So as the story goes, I was building this for a customer of mine. He ran behind on the bill, and things got in his way. A few eamily members came down with cancer. That is enough to slow anyone down. This truck was originally being built to be a full fendered truck for him. I am changing this to fit my liking now. So I am doing fenderless with pinched rails, shortened bed, and a mild channel with a few inches off of the top. The build itself is going slower than planned. But we are having a baby soon, so that and my steadily growing buisness are not allowing me much time to get to it right now. But I am still doing a bit every week. Here is here we are so far. This is where we started at. fit in some 32 k member rails when we were building it for him, it was going to have a 4 speed. I just put my 4 speed in my family suburban, so i am going with a 700r4 this time instead. I already had the trans, shifter, and 35o laying around from another project. So I am using what I have to keep the cost down a bit. And besides, the 700r4 will make it a great cruiser. this had a drop axle and drop spring set-up but I wanted to go with a different style and get it even lower. This seemed like a great alternative to accomplish that. I pinched the rails. Here you can see they are crudely tacked together at the moment so we can get it all tacked to gether and put it back on the bench for the finish welding. and here is what it looks like with the hood and hood sides on it. the frame goes back to the blaster as soon as I have a few things tacked together on it so I can get it all clean and ready for welding and here I am now. I am in the process of fitting the motor and trans. At this point, it sits to low. With the fenders it looked fine, but i will just have to redo the trans and motor mounts to better fit what it is I am doing now. That's where I am at. What I am trying to do, is just build a cool little hot rod with it. I have 16 inch rims already so the radials you see in the photos are temporary so I can keep it rolling around till I can afford what I really want her to sit on. I am also looking to dress the SBC up to be a bit more on the traditional side. I have ram horns already and corvette vavle covers. I also have an intake but it is an edelbrock. it does have the oil fill tube though. But it is shorter than I want it. Also, have an edelbrok crab. But the photos I have seen of the SBC's in a model a truck, are all running what i think is quadrajet carbs? Any pointers on that? Like the one below.
That looks like a Carter WCFB like the one I brought over for the Cadillac. Do you still have that? Could also be a Rochester 4GC like what was in the Buick. The bolt pattern is different that today's square bore, you would need an early intake to run that type of carb or an adapter if you could find one.
Try this maybe: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=704210&highlight=283+intake or this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1958-59-Cor...t=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr
so a few updates. Been doing a bit here and there. The firewall had to have some added to it since I had to lift the motor and trans up on the rails as I explained previously in the post. got the lokar mounted as well since I was doing the firewall already and I wanted to do the floor after that. So I had to get the shifter mounted so I can start getting my patterns made. Didn't realize I had the brakets on the wrong side until after I got it all mounted. Luckily I still have to take it back apart for paint later. In this pic you can also see the 48 ford car cross steering box that I am using. More on that later. got the core support started. I will be running a 64 mustang 289 radiator. Not trying to break the bank and it is what I already have laying around new in a box. In this pic I still have to build the top pieces, bead roll them for strength and add teh flange to actually bolt the radiator to. Got the door hinges all replaced. At some point someone had actually cut them with a saw. Not sure why. But that is out of the way on one side at least. At this point I just wanted to see how things were shaping up. So I sat the bed up there and took a look. I will be lowering the bed down for sure. Sits to high for what I had in mind. BUt the rest looks good I think. But now I am thinking about using the hood and sides. Or just the hood. Thoughts? If I run the hood top or without one, I will run lake pipes. If not, I will have to run block huggers. Not sure which I want to do more yet.
Thats the hard part! I like it both ways as well. Will just have to continue on and see what it ends up like
Congrats on both your new additions. Its shaping up nicely. Im always partial to the full hood treatment, especially for down poor conditions.
You are off to a good start. I just picked up a Mustang radiator for mine. cheaper is better at this point, as long as it will do the job. i am debating the full hood thing too. I will probably settle for the top section, at the very least. Good Luck!
Thanks guys! Getting the bed mounted tonight. Then off to the other side door and it's messed up hinges. Thinkin I will take a better look with the bed mounted on the hood situation. See what it looks like with the bed where she will actually be staying at. Got the flanges that the radiator will actually mount to inside the core support built as well. So I should be able to post some more pix real soon.
Thanks again guys. I would be loading pix, but photobucket feels like locking up rather than allowing me to load photos!!
This might just be me, but if I could affort a 31 truck, I would run a hood. But depent on how you want it to end up. If you ar going for the Rough apperance I would ditch the hood, but if you went for a look between good street going look up to show or shop truck i would defenetly run a hood! So, are you going rough og sweet hot rod truck?
I usually don't! I have taken and thinned the amount of work I am doing for this month due to our new baby and no employees. ( the GF works for me so wit hher having a baby and all... it slows things down a bit! ) otherwise it is usually packed as we have 8 cars here now getting work done on them. I have more pix that I will update soon.
I'm really digging your build. I've got a 265 with all kinds of fresh goodies sitting around from another project that i'm looking to drop in a Model A PU sometime in the near future. Keep up the good work. Happy holidays!
The Jalopy Journal
