I have decided to use my 1966 as a daily driver. It has the straight 6 and 3 on the tree. I dont want it to be anything fancy but i want it to be comfortable and a little cool! heres the questions: Will the newer Bullit Mustang rims fit on my 66 with no mods? I want to change to an Auto, what trans and what steering column will work best? (by the way, THINK CHEAP) How can I put in power breaks and power steering? I have no problem for scanning the junk yards and I can also do any fabricating needed so give me your ideas! I plan to turn some of these jobs into Tech Articles for future reference...........thanks in advance!

 

As for the wheels, no the lug pattern is differant form truck to car. Check in the treads here about the PS, I think that eary 70's truck PS will work. I'm not sure about the which auto trans will work, you may find a 66 F-100 with a auto you can get a column or when looking for the PS check for a column out of the 70's truck. Have fun with it.

 

Search in this forum for power steering and power brake upgrades. It will give you a lot of information how to do this.

Your best and easiest solution is to buy a complete truck '68 - '79 with the options you want on it.
For example, if you want a 390 and automatic with PS and PB, buy a truck with those features, find a wrecked one to use. You will find it much easier to harvest parts from it, than to make multiple runs to the boneyard, or pay expensive prices for that little regular bracket that didn't come with the engine.

The other option is to put your front clip, cab and bed on a later frame. All the PS and PB upgrades are already in place, and if you get one with the engine and transmission options you want, you will be ever so much ahead.

As I said earlier, search on this in the forum, and you will be pleasantly surprised!

 

I agree with Banjo.

Buy a truck with wrecked sheet metal that has eng/tran combo that you want with ps and pb. Then just swap the sheet metal and scrap the wrecked truck on the 66 frame to get some of your $$ back

 

I concur with the concept of putting your 66 truck body on a later version complete chassis having suspension, power/drive train & other options you really want to have. I have written extensively on this subject in this forum.

Besides creature comforts and convenience which add pleasure, you gain the safety & performance of newer technology which elevate your truck into the 21st century from the middle of the 20th century. One major safety advantage is the relocation of the fuel tank from in the cabin with you behind your seat, to outside and behind your truck into the rear frame where I believe it belongs.

Then there's P/S, P/Disc Brakes, anti sway bars, a bit wider track width, tad greater wheelbase length & so on. Why would one spend their money, time & effort altering an older chassis to be what they could easily & usually more cheaply buy, already done by
the OEM in an original, but good condition, used, truck with a wasted body?

I note you're expense conscious, in which case my advice for you is too just upgrade your 66 with the body swap method and decide on a style of wheels that were OEM on FoMoCo trucks, which you like. By doing your homework & making up your mind on what you really want, plus what is acceptable alternatives, then shopping a later, like kind, model & wheel base, FoMoCo F Series truck having what you want is both least expensive and also fastest way I know to "get 'er done" the way you want it. IMHO, that's by far the "Kewlest" way to get Kewl cheap & easy!

I rebuilt, restored & refurbished several of these 61-66 F Series trucks for clients and for myself before I figured out 65 & 66 fit, virtually bolt up, on frames & chassis of like kind & models thru '79, with 73-79 being slightly wider X slightly longer, much better version of choice. 1967-72 are dimensionally same as 65 & 66 (but 67-72 have in cab fuel, not so good [Bendix type] Power Steering [thru 68 anyway] & do not offer disc or power disc brakes as standard equipment, where as 73-79s do.

As for styled wheels, the 5 lug on a 5.5 inch centered pattern are a standard FoMoCo truck wheel bolt pattern "since Hector was a pup" aka forever, model A's & B's had 5 on 5.5 patern. . . . Anyway they still are 5 on 5.5 on F series. It means there are tons of OEM styled wheels in steel and alloy, as well as freight cars full of custom, stylized aftermarket wheels in steel and alloy to choose from.

I hope this is of some help to you.

FBp

 

Hey FBP,

When you say the 73-79 are slightly wider and longer what do you do to overcome the difference in deminsions when swapping on a slick's sheet metal?

Also, My truck being a swb, if I happened upon a lwb 75 or so that I wanted to use, could I simply relocate the rear axle and cut the excess frame of the back end?

Thanks,
Mike

 

Pete, could you swap sheetmetal to a 4wd?
Charlie