Hello and a few questions from a non mechanic

[jchicago]

Been lurking for a few weeks while I've been shopping for an older truck. Picked up a 66 C/20 last Thursday off of Craigslist.

Just to let you know, I grew up in a car family: father, uncles, brothers all have older cars, or did, or are mechanics. I, on the other hand, not so much. This is my first pre-80's car, figured I'd give it ago (I'm in my mid thirties now, figure I better start making stupid mistakes before I can't blame youth anymore).

So after driving 200 miles north, I bought this truck and learned to drive stick, making it back to Chicagoland in the middle of rush hour traffic on Thursday night. So now for some stupid questions:

The stick shift (3 on the floor, converted from the tree) changes gears horribly (gets stuck between, often I can't get into 1st and R without shaking it violently to get it back in line). So after searching here, found a helpful post on getting it lined up. So crawled under the truck, finding nothing like it looked like on the post. But then noticed how much backwoods hillbilly mechanics were performed on this. The 1-R arm has a little safety pin as a pin holding the linkage, the 3-4 has a bent paperclip. I figure that the thing just needs new bushings and adjusted, and proper pins. But the pattern on the 1-R is reversed:
1-2
R-4
After I rebuild the shifter (or maybe just buy a new Hurst) how can I correct the shift pattern? Wouldn't be so bad, but the throw into 1st is loooong, I basically have to touch my toes.

Second, Am I correct that a longbed from a 1964-66 C/10 is interchangeable with the C/20? Previously was a farm truck and sometime in the last 50 years it got a farmer made bed. Which I already striped down to a flatbed for aesthetics (will rebuid a new flatbed in spring if I don't find a cheap bed).

Third question, is there any Chiltons or Hayes books on these years? Can't find anything. Did find the 1966 Chevy truck option catalog. Which is helpful for when I get ready to rebuild the bench and what not.

Sorry for the long post, and many thanks in advance.

And I know everyone likes to see pictures, so here's my cheap buy.