[TWX]

Can't remember off-hand if there's a VIN on the door frame or not.

The biggest worry in a grey-area frame swap is that since I want to go with a newer drivetrain, that may cause issues when it's time to emissions-test.

 

[TWX]

The changing powerplants issue is what has me worried, if they feel that they need to do a deeper inspection in the process and find that the frame VIN doesn't match the sheet metal VIN, and how they go about rectifying that, especially if there are issues with the frame VIN.

I'm not in a hurry, just figured I'd better start figuring all of this out. As of this moment my options are to either restore the truck from the sheet metal and frame that I have now, doing a drivetrain swap if I decide so, to find a different whole crew-cab truck, to do a drivetrain swap, or to find a different truck with the right drivetrain and frame, and to swap either my current cab and bed or else a different cab and my bed on to it.

I wish that the late D/W club cab long bed trucks had the same frame shape as the crew cab short bed, but the frame differs as it heads upward to go over the rear axle differently than the crew cab. I'd have to notch the cab at the back, which is do-able, but a pain. But, then I'd get a '92-'93 type era diesel without having to do a whole lot of work to make it happen, compared to a drivetrain swap.