Yes dash has to come out
No biggie hahahahaha I do that all the time
The big difference between a 2000 4 door and your sport trac is the lack of tailgate
The 4’door is expecting to see rear hatch wiper and defrost where as trac has power down back window. The locations of the air ride system and keyless entry systems are completely different meaning you would have to find a home for them in the trac body
The 05 sport trac uses a fuel pump driver module and can bus instrument cluster (talks to the now missing v6 computer)
The wiring for the reverse
Lights, canister vent solenoid and fuel tank pressure sensors terminate down by the transfer case on a 05, in the 2000 these wires are still up by the engine.
The 05 uses a body restraint module, a 4x4 control module, and other modules whereas the 2000 still had a gem to handle most of these functions
Things like this changed between 00 and 05
Otherwise the vehicles are very similar
With that said The 05 has many changes to the wiring that could make this a challenge if you only take this and that from the 2000 it could get interesting. I successfully added a v8 to a 05, going deeper adds more hurdles to overcome.
So swapping everything from headlights to tail lights maybe the best way to go! Less hurdles when you just move everything over from one frame to the other,
I am talking all of it…. Anything less will make it more difficult
Once it’s all said and done you can the strip out systems and wires that are not needed like rear hatch air suspension etc etc
It’s amazing how much wiring can be removed and still have a running driving functioning vehicle
I have pictures from when we stripped down a 97 5.0 and turned it into a 1949 f1, there are piles of wires that were not needed for that project
