Hot Rods Project daily driver.... ish

Here's my 1957 chevy truck I picked up a couple months ago. Came with a tired 250 L6 and Th350. Plan on keeping it pretty mild but the 250 gave up the ghost. Current plans are for a healthy 350/th350.

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Congrats and have fun with it...A Handy Hop Up...can't beat that....We all should have one...Body looks very solid and its had some mild mods here and there...Awesome...

 

Optional Sunroof!

 

The sunroof wasn't a direction I would've took it but I'll be patching it before long.

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Should be a fun ride!

 

An engine and trans swap is a great plan. But if you're going to go through all that work, unless you have a th350 sitting around, I'd opt for an overdrive unit, a 200 or 700 R4. Do it once do it right.

 

He already has a th350 in it...

 

I daily drove of those for years, even in commute traffic. 350/T5 and it was an excellent truck.

 

Like your start, let's see some more!

 

Reminds me of my 1957 Chevy truck. When I bought it, it was a p.o.s. and I tried to change that. Never could and was GLAD to offload it.

 

Man that's a plain Jane...I still say you fellas and rust...It might have been a Shitbox but a real solid one...I see spots where there are signal lights on the other one. Were they in the I believe absent grille or were they an option?

 

It came with the 80s era chrome grill but I have a 55 grill I'll be swapping in soon. The goal here is a fun truck that I can commute to work in. I have tri power and magneto sitting on the shelf that I'm wanting to run... haha not sure many would consider it a daily with those in combination. But I love the look.

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I think the previous owner eliminated the turn signals. All I could do was to use arm signals since I was so busy trying to keep it running that I barely had time and money to fix the rest of it. It WAS rust free and in southern California. Sorry if I hijacked the thread.

 

Well hijack I don't think so heck it looks like a clone of the OP's ride...what's the chance of that...arm signals these days is a tad risky I suppose...I just think the timing combined with circumstance didn't jive...it happens

So @The Indian are you going to do an early to mid 60s dressup on the engine...maybe a bit of Ed Roth Pickup on the exterior...lots of potential at your fingertips...

 

I have some early M/T valve covers with breathers that I'm planning to run. Hopping to get the garage cleaned tonight and the short block assembled.

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Great looking fun truck! I’ve built 2 of them & sold them. Wishing every day that I’d still have either of them back. Keep us posted!


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Not a lot of progress lately. Scored a running 350 for free. Pulled out of a 69 C10 I sold. Upon putting it on the stand and turning it over we heard an audible internal "clank". One of the main bolts had backed out. It was at that point we tore it completely down and finding the crank was about as round as an Easter egg, we had a hell of a time finding a good steel crank locally. Finally picked on up for $75. Crazy to think I had that much trouble finding a SBC part haha currently the block is cleaned and honed, waiting to be assembled. More to come.

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I had a 57 years back that I did some 350/350 and 5 lug swapping to.
I like your idea about the grille swap... I would also get rid of the sunvisor,bed rails, hood ornament and that passenger side mirror
Some clean matching wheels and tires would look good too.
I could live with the cheesy sunroof a day or two as long as it was halfway sanitary and didnt leak.
..sanitary as one can be anyway
Its almost kinda like the old style camper toppers you see a few of coming back, you might not necessarily like em but you cant help but recognize the nostalgia of it.
(just my .02)

 

You listed everything I will be pulling off in the next few days. I'll be patching the roof before much longer. Its completely unsanitary and is atrocious. I'm riding these wheels until I can afford to go 5 lug. Honestly the brakes work great and I'm not in a hurry.

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Really like the old truck! Do agree with Low Budget and yourself on the changes. Will be a fun ride.

 

These days I would just keep the 6 lug, I like the original steelies more now than I did back then and even a set a cool caps are more to my liking these days as well, actually think some of the old dog dish caps are one of the coolest looks around on these old trucks.
I took the hubs,drums etc. off the front of a 54 chevy car and they work rite on those spindles, changed the whole rearend to do mine but like I said, I would leave it alone today if it were me.

 

I had planned to swap the rearend to a 10 bolt until I realized it had a 12 bolt swapped in at some point. The gearing isn't to bad. The old 250 had no problem cruising at 65 mph. Well until the rod gave up the ghost and the previous owners less than ideal engine mounts shifted on me. I have a set of caps I'll post up later. Honestly I was just planning to run spinner caps until later. I agree with you on wheels. Torque thrust were kind of what I wanted but the older I get the more I lean toward painted steelies with spider caps.

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Not much progress. But I came up with a running tbi 350 cheap and used it to mock up the engine crossmember. The previous owner had really hacked things up putting the old 250 in. After a lot of headaches with engine mounts, I ended up making my own solid mounts. I plan running this engine while I save up a little more for my rebuild. I'll be doing the exhaust this week.

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I think tri-powner and a mag make for a great daily driver.....good times

 

Well for now it's just hei and a 600 holley haha I really want to run the mag and tripower. But I'm waiting until I finish my new engine.

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...I put this 55 together on the cheap, 292 inline six/350 turbo, etc,..nice drivin truck and cheap on gas.

 

Great progress. I'll be following.

 

Dig the truck. Is it clipped or straight axle?

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I Love your truck !
Just Keep-it-Simple and enjoy the heck out of it.

 

Cool truck, not sure how I missed this thread, I have a 57 I plan to make my daily driver too, but not in the winter, just way to much salt up here. Curious why you're going with the 55 grill ?