'66 Custom Camper workhorse project

[pbbelly]

Originally Posted by pbbelly

I have some questions that some of you may be able to answer and save me some trial and error:

1. Will the rear manual crossmember from the '70 fit in the '66 frame?

2. If the answer to #1 is no, will one from the '61 work? I know there are significant differences bewtween '61 and '66 frames in other areas.

3. Will the '70 (manual floor shift) steering column fit?

4. Does the '61 C20 have the same vulcanized rear cab mounts? (it's not like it will be hard to look at that, but it is at my dad's farm and I won't be up there for a few days.)

Here are the answers I've found for my questions above in case anyone ever wonders:

1. & 2. Don't know. It turned out that when I went with the NV4500 I didn't need an intermediate crossmember. The TH400 crossmember worked great with the NV4500, I just had to move it forward some and drill different holes in the frame.

3. It will pretty much bolt in, but the turn signal harness won't plug up. ( I did read that there is supposedly an adapter harness available) I swapped my automatic column for a manual '66 one (4-5-6 Chevy trucks-Anthony is great to deal with!). Since I used the '70 steering gear I was going to have to change or modify the steering shaft. I really liked the idea of a collapsible shaft instead of the death spear that came in the truck, so I used the shaft out of the '70 column in the '66 manual column housing. this made the collapsible section a bolt-in fit.

4. I never looked and never found out one way or the other. After some research I didn't want the vulcanized mounts anyway... I bought a set of frame brackets from 4-5-6 Chevy Trucks and used a set of urethane cab mounts for a 1/2 ton.