47 willys to 77 cj5 swap

[turbospeediii]

Hello,
I am new to the site. Look forward to chatting with you all. Looks like the Site has some great info on it.
I have a 1947 willys and I just bought a solid 1977 CJ5 that the tub is apart and off the chassis with a 390 and 3 speed. We love driving the willys but as you know it is not the best for long drives. I have been thinking about trying to put the willys body on the CJ5 chassis then selling the old willys chassis and the CJ5 body.

Any ideas on this? Assuming I have done full frame offs before. How hard is all the fitment going to be? Just bolt it together or worst idea ever?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
Greg

 

[tarry99]

Hello,
I am new to the site. Look forward to chatting with you all. Looks like the Site has some great info on it.
I have a 1947 willys and I just bought a solid 1977 CJ5 that the tub is apart and off the chassis with a 390 and 3 speed. We love driving the willys but as you know it is not the best for long drives. I have been thinking about trying to put the willys body on the CJ5 chassis then selling the old willys chassis and the CJ5 body.

Any ideas on this? Assuming I have done full frame offs before. How hard is all the fitment going to be? Just bolt it together or worst idea ever?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks
Greg

First off hardly anything will just bolt back together...........80 inch Wheelbase vs 83.5 inch........wider front axle on the 77 CJ5 .......body mounts, steering columns in different locations. You will not have near the room under the hood for the 390 in the early body............I could go on........Can it be done? Absolutely!
Just depends on your stomach for work............And what is it that you hope to obtain by the Switch?

 

[hondo]

i would probably start by building a frame and installing everything as low as possible without losing the ground clearance, then you will probably need to do a body lift and reshape the Transmission tunnel and fire wall to fit the bigger pieces. how much time and money do you want to spend? defiantly not a over night 10$ project. but possible and would be really cool.

 

[Bowbender]

My thoughts would be leave the '47 as is, you said it was drivable, stock?
Put the '77 together and get it the way you want it. I'm guessing it will be less work and expense. Drive the Willys while you're working on the CJ, if you don't want to keep it, you'll probably get more for it complete.