Something else that we did that is specific to all 67 chassis is to heat, and indent the frame rail where the new quick ratio power steering gear mounts. We would have to have done this whether or not we chose the quick ratio power steering, or just the standard power steering that was used after 1969. 67-68 power steering would have bolted in without this modification, but we chose to update this part of our project. Note After dry fitting the power steering gear, we also found that we had to notch part of the lower left radiator support bracket. The end of the steering gear hit on the bottom of it, making it impossible to mount.

We also had to remove the rivets that hold the bottom of the front cross member. This is because our Panel did not have the front sway bar option. In 67-68 front sway bars were optional in all of the trucks, 69-70 standard in 3/4 ton trucks, optional in the 1/2 ton trucks, and by 71-72 they were standard in all trucks. This option will improve the handling of this heavy Panel immensely!!

One of the modifications that we decided to do when we started this project was to convert the original hand lever parking brake to the 69-72 style foot pedal brake. This sounds simple enough, however the 67-68 firewalls are different than the 69-72. The left side of the 67-68 is flat and the 69-72 has a raised portion to allow for the foot assembly. The location where the parking brake pedal comes through the firewall is different, as is the location of the fuse panel. This was all to allow for the later foot style parking brake assembly. The picture on the left is the panel as we were cutting this section out, and the one on the right, although hard to see the difference is a picture of the left side of a 69-72 firewall.

We had to drill out all of the spot welds in the area around the, outer lip as well as use a die grinder to cut this section in order to remove it. This is major surgery, but we think the end result will be worth the time. Here is a picture of the left side of the Panel’s firewall cut out and the section of firewall that we removed from a donor truck. The differences between the two are more evident between the two in this picture.

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