I also picked up a donor with a rust free and straight chassis. My Express was hit in the passenger front wheel and repaired at a young age. The frame was tweaked and stretched but it has never been right. I noticed a while back I could fit my thumb between the right front body bushing and the body!!! 303K on it runs and drives. 5.7/4L80E/3.73 GM 10.5 FF 14-bolt for $1000 with clean Texas title. The 5.7 is claimed to have about 100k on it, the 4L80E was allegidly rebuilt about 40K ago and shifts solid. I plan to hold onto it as a spare but sell the engine and all accessories and scrap the body. I plan to send the chassis to the powder coater and have it blasted and coated. I am really suprised how well it runs. It still has a completely bone stock exhaust system on it even. Nice mandrel bent dual 3" pipe to the muffler setup with the massive 1-ton cats and the weird resonator on the passenger side bank mounted before the cat.
The body and interior is trashed but I am honestly only after the chassis which is in great shape. I also noticed 1-ton vans have a factory body lift in the body mount/bushings.
Nice. I wonder how many of us there are that appreciate what you're doing with your van. Our cutaway chassis vehicles don't have any resonators. FYI if you decide to do a "Rear disk swap" to the van rear there are some special gotchas. That axle is known in the 4X4 world as "the bastard rear" because the axle length, hub depth, and bearing to bearing dimensions are different from most other 14 bolt axles.
Nice deal of the parts van. That's going to be quite the undertaking swapping the frames. How do you plan on lifting the body? I can't imagine its lightweight.
79 Jeep Cherokee, AMC 401, T-18 manual trans, hydroboost, 16197427 MPFI system---the toy
93 Jeep YJ Wrangler, 4.0L, 5 speed, 8.8 rear, homebrew hub conversion and big brakes, hydroboost, 2.5in OME lift, 31x10.50's---the daily driver
99 Jeep WJ Grand Cherokee limited, 4.0L, auto, 2wd, leather and power everything, 99% stock---the long distance highway ride.
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