I went to the junk yards with a completely open mind looking for suitable parts.
The goal was to improve the truck in the most reliable, simple, and cheapest way possible, in about that order. I had no brand preference, price and suitability were the deciding factors.
Looking back I find it interesting that of all new used parts I ended up with, choosing from literally 100's of possible donors, that all but one part came from a ford.
The vast majority of the parts came from GMC trucks, and a few from Freightliner and KW trucks.
I did find a suitable steering shaft u-joint from a ford f700, but that's all I found useful from all the fords I looked at.
Perhaps GM vehicles truly are a little better than fords, at least the individual parts are more useful.
Grigg