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Well I have been thinking about doing a 4x4 swap onto my '81 LUV. Its already been converted into SBC powered unit. But I don't know if im satisfied with it yet. Its needs to be 4x4! But this is would be no ordinary swap. I have an old '77 Chevy truck frame (halfton) sitting in the weeds. So heres my thought...."Take the LUV body of its frame, and mount it (somehow) onto the Chevy Truck frame!" Crazy?? Thats why i need your guys opinions. It would stay SBC powered, just drop the engine/tranny/trans case into the truck frame, then posistion the LUV body over it, except i would give the LUV a biggy high body lift, so you could see part of the engine from the wheel wells! I can get some 35's or 38's to roll on. The frame will have to be shortened up but i took welding classes for a reason. This idea makes me thing of one hell of a jacked LUV, monster truck style! Thing is it might look goofy on frame thats almost as wide as the truck itself. But I don't know, I am gonna have too look visually at this better and also take some measurements to get more of an idea. Just thought I would throw my idea out at you guys and get some feedback... It would be one hell of a 4x4ing machine thats for sure!!

I think it would be a great idea...The full size frame and luv body would be a hell of a machine..... It being already SBC powered makes it that much better......If i had the time and money I would definetely do it......to my 81...

i have a hillbilly friend who did that with a toyota body, mounted it on a '72 blazer frame. poor thing

he mounted it by drilling straight through the frame rails and for the most part jerry rigged the thing. he mounted the radiator in the bed and put a 10" lift on it. with 38.5 boggers the roof sits about 10 feet high, it's the most ungodly thing you'd ever see

and body lifts = bad unless you REALLY need them. much better to have a low center of gravity imo

Its been doen time and time again with s10's... dotn figure itd be alot differant... but dotn do the huge body lift man... for many reasons, mainly its unsafe.. a small 3 er 4 inch body lift would be fine....do the rest with suspenion lift, lifts for old chevies are cheap... just cuase you can fit 38s witha body lift dotn mean itll turn with them on there, if the frame aitn lifted, whats to say the tires wont rub on the frame when turning?

Here is an s-10 my buddy hasn finished yet..

Awesome, thanks for the input guys. So about a 4inch body lift, and probably 4 inch suspension when its all said and done. That would give some damn good lift. Be the tallest LUV I think I have seen anyways Probably go with 35's on 15 inch rims. If those fit, I guess well have to see when the time comes.

Kyle,
What would be the benifits of a radiator in the box?? I can't see it being benificial. How would you get proper airflow?

4x4chevette makes some good points. I never much thought about safety..yet.. But I can definetly see your point. Hopefully this will turn out street legal, unless I do something crazy with it...which I won't be surprised if it happens.

I'll take some measurements and do some more examining of the frames and bodys and what not, and post an update when I get home. Thanks again all for your input!

Radiator in the box, is good if you are planning on goin in deep mud, keeps it cleaner, most people run a big radiator in the box, with dual electric fans.

You should be able to make it street legal... but I think you need a title for the frame and the truck, and then theyll make the truck title a rebuilt title. Or atleast thats how it is here.

4 inch body, and 4 inch suspension would be 8 inches, Im guessing that should clear 35's fine, if not, a little fender trimmin will make em clear...

4x4chevette touched a couple of the good reasons to put that radiator in the back, but the main one is so you can cram the engine under the hood easier. no radiator up front = more room for the engine. also, it enables you to run a ton of coolant since you have to run the lines back to it, keeps the engine cooler if it's set up properly

most guys mount the radiator on a roll bar and use an electric fan on it

and i agree, use as little body lift as possible, just break out that sawzall if you have to. keeps things much safer and cleaner looking

Ahh well that makes sense now. If I got a real good electric fan setup, I can't see it having much trouble keeping the mill cool.

I definetly see your point on the body lift now. After applying some basic physics, lots o lift can equal a lot of safety issues. With that in mind inches of body lift will be lots, the rest (undetermined as of now) will be in the suspension. And like you guys say...the sawsall can be a very helpful tool

Gonna take the tape measure out tommrow and do some pondering, I'll let you guys know the verdict tommorow.

Hopefulyl you have a shortbed frame... that should help out on how much it needs to be shorteed, best palce to shorten it would be right behidn the tcase, before the wheel arch, that way all your mounts stay in the same location, and you dotn have to deal with frame bends, then youll only have to have a rear driveshaft made. One other thing, if you have to make body mounts, take measure ments and have a local steel mill cut and bend to yer specs, its a little more costly, but looks alot better in the long run....

Nope I got a Long bed LUV, and the Chevy Pick up is also a long bed reg cab. I never got a chance to take a look, been busy....tommrow though...