73-80 to 81-87 Frontend conversion by Monzter

[Captkaos]

Well I just swapped my 73 Suburbans clip out for a front clip of a 86 Chevy truck. I thought that some people might like to what it takes to do this, everything I found on line did not show what it takes so I took pictures of my swap.

The unsuspecting Suburban.

The 73 front clip pulled off.

The plastic screen, weather strip & wiper mechanisms need to be removed now.

Now time to mark out where the cutting for new hood hinge holes & bolts need to be.

Here's where I had to add metal for the hood hinges, I added some support also, it seemed a little flimsy without it.


Test fitting the hinges.


With rubber.

Now it's time to drill holes for the wiper mechanisms, plastic screen & cowl. I forgot to take pictures of the drivers side wiper mechanism hole, it had to be enlarged to fit the longer mechanism.

After hoes drilled in the right spots I installed the cowl.

Next is to put the clip on.

Here you can see where I had to enlarge some of the holes to get the clip lined up.


Now the fenders are shimmed & bolted down.


Next is the hood. I drilled a hole in the firewall & used a new hood release cable to be able to open the hood.



The front body mounts had to be cut off & welded on in the right place along with cutting the frame for the bumper.

Drilling holes for bumper.


Ta Da! It's all on.



Next is to wire up the headlights & turn signals. I kept the wiring harness from the old clip top do this, the bulkhead connector is way different & wires will need to be spliced. I did no get pictures of this, it's not that hard to do though if you can do this clip swap.

[Captkaos]

Hinge location/size detail: