I have a 68 P1800 on which I completely rebuilt the front end including sndblasting and repainting all the components including all stainless steel fasteners. I have aquired a 2nd P1800 with a much better body . I want to install my rebuilt front end into the new 1800 as a complete unit. I would disconnect the brake lines, steering link, etc. and unbolt the crossmember from the frame and remove it as a whole unit. I'd leave the wheels on and roll it under the new 1800 ( that has had the front end removed in a similar fashion)and bolt it to the frame and reconnect brake lines etc. Can this be done?, Has anyone tried it? How high does the front of the car need to be jacked up? Where would you place the jacks? Under the side frame rails? Is this a practial solution? I'd hate to think that I'd have to disasemble the whole front end to exchange them. Any suggestions? Thanks RDB

Where can I buy those stainless steel fasteners or parts for my 64 P1800.

Another (obvious I'm sure to most of you but not to stupid ole me..) thing to make sure of is that the front end you're installing takes the same wheel/stub size. When I swapped the front end from a 69 into my 67, my old wheels and disc brakes wouldn't fit -- wrong size. I also had to change some of the brake lines around to get my single-circuit brakes to work. The new front end also proved difficult for my local shop to align; they used more shims than they would have liked.

Shouldn't be a problem. You'd need to support the motor while the cross member is out. Also, the caster is set via shims between the front or rear of the crossmember and the car. Just jack it up via the sub framing. The normal jack points are no the subframe under the front floorboards after all.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic 245 + turbo

This is pretty much how we dropped, refurbished, and reinstalled the front suspension and cross member in our '73 ES. We had pulled the engine, however, and I had the body on a cart which raised the chassis to about 14" from the frame to the ground. I disconnected the brake lines, the pitman and idler arms, removed the bolts, lowered the assembly as a whole with a floor jack (a transmission jack would be better - it was not very stable), and rolled it out from under the car to be moved to a warmer space for further disassembly (we did this during the middle of winter last year).

The green book mentions a rig for suspending the engine from the frame rails during cross-member removal, but IIRC it doesn't really show how it actually works. I think the steering box would need to be removed.

but I'm guessing if you're swapping parts around, the engine is already out?
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(2) '73 1800 ES 'projects', g/f's '73 1800 ES

The way I did my '67 - had the engine and everything bolted to the front suspension, then four of us just lifted the body up and over and set down so all I had to do was insert adn tighten the bolts. Note that the car hads been completed disassembled and it was fairly light, so you might need six people....

Good luck!

I've thought about doing it that way. I have an old archive picture of the 1800 production line and that is how the engine was installed: preassembled with the front suspension and loaded from below. Which is actually how most cars and trucks are assembled. Imagine how easy it would be with a 2-post lift! <:-P
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(2) '73 1800 ES 'projects', g/f's '73 1800 ES