The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks 1965 GMC restore / tear down to frame/ need help

I was wondering if someone could tell me if this is true. I have herd that you can take a 1970's truck with disc brakes and it will bolt right up to my 1965 GMC project which has all drum brakes, also I am wondering if I could use other things like the power steering unit & steering column.

The truck was modified with a floor shifter with a double hump heads on a 327 with a 400 tranny , which came out of a 1966 corvete. I have the truck completely down & needs restoring. This is a father & son project. We have bagged & tagged along with a lot of pics for putting back together.

I am a Maintenance Mechanic in a factory (17 years of service)

I thought someone would have responded by now. I'm not the most knowledgeable in this area, I'm just going on what I've read. I know the disc brakes on the '70's trucks will work, swap out the spindles and get a power brake booster and such. I'm not sure what all is involved or if it is a straight bolt in thing, but I know it can be done relatively easily from what I understand.

I also know that the power steering is doable. There are vendors that make kits to mount an early to mid '70's steering box on the '60-'66 trucks. I am not sure what mods will be required to swap the steering column, but it's definitely doable. If you are good at some fab work you won't have any problems getting this stuff switched out. I wish I could give more input on this, but I always have kept my trucks in a more original style. Don't think I'm opposing what you want to do, I think it's a great idea to upgrade these trucks, I just have never done it mainly because I've been afraid of getting in deeper than I can handle.

Anyway, do some searches on the site and see if you can find some further info. Oh, and welcome to the Stovebolt!

The reason for swapping out to disc brakes & powersteering is this is my boy's truck that my Dad bought for him 2 years ago, he was a big fan of chevy trucks, of course you see I put was , he died of Cancer November 08 at the age of 64 , man I still miss asking him questions ( old school mechanic for over 40 years )He tought me a lot but always had the advice when I needed it and he like giving it.

Man I know this is going to be a long process but I built a 32' X 32' garage so I have the place and just bought a new welder.

Hope someone will have more input on this subject

Thanks for the info.

the complete suspension from a 73 to mid 80s chevy pick up will bolt into your truck you will end up with 5 bolt wheel pattern the steering bow will bolt in you need to put a shim between the frame and the box the column will also bolt in you can buy a disc brake conversion kit if you want to stay 6 bolt-stock power steering is a ram assist like those found on f#*d cars and are rare the complete front suspension swap is not that difficult but if you go this route you will need to change the rearend so you have 5 bolt wheels all the way around good luck with the project timbuk

Thanks for the info timbuk , I will say this web site is awsome.

I have the whole truck down and getting ready to sandblast the body & frame , I will start looking for a doner truck to switch parts.

Now the body work will come , I weld all kinds of stuff at work but never done body work before , just doing the rough work will get a paint shop to do the finish work.

Thanks again

i did the same rebuild on my truck every nut and bolt kept all the stock suspension power steering would be nice and so would disc brakes though dont use fluxcore wire use the gas and be very careful with the blaster on those body panels yea what a cool site timbuk

AppletreeGMC

I've been restoring a '60 GMC for about 3 years now (2nd. restoration) got hit by Katrina in 2005 and lost everything. Take a look at my webshots link, use anything you see as far as ideas and email me if you got questions.

Welcome aboard!

Jake

I'm in the process of writing a tech tip on this very same swap. You can bolt the crossmember from '71-87 into your truck; I used a '75. If you can find one, a '71 or '72 is preferrable, because you can use the rearend as well meaning you would have 5 lugs all around. After '72 the rears went to leaf springs, and you would have to cut off all the brackets from the rearend and weld the '65 brackets on. Not impossible, but if it can be avoided, all the better.

As Bear63 stated, you can swap out just the spindles, but the locations of the control arms from drums to disc is different on the crossmember. This means if you just swap out the spindles, you will have to remove all the shims from the upper control arms for the camber adjustment; it's still not enough to get them right, but it will work.

I know it's late, but hope it helps.

Just a heads up for you...... if you plan on having any body parts 'acid dipped', DON"T !!!!! The only things I would dip are items that can be completely washed afterwards. Any parts with seams, do NOT get dipped...it'll haunt you down the road. Stick with the sand/media blasting.

Doug

I do a lot of welding at home, mainly heavy stuff for my dad (he breaks a lot of his old farm equipment) and I can hold my own with a MIG, but I am by no means an expert. However I am restoring a '66 and am almost finished with my structural welding which means bodywork is next. The only advice I can give you would be, like tumbuk said, use solid wire and gas not fluxcore. I picked up .024 solid wire for my truck. I'm not sure how much research you have done on bodywork but from what I have read, and the work I have done, go slowly on the lowest heat you can and only weld about an inch or a little more at a time and then switch to another section. By slowly piecing your weld bead together and allowing each part to cool before welding more next to it, you avoid over-heating the metal and causing it to warp. Another thing I read somewhere was to weld the back of the joint where you won't see it, and then any lines or small gaps left on the front can be filled in with a little body putty. If you did that you might be able to get very good quality results without paying big bucks at a body shop... just a thought.
But hey it sounds like a very fun and challenging father/son project, should be plenty of bonding time for the two of you and lots of good memories
Best of luck with it!

Nathan