[57taskforce]

So as I mentioned I’ve never been completely happy with the frame swap. From the top of the frame to the bottom of the cab is nearly 12”. It doesn’t look all that clean and I’m not sure how the body mounts will do over time with stress of the body mounts as well as the over extended height of the cab. At the end of the day is all 1/2 ton stuff which is fine for some, but like I said I prefer heavier duty trucks.

This brings me to the present. In September I acquired an ‘89 V30 (square body) cab and chassis truck. I bought the truck with the intent to part it out, keeping the drive train(aforementioned sm465/round 205 combo) for spares’ as well as the 14 bolt and front Dana 60 for my K20. The frame I hadn’t even thought much about until this week.

The thought occurred to me that I’ve got the ‘57 body mounts already built for the square body frame that I could easily swap over to the ‘89 frame. The good thing about the cab and chassis frame is that it’s near perfectly flat in the rear much like the 55-59 frame is, thus allowing the bed to sit at the proper height and allowing the cab to be lowered considerably. The frame is straight and 100% rust free.

Here’s a few of the donor... the cab is unbolted and ready for removal. The wheel base is 135.5”. I’ll need to make it 114” in order for it to be correct for the short bed. I plan to correct the rear fender placement and allow the use of steps instead of the filler panels we made up. The last picture shows where the 21.5” cut would be made. When we did it the first time we moved the fenders forward on the bedsides to compensate for the shorter wheel base of the blazer. I want to return everything to how it should be.