it more rigid. Full tube cages can be fine as well as some added crossmembers. Things should be just fine.
After all, Broncos did not have an seems in the body like a truck, nor does the excursion, so this is not so far fetched.

 

What were you planning to use for the unibody?

I mean.. as Ed said, it would be do-able.. not sure how practical.. but i'm sure if you make the frame more rigid you wouldn't have many if any problems.

 

Was there any design changes with the Uni-body's. (from the factory?) Changes that might allow to uni/full body vehicles flex. Reason I ask is that I have heard lots of talk of problems where a uni-bodied truck was made(cab and bed welded together) Yet the Bronco runs on basically the same frame as a F150 and has no problems.

 

Broncos do bend. When I was cycling the suspension of this SAS truck, I bent the body and wrinkled the rear quarter. Bummer too because I know tha truck had more flex in it.
Have a full cage twisted up for it, I just have to tie it into the frame. Should make it rigid enough to manage.

 

[QUOTE=Prozon;8168017]What were you planning to use for the unibody?

I probably would not take it off-road myself, after I put all that work into it, I mean this unibody I'm working on is a very presentable truck (not show quality) and I would not want to beat it up. But if it was on a 4x4 set-up, someone else might try it someday, so I would want it to be able to handle it. Mine is a short bed, so it wouldn't flex as much as the long bed. I know that the main reason they stopped making unibodys, is that they were not stiff enough for heavy loads, so they obviously would need beefed up somehow. Trouble is, I'm not a fabricator, so I wouldn't have a clue where to add bracing.

 

Adding crossmembers would help to make it more sturdy. That kind of thing.

As for the post you replied to;
I did not mean what were you going to use it for, but what body were you using.
Hope that clears it up.

 

Do you have any pictures of the cage? Always wanted to make a 4 door bronco but have been worried about the joint from crew cab and bronco back

 

Oh yeah, I guess I missread that! You meant SWB or LWB.

 

I want details. Everything lol.