Greetings from Golden

[67_327]

Hello everyone - just learned about 60Patrol.com from Grenadier, thought I'd take a look and register -

I have a yellow 67 that has been around the Denver area for a while, it has a 327 Chevy conversion with an adapter plate to the original Hitachi trans, so the 4WD drivetrain is still complete. The engine needs a rebuild so I bought the 6 cylinder 250 from Grenadier to swap in while I am collecting parts and dollars to do a decent build on the 327. When I look at this rig I think to myself that the 327 really is a little bit of overkill, but when Grenadier told me what he is swapping in to his new pride and joy, my little old 327 is pretty inconsequential..

Overall I'm pretty jazzed about having a Patrol - can't afford a Defender, way too many FJ40s out there, so this seems about right - I'll be putting in buckets, taking care of the usual collection of dings and dents and trying to get some paint on it by mid-june. My least looked-forward-to task is getting the surface rust and old foam/headliner off the inside of the roof, but hey, good with the bad.

I'll get some pictures together and post them later this week when I yank the engine - until then, glad to be onboard with like-minded gearheads!

67_327

[RiverPatrol]

Welcome to 60Patrol! Thanks to Grenadier for the referral.

I think your Patrol belonged to Jeff or Jeepy as he was usually known on the forums. He had one with the 327 for a while, he was in the Littleton area. I didn't realize that it had the original driveline behind the 327, very interesting. While you've got the engine out you should get the specs on that adapter plate, There would probably be other people interested in having one made so they could drop a 327 in easily.

Keep us posted on your progress. We need pics!

[miksum56]

Welcome to the addiction. The specs on that adapter would be good for many chevy conversions, not just the 327 but that whole line of small blocks. Off the top of my head 265,283,307 and 350. I like to see that plate...

[MadTripper]

Welcome and definitely get the specs for that adapter. That's a pretty neat setup.

[bosque]

Welcome and thanks to grenadier too. Cool to have other Patrollers around you. As stated the plate is........very important and would be a huge asset to keeping a few more Patrols rolling. Power steering, AC, and all sorts of upgrades are at your mercy.
Welcome and pics are huge here so bring em on anytime.

[67_327]

Thanks for the welcome - yep, this was Jeffs', down in Littleton south of Hampden - he still has a lot of parts available and lists them on the Denver Craigslist. Another couple of nice conversions he added were an FJ40 rear axle (still need to find shocks that fit) and power brakes - built an adapter for a booster to bolt up, and moved the clutch master cyl. over using a linkage - I may rework that, but it seems to work for now. I'll add pics so you can see what its all about.

The small block adapter plate - big chunk of steel, flame cut with a torch (kind of like the whole power brake/clutch bracket), so please don't be looking for a beautifully machined Atlas-like adapter. but I will get dimensions and take lots of adapter, clutch and pressure plate pics so you can see what is going on down there, and any relevant part numbers..

The downside of the V8 conversion is that you have to cut the footwells and fabricate new sheet metal to accommodate the width, so there goes the heater box and fan/blower plate. There is also a hole cut in the firewall so you can get to the distributor points slide window - the clearance is tight for the distributor, and that reinforcing rib that runs the width of the firewall had to be cut back - no room for an HEI, that's for certain. The fabricated parts for my mod came from washing machine and dryer sheet metal, and it all almost, but not quite fits - flame cut again, and short in a few spots. I happen to be the lucky owner of a plasma cutter, so I think I will use the existing as a template, measure about 5 times then get cutting.

My wife fails to see the inner beauty of the Patrol, but I think this is one cool rig - looks capable as all get-out, easy to work on, something different, and besides, Roy Rogers himself drove one! What's not to like?

More to follow, thank you all for the welcome!!

67_327

[RiverPatrol]

So it's got a 327 engine, the original Patrol 3 speed tranny and transfer, and an FJ40 rear diff. Cool! Quite a combination of technologies there. The power brake booster has been done by a few people, I think Esteban may have done it on his Patrol. That's a nice addition.

I don't think anyone will care how the adapter looks as long as they have the dimensions, that's what counts.

A shame that all the sheet metal had to be hacked to get the engine in there. No heater box in CO! Wow. But I've seen that done before. There was an article in a Popular Science or Popular Mechanics mag in the 60s about putting a V8 in a Patrol, and they had to hack the firewall. The Patrol isn't as adaptable as an FJ40.

[norville]

Thanks for the welcome - yep, this was Jeffs', down in Littleton south of Hampden - he still has a lot of parts available and lists them on the Denver Craigslist. Another couple of nice conversions he added were an FJ40 rear axle (still need to find shocks that fit) and power brakes - built an adapter for a booster to bolt up, and moved the clutch master cyl. over using a linkage - I may rework that, but it seems to work for now. I'll add pics so you can see what its all about.

The small block adapter plate - big chunk of steel, flame cut with a torch (kind of like the whole power brake/clutch bracket), so please don't be looking for a beautifully machined Atlas-like adapter. but I will get dimensions and take lots of adapter, clutch and pressure plate pics so you can see what is going on down there, and any relevant part numbers..

The downside of the V8 conversion is that you have to cut the footwells and fabricate new sheet metal to accommodate the width, so there goes the heater box and fan/blower plate. There is also a hole cut in the firewall so you can get to the distributor points slide window - the clearance is tight for the distributor, and that reinforcing rib that runs the width of the firewall had to be cut back - no room for an HEI, that's for certain. The fabricated parts for my mod came from washing machine and dryer sheet metal, and it all almost, but not quite fits - flame cut again, and short in a few spots. I happen to be the lucky owner of a plasma cutter, so I think I will use the existing as a template, measure about 5 times then get cutting.

My wife fails to see the inner beauty of the Patrol, but I think this is one cool rig - looks capable as all get-out, easy to work on, something different, and besides, Roy Rogers himself drove one! What's not to like?

More to follow, thank you all for the welcome!!

67_327

Welcome, I'm not sure if I've ever seen this rig. Pics please.

And if you're still in contact with Jeepy, try and convince him to post his parts for sale here also..

[miksum56]

Heres some listed now... http://denver.craigslist.org/pts/3650855925.html

Thanks for the welcome - yep, this was Jeffs', down in Littleton south of Hampden - he still has a lot of parts available and lists them on the Denver Craigslist. Another couple of nice conversions he added were an FJ40 rear axle (still need to find shocks that fit) and power brakes - built an adapter for a booster to bolt up, and moved the clutch master cyl. over using a linkage - I may rework that, but it seems to work for now. I'll add pics so you can see what its all about.

The small block adapter plate - big chunk of steel, flame cut with a torch (kind of like the whole power brake/clutch bracket), so please don't be looking for a beautifully machined Atlas-like adapter. but I will get dimensions and take lots of adapter, clutch and pressure plate pics so you can see what is going on down there, and any relevant part numbers..

The downside of the V8 conversion is that you have to cut the footwells and fabricate new sheet metal to accommodate the width, so there goes the heater box and fan/blower plate. There is also a hole cut in the firewall so you can get to the distributor points slide window - the clearance is tight for the distributor, and that reinforcing rib that runs the width of the firewall had to be cut back - no room for an HEI, that's for certain. The fabricated parts for my mod came from washing machine and dryer sheet metal, and it all almost, but not quite fits - flame cut again, and short in a few spots. I happen to be the lucky owner of a plasma cutter, so I think I will use the existing as a template, measure about 5 times then get cutting.

My wife fails to see the inner beauty of the Patrol, but I think this is one cool rig - looks capable as all get-out, easy to work on, something different, and besides, Roy Rogers himself drove one! What's not to like?

More to follow, thank you all for the welcome!!

67_327

Welcome, I'm not sure if I've ever seen this rig. Pics please.

And if you're still in contact with Jeepy, try and convince him to post his parts for sale here also..

[67_327]

Well, one of us has no idea what he is talking about, and since I just met all of you, it must be me - it has been a while since I have been digging around in the Patrol, and my feeble mind confused the somewhat cobbled power brake / clutch bracket with the extremely well-made trans adapter plate - this thing is very well made, nicely welded, nothing cobbled at all about this. The problem is, I was hoping just to do a quick swap, yank the 327 and pop the 6-cyl. right back in. Disassembling further to get to the adapter plate means removing the Chevy Truck bell housing and dropping the trans/transfer case, since the only thing holding those up in the frame is the frame mount up at the back end of the bell housing. So, what to do? Let me tear into this some more, take a look at the situation once I get the engine out, and then figure out my next move. If I had any sense at all I'd call Jeff/Jeepy and see if he has the specs/design for the plate and then all of our desires could be answered - well, maybe not *all*, but at least the ones concerning an adapter plate are concerned.

It seems I've read on here that you need three posts before you can upload pics, this is my 3rd, so I'll get the pics I took last night uploaded so you can see what is what.

Thanks, more to follow....

67_327