This is my first attempt at anything hot rod related. I've been around cars my whole life but never had the time or resources to attempt anything like this. I bought this truck about 6 years ago. It's a Texas truck and technically I am the 3rd owner, although it passed from a father to son at some point. My first goal was to get it on the road and street legal.
It had a worn out 350 with a 2 barrel and a 4 speed. Everything else was stock on the truck. I cut my teeth learning to fix the brakes, replacing wheel cylinders, seals and fixing the fuel lines and tank. After a few months it was a running (although rough) truck again.
I changed my mind on interior paint, found some bucket seats for it and decided to get some rally wheels for it. I thought things were going pretty well...
Then I had this fantastic idea to tear it down to the frame, put a 454 in it and really make it awesome.
I got a 4" drop axle from Sid's Dropped Axles (this guy is awesome), 10 bolt Camaro rear end, front disc brakes, power booster, etc and then there it sat for over a year. I really don't understand what my problem was, coaching two baseball teams, president of the local baseball association, 65 hours at work each week and two boys should have given me plenty of time to get this thing finished, right? Well, the more I thought about it and the more I surfed the HAMB the more I decided I was going in the wrong direction. I was going to have to make so many modifications to get that 454 in that it wasn't really going to be the truck I was shooting for when I started. I pulled the cross members out, covered the engine and regrouped. I got my hands on a fresher 350 and decided I was going to learn how to rebuild an engine. I had a book, my dad's advice and went to town. The engine was practically free, the valve covers were free, the intake and carb were junkyard finds and I bought all the parts to rebuild engine and carb.
I put the original cross member back in, bought a new V8 motor mount that was used for the conversion back then and dropped it in. I have retained the dropped axle, original steering and upgraded brakes. I kept the 10 bolt rear end and started bolting it back together.
I am going to keep the original bench seat and and keep the interior stock. I have these wheels on it just to check the stance and make sure everything clears. I have some work to do on the rear fenders and need to finish putting the doors on it. All the electrical work is done and it runs just great. I have an exhaust to put on it and some wheels to locate. I want steel wheels with hubcaps.
I want it to look as stock as possible and maintain all the characteristics that I found cool about it to begin with. Odd how few people understand what it means to look at an old vehicle like this one and have so much pride in the knowledge that you did it yourself. There really is no substitute for that. I'll keep you posted and welcome any feedback.
looks good. Im gonna be dropping a 283 into a 58 apache. Not sure what direction im gonna go with it yet
The Jalopy Journal
