1963 Dodge 440 on a 2005 Magnum chassis

[Robert Barber]

I have an idea for a project, I’ve already purchased both vehicles but I was going to see if anyone has done this before… I have a 1963 Dodge 440 4-door sedan and a 2005 Dodge Magnum w/ 5.7L Hemi, 4-wheel disc brakes, independent front and rear suspension, 5-speed transmission, A/C, nice interior… everything I want. The 1963 Dodge has a wheelbase of 119” and across the front fenders is 74” wide. The Magnum has a wheelbase of 120” and is 73 1/2” across the front fenders. I know there is much more to making the swap but they are very interesting at how close at least those dimensions line up. Any thoughts or info on making the swap over is much appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

 

[Montclaire]

Look up Steve Mirabelli on youtube. He did the same thing with a 1968 Charger.

 

[moparedtn]

You're talking about grafting a unibody onto a unibody....
It could be done, but why for heavens' sake?

 

[Robert Barber]

You're talking about grafting a unibody onto a unibody....
It could be done, but why for heavens' sake?

You ask “Why?”, I ask “Why Not?”

What am I supposed to do?

Let me guess, I should just “find an old 440 and have it rebuilt, it’s not that expensive”. Then buy a disc brake kit from Classic Industries - “it’ll bolt right up and you can get a complete kit for around $2k which is pretty good nowadays”. Then just mate it up to a 4-speed, “people do it all the time”. As for independent rear suspension and all wheel drive - “who needs that for an A-B daily driver car?”

My point is that I bought this Dodge Magnum for $1k and checks all my boxes in one package. I’ll be modifying sheetmetal to mate it up to my ‘63. I don’t want to start removing subframes and all from the Magnum because the drive line is already lined up. The math and measurements are done. I’m would be measuring where to cut instead of getting into angles and lining the driveshaft up. Not to mention the floorboards are good in the Magnum, the fuel system is already setup, it has gauges already that I would mount in the ‘63…and to buy all the things I mentioned earlier I would probably be on up into the $6k-$7.5k range if not more. It’s not necessarily a time saver but definitely a money saver. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me why I shouldn’t do this unless someone has some compelling tech info to the contrary. I need tips and help to make this happen… not what “what you should do instead”.

 

[Robert Barber]

Look up Steve Mirabelli on youtube. He did the same thing with a 1968 Charger.

Thanks for the tip! I’ll check him out!