Best Square Body to Buy?

[HeavyD]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

Although I love the 73-75 trucks I would avoid the early ones. They have weird quirky parts that everyone says "oh it should swap in from any squarebody" but it doesnt.

I have a 75 and every time I go to replace, modify or upgrade a particular part it doesnt work on my truck out of the box.

For example,

1. Fuse boxes with glass fuses
2. amp meter instead of volt meters (differences in gauge cluster wiring)
3. wind shield wiper switches are different
4. steering column wiring is different
5. seats are different
6. ac components are different
7. hydroboost and power steering use sae threads instead of metric for the hoses and lines (good luck finding readily available sae threaded reman units!)
8. bed mounting holes dont line up with later frames

and probably a couple other things I forgot about. I believe 76/77 on up are more compatible parts wise.

Agree with all of this..the grilles look great and had some cool color schemes, but changes every 2 years is a complete pain.

Tailgates latch differently every couple years in the 70's to add to the frustration. late 70's more standardization, easier to find parts.