SIX-FO' wrote:Hey KK, could you tell me a little about your floor shift? I had asked about doing a floor shift a while back and no one seemed to think it would be doable. Your GMC looks great! It has the perfect wheels and the perfect stance!!!
-Ryan
Thanks Ryan, The right shoes definitely make the van! I like the old skool big/little look. On my little Jimmy, The fronts are appliance 14's (6" wide) with 205/60r14 tires, while the rears are Cragar deep dish 15's, 8" wide With 255/60r15 tires.
Regarding the floorshifter, it certainly can be done! It just takes a little fabrication.
The floorshifter was in my '66 Sportvan. The mod was originally done by the previous owner, then improved by me. You will note in the pic, the stock shifter assembly in front of the steering column has been completely removed and discarded. The existing shifter linkage rods were retained. Some welding fabrication was done to extend the factory rods. Additional round steel stock was added to where the factory shfter location originally was... going towards the passenger side past (and forward of) the steering column and then turn 90 degrees back to the floorshift location. So basically the shift rods would make a big 'U' around the steering and then come back to the shifter. The floor shifter was a hurst competition-plus body and was mounted in a square hole cut in the floor just to the right of where you would rest your heel when your foot is on the gas pedal. The left and the right side of the square hole in the floor was reinforced with some 1" wide angle iron. The top of the angle iron stuck up from the hole, and each side had a good size hole drilled in it, about centered. This is where we bolted the shifter body. I think there was an additional mounting point too, maybe the vertical plate extended just below the floor also, for the other shifter body bolt to bolt to, I have a hard time remembering.
Anyways, when I first got the van, it had this set up with a 4 speed saginaw. The previous owner had an fabricated an extra shift rod in there for reverse. I never liked this because the rods were too close together and they would get hung up on each other and bind, causing the van to be stuck in gear, usually in 2nd gear. So I swapped back to a 3 speed and removed the homemade 3rd shift rod. After that, it worked great and no more binding linkage problems. The previous owner had this ghetto shift handle (the shifter arm) set up too... The chrome arm coming off the shifter was way too short, so he just had a very long threaded extension (like a couple of shock tower extensions together) threaded on the top of the hurst shifter arm... the the whole thing looked like crap so it was wrapped in leather (the kind usually to go around a steering wheel) to hide it. This was never solid and it eventually broke so I took a round chrome shifter arm from a generic cheapie Mr. Gasket 3 speed floorshifter kit and welded it onto the original hurst handle (which I cut in half). The welded part was hidden under the round boot. It was kind of a pain in the ass getting everything to work, but it was cool when it finally was all together. The trick was getting a shifter arm that was long enough to reach, but not so long that it would hit the dash in or the doghouse when shifting to 1st or 2nd.
I always thought that a 4 speed would have worked with a cable for reverse instead of that rod. I also think that this might work well using proper size cables for everything, eliminating the clanky old shifter rods all together!
If you are a halfway decent fabricator, you can do a floorshift conversion like I have described. It sure made my little van fun to drive and any passengers I had were always suprised that my van was a floorshift and other early owners were always envious.
Good luck and van on!!
just found this 1962 six door baby two weeks ago and have been working on it like mad ever since. i bought it in kelowna BC from a real cool dude who sadly had to part with it. heres the stuff i've done: rope seal, carb kit, new exhaust system, gutted interior, evicted rodent tenants, new seats, new aft bench, rebuilt dash cluster, new carpet, extensive rust repair, sand blast and rebuild signal and brake lights, get engine running (144 six), tune up, fit new rear doors, replace shift rod fairleads, and lots of engine detailing! next up is the dual brake conversion from dennis in oregon and electronic ignition. i hope to get the van on the road in a couple more weeks for the rest of summer. by the way thanks to everyone with the help so far, really great site! makes this whole thing way easier! cheers steve and the 8ball
, but atleast now you know that there should be another Van down there, and as i remember Holland,so small that everyone is neighbours, atleast as friendly as 
by Guest Sun May 03, 2009 9:52 am
