Projects 1955 Dodge PU custom

I rescued this old truck from a guy who was going to rat rod it. Im not sure why he was going to because the body is pretty much perfect. I purchased it last year for $1000 and it came with some random parts that he was going to use (rat rod nonsense), a 78 dodge 360, TF 727, and a hideous bed. More pics to come...

 

Here is the bed

 

Engine

 

The oil filter is the wrong color! Instead of an orange Fram, you really need a black Wix 51515, a lot better filter!

 

Nice truck, wrong bed.......its older than your truck. This is your bed.

 

The filter was all beat up anyway... just a temporary. And I didn't know that about the bed, the guy before me bought it from someone who used it as a trailer, hence the trailer fenders. I have since bought the right fenders for it. Are you saying that the bed height is incorrect?

 

After some engine cleanup

 

I was thinking this was the correct bed.

 

I was told the transmission needed a rebuild when i got it. This is what it looked like.

 

After teardown

 

Make sure the torque converter you get is for a 360.

 

Parts to be replaced...

 

What's the main difference? Are they visually different, or is it just the stall speed?

 

360 is balanced differently that the 273/318/340.

 

i dont know why its so hard to sell trucks of this year as they are nice and well built.

Jen

 

This is the converter i ended up getting, it just says for a 727.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/60408/10002/-1

 

Oh and it says the torque converter is "neutral balanced"?

 

During assembly

 

Nasty Valve Body

 

Neutral or 'zero' balance is for forged cranks. All 360's and 72-73 340 are cast crank. 318 also changed but the exact date varies...my old '79 W150 has a forged crank...I bought it new so I know it is oem.

.

 

So I was installing the "shift kit" that TCI supplied, and i found out that they wrote the instructions wrong (the hard way). The instructions called for drilling .5" into the valve body to open up a passage. Well, that was too far, so that's one valve body ruined. I later found out that B&M's kit only called for .3875" which is perfect. So after a trip to the junkyard and $45 later, I now had a good valve body. TCI denied that their instructions were wrong, so WATCH OUT!!!

 

nice looking truck, get er done

 

Neutral balanced converters won't work with a 360. 360s are externally balanced and require an externally balanced converter.

 

So are you saying my truck is going to vibrate and shake like hell? ... great...

 

can i get my neutral balanced converter balanced for my motor?

 

That yellow bed looks alot better than the blue in my opinion.

 

Yeah I like the bed-sides lower like that.

 

Two options:
•get the correct converter
•get a B&M flexplate for the mis-match


.

 

Does this look like the right one?

http://www.jegs.com/i/B-M/130/10236/10002/-1?parentProductId=748012

 

After rebuild (but with incorrect torque converter...)