Body Swap - 9th Gen body on a 87 F350 Frame

[KyleQ]

My 86' has a spongy body on it that I want to replace with a 90's body if I can. Has anyone swapped body's over successfully? The running gear and frame in the one ton is fine, everything is legit - but the floors are soft, the fender-wells are gone, and the windows are slow as molasses in January.

I've always liked the ninth gen F150's - but maybe because my first vehicle was my F150.

Regardless - the thought is to go out West and find a clean body for the one ton. How much work is it to swap everything over?

 

[Oog]

Bed is easier than pie.

Cab is semi easy.

2 main harness trunks at firewall
Strip down front clip
Replace cabs
Can and has been done in one 6 hour fast paced day with 2 guys working. Both guys were mechanics but were not 100 percent familiar with the trucks. Both were 5spd manual trucks.

 

[KyleQ]

Oh, cool. Good to know - would I be swapping everything from one truck over to the other? Core supports, radiators and wiring? I'm probably going to find the parts I need at a junkyard - so I'm just trying to get a grasp on what I'll need to grab.

 

[The Warden]

Oh, cool. Good to know - would I be swapping everything from one truck over to the other? Core supports, radiators and wiring? I'm probably going to find the parts I need at a junkyard - so I'm just trying to get a grasp on what I'll need to grab.

If you can find a good diesel body with a bad drivetrain, then swap everything over, that would probably be the easiest way. If you get parts from various trucks, you'll want a core support and wiring harness out of an IDI truck (the g@$ and PSD harnesses are too different, and it'll be much easier than trying to adapt your current wiring harness over, and IIRC the PSD core support is different and the g@$ core support is definitely different), but otherwise the sheet metal can pretty much come from any '92-'97 truck.

Assuming you have the tall/narrow radiator (most trucks after '87 did, but there are some exceptions), the radiators are the same, so if the donor truck has a bad radiator and your truck has a good radiator, that's okay.

I don't know what transmission you have, but if you have a manual and the donor truck's an auto (or vice-versa), you'll need to source a different brake/clutch pedal assembly. The brake/clutch pedal assemblies are completely different between the years; OTOH IIRC you can still buy an OBS pedal assembly new if needed...