Engine and lift swap or body swap

[MiceElf]

Hey eveyone, new member here. I've owned an 85 BII for about 10 years and the engine (2.8) toasted 3 years ago. I picked up a donor with a 3' body lift on it. Since I'll be removing the body to lift it would it be easier to just lift both off and swap them out, or should I just swap the motors and then add the lift?
Additinall I noticed that the passanger side rear shock mount is broken on my orginal BII, which will be replace during the body lift, if I stick with the original frame.
I'm thinking that there isn't a whole lot more to remove between the body and frame and that it would be easier to just swap the bodies! Although I haven't driving the donor it had been driving before a rollover.
I'll post some pics either way.
L8R!

[MiceElf]

Sorry for the dbl post! I've decided that I need to get this thing done and get the original Bronco back on the raod ASAP. So, I'm going to just do the engine swap for now. I'll take the body off the donor and spend some time cleaning up the frame and perhaps I'll move things over later, but I'm thinking that I may put a 302 in the donor and sacrifice it to the rocks and trails.

Here's the pics
Original Bronco II


Here's the donor

[Ruffinit]

That's gonna be some fun when you get to swapping the body. I'm pulling mine this summer because I'm changing out the fuel system from my 89 to go on my 84... I would love to have those ground effects from your original BII though!

[MiceElf]

I would love to have those ground effects from your original BII though!

Ya, I've never seen them on any other BIIs. I don't know if they are stock or what, but I like the way they look. They're not overstated but look good.
This bitter cold wether and my busy life seems to be getting in the way. I had hoped to be done yestarday but I'm still at it.
I figure I'll be doing the body swap in the fall, after getting the frame cleaned up and ready for the other body. We'll just have to see what happens.
MiceElf

[Nobody]

The only drawback to swapping frames is then the VIN numbers won't match. For the most part not a big deal, but could create a paperwork headache down the road. Then again I've never seen where the VIN is on the Bronco II frame.... I assume it's there though.

[Ruffinit]

Yes, those are stock. I believe they were only on the XLS (sport) model.

[chucknti]

yes they came on the xls sport and also some of the xls had a tube rear bumper and grille guard.