Your best shot may be to buy a complete diesel truck chassis and swap everything over to your frame.
Don't over look school buses in you travels.
Not a bad idea at all actually, especially with an air system. I had been looking at 80's era c70's (mostly gassers) as a donor, but it would make more sense to dig at say an old international with a D466 or something of similar style. Most all medium/heavy trucks run the 34" frame width correct? The only real difference I possibly see is spring widths, but that could be adapted I would think, or just run a different dimension pack with similar load cap. Thus one wouldn't be limited to only GM vehicle donors right?
I agree with Mike B above. I put GMC P-3500 running gear, power brake, power steering, disc brake axles, 4-53T in my '37 GMC, everything is happy together.
If you keep the GVW under 26,000 you will not need a CDL.
I believe that you have some threads out there about that correct? I know Grigg does as well, and I have become quite intimate with said threads across a multitude of forums. Also I am not too worried about the CDL cutoff. The truck will get a farm plate and be used to haul "farm commodities" and the such mostly, and no CDL is required for farm plates regardless of weight here in Indiana.
*Edit*
Come to think of it, most manufacturers sourced axles from the same company right? Its why Eatons are under GM, Ford, International, etc. Thus regardless of make/model of donor (to an extent), axles should be a pretty simple swap over and use similar spring setups. Again the difference from the '64 frame to say a '80-ish frame may be wider leaf springs, but the axle should be capable of mounting to a thinner width, thicker pack for the same load. Obviously ignoring steering and rear yoke, everything should be a simple bolt in then and it merely comes down to what kind of breaks are desired (disc, drum, air). Can it really be that simple? Or am I overlooking something?
