[layinrocker65]

Im all done with my body swap part of my project and waiting on parts so I can do everything else, wiring, steering column, cooling system, ect…

One thing you should consider is how far from stock your project plans to be. For me, I wanted my truck to be pretty low, I'm running a supercharged LS, manual transmission, brake/clutch master cylinder under the floor, rear mounted gas tank, among other things. Body is mounted 4.5" off the frame in the front and it has ALL kinds of room for activities under the cab and near the transmission. The stock frame is mounted very close to the body and is pretty narrow so room for other stuff is not easy to come by.

If I had unlimited funds I could have worked with the stock frame. But I don't and just a front IFS is $2,000 plus all the other stuff you would have to still do. New rear suspension, new brake/clutch setups, ect…. All that adds up to a very high price when compared to a S-10 frame.

I bought a 100k mile '99 S-10 for $350 with a clear title. Sold the drive train for $300. So I have $50 into a rolling chassis. Cant beat that. s-10s all over the place have hundreds of thousands of miles on them and still going. Pretty hard to beat that and if you need anything, most if not all auto parts stores stock the parts. A stock truck with good shocks rides nice and handles good for modern day driving like 75mph on the freeway. Cant do that with a stock chassis without spending big bucks. S-10s are a proven chassis for racing too.

Another thing to consider is when you want to upgrade handling, braking or add traction devices, there are all kinds of off the shelf products for reasonable prices.

If I had to start again, I would still run an S-10 chassis over the undamaged stock chassis my truck came with. If I had more funds than time, I'd run a Roadster Shop Chassis.