eightup

That was my assumption, just wasn't sure if I should look for something more specific since I am taking the time to do the swap. I am about 8 hours south of you. Might be a bit far

If I can't find a replacement spring pack then I might end up doing an air ride conversion. Probably will keep my axle and fab up some stuff to make the donor suspension work. Found a Mack CH 613 air ride suspension for a single axle for 600. But since this is my first truck I am not to familiar with any of the air ride setups. Anyone able to provide some input on whether the suspension from that truck would be a good choice?

Well work pulled me away for a couple months. Dropped off some parts to be powder coated the other week and now I am just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit to get the back half of the frame painted. Hopefully will have a warm weekend pretty soon. Finally have 6 new tires to go on once stuff gets painted. Trusty tow rig putting in work Still trying to source a leaf spring pack since the junk yard has basically been ignoring me for weeks. If anyone has one laying around I would be more than happy to take it off your hands

That picture is almost ten years old, she is a little bit worse for wear now and currently number 3 in line for a restore.

Thats my trusty tow rig. Just wait till I have to haul all 4 with the tires mounted. I would use my hippy van but she isn't running at the moment

Progress has been slow the past couple days. The salvage yard set me up with 4 new wheels, a crossmember, and they have a b61 that will be providing a leaf pack in a day or two. In case anyone was wondering you can fit at least 4 wheels inside a ford focus. Sandblasting is about halfway done. Maybe I will be able to finish that up tomorrow.

With all the sludge and oil I drained from the air reservoir, I plan on replacing all the lines. I'll get everything drawn up and ordered in one shot which should make it easier

Spent the morning hunting down some brake parts and tires. Ended up grabbing two long stroke 30/30 spring brake chambers. I'll set those up after I finish painting everything in a day or two. Had two 24.5x11 tires mounted on the two tubeless rims I did have. Found four more rims that I will be picking up in the morning. I spent half a day taking the nuts off the leaf spring u-bolts and in the end I couldn't get the u-bolts out. Ended up cutting them off. Also pictured is my helper Danny, she excels at finding the most in the way place to drop her ball. Both leaf springs removed along with the rear crossmember that is all sorts of bent up. Driver's side leaf spring had two cracked leaves (top two) in it so now I have the choice of getting a new leaf pack, finding someone to make me two leaves, or converting to air ride. I'll see what the salvage yard has to offer when I pick up the rims tomorrow morning. I plan on picking up some primer and paint in the morning then firing up the sand blaster in the afternoon. If any of you NC guys want to come over, now's the time cause I really hate sand blasting. Assuming I don't run into any more speed bumps tomorrow, I should end the day with the rear primed and ready for paint.

Little bit of progress from today, rain rolled in around noon and really slowed everything down. Started off removing the air tank which I think was holding more water and sludge than air. Probably going to write off the old one and order a new air tank. From that pic is is fairly easy to see just how bent that rear crossmember is, so tomorrow I will be hitting up a metal yard to find a piece of C channel to replace it. Starting busting the U-bolts loose and that is not a fun process. Had a 10ft piece of pipe on my breaker bar and some were still putting up a fight. Didn't get through all of them today but I should finish up tomorrow. Put the girlfriend to work pulling the air lines and first thing she did was snap a fitting off in the quick release valve. Rather than fighting that thing I'll add a new one to the parts list.

Think I am going to replicate the brake setup featured by thomastractorsvc in his thread: I pulled the 5th wheel to clean up the frame and to rebuild/clean up the 5th wheel. I don't ever see myself ever actually needing to use it so it might become a fancy shop ornament. For the near future I will probably build a flatbed for the rear and a gooseneck ball but it could change. The back of the cab has two pinholes where I can see through. The rest looks pretty solid but there are a few spots that had cracked bondo that was probably trapping water for years. Probably once I start blasting panels I will find a lot more spots but its to be expected on any vehicle this old. Hope the hand is doing better. Looks like you were making some good progress before. Mine is going to remain a bit more stock than yours partly because I don't have a way to move these heavy parts around like you do.

I'm sure this truck will stump me at some point so I'll reach out if I need anything. Thanks man

I'm going to preface this with I am new to large trucks but no stranger to old cars. I saw this truck about 2 weeks ago and decided I had to have it and that it would likely be the worst financial decision I have made in a while. I'm sure there will be plenty of questions in the future and hopefully you guys can help me out along the way. The truck is a 1960 B61T with a thermodyne non-turbo diesel. It's last working job was moving reefer trailers probably about 20 years ago. Now my goal is to bring it back to life to haul around my other old toys. Starting pulling stuff off of it right away cause disassembly is what I'm best at. First to go was a welded on deck Then onto the tires which I'm pretty sure are older than I am. Two were tube type tires and two were tubeless 11x24.5s. I'll be setting it up for tubeless 11x24.5s all the way around. Now the hard part was getting that hitch off. After removing the two bolts and grinding out a couple welds I ran into the issue of how to move hundreds of pounds off a truck using an engine hoist that doesn't roll on gravel. Ended up going with a more of a "push it off the side of the truck approach" which worked fine. Tomorrow I plan on dropping the axle and suspension and rear air tank to prep the rear half of the truck for sand blasting and paint. Now for a few questions 1. Is there any surface on the axle I shouldn't paint? Will painting the surface that is in contact with the rims make it more difficult to install/remove them? 2. Are brake parts easy enough to find or should I look at more modern parts and upgrade slightly?

Hey everyone, just picked up a 1960 Mack B61T today. It runs and drives, just needs some TLC. I'll be starting a build thread over in the classics section, looking forward to learning from you guys since this is my first truck. Now on to the good stuff: