61 3/4 ton to 1/2 ton questions

[68c10owner]

My buddy was given a 1961 3/4 ton. He wants to make a shortbed out of it and thats no problem but what all do i have to do to convert it from 3/4 ton to 1/2 ton? He said it has coi springs and the trailing arms in the rear with some sorta half a leaf helper spring. Can we just put a 1/2 ton diff. under there with regular springs? The front will most likely get swapped for a 73-87 crossmember and we will remove the X frame and box the frame a little more. He doesn`t know much about these trucks so I`ll most liley be doing most of the work. Funny thing is he`s the one that got me into hot rods 20 years ago and now he dosn`t even know where to start,lol. Help me out guys.

[Captainfab]

Sounds like you've got the front figured out. For the rear, I would get a 12 bolt out of a '63-'70 1/2 ton and just get the conversion axles, or re-drill the flanges. You'll have to move the trailing arm pads out and re-weld them since the '60-'62's are wider. If you get a rear diff out of a '71-'87, keep in mind that they are 1.5" wider overall.

Sounds like it has over load springs on it(half leaf spring).....I'd just remove them.

[68c10owner]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Sounds like you've got the front figured out. For the rear, I would get a 12 bolt out of a '63-'70 1/2 ton and just get the conversion axles, or re-drill the flanges. You'll have to move the trailing arm pads out and re-weld them since the '60-'62's are wider. If you get a rear diff out of a '71-'87, keep in mind that they are 1.5" wider overall.

Sounds like it has over load springs on it(half leaf spring).....I'd just remove them.

So all I need to do for the rear is just get a 1/2 ton rear end and weld on the new perches? I told him about the 71 up rearend being wider but I don`t think it matters here because he`s wanting to run some 15x6 or 15x7 steels with wide whites. Sounds like it`ll be easier than I thought it was going to be.