panel truck body swap

54-55 panel wagon i am looking to do a late model frame swap on these 2 i have a 318 and a 383 hoping to use a 518 trans and factory injection from the same donor cars i didnt know what year would work on this projects. i didn;t want to have to carry a book on which part from what year went where i was trying to keep it simple i own53 coronet 241 redram hemi, 73 340 sport sunroof car both are restored a 65 satelite 426 wedge 3/4 done (no clone here). thanks

I'm not sure what truck frames would fit, but have you thought about putting an F,M, or J front K frame under it? Then you'll have stock 10.75 disc brakes and T bars and sway bar too. You can upgrade that with the larger police car T bars and sway bars, 11.75 C body disc brakes or aftermarket brakes. Here's some photos and info that I passed on to another friend that might help you out. This swap is also popular with the 56 Ford crowd too, but I don't like half breeding cars especially Mopars.










[img]https://i.servimg.com/u/f69/13/49/53/52/th/hot_ro10.jpg[/img

[img]https://i.servimg.com/u/f69/13/49/53/52/th/how_to10.jpg[/img

i have a 69 pickup that the 383 is in and i put a volore front suspension under it it had too much body roll for my taste and the 383 only has 30000 miles on it since i had built it and the 318 has 4400 miles on it and would bark the tires and leap frog a 64 pu with 235/75/15 tires and 323 gears, many mustangs saw my butt. i am not up on the trucks from the 80s up so i dont know when they intoduced the 518 trans and when they changed motors from the old 318 (not wide block) and had throttle body injection or did they come out with a multi port on the old 318 before they changed to the magnum. i have had friends say put a 9" rear end under my 65 and i say no ford here especially on a car that around 265 were made.

The reason your 383 F body K frame truck rolled a lot was because the front end was overloaded. IF you had use a small block it would have worked great. The t bars are not big enough to support a big block. It would be fine for a straight line only drag car with a big block, but it would never handle right. If you still have it and want to fix it, you can add a race car type adjustable front sway bar to it. IT will make a big diff since you can get bars bigger than the biggest stock bar at 1 1/8" that comes on police cars. And some after market race type shocks would also help. While they don't prevent body roll, you can get them with stiffer valving and that slows the roll.

The small block trucks were carbed till '85/'86. I've seen both, but '85 should have been the last year. In '86 they used a TBI set up. The little engine lost some power due to that too. I think the TB's was too small CFM wise and the pc programming was off. If you have one, you are better off converting it to carb. It'll pick up some punch just converting it back to a 2bbl believe it or not.

In '92 the Magnum came out and was used in the '93 as well. In '94 they changed the body line of the trucks to what we have now. If I remember correctly the A500 and A518 came out about '87 or '88. If you are doing a swap into an older truck, then you want the early transmission. You'll be able to make a manual button for the o.d. that way and you want have to deal with any computer stuff.

I'd refrain from trying to stick one in a car cause they are too big and don't fit without a lot of mods. Such as cutting the floor board up and also the frame area that goes over the trans. If this is not done on a frame machine to keep the body from tweaking you might not get the doors open again.

I would not put a 9in. in anything. They rob power compared to an 8 3/4 or 1/4. And the 9 in. has the same problems the 3/4 has. With enough power the housing will flex due to it's banjo style housing. This causes stripped axle splines, broken carrier bearing caps, broken ring gears, etc. etc. I've used both 3/4 and 1/4 on our dirt and asphalt cars and I've never broken one yet. And dirt racing puts more stress on a rear axle than any other form of racing. You are constantly off and on the throttle driving it by throttle more than steering wheel. And the constant off and on side loads stress the housing, axle shafts and just about every part of the axle assemble. The only time I'd pass on a 3/4 is if it's a built big block, Hemi, or the car hooks and it's real heavy. Hooking a heavy car can kill a 3/4 even if the car is not that fast or powerful.

i was going to use frame, trans and suspension out of a truck and place a panel on it just looking for what will work. the panel body still has to be reworked so to biuld a hump shouldn't be a issue.

The hump on a truck should not be a problem anyways. Just on cars. Can you tell me the dimensions of the frame mounts, or can you make your own anywhere you want them? And what's the wheel base too? I can check them against my '85 RamCharger or my brothers old '93 if that will help you any.

the wheel base is 108 and the width is around 4' 5" from the backing plate and 60 from center of the tires

I'll try to check the Ram Charger sometime tomorrow. IT's dark and raining now ... lol .

O.k. I measured the Ram Charger this morning for you. Same 108" wheel base and I measured and axle that I had in the shop. And it's about 53" from backing plate to plate. I did not measure the tread width cause it depends on wheel offset, width and tire sizes so mine can always be off from someone with the same truck. I can get them if you like though. I run a 15x10 wheel with 32 x 11.5 BFG All Terrains on it. Pretty decent size off and on tire. I would think you need some frame measurements next.

what does the ramcharger have for a trand and carberation, the frame shouldnt be a issue i can modify the mounts as needed ( the wounderful things you can do with gas torches, welders, and plasma cutter) i don't know how to send photos on this site if you let me know i will send you photos of my shop and cars. i also bought another truck yesterday a 57 dodge stepside thats solid with a wideblock 318, like i needed another car: heres my list
7 1995 to 2000 breese/ stratus/cirrus....some builders for resale and some for parts
69 dodge truck
53 coronet
73 dart sport 340 w/factory sunroof
65 satelite 426 wedge car ( origanal motor)
54 dodge panel
55 dodge panel
and now a 57 truck
and now the bad
85 suburban......family driver
50 chevy 5 window on a 85 s-10 frame i am building for my sister
plus i have a 40' semi stocked with
4 343s w/727s
1-440 w/727
1-273
2-318s w/727
plus 8 sets of 906 heads, and other heads, intakes waterpump housings.i have stuff

For pics, count 15 buttons from the left just above this sentence. Matter of fact, it's the button just above the last E in sentence. It will ask you to subscribe and then you hit the browse button to find the pic on your pc. Click on the pic you want and then when it goes back to the other screen hit the button on the bottom marked host. You'll see three lines of code pop up next. Top one is a thumbnail pic the second one is a larger pic. Use either one. Just hit the word copy and it will highlight in blue. Right click and copy it and then click on the forum page right click and hit paste. It will post a line of code on there. To close the box you have to hit the button on the top of the page again. The 15th button that says host image. THen you can type some more if you want and then hit send when through. I'm going back to read the rest of your post now.

o.k. My RC has a 360 4spd and transfer case since it's 4x4. Has a Dana 44 cad axle up front and a 9 1/4 rear axle. Pretty much stock and it has a Carter carb too.It could have been ordered with a 318 2 or 4 bbl with an A727 if you wanted it that way. Getting ready to replace the springs on it. It's not liking the load I or the trailer weight I put on it.

By the way, you can put a big block in them too, they just never came stock after '78. Only thing you might run into with a BB set up is the pwr steering pump. On '93 and older frames till '79 is that there is not a lot of room between the frame and pwr steering pump. All it takes is a simple notch to fix that if you want to use a BB with pwr steering.