Help - Suburban body swap

[jj936]

I want to take this body (silver, attached)



And put in on this chassis (yellow over tan, attached).



Very happy with the drivetrain on the second one - 6.5l Turbo Diesel, 3/4 ton, 4L80e, 4" lift - but haven't ever been thrilled about the exterior or interior color and condition. Found the donor on craigslist and picked it up for $1,250 delivered from Dallas to Stillwater, OK. It is a UCI Conversions Outrider. Relatively fresh paint, leather seating installed in the last couple of years. Interior panels are all in really good shape, and what I was looking for all along.

So, what are some concerns with doing the body swap that I should be aware of? Obviously a hole will have to be cut for the transfer case shifter. I have all new body mounts, a 1" body lift puck (need to create some more clearance for exhaust. Right now, the turbo just dumps directly on to the frame rail. It's probably possible to work with it as-is, but even an inch will help).

As far as the work, I have a buddy with a shop with a lift. Thinking of taking the body off the donor with the lift and rolling the chassis out. That makes the question - how to get the body off of the existing project vehicle. Forklift maybe? Disconnecting all wiring that goes from body to the frame/engine compartment/etc seems pretty obvious. Remove the front clip from both, or just do full body?

Any advice anyone can give is welcome. I think I did great on the donor body and interior and am ready to get closer to being fully done with the project!

 

[wakeup]

I did a full body swap on a k10 a few years ago. IMO it would be better to take the front clip off separately from the cab, but then again I was using a chain hoist not a lift.

Another thing to look at, as you mentioned, is transfer case and shifter clearance. If I'm not mistaken, the tunnel on the two wheel drives is actually smaller, as well as not having the cut out. I'm not sure how much smaller, but I had a 3 inch BL so it wasn't a problem. Your 1 inch may be enough but I'm really not sure(I did mine in high school over 10 years ago).

edit: Oh, I also removed the front bumper to make fitting easier without having to worry about scratching the fenders .

 

[sweetk30]

i did 2" body lift in my k30 cab swap with 2wd floor .

if you have acssess to a shop auto lift that will be 10 better as you can pick the whole tub up and just roll out /in the frames and set back down.


and as said before front clip off / bumper off . and lable the hell out of all wires / hoses / plugs on both doners to help in reassembly .

 

[63chevyll]

Should be pretty straight forward. But like everything else, I'm.sure you will find a few small.differences.

One problem I had was spinning bolts for the body mounts and had to cut an access hole in floor to hold nut

 

[scotto0609]

I did this 20 yrs ago,so let me chime in. Take the tranny hump and all the the metal @2" arounnd to include the bolts. Also take @ a foot back from the tranny hump ( I remember needing this and not having it)) Front clip off,and TRIPLE CHECk that all wires and fuel lines are disconnected. You are going to break things on dissassembly so try to fix/replace them before the new body is on. I believe you are going to need the diesel specific engine wiring harness at least. I would take everything possible from the diesel even if you use them just for spares. g'luck Scott

 

[6872xtc]

I would try to find a trailer to use for getting the first body off the lift. It would serve as a dolly to move it outside and thento the scrap yard or whatever after you get all that you need off of it. You could set it on the 2wd frame after yours is done.

 

[Teck]

That suburban looks very familiar. I know the owner of UCI and did all their tint work back in the day when conversions were big.