79 front clip on 83 frame/body

[gibby2268]

Recently acquired a 79 dirt cheap, had most of a long block in it, needs ALOT of body work on the rear (floors, driver's side rear quarter, doors, tailgate, rockers, basically EVERYTHING! ) Anyway, I ran across a good 305 tbi and a donor car, dropped that motor in and just got it running, and was just beginning to think about diving in on the body when I ran across another 83 for cheap that had a good rear body just needs the front clip/motor. The front end of mine is the one thing thats pretty good so I was thinking of swapping the motor and front end over to the 83. So how hard is this gonna be? The 83 has nothing forward of the firewall other than the motor. I would also have to swap the streering column/box. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[muddybuddy]

http://coloradok5.com/grilleswap.shtml

tha might help a lil. there is some info bout the older fronts in there

 

[pauly383]

The 79 has a hood that goes all the way to the window , the 83 stops before the window with a panel between the hood and window .

You need to cut holes in the 79 cowl for the hood hinges . the 83 has hinges on the cowl and linkage with coil spring on the hood .

 

[dyeager535]

Not sure all of what the article covers, but I know the core support bushings changed between the years, and not sure how you'd work around the cowl issue.

If you found an '83 truck good enough to buy, and cheap, I imagine if you keep your eyes open, an '81+ front clip shouldn't be too hard to find either.

 

[beater_k20]

You need to cut holes in the 79 cowl for the hood hinges . the 83 has hinges on the cowl and linkage with coil spring on the hood .

you've got it mixed up Pauly. the '83 has the slots in the cowl, the '73-'80 hinges bolt to the fenders. remove '83 front clip, cowl panel, and wiper mech. install wiper mech from '79. then use '81+ core support bushings under the '79 core support and bolt the front clip on. install the hood, and you're done, your '83 now looks like a '79. headlight wiring may very well plug right into the firewall connector (my '82 did to a '79 clip)

you may want to patch the slots for the hinges, as they are a direct opening to the vents in the kick panel.

 

[pauly383]

you've got it mixed up Pauly. the '83 has the slots in the cowl, the '73-'80 hinges bolt to the fenders. remove '83 front clip, cowl panel, and wiper mech. install wiper mech from '79. then use '81+ core support bushings under the '79 core support and bolt the front clip on. install the hood, and you're done, your '83 now looks like a '79. headlight wiring may very well plug right into the firewall connector (my '82 did to a '79 clip)

you may want to patch the slots for the hinges, as they are a direct opening to the vents in the kick panel.

The truck in my garage is 70's , and has the 80's hood hinges on it . They flopped around in the p/o's homemade hole . So I welded em tighter , burning the seals but its a truggy . I am going to use a skinned hood with through bolts on the 80's hinges .

The hinges on the 77 in my garage look just like the hinges on my 83 . except for the weird homemade plasma type cutter holes .

I am going to go home and look at the 78 in the backyard tonight (unmolested cowl ) and comapre it to my 83 ..... since I am going off memory , I didn't work on the truggy all blistering summer

 

[gibby2268]

Thanks guys, this is exactly the kind of stuff I was needing to know.

 

[sinner4]

Was looking do the same thing, but on a 2 wheel drive 78' frame and a 83' sheetmetal. The frame has different measurements for the core support. I cant remember what the differences were.

Not only the hood and cowl differences, the cabs are a little different, where the hood hinges are.

The best and fastest, is the same years frame and sheet metal swap

 

[beater_k20]

the hinge and spring on the 73-80s are one piece (i just took the hood off of my 77 the other day), where the 81+ have a separate hinge and spring, the hinge bolting to the cowl as previously mentioned, and the springs bolting to the fenders.

 

[beater_k20]

here you can see the hinges, as they fit into the cowl on my 86.

 

[beater_k20]

my 82, you can kind of see the spring bolted to the fender, and the hinge in the extended position (at the top of the pic, the triangular piece is the boot that goes around the slot that the hinge recesses into)


i'll try to remember to snap some pics of the hinges on my 77 next time i have the hood off, if someone doesnt beat me to it.