C20 to K30 Body Transfer

[jaydude132]

Hey Guys! This is my first thread and first post on this forum! I hope you guys can help me out!

I am getting ready to switch from 2wd to 4wd. I am picking up an 87 K30 from a friend on friday with no bed, rusty cab/fenders, but good solid 4x4 driveline with the TBI454 (although i am putting my 6.2 in place of the 454 after a rebuild of the 6.2 over winter. Better fuel economy, and im a diesel guy). I have an 83 C20 with a pretty decent body. It has a bit of rust along the rear wheel wells, like on the bedside, but very solid cab and front clip.

Anyway.... Let me get to the point already! I did a quick search but was unable to find the answer to my question.

Does anyone know if i am able to just unbolt the entire front clip - cab/fenders/inner fenders/core supt - as one large unit and (somehow) just lift it over my engine (assuming the engine is the highest point i'd need to clear)? This would be very nice, and at a quick glance i dont see why this would not work, unless of course the way it is mounted would prevent me from doing so or whatever. The reason i ask is because when the time comes to take off the fenders, i'm worried i will never get them to fit the same again. Even marking down all the mounting points via a marker outline, i can still foresee me having problems trying to get it lined up again just right when i go to reassemble. Heck, i have a hard enough time getting hoods to line back up perfect!

This is my first time pulling the body apart at all, or on any vehicle. I will say though, i am pretty well mechanically inclined and can work well with my hands and know for the most part what im getting into. So dont worry, i wont be ruining a good classic truck! :wink:

If you guys have any other pointers as well, i would really appreciate it. As far as i know, swapping the bodies on these is fairly straight forward. 8 bed-to-frame bolts, 4(?) cab-to-frame bolts, and 2(?) core support mounting bolts. And besides that, just unhooking some wiring, lights, fuel hoses, hydraboost, radiator hoses, so on and so forth...

Sorry to be so long-winded!

Thanks for any pointers!
-Jason

[jim_in_dorris]

I think that the hardest part will be lifting it as one large unit. Taking everything loose should be easy, then when you go to lift it, if you forget anything it will be obvious. The thing to do is to try it on the old body first, then you will know what kind of problems you will have. And if you mess up, you lost nothing. The entire front clip should line up perfectly as far as factory mounts go. Just be careful not to tweak the entire front clip by not supporting it adequately when you do this.

[454cid]

I wouldn't want to do it that way unless I had a really good way to lift it, like an overhead gantry crane. You don't want to bend something or drop it. Take it apart and clean it up, and reassemble on the new frame.

[jaydude132]

Thanks for the input! I think i will just take the whole thing apart then. My other theory was to use a cherry picker, put the boom through the window, and attach it to chains mounted to the floor of the cab in an 'x' shape. Then, take off only the core support but leave the fenders on, and lift the cab up. and slide it off the back of the truck so i dont have to clear the engine with the core support. It depends on how i decide to lift up the cab.

If i lift the cab from under it using 4x4s (taking off the entire front clip), will the rockers get crushed? I read somewhere else that would happen. But i have a feeling if i would make some support braces to run along the rockers - and perpendicular to the 4x4s running under the cab - that the weight would be distributed enough as to not crush the rockers. Also, i have very solid rockers, not rusty in the least bit.

-Jason

[dalaigh]

I'd take off the parts before lifting it. To much of a chance that something will get caught or crushed.

An easy way of making sure thing line up is to take a small drill bit and drill a small hole into the area near the body bolt. That way when you put everything back together you just need to put the drill bit back in to line it up.

Also keep in mind that the 2wd and 4x4 cabs are different. The 4x's have a higher transmission hump that is removeable. A quick fix is a 2" body lift, or you can cut the hump out and fab a higher one for the 2wd cab to fit the 4x4 transfer case

[jaydude132]

Thanks for the tip!

Also, both trucks have the SM465 tranny, and my C20 has the large hump already. Only thing is, i don't have the opening for the 4wd. So luckily i can just swap the humps out from the 4wd cab to the 2wd cab. Actually, i think my tranny hump in the C20 may have come from a 4wd truck originally because there is a piece of metal plate welded and bolted in place on the rear portion of the hump (and i know it was not because of a rust issue). The C20 was a fleet truck for most of its life, so there were quite a few things that were messed with before i got my hands on it.

Thanks again
Jason

[jaydude132]

Another question for you guys. Working at a pretty moderate pace, would you think it out of the question to be able to disassemble and lift the cab off of the K30 (no bed to take care of) and disassemble and lift the cab off the C20 (interior already out, just need to unbolt fenders, core support, unhook fuel lines, wiring, clutch assembly, and remove the hydraboost) and just get it sitting on the frame of the K30 in a days time? I'd say probably a good 12-14 hour day of working on it. I realize this question may not be easily answered, but basically im just wondering if you thinks its possible to swap the cab off of my C20 and just get it sitting on the frame of the K30 in that amount of time. I always try and judge how long a project will take me before i start, and it never fails that it always takes me twice as long to complete as anticipated! :rolleyes:

EDIT: Also, i will not be the only one working on this. I will be disassembling one truck while my brother works on the other. If you guys have experience with this, let me know how long it took you.