While scheming about my own Wagoneer, my escalations of “if you’re going to fix ______, you might as well upgrade to ______” often end with the idea of transplanting the majority of a modern 4×4 into/under it. This tends to make more sense in the context of swapping a late-’70s, early-’80s chassis under a ’50s-’60s era truck, as they use simpler technology and often mounting points are shared. Today’s example stretches that gap, dropping the body of a ’64 Suburban on an ’02 Chevy 2500HD diesel chassis.

You could spend copious quantities of cash upgrading hardware before you’d have the power, efficiency, steering, brakes and drivetrain beef offered by this swap. Unfortunately, there are a few details I’d do differently. The wheels and tires scream 90s show truck, while some narrower, hub-capped painted steelies would be more period appropriate. Getting a current-gen electronics to play nice with old gauges is no small feat, so I sympathize with the seller’s choice to transplant the new dash into the old truck. Unfortunately, the aesthetics of it need some work; early ’00s GM wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of interior design.

 So…then there’s the price. I’m not sure who the buyer of a $31,000 custom truck is, but that’s well outside my budget for a vehicle that’s still going to be a project no matter how well executed the swap is. He does strong suggest we make any offer, though…

1964 Suburban on 2002 2500HD Diesel Chassis – eBay Motors