Converted to 4 wheel drive.

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X-cabsquarebody

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A few years back I got a call about a 74 Suburban that was headed to the crusher. The owner was trying to sell me the doors and fenders. But when I got there, I struck a deal on the whole thing. No motor or trans, but not in bad shape over all. I had an Olds 455 and a trans that I was going to put in it, and tried to sell it as a project.
Well, someone was interested in it , but had a motor and trans already that was in a badly rusted Blazer. They wanted to pay me to pull the stuff off the blazer and put it all in the Sub and get it going again for them.
Oh yea, and convert it to 4WD. So I thought about it, and decided to go for it. They shipped the Blazer to me. It was huge! on 38s , 6" lift.

The short version of how I did it. I cut the frames at a common point, rolled the front frame, with the motor, trans , transfer case, and front axle in one piece under the Sub, aligned every thing and welded it up. Cut the spring hangers off both frames, and mounted the 4by hangers on the Sub, swapped in the rear axle. It was not that bad to do. turned out well.

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X-cabsquarebody

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More pictures.

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X-cabsquarebody

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X-cabsquarebody

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Sorry for the groups of pictures but Photobucket is working right for some reason!

What I ended up with.

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bucket

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Nice! It turned out to be the perfect looking Burb!
 

Irishman999

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This question seems to pop up from time to time and it looks like you figured out a very good way to make a 2 wheel drive truck into a 4. Looks great man!
 

DUALLYBOURBON

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Im seriously impressed!
 

X-cabsquarebody

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Thanks. The biggest surprise was the amount of flex in the frame. I set the front clip back on to make sure every thing would line up before I welded it up. I knew the frame would bow with the weight on it, so I let the front of the frame sag down 3". After I got it welded, and set on the ground, it settled into place, and all sheet metal lined up perfect.

There are many ways to do the swap. This is how I did this project.
 

HotRodPC

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Looks to be some nice work. So do I understand correct, this was a customer's project?

You got my attention with the Olds 455, then never mentioned it again. So quit the teasin !!! What did the Olds 455 end up in?
 

89Suburban

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That is a beautiful Burb and I love that color on it. Great work there man. :)


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1973 Chevy

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That must of been a nice project, an easy way to convert from 2wd to 4wd Nice work!
 

X-cabsquarebody

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Looks to be some nice work. So do I understand correct, this was a customer's project?

You got my attention with the Olds 455, then never mentioned it again. So quit the teasin !!! What did the Olds 455 end up in?

Sold the 455 to a local guy. He is in the process of rebuilding it. It's going in an 1986 C10.
 

HotRodPC

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