Digz's 65 panel

Mine is a 12 bolt 4:11 , there are subtle differences in the pig housing. I didnt even think to measure the brake shoes that were on it yet.


Its assembled now anyway.

The directions in the kit said to start with the thicker spacer but it ended up just needing the intermediate one that basically made a flat bracket out of it.

Nothing like alil' chrome.

Digz... that set-up looks great ! There's nuthin like a fresh coat of paint with new parts.Now you get to hang it underneath.lol
Not thread jumpin but...Don,if the 67 & 65 rears measure same,and spring perches same,are springs the same except for width ? I know they're tapered & wider.Just wondered if interchange ? Just tryin to get edjucated.

Good question Moe. I was just wondering the same thing. If these are interchangable then this could help solve many of our 1st Gen rearend problems as well as upgrade options. I would love a 12 bolt posi for my 66.

Dan,my 1st Gen has the 12 bolt w/auto under it.Dont know if it came that way.Won't that put a hellofa strain on that lil PG at highway speeds with that higher ratio? I have'nt pulled cover off it yet to see what it is.
Didn't mean to invade your thread Digz...Moe gets a lil sidetracked sometimes.

Moe, guess that would depend on your rearend gearing. If you running 14" or 15" wheels will come into play as well. Not sure what your def. of "Highway" speed is but that means 75-85mph to me....

Thanks Don. Think this is worth some research......

Yeah,preciate it Don,I'll write those #'s down,check at a later time.I can remember the old pre '67 trucks tryin to keep up on the interstate and those old motors screaming...' shift ! shift ! ' but there was nothin left in it to go to.

I was drinkin coffee here one morning and I broke out the calculator, If I did my math rite, The 4:11 gears with 26.5 inch tall tires at 60 mph even with the 700R4 overdrive the tach would be reading 2165 rpm or something like that I cant imagine the torture these gears would have been inflicting on a 230 six trying to race to a fire. . If this was going to be a daily driver I'd be dropping to 3:36s or more. As it is maybe I could pull stumps with it.
Also I've been looking at the pics of the caddy calipers you posted and comparing them to what I got in the kit, If it isnt a dead on knock off I'm blind. I'll do some closer looking tomorrow , wondering if there might be a difference in the rotors seeing as the caddy brackets mount outside of the axle flange and the kit goes inboard.(maybe I'll actually read the directions again). see if I can find a maker on the calipers but I doubt it. says made in Korea on some stuff , made in taiwan on others ,,lol

Got some new legs to stand on today

Still have to deal with the wheel clearance issue tho, something else to check with new springs, I had to grind a good 1/8 inch of the centering bolt to get it to bottom out in the perch

And I had to mill some material off my spring mount plates to allow the caliper to move, was hitting the parking brake hardware

Got the rings and bearings in the V-8 , waiting on cylinder heads now , gotta find some better ones to work with, the block is a 69-70 350 2 bolt main, the heads were a set of 882's from the late 70's guides worn out all round 436$ to fix, gonna see what I can find from a buddy or hit some off craigslist.

Ummm Digz?
Where did you get your springs from?
And did you front ones too?

Front and Rear, State Spring in Grand Rapids made them and they set me up with all the shackle bushings for the tune of 662.00, added a little arch and supposedly tried to help me out with the extra 300 lbs or so the V8 and 700 tranny are going to add, see how that works out when I get all the stuff in it, ain't gonna be no lowrider. Thier number is 1-800-727-8729 if anyone wants it.

Joe having springs made for our vans isn't cheap (I know) I think that why so many use used ones. They sure looks nice under there.

Looking good Joe, How many leaves are there in the sets??(front - back)

Still 6 leafs up front and 7 in the rear just like the originals. prolly ride like a tank,

That all new disc/spring combo look great Digz.Might have cost you a lil bit,but ya ain't gotta worry about sag and bounce ride on an old brake system.

Some recent progress.

Randy ,my son-in-law, had some time to get more of my hack welding covered up, I think its lookin good.

I got the front axle hung today and have started the disc brake conversion on that, been using the instructions from leadfoot, ,ya dont want to skip any steps where the front hubs are concerned, I had to put one in a lathe to true up the outside of the flange, the other side was just a real good clean-up with the file.

Joe,
There's got to be something said when somebody does it right. she looks fantastic! Those springs should handle that V8 and tranny no problem. And those brakes? Wow. just an amazing job! Thanks for all the pic's and info. I'm saving all these posts for my disc job later this summer. Still trying to get settled into the new house right now....

great job, hem orange, plum crazy,tor red... i love the wild colors. cant wait to start mine.

awsome brake and suspention work looks like your building from the ground up.This will be one cool van! Bill

I had some more parts come in the otherday.

This is the 30 inch cooler dual pass, brackets and tube actually measure 32.5 inches in case anyone needs to now how much space it will take up. I imagine the 24" version would be 26.5".
The next is the parking brake lever I'm going to use.

I will have to take the front tunnel back out to rework it some (thank god I bolted it in) and I will get the guages cut in at this time to.
It was kind of hard to tell in the picture of the left front brake ass. but I had the bracket on backwards, went to stick the rotor on and called myself a dumbass. Anyone know what that lever assembly actually is out of ? This brought up another question at what point does something become a Rat-Rod ?