Editing Frame swaps (section)
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==Using OEM components== Use OEM components when possible. The factory has well-paid engineers and mega-buck computing systems to figure everything out so that it will work well together and I like taking advantage of that, doing a frame swap or front/rear clip swap and using all the parts that I can from a donor car/truck. The thing with using an OEM chassis is that everything is engineered to work together. What you don't want to do is decide after it's built, that you want the front lower or the rear lower, or both. Because then you may have to dink with cheesy dropped spindles or cut the front coils and change the suspension geometry from "as designed" at the factory. If you want to drop the truck "in the weeds", then use only the front and rear frame clips from the Dakota and retain the under-cab International frame section. Weld the three together at ride height and call it good. If I were going to use the entire Dakota frame in one piece (even if I sectioned it to get the wheelbase right), I would use whatever scrap pieces of material I needed to use to graft the Dakota frame rails to the frame rail holes in the International cab.
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