Body Swap


Twister

Twister

15+ Year Member

V8 Engine Swap
Joined
Mar 4, 2010
Messages
1,921
Points
3,101
City
Omaha, Ne
Vehicle Year
1985 1987
Transmission
Manual
My 85 is giving me trouble and i am looking to swap to fuel injected. I am looking at an 86 with a body that is not as good as mine. How difficult would it be to swap the 85 body onto the 86 frame. I know i would have to do some wiring modification because i am going from FI to carbed.

Just looking for some feedback on someones experiences.
 
Last edited:
why would you put a bad body 86 on a good frame 85...you'd still end up with a bad motor....fuel injection question is backwards too...

maybe you need to reword your problem & question



:icon_bounceblue:
 
No, he'd put his good '85 body on the '86 frame.
 
My 85 is giving me trouble and i am looking to swap to fuel injected. I am looking at an 86 with a body that is not as good as mine. How difficult would it be to swap the 86 body onto the 85 frame. I know i would have to do some wiring modification because i am going from FI to carbed.

Just looking for some feedback on someones experiences.


Hmmmm, confusing!!!! 86 bad body on the 85 frame with a better body??
 
If it was me I would put the 2.9 in the '85 rather than mess around swapping bodies. Then you don't run into little things they changed between years throughout the vehicle to fight with during the swap and forever after. Since you have a whole donar it should really help.

An engine is a lot easier to work with than a whole body IMO.
 
engines are easier to swap. why not just use the whole 86 if its got a good motor/body?
 
Twister said:
My 85 is giving me trouble and i am looking to swap to fuel injected. I am looking at an 86 with a body that is not as good as mine. How difficult would it be to swap the 86 body onto the 85 frame. I know i would have to do some wiring modification because i am going from FI to carbed.

Just looking for some feedback on someones experiences.
Click to expand...

cody93 said:
engines are easier to swap. why not just use the whole 86 if its got a good motor/body?
Click to expand...

:icon_thumby:
 
Removing the dash AS-AN-ASSEMBLY from both cabs and disconnecting the engine bay wiring harness from the cab is relatively straight forward.

Frankly other than the wiring there isn't much difference in the two cabs, just a lot of stuff you need to move over

Remember that in 1985 the 2.0 and 2.8 engines were carb, but the 2.3 was EFI
So the '85 cab is already more or less designed for the EFI wiring.

Leaving the power train intact on the 86 and swapping a BARE cab shell onto the truck your old 1985 is a viable donor for the cab swap you are proposing.

The work is mostly tedious

EXCEPT for the part where you will need to rol the dead (stripped) cab off of the frams and you'll need either three friends to lift the "new" cab over (preferable with the interior gutted
and the doors removed to make it as light as possible) onto the 86 frame

If you are working indoors you can lift a cab or bed rather neatly with four $25 strap winches from harbor freight

AD
 
I guess i did word that wrong :icon_rofl:

I was wanting to put the 85 body on the 86 frame. I am going to look a the truck today, i might not even buy it.
 
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