Getting Rid Of Frames - how to avoid a PR dropping

[adder]

Hello there,
I just took over a very old site, which uses frames. It looks really awful so I obviously need to change the design. The bad side of all this is that the site has a very high Google PR-5. The PR is assigned to all the separate pages because the site is online since 2000.

I have an idea to preserve all the file names and contents including Titles and Metas but re-design the pages in plain HTML (i.e. without frames). I am aware it would make a mess if I needed to add or edit content but I could deal with that as there are only about 12 or so pages in the site. Then I could add my own php files with new content afterwards.

How do you like my idea? Any comments would be jolly appreciated! Thanks.

[Monkey]

Just a suggestion - how about run a parallel site and give people the option of using the old framed version or your latest sparkling fangled CSS/PHP version.

[adder]

Thanks Monkey,

It is an interesting thought but then again - the old site has 160 incoming links including a link from DMOZ. It would take me long before reaching that great number of links. And DMOZ guys wouldn't list my new site because of its similarities to the old one (come on, do they ever list anything?). From other side, your idea would save me a lot of headache.