Body swap and ident questions

[jorj54]

I am the proud owner of a 72 pig that i just discovered is rusted out where the body mounts to the frame on the front drivers and passenger sides. I found a pig in the junkyard that is missing the front end (ie. fenders, engine, drivetrain) and the body is in decent shape. I would like to know how difficult it would be to swap bodies and also, I need help finding out what year it is. The data plate is gone, but it has a single resevoir on the brake master so I figure it's a bit older than mine. Thanks

Chris

 

[clemson55]

I just fabbed new front mounts and lots of other people on the board have done the same. That would be a lot easier then doing a whole body swap. That said if your pig is rusting away in other places as well and the donor is not then it could very well be worth the work of the swap. It would be a lot easier to judge with some pictures of each. As for your date on the donor pig they went to a dual cylinder brake booster in 1970. So pre 1970 is a start for getting the age.

 

[jorj54]

Body mounts

Here are some pics of the front body mounts. I sprayed some rustoleum on the passenger side to slow it down. I'm not sure if that actually helped or not, but it made me feel a bit better about it. How would you go about fixing this, or is it too far gone?

 

[poseidon]

Sounds like you could just cut the floor pans out of that other 55 and weld them in.

One cheeper way to fix it that I have seen is to go and get a good deal on an old pickup bed and cut out the courugated(SP) bottom. Now you have a huge flat sheet with the ribbing for added strength that you can bend however and cut as big a piece as you need out of it.

If you have a big patch piece be sure to cut way around the damage to make sure you get it all.

Also you may want to replace the whole panel from the pillar to the doghouse so it looks all the same.

Just some thoughts.

E