If you have to ask, you’ll never succeed. Even if you knew how to go about it, the cost and magnitude of the conversion would be huge. Everything about the front end of the truck will be different except the headlight bulbs… even the wheels. That’s a lotta stuff.
In mn, its easy to find 2wd trucks on CL, put Texas in search criteria and they pop up fast. Finding a rust free 15yr old truck in mn is hard.
If this is a project truck and money is no object, it would be a lesson in patience and endurance. An acquaintance bought an old Jaguar to restore when he retired. It was an expensive hobby but his wife approved of it since “she knew where he was, and was not drinking while working on the car”.
@Docnick
I am repeating what a friend did with his wife’s “hand me down from an uncle” restoration job of an older Jaguar. He did it as cheap as you could. Replaced the motor and transmission with a Chevy six and two speed power glide. I guess that. makes it a Chevuar or a Jag -o -let .
@dagosa Yes, some of these upgrades make a lot of sense. A real gearhead guy I worked with a few years back restored a late 30s Dodge by installing a Dodge slant 6 with the 3 speed Torqueflite, a near bullet-proof drive train. The fit only required new engine mounts and adjusting the drive shaft length. He could, unfortunately not work in the power steering because of the very different front end.
I don’t think GM built 4x4 suburbans until the late 60’s. They were outfited after the fact, and were true utility vehicle that were beat to death (not like today’s recreational SUV’s). If you are truly after the look of the 1960, buy one without a power train is probably a good option. Then find a later donor for the drive train … a late 1980’s/early 1990 K10-20 pick-up or suburban.
@T-Charley
Factory equipped 4WD started being available in 1960.
I am reminded of the late Lowell Burkhead, inventor of the Burkhead safety rack, used for decades by commandos; SWAT teams; and explorers all over the world.
He got an old 6X6 chassis from a military truck. He mounted a 60’s something Ford body on that and hooked up the Ford motor with two sequential transmissions. It was a horrid looking thing. He called it The Beast.
I visited him the day he welded the gas tanks. He tried all sorts of clamps to hold the correct shape. Finally, he asked me to sit on the curved part while he welded it. Worked perfectly for shape, but I’m sitting there and the bright red line is getting closer and closer to my, er, rear end. I started to squirm, and he laughed and laughed, but finally stopped and told me to get off. Believe it or not the tank held gas without any leak.
But, when the spelunkers explored a famous cave, the car folks would park a few miles from the cave and backpack in. The 4WD folks would go another mile or two. Lowell would come in off the Interstate sometimes a thousand or miles from home; shift down another few times, pass up the 4WD parking lot, and drive up to the entrance of the cave. With the air conditioner working full speed if needed.
I am guessing it was a bit of paperwork to get that thing licensed for on-road use. But, that was a long time ago and things were different.
Once, a deputy sheriff found it on an isolated gravel road, buried in a large snow drift and mud pile, with no tracks within 30 feet. He told Lowell, “While I would sure like to know what you were doing to get it there, for legal reasons I am not going to ask.” I think they let him leave it there until the melt-off since no one else could use that road anyway.
When he died, I was told it was sold to a man who did lumbering work in the Midwest. He would go down in the woods and carry up wood for household burning such as fireplaces where allowed.
Lowell was a brilliant machinist, and could forge almost any mechanical part. He even poured his own crank bearings for his 1936 Avon all aluminum body car. My own Burkhead Safety Rack with his personal serial number on it is one of my prized possessions.
I recall seeing 1950s Chevrolet panel truck bodies installed on 1970s K-5 Blazer chasses. It was a cool replacement for rusted K-5 bodies.
Two BIG rubber bands and four idler pulleys with brackets, nuts and bolts.
@irlandes Thanks for the nice memories of your friend. He sounds like an entertaining and inventive guy.