Projects Building a 57 Chevy Shop Truck

"Twisted Mystery'' lol. Glad you got it running. Vertigo sounds a little scary.

 

I have had my runs with the vertigo **** also . Not good . Hang tough it will move on just as it appeared . Tuck is lookin great !

 

I think this is it for the 307, it'll be a backup motor to sit in the corner till it's needed, at least I know it does run decently and has antifreeze in it

 

when my father blew up his 327 he bought a 68 Biscayne with a 307 and powerlgide for $50.00 in 79-80. when i drove the car in 83-85 it still had the 307. makes a good backup motor for the bucket esp for your kid driving it.

 

I bought a 69 Camaro with a 307 to play with. They are the perfect raw material from which to build a muscle car because they have a V8 VIN number and the 307 is so weak you know it hasn't been drag raced, slid around corners and abused. I also got decent money for the little small block when making room for the 396. They have their place. Enjoying the build.

 

Are you kidding? Having been a teen, raised one and taught them for 27 years, there is no car that they can't figure out a way to abuse.

 

I'm still not above putting the 6-71 on it, at least it might make 300 hp !
But if it really takes 100 hp to turn the blower that would mean it'd knock it down to a 100 hp motor, I don't know if it'd crank out another 200. Lol

 

Swade41 do you plan on running the fender well headers? How much clearance for an exhaust should you choose to run an exhaust with those headers?

 

Unfortunately the tri-five headers interfere with left hand turns



I have a set of the "fat fender" ones but #7 tube hits the column



I have two cars with fenderwell headers and i ran the pipe under rocker and exited before the rear tire

 

Hell, at that point you'd be money ahead to run a Flathead! LOL!!!

 

Ha !

I have everything except carb linkage and a crank hub for the pulley, so it's like "free" horsepower lol

 

Nice comparisons on the headers. Have always wanted to run fenderwells on my truck but ***umed there would be some interferences. I have late '60's C10 full length headers on mine and it's nice as they come down low enough to clear the frame crossmember. But the fenderwells are soooooo cool! How close is your engine to the stock location?

 

Thanks for the pics…I am running block hugger headers on my 57… not a fan. Not really interested in paying big bucks for some long tubes.

 

I'm not sure how close to a stock location it is, this was a 6 cylinder truck.
I mocked it up with an hei and placed the engine so that the hei base was about one inch off the firewall. I used the tubular engine mount placed inside the frame rails and raised it as high as it would go.
Not sure if you can tell anything by where the crank pulley is or the space between valve cover and firewall.

 

Front to back mine may be an inch or so further rearward and I am using a stock style bell housing and non-HEI distributor and valve covers are closer to firewall. So we are pretty close overall.

 

Did a little to the 57, pulled the 205/75/15's off the old Cragars



Pulled the old bias plys off the aluminum slots I want to run



Married those two together



And think it looks pretty good

 

Then I hooked everything up to run the 307, since it was jacked up already why not try and find this oil leak.
Ran it for a couple minutes and it leaked this much out, it's a good leak



It looks to be coming from in-between the timing cover and the oil pan, I had already snugged the oil pan bolts once, so that ain't it.



This will be a backup engine so I'll replace the pan gasket when the time arrives to call it into service.
Next up will be removing the front clip, motor/trans and start cleaning up the front half of the frame.

 

Just about ready for front clip and engine/trans pluckin !

 

Following along. I just picked up a 56 .

 

That's a good looking truck

 

Thanks . 350 TH350 P/S P/B 3 inch lower springs in front and just got 3 inch lower for rear.
New chrome grille and bumpers plus headlight rings. Tilt wheel . Alum radiator. Even the radio works. lol
Needs bigger tires up front.
Older build been sitting. Needs things freshened up.
2 tailgates. Ditched the visor. Not my style.

 

Me and my son pulled the front clip today instead of watching football, if I had more room I would've pulled the engine/trans.



I need to get a plan together so I can pull that on a separate day from the power washing the ch***is day.
I would need to move 2 cars, the bike, the front clip and the stack of tires to pull the engine/trans and need to move all 3 cars plus that other stuff to get the truck outside.... ugh

 

Jesus Christ Man! It looks like a tire shop in there, instead of a garage! LOL!!! Like the tire department at Sears!

 

But I have 9 pairs of skinny front runners, which makes it all ok. LOL

I don't know how I ended up with so many pairs with rubber on them, that's the problem. Without rubber I could just stick them on the rack with the others.

 

I'm making good use of my son LOL today we pulled the engine/trans, went pretty smooth too.
Tomorrow I'll get it outside for the power washing, hopefully that'll knock the crud off so they're won't be as much dust when wire wheeling the frame.

 

Swade41 watched your YouTube video on your 51 Henry J…sweet looking ride. Paint job looked legit, especially for a roller paint job.

 

Thanks, kinda like the water drops on this truck, something new to do, I did one test panel then just went for it. Of course I manage to half *** know how to do it by the ending of it all. Lol
No roller job on this one but I'm still undecided on how I'm going to paint the rest of the truck. I guess when I see the bed outside tomorrow from a distance it'll let me know which direction I should go in or start over lol

 

A couple of strings of Christmas lights and you're ready early.

 

2 in the yard and one in the driveway to get the 57 out



It didn't come as clean as I had hoped but at least the dirt is off of it



Windows look much cleaner at least



I sprayed the other fenders down too



Then Sta-Bil atized the t-bucket, Henry J and 41 truck, took them for a spin making sure to open up the secondaries in them to get the treated fuel in there too. I put the Henry J in it's winter parking spot and moved all the other stuff back in an unorganized organized manor.