four door 1/2 ton

Clod_King · Jan 15, 2006

hey guys, i have a chevy scottsdale 1/2 ton pickup, with an 8' bed (I believe). I want to know if I can put a four door cab off of a 3500 onto a 1/2 ton. i want to bel able to bring buddy's along when I go offroading, and sitting 4 in the front bench is getting annoying. can this be done?

WhiteBurb · Jan 15, 2006

I'm sure it can be done. You may have to fabricate some body mounts or something, and shorten the bed. You can do just about anything with enough money and skills.

sledheadak · Jan 15, 2006

here is a pic of one

beater_k20 · Jan 15, 2006

should actually help balance the weight bias of the truck better too, make for a more stable rig all around.

dhcomp · Jan 15, 2006

Since so many guys are swapping 3/4 and 1 ton stuff to their 1/2 tons, take the smart route and just start with a 1 ton if that is the body style you want.

Seems like less work....even if you shorten teh wheelbase....

Clod_King · Jan 16, 2006

I don't really want the length of a one ton. the four doors are usually quite QUITE long from what i have seen. I mean going on the trail is one thing, but imagine parallel parking one of those bad boys. plus i do not have to money to buy a complete well working 1 ton truck. only a parts truck. but say i did find a 1 ton with a suitable body.... wouldn't all the mounts be right there for me to steal off the frame anyways?

or could somebody who owns and 1 ton please take some pictures of the bracket locations and post them/email them to me. I did not pay to be a member yet, so i cannot open any files on the forum.

dremu · Jan 16, 2006

Clod_King said:
hey guys, i have a chevy scottsdale 1/2 ton pickup, with an 8' bed (I believe). I want to know if I can put a four door cab off of a 3500 onto a 1/2 ton. i want to bel able to bring buddy's along when I go offroading, and sitting 4 in the front bench is getting annoying. can this be done?

Just to note, in this thread I see "one ton" when people mean "crew cab." They are not the same thing

You can get a single cab in a 1-ton, and there are nominal 3/4 ton crewcabs, in 73-87.

What you mean to say is "Can I put a crewcab cab on my single cab frame", and the answer is "you'll have to fab rear mounts and do creative things with the bed."

-- A

Clod_King · Jan 16, 2006

okay so here is my problem.... this is my daily driver, and i do all my work on the driveway, with no garage. and on top of that I do not own a welder, but i do know how to weld. are single cab frames much different from four door frames? this would help me out alot.

my other option is to take a bench seat out of a van (the removable kind, with floor brackets and such) and cut and weld the brackets to the bed of the pick up. i think that would be easier, but the winter time will be no good.

and a question for someone further north with a soft top..... how cold is it with one of those on in the winter time?

beater_k20 · Jan 16, 2006

as was stated before, if you want a crewcab, buy a crewcab. dont like the wheelbase? cut the spring hangers from the frame, move them forward, drill some holes, and bolt em up. its MUCH easier to shorten an existing crewcab than it is to fab body mounts.

resurrected_jimmy · Jan 16, 2006

beater_k20 said:
as was stated before, if you want a crewcab, buy a crewcab. dont like the wheelbase? cut the spring hangers from the frame, move them forward, drill some holes, and bolt em up. its MUCH easier to shorten an existing crewcab than it is to fab body mounts.

Go this route, if you already have a working drivetrain then find a crewcab truck that needs your eng/trans/axles..... beater_k20 is right, knocking a couple feet out of the frame is going to be easier than trying to mount a crewcab on a singlecab frame

RootBreaker · Jan 17, 2006

beater_k20 said:
as was stated before, if you want a crewcab, buy a crewcab. dont like the wheelbase? cut the spring hangers from the frame, move them forward, drill some holes, and bolt em up. its MUCH easier to shorten an existing crewcab than it is to fab body mounts.

I disagree 100% with your logic... if all you want from a truck is whatever you can buy, swap parts and beat on... go ahead....

I actually enjoy ripping my truck apart.. I have had it since 1989 and it has gone through many transformations... from auto to stick, d60 front, 3 body swaps, 3 motor swaps and alot more....

so I am in the same boat... my wife is pregnant with our second child.... we have been tryingh for a while... :bow:

Love practice :haha:

anyhow... a friend was over and said... so Jeff... you , julie and bryan fit in your truck.. guess you gotta sell it or buy a 4 door... I laughed so hard... and she said... oh ****... and julie was like... yeah I dont know what but he will do something as the truck will not go.... that is my girlfriend and she will never go.... :wink1:

so I told her this summer my goal is to find a crew cab and drop it on my frame, cut my bed down and put bucket seats in the front thus a 5 seater!!!!!

she said still easier to sell it... and I reitterated (sp?) this is my hobbie.. not only can I say... I work on it I can say... Definitely built not bought....

how hard is it going to be??? not much at all.. well gotta find a cab... then find the frame in a junkyard and cutoff the mounts... weld/bolt on the new ones on my frame and bolt it down... cut the bed....

this is my summer project.. right before summer im putting vortec heads, vortec dual plane intake and a comp cams xtreme 4x4 cam in.......got all the parts.... so do that then onto the crew cab....

I SAY DO IT!!!!

kgblazerfive · Jan 17, 2006

Don't do it unless you have his same commitment the worst problem that people have is getting so far into a project that there is no end. Then they give up on it and volla some one here bought your junk for a screaming deal and got a new project. Get a running vehicle that you want and keep it running while you do the work.

Clod_King · Jan 17, 2006

okay there have been a great deal of input, but I cannot simply own two vehicles. I live in an old cottage community, the maximum parking for my house is two vehicles. my dad's and my truck, and it barely fits in the driveway. there is a "community parking lot" out back, but it would be very silly of me to try and park a truck bigger then the one I already own out back or in my driveway. space is cramped in my area, not kidding, my neighbors evees-trough is touching my house.

plus I am attached to scotty, so I cannot just get rid of him. maybe i will just put the bench in the bed and give my buddy's a blanket. hahahaha

steve_kibbe · Jan 17, 2006

Here some more inspiration

Clod_King · Jan 18, 2006

those trucks still look mighty long. I want scotty to be shorter as it is, I mean k5 short (or dare I say... shorter...)

mobydick · Jan 18, 2006

Clod_King said:
those trucks still look mighty long. I want scotty to be shorter as it is, I mean k5 short (or dare I say... shorter...)

Alright man put down the crack pipe and go look at a pic of a K5. The rear wheel well starts about 6 inches behind the door. (the only door I might add.) For you to get in four doors you are talking about a suburban wheel base. Suprisingly enough on a suburban the rear wheel well starts about 6 inches behind the second door. SO if you really want a short as possible four door, quit screwing around with the trucks. After all a crew cab long bed has a much longer wheel base. Which ever truck you go with you are going to have to mess with the frame, (other than just cutting it off.) Go buy and old, pre 91, burb. Bob the frame right behind the rear spring mounts, cut a section of the body out and re-weld the rear door assembly back on so that it matches the shortened frame and viola, you have the shortest possible four door rig. Want an open bed? Thats gonna be more body work but I would still start with a suburban. The cool thing is you could drop a rear wall in behind the second seat and cut the roof off behind that and turn the existing rear floor and body side walls into your bed. Oh btw, you want a scottsdale/utility version without the rear seat. They dont have a foot well back there so the floor deck comes all the way up to the back of the second row of seats.

Damn, now that I have thought of this I want one. :doah:

K5-newf · Jan 18, 2006

a local here got a crew cab thats got a box choped in half to fit im not sure if its just a crew cab on a samller chassie or if he knocked a few feet of the chassis next time i sees it around i'll try to get pic of it and find away to post since im not able to post pics

dremu · Jan 18, 2006

Clod_King said:
those trucks still look mighty long. I want scotty to be shorter as it is, I mean k5 short (or dare I say... shorter...)

Well, those are regular long-bed crewcabs, which, for 73-91, is the only way you could get a crewcab.

For reference, there are a few different frame sizes:

K5 have 106.5" wheelbase and are 184.5" long overall, according to GM.

A shortbed pickup is 117.5" WB and 191.5" LOA, i.e. just slightly larger than the K5.

Burb is 129.5" WB and 218.5" LOA -- bloody great rear overhang on these, i.e. the rear axle is waaay forward in the "bed" as opposed to a PU or K5.

Longbed PU is 131.5" WB (only slightly longer than a Burb) and yet ~212" LOA, because they only have the one seat.

Crewcab monsters are 164.5" WB ( :eek:

) and 244.5" LOA.

You could put a crewcab cab onto any chassis, I think, except a K5, with varying amounts of space for a "bed" ... I think a small flatbed would be best, at that point. I don't see a crewcab cab fitting onto a K5 chassis as, as others have pointed out, the rear doors would want to infringe upon the space occupied by the rear axle.

You could, if you were a sheetmetal genius, fold in the wheelwell like the four-door Tahoes do ... but that's crazy work.

-- A

beater_k20 · Jan 18, 2006

dremu said:
Well, those are regular long-bed crewcabs, which, for 73-91, is the only way you could get a crewcab.

look again... they're shortbeds.

muddybuddy · Jan 18, 2006

so what frame would the white/yellow truck be on? a shortened crewcab frame?

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