Hi, I'm new here, and here's my situation I've got a 62 c10, which has an excellent rust-free Oakland Ca built cab, but a previous owner back in the 1980s here in British Columbia swapped in a 73 C10 frame, which has power steering, power brakes, sbc power, 12 bolt rear diff with posi. the running gear setup is good, but I never liked having the Square body frame underneath, never looked right, nothing would really fit and still required extensive modifications just to make it pass for stock. as it turned out the Square body frame was severely rotted, and it would be a herculean task to fix the rust holes and it was a setup I never really liked to start with, but with 60-63 c10s being extremely scarce here in BC, let alone Canada and one that is not rusted away to nothing. I bought a 71 c10 frame and I am going to transplant the 73 running gear into the 71 frame and swap it under the 62. My question is what has to be done to make a 67-72 frame fit under a 60-62 cab? people do it all the time with 63-66 frames and ironically more resources exist to swap a Square body frame under a 60-66 so what has to be done? My main concern is cab and bed mounts as I know there was a slight difference from 60-62 to 63-72. I've got all the mounts required, 60-62 front cab mounts.
Never understood frame swapping a 60-66 c10 on the 73 up chassis. Probably the easiest chassis to modify and huge aftermarket support. The “newer” GM parts swap easily on the older chassis
I personally don't agree with the Square body frame on a 60-66. that's the way it was when I bought it and in Canada 60-63s are very scarce and difficult to find rust free, now add in that 60-62 frames are so rare. I just want to know what I'm up against to swap in the 67-72 frame which I'm told is very close to a 63-66 frame, I've got all the pieces to this puzzle just didn't come with any instructions
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/60-66-chevy-frame-swap-questions.637183/ Probably fits the OT forum
Personally, I would never attempt a late model chassis swap under an old car/truck. With the availability in today's aftermarket, there are so many options to upgrade the stock chassis, why make it exponentially harder on one's self? I would find a decent, later 1st Gen C10 frame ('63-66, non-torsion bar) and make the upgrades you're trying to get with the later chassis. It doesn't get any easier than bolting on new control arms, disc brake kit, power steering box, etc. Why mess with body mounts and all that crap? What about the core support and on and on? You'd be light years ahead buying an aftermarket chassis with all the upgrades made already and just drop your sheetmetal on it. The later chassis is not worth all the work in my opinion. What are you gaining? Disc brakes from the '70s?
Ive never had a 60-62 cab so I dont know how much different the floor pan is, but I would look at how a 63 cab floor is, if possible, to make the cab mounts work, might even consider putting a 63 cab floor in it or use 63 patch panels where the cab bolts down. Also with it already having a square body frame the floor should be pretty close to working with the 71 frame mounts. If I recall the are really close to the same location. Is your donor 71 frame a coil spring or leaf spring rear? Could have been either option. Square body is all leaf. If coil spring and trailing arm setup you will have to watch the cross member where the arms mount at the front. Might hit the floor of the cab as it sits under the cab on a short bed. For mounting the bed either make your own wood floor, or could modify either a 63-66 or 67-72 wood kit. I know there have been threads on the 67-72 truck forum to take a 67-72 metal floor and fit it into a 63-66 truck since it was not offered those years.
yes my replacement frame is a trailing arm setup. Also the bodywork is in excellent condition rust free and painted so it would be a stupid decision to butcher it with a 63 floor all I want to know is if someone has done this frame swap before on this year of truck. everyone’s done on 63-66 but its more obscure with a 60-62. I am just trying to swap a frame as easy as humanly possible without any major cutting or modifications
Maybe your best solution to this dilemma would be to start a build thread here on the HAMB take lots of pictures and ask specific questions to each problem you encounter the experience on this board is incredible hotrodding 101
Was checking out a 66 c10 chassis I have. Looks very similar to a 68-72. But the 60-62 differences is the issue. Stick that cab on the chassis. Start figuring it out.
What he said! ^^^^^^^ I would attach the front end on as well. Line the wheels up with the wheel wells. See what needs to be done. I would think it will be close. The 4x4 guys have been doing that stuff for years.
If the body is good, its much easier to move the frame end of the body mounts to where they need to be to match the body mounting points on the cab & radiator support, then weld the frame pieces back onto the frame. This often requires fabrication the actual frame part of the mounts, (if you have the original frame mounts available, that helps a lot the first few times its done), I have done so many from scratch I don't usually bother with the old rusty original stuff anymore. When you build them from scratch, you can get as fancy, or be as plane as you wish. A piece of 3" square tubing can make all the mounts. The tubing wall thickness doesn't need to be any thicker then 1/8" (11gauge), but it may be easier to find the 3" tubing with thicker walls (1/4" thick is way thicker then it needs to be ). The thicker walls makes the cutting more difficult. You cut a pair of the mounts to the length you need, then split the tubing into two pieces in a wedge shape, with the small end having 1/2" flanges, and the large end having 2 1/2" flanges. The big end welds against vertical wall of the frame the frame, the smaller end has the hole for the body mount. This pic shows an original 49 Dodge front cab mount bracket that was cut off the 49 frame and welded to a 1993 Dodge Dakota 4x4 frame (the rusty looking piece behind the front wheel protruding outward from the white Dakota frame, just behind the front wheel). The frame was cleaned up and painted afterwards. Here is a picture of the painted frame. Here is a pic of the driver side frame bracket supporting the cab. Both rear cab mounts were installed after the frame was painted because there was extensive rear floor work that had to be done on the cab. Those were fabricated because of the differences between the two frames I was working with. I don't have any pictures of those.
Update: everything for the cab swap fits well, all the mounts to my custom cab mounts that they used on the 73 frame fit up to my 71 frame, there is one area of concern, the front bumper, what do I have to do to make a 63-66 or even a 60-62 front bumper fit the 67-72 frame horns without cutting or messing up the frame? Already had to throw one out don’t want to for a second time.
Well is the frame horns pushing out more than the original frame? If not you can probably rework either a set of the brackets for that bumper. On my 68 C10 there is a upper bracket bolted to the frame then the outer brace bracket. I think the earlier trucks bolted directly to the frame horn, so you might have to make something up or modify the frame horn. I do know my horns still have similar holes pre drilled into it like for a early bumper.
Thread update: I should have posted this a long time ago but that’s what happens when you get sidetracked, the 62 body is on the 71 frame and I can tell you what you need to do if anyone else wants to attempt this swap First thing is that you can either custom make front cab mounts using the stock mounts from the 60-62 frame (but that involves cutting up a frame I would not do that unless the old chassis is to rusted out to save) alternatively you could drill holes in the floor to use the later style front cab mounts or they do make cab mounts for swapping the 60-62 cabs on a 63-72 frame but they are pricey Next is the rear cab mounts the 67-72 cab mounts aren’t even close so use the earlier style rear cab mounts and move them forwards slightly and drill new holes Rad support if you have the 60-62 core support will go right into the 67-72 core support mounts a bolt in swap no cutting required Box mounts all depends on what kind of box your using but for using my fleetside box it was very straightforward, a lot of the box sills lined right up to the later style mounts, some I did have to drill holes for and come up with creative solutions but I didn’t need to make any extensive modifications if the worst you have to do is drill a few holes so be it Overall I’d rate this chassis swap as very easy it’s far easier than someone using a square body frame on the 60s truck bodies and the truck still looks stock, everything lines up and fits As far as bumper goes I discovered the 60-62 bumper holes line right up to the 67-72 frame horns of course the shape of the frame horns mean you can only run the earlier bumper flipped unless you want to make some custom mounts and possibly modify the frame horns (I’m running my bumpers flipped) Rear bumper just use a 63-66 bumper bolt in swap
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