03 cateye suburban build

[Tonyv__]

Thats past oxidized. Thats the clear coat completely detoriated with that center part of spot having no clear left. And my roof on burban looks the same

Lol I thought so. I never noticed how bad it got until I saw pics from when I bought it 5 years ago and said damn that got baddd

 

[89Suburban]

Swap was fairly simple pull front clip, body bolts, a/c, heater core, few connectors and going by time stamps on the pics it was roughly 2.5 hrs from running suburban to the chassis sitting under the avalanche. I cant upload pic with 2wd chassis under suburban until i crop someone out of pic that would like not to be posted on the internet
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I think we took a couple weeks break after this before the drop kit no pics of that install but here is after
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Good job man! I did this about 20 years ago with a late 70's round eye and 85 Suburbans. The 85 was a 4WD body was beat to shit from mud racing and my grandpa passed on the round eye to me that was on a 2wd frame. I swapped them out in one weekend by myself in my shop at work using forklifts and 55 gallon drums to sit the bodies on after rolling the frames out. Everything pretty much swapped over plug and play except for the hump in the floor being different. Then the following weekend I put a SKyjacker 6" lift on it lol.

 

[03catburban]

Good job man! I did this about 20 years ago with a late 70's round eye and 85 Suburbans. The 85 was a 4WD body was beat to shit from mud racing and my grandpa passed on the round eye to me that was on a 2wd frame. I swapped them out in one weekend by myself in my shop at work using forklifts and 55 gallon drums to sit the bodies on after rolling the frames out. Everything pretty much swapped over plug and play except for the hump in the floor being different. Then the following weekend I put a SKyjacker 6" lift on it lol.

Thanks and most people think chassis swaps are hard but really they are surprisingly easy but I did have a job where I used to pull ford cabs to put in head studs and bigger turbos

 

[Tonyv__]

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And thats how it stayed for a while till i finally decided to make it 2wd and put a DJM 3/5 kit on it. As for the 2wd swap I just so happened to have a 03 Avalanche 2wd that was my daily. And one friday after i decided to do a chassis swap and be done by sunday. so started 5pm on a friday and with help was driving both home saturday at 10pm its was between 14-16hrs worth of work

Why did you go this route? Other than I see you obviously have the equipment like a lift and experience and apparently another frame on hand lol. But wouldn’t you achieve the same if you just gutted the 4wd components and put 2wd hubs on the front of the Burban? Or is there like a substantial difference where the frame is lighter on the 2wd model?

 

[03catburban]

Why did you go this route? Other than I see you obviously have the equipment like a lift and experience and apparently another frame on hand lol. But wouldn’t you achieve the same if you just gutted the 4wd components and put 2wd hubs on the front of the Burban? Or is there like a substantial difference where the frame is lighter on the 2wd model?

The burban was replacing the avy and it had a rebuilt trans, all steering, suspension, bushings have been replaced with moog and my engine was clean while burban was a sludge monster and noisy lifters and avy engine had all hoses and maintenance items done including electric fan swap so it was easier to chassis swap instead of swapping parts plus I wanted the 2wd so to me it was worth it to not swap alot of parts or start over

 

[Tonyv__]

gotcha. If u have it handy Why not. Just wasn’t sure if it was a lighter frame or something. But good luck with the rest of the build. I dream of a rubber burning, feeling hurting Tahoe one day lol

 

[Miami-Dade]

Would anybody be interested in seeing a thread on this build so far ive 4wd to 2wd chassis swap, front clip swap, lowered, and soon 5 speed

But there is some really nice 800s here so my ugly duckling doesn't quite fit in. Lol

Excellent work Jeff!

 

[Tonyrodz]

The burban was replacing the avy and it had a rebuilt trans, all steering, suspension, bushings have been replaced with moog and my engine was clean while burban was a sludge monster and noisy lifters and avy engine had all hoses and maintenance items done including electric fan swap so it was easier to chassis swap instead of swapping parts plus I wanted the 2wd so to me it was worth it to not swap alot of parts or start over

Will that be a problem with the title now? The vin#'s on the frame won't match.

 

[03catburban]

Will that be a problem with the title now? The vin#'s on the frame won't match.

No issue in GA. The title is assign to the cab. So the suburban is still a "4wd" and the avy is still a "2wd z66". Going by the title. And avy is been sold to a friend so guess he sells it someone will be confused over a 2wd avy on a 4wd frame lol.

And I dont believe gm has the vin stamped on those frames

 

[89Suburban]

Thanks and most people think chassis swaps are hard but really they are surprisingly easy but I did have a job where I used to pull ford cabs to put in head studs and bigger turbos

Good stuff, here is a after pic. Had turbine wheels on her too. (Spare on the r/f, flat tire on thE r/r LOL.)