Today, I removed the chasis wiring harness, then I rolled the frame outside and pressure washed it. After rolling it back in, I removed the skid plate and started looking at the cross members and comparing them with the wrecked donor truck. The crew cab short-bed frame is about 18 inches longer than the regular cab long-bed of my donor. 
The biggest issue I will run into, as far as the frame goes, on this swap will be the arched cross member shown at the right. The fuel tank goes under this member. The tank that I took out a few days ago was only 20 gallons. The one in the donor, pictured below, is something like 35 gallons. I don't want the little one. 
Though the cross members are shaped different and the frame is a 1977 and the donor is a 1992, the mounting holes are exactly the same. The problem here is that they are riveted not bolted. I can torch them out on the junk frame, but I do not want to put that much heat on the crew-cab frame. I will probably drill them, chisel them, or grind them off.
The other problem is with the cross member shown on the right. This member holds the carrier bearing. The shorter truck does not have a two piece drive line. The above pictured fuel tank goes forward to the middle of this member. You can see in the pic a little notch I took out of the member to fit the small tank ten years ago. I don't think I should notch it out half way, so I will probably move it forward about 4 inches. I will need to shorten the short drive shaft and lengthen the main shaft. Since this may end up being spendy, I'm still thinking of other possibilities. If I move the tank backward, the arched cross member will get into the curved part of the frame. All in all, I find this to be a minor problem. But I guess it will be the first of many on a project like this.
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