LUVTruck.com

Does anyone out there know how hard it is to swap the body of a 72 or 73 LUV onto a 79 or 80 frame?

I know notheing about it, but ill go ahead and take the "posts" up one.

Not sure about the 72/73 to a 79/80, but I have swapped the bed, doors, fenders, steering shaft and steering wheel from a 76 to a 79 and it all fit perfect. I believe all 72-80 LUV body parts will pretty much fit.

The motor mounts are different. The early Luvs have mounts that come off of the frame about 6" forward of the engine crossmember. The later Luvs are almost directly over the crossmember. If your not swapping motors this isn't a problem

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Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

The goal was to swap a complete '80 body onto a '72 or '73 frame to get around the crule smog crap here in CA. I found an already converted early model whihc has the V-6 and wondered if it was worth obtaining and swapping my really straight body over onto that frame?

The V.I.N. #s are on the body. Thats what they smog by. The frame wont matter. All you'll be doing is putting an 80 body on a early 70's (older)frame and they'll still smog to the 80 V.I.N. Are you going to swap V.I.N. tags too. Why not just swap V.I.N. tags and be done with it? Or swap tags and the V-6! Hell, just buy the other truck and Use the documents to your advantage. The smog inspectors may be wise to the fact that early luvs have 4 headlights and the later models have 2. They could bust you on that. If they do, you can always say "Damn, I brought the wrong paperwork. This is for my other truck".

_________________
Previous setup: 4.1 Buick V-6/TH 350
Current setup: 400 Small Block Chevy V-8/TH 350
9" ford rear end/short bed/blue
What do Water, Electricity and Humans have in common... They all travel the path of least resistance.

I misspoke myself. I meant to say I would use the cab and swap all the other components. That would leave the vin the same as the early model and be legit. I'd be swappin gthe bed, doors, and the whole front clip.