Then why do people still use bangers, flatheads, stovebolts, Oldsmobiles, Y-blocks or any other vintage engines? We are not here to make 700 H.P. or to get around a 1/2 mile dirt track in 18 seconds or to get in the 200 club, we are here to perverse and replicate history.
I wonder if the OP knows that when you put the Hurst front mount on these that it is a bolt in swap on a 35-48 ford
My daily driver is a deuce pickup with a 265/350 turbo. There have been several 32 pickups for sale over the years on here that would be candidates for the 265. Mine runs great to date.
I really tried to get a 265 for my car. One was advertised in a local paper and I kept on calling to take a look but the guy kept on stalling with one excuse after another and I hadn't even tried to bargain him down. After about a year, he finally said he didn't want to sell anymore. Ended up using a 350 that I put on early parts to have the correct look.
Have you priced a flat fender in this decade and on this continent? Cheap flatfenders need a ton of fab work on the tub. Samaria???? I have not seen one those in years and those jokers aren’t cheap anymore. The “crawlers” like them. To suggest a early SBC is exotic and then to recommend a project combining/ destroying two pretty much exotic vehicles is......it’s just goofy.
As a follow-up, last night scrolling thru the local Craigslist, I cam across a CJ-5 with a seized up engine for not crazy money, and with a little negotiating could probably be bought for under a grand, US dollars. They came out in 1955, so if a Jeep is not ot, just because it's a Jeep, then this could be a solution for what to do with the 265. It's a little bit newer, but still the short wheelbase, with a Buick v6. Probably not too hard to mate the 265 with the transmission. And the one I did decades ago used Hurst saddle mounts, just like he'd have to do. A set of rams horn manifolds and Bobs yer uncle! Work on the body as needed, altho it didn't look too bad in the pictures, add a rollbar cause they are tippy, and have fun.
I do chuckle a bit when I hear guys on here talk about vintage rods being impossible on a budget with limited time and resources. That's literally my situation. If the kid is crafty and determined it's more than possible. I'm literally building a 53 bel air in my back yard. Managed to borrow shop time to put the engine and transmission in but had I been able to get the engine to where the car is parked right now I would have put it in where it currently sits. And .....he has a good start.....said 265 is already rebuilt and fresh. I originally had a 57 283(still have it.....just waiting on me getting around to rebuilding) in it I was going to run that I learned despite being low mileage and a good core needs completely gone through. And I'd assume if he has a place to store the 265 I'd assume he has a place to store a vintage rod in between $for parts and time to work on it. And a thing about college.....you meet and talk to a LOT of people. And who knows What they know of squirrelled away. I myself happen to know where a rolling chassis with mint floorboards (floorboards are all that's left of the body lol) to a 35 Ford 3 window is sitting that's technically mine that has a usable 35 Ford four door sedan body sitting 100 feet away from it surrounded by random 35 Ford body and suspension parts. So I could technically slap together a 35 Ford with tri five sbc fairly cheap myself.
Depending on where you are that can cost more than marketplace lol. Last time I went to a scrap metal yard they wanted like $3500 for a completely trashed 3/4 ton early fifties Ford flatbed that even the flatbed was rusted out on lol
Not mine. Bought my 57 Chevy step van shorty for $600 at our yard. They charged me $300 over their purchase price for my bus. Bought an OT gm letter engine (aluminum block one) for $350. With the trans, harness, column and rear axle $10 for a banjo rear, $150 for a 292 complete, and $0 for an 325/50 hp 396 intake
I've actually found tri five guys on marketplace locally are super helpful on parts. Had one guy give me the fan on my 53 that came off his 57 hardtop after he put a newer ugly engine in because he forgot to mark sold on the listing for his original 283.
By the time I sell the parts I’m not using on the step van I should be 200-400 to the good on it. Free plus 2-400. Mmmmmmmmm
My 53 to date has under $4k in it. Purchase price, low mileage engine, rebuild transmission with mild shift kit, 3.42 positrac rear end, caps, lakes pipes, wire harness, new carb, radiator, paint, a bunch of replacement chrome both used and reproduction, mounts, gas tank, all of the lighting, steering wheel and stereo, even the fuzzy dice. Right good luck even getting a running Korean econobox beater for that lol. And even in my early years my biggest hangup was getting an engine ready to run. And as I said he has a fresh rebuilt engine. An engine regardless of ci is just an sbc..... meaning anyone can work on it. Only hangups on his is a more limited array of oil filter choices and a two year distributor. But said two year distributor is super easy to get. I even got a 56 265 distributor by accident.....it's sitting next to a Carter four barrel off a 55 265 in my shed lol
I am forty. And as for how long I've accumulated the stuff for it I literally owned none of it before I bought the car four years ago. Most of it I've bought in the last two.....and majority of that I've bought in the last 11 months. Most of my storage for parts is a rented storage unit.....but as mentioned I imagine he has space to put a car considering he had the 265 rebuilt and has a place to store it. And little of what I've done with my 53 is any different than when I was building cars at twenty.....if anything it's more scatterbrained as normally it wouldn't take me four years to get this far. Reason I say twenty instead of saying 17 or 19 is I was twenty when I stopped listening to older guys when they would tell me how hard and expensive building a car was. Amazingly my cars started coming together quicker and cheaper. And actually most of my cars are stored on family property (not my property) likely like op and his 265.
Buy yourself a 14-20ft enclosed trailer yesterday. Even if you put it on a credit card and pay for somewhere to park it you'll come out money ahead vs paying for storage in not too long.
The Jalopy Journal
