65 town wagon build

[penski61]

here is my other build thats on the back burner till i get the 47 done . 65 town wagon that started as a 2wd and converted to 4wd with 12v cummins
here is the progress so far
boxed up the frame

[penski61]

the d44 that was on the wagon had something broke on the pass side plus it was closed knuckle drum so pulled a d60 non vac from a 3500 dually and cut inner c's off a superduty 50 .
cut old c's off and installed superduty c's with dodge all joint knuckles and did the junkyard ttb 50 outer swap but upgraded everything to 35 spline

[penski61]

once i got the body on and axle back under the the truck found out the leaf springs pushed the axle a forward enough to not work with the fenders , went back to the jy and pulled upper coil buckets off an 07 superduty and grabbed a sterling 10.25 out of an F250
and thats where im at today getting these installed
drilled out new holes in the mounts which gave me 3 positions with a little over 2" in adjustment

[penski61]

more progress , pulled a nissan steering box at the junkyard and may end up pulling a grand cherokee box as well so i can swap the sector shaft and possibly the input so i can run a different pitman arm . If everything goes as planned ill have a 12v cummins with 149k on it tomorrow afternoon then i can start on the engine mounts and cradle

[penski61]

cradle and motor mounts almost done

[penski61]

more progress .. got the upper link mounts done , got a set of new coils
and picked up a trans and t-case . still need to get the pan hard bar axle mount done and drag link mount then i can move onto cross member for trans . also got the town wagon body off the lowered frame and truck body put on

[penski61]

Steering and pan hard done. Transmission mount and frame re enforcement done . now need to make the last of the body mounts , cut out some of the rear frame and weld new stuff back in and figure out where to put a gas tank

[penski61]

[penski61]

got the firewall and trans tunnel pretty much wrapped up just need to trim the excess

[penski61]

auto shifter i modified , started out as a montero sport auto shifter like the one in the pic
. pulled the handle off which left a nice piece of round tubing to work with and the threaded rod for the button to shift thru the gate . removed the threaded rod and installed new longer piece along with longer tubing, got some 3/8 rod then threaded it for the shift knob and drilled a hole out for the smaller threaded rod to go thru for the push button . for the trans shifter i tore it down to the bushing , welded on longer piece of tubing then hammered in the 3/8 rod and tapped it for the knob

[penski61]

took the body back off so it would be easier to make new cross members and get the fuel cell mounted . cut one of the stock cross members out and one of the ones i made to make room for the fuel cell , its tight but fuel cell drops pretty easy . did it this way so the cell is close to stock gas tank location which will allow me to use the stock filler
next up is cutting the frame horns off in the back that are mangled and replacing them then possibly install a spare tire carrier

[penski61]

radiator , intercooler and ac condenser in there

[penski61]

got radiator, ac condenser,intercooler and trans cooler on their way , so while im waiting for that moved onto the hydroboost . hydroboost is from a superduty because the hydroboost from a dodge was too long and would have hit . made and adapter plate/stiffner for the booster to bolt to but found out that the oem mounting plate behind the booster is at an angle so it put the mc at about 75 degree angle downward , luckily there is a large nut and snap ring that holds it in place . took it all apart and made up a new plate and worked out pretty good . may end up heating the brake to bend it over to the left a little to make more room for gas pedal

[penski61]

found a radiator that should work out good , pulled from an E250 but ill upgrade to the mishimoto aluminum when it comes time to put everything together. had to modify the frame so that the radiator would drop down and have a place for the studs

once i got the frame fixed , put the front end back on and fitted the intercooler

[penski61]

getting closer to being able to tear it all back apart lol