I was on craigslist checking out some trucks and ran across one in the DFW area and called the guy. It only took me 3 weeks of dealing with him to get it!! I am lucky I have an old man that is in dallas to pick it up for me! Thanks pops! Im pretty stoked because now when I move back to DFW in january, im gonna have a project/daily! I have already purchased drop spindles, and some odds and ends for it. It has a 230 i think, but im thinking about swapping in one of the 400 sbc I have laying around my garage. The body needs some attention, but nothing I can't handle. Well, just wanted to share some pics because im pretty stoked.
Nice. The nicest of the 60-66 trucks IMO. Body looks quite good. Pay particular attention to the drip rail above the windshield. Some weren't sealed from the factory and water gets in the seam and rusts. Wish it were mine.
Being an inline enthusiast, a 292 with a 194 head & good exhaust seats, a stout cam, aftermarket balancer and performance intake would be a bad ass combo. Enough torque to rip the sidewalks up & sound mean doing it.
63s are cool because they still have the forward leaned A pillar which IMO look badass! Looks like a good project..I gotta build a truck one of these days too!
I'm almost sure it's a 230. The 194-230-250 sixes are almost identical. As far as I know they did not make the 250 size engine in '63. I'm not an expert, maybe someone here could tell the year they started making the 250. I vote as well to keeping a hopped up 6 in the truck.
ONELOW...a BIG welcome future TEXAN. yea those old truck's are great, and i can dig it being very close to mother earth! HA!...POP.
It is definitely a 230, the 250 did not get introduced until 65 or so. The pre 68 blocks had an inherent problem where they would spring an internal water leak (non repairable) where the front and rear of the block castings were joined. The later blocks (1968 & up) are preferable The 250 is easily built by putting the 250 crank in a 230 block with the correct pistons. The rods are the same. If you have a 194, the head has a smaller combustion chamber and you can build some good compression with a flat top piston and 250 crank. The 196 has a 3 9/16 bore while the 230-250 has a 3 7/8. 292's are fairly easy to find...dang I like cubes!!! The main differences between the 194/230/250 & the 292 is the tall 292 deck height and the 292 fuel pump location. I have a pretty good reputation for getting the Chevy 6 to go fast & live so feel free to ask me anything if you want to keep 6 in a row and make it go!!!
a few years ago i would have said put in the 8. but now with gas going up and up the hopped up six makes good sense. i am also not a big fan of this in the weeds thing. the 63-72 trucks are the best riding and handleing trucks ever built so why mess with it?
Nice looking truck! 63 i the best year, wrap around windshield and front coil springs. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/forumdisplay.php?f=6 David
I like that body style series of the Chevy trucks...and SWB to boot!! Trucks on SpikeTV did a build on one of these a few weeks ago, and had some good tech info for suspension. Keep the 6, IMO. The one thing I like about the straight sixes is the low end torque.
Congrats! What bodywork? Just straighten out that driver side view mirror and call it done! Good luck with it, sure looks great!!
That thing needs to go on a 4x4 chassis with some 36"ers PM me if your interested in putting it on a newer frame 4x or 2x I've done it and hooked in the newer tilt wheel brakes and pedals. I've seen elsewhere on the hamb here guys bolting (so they say) a newer crossmember in. looks like it should work. My brother is junking out an 88 4x4 suburban and 88 4x4 blazer...they both have 10 bolt rears with 6 lugs if you need a newer rear. the plate that reinforces the firewall is a good part to transfer to the 60-66 trucks to locate the newer steering column and pedal hanger. I put mine on a 75 frame. I found out the newer frames have 1-1/2" more kickup in the frame over the rear axle requiring 1-1/2" body lift on the cab to line up with the 63 box sitting on the 75 frame which was no problem on my 4x4 but might be an issue if your lowering yours. the 75 and 63 frames were the same width and I cut the heads off the rivets (holding the 63 cab mount brackets to the frame) with an air chisel then punched them out with the air chisel. My mount bolts were rusted stuck. this way I never had to ruin the mounts we just set the cab on the new frame after mounting the box and drilled new holes. I got all the controls hooked up and then mounted the front clip. then it didn't look right because of the shape of the 63 wheel wells so I shifted it all around until it looked good and bolted it up permanent.
I picked up this 64 a few months back, I had a donor 88 burb and used most everything from it. your truck look cool, looking forwards to more updates. Give me a holler when you get to Tejas.
Ah, the memories! One of my 1st rides was a '63. I could watch the road through the floor. Just a good 'ol truck, too bad it had terminal cancer. Next was a '66 panel truck with shag carpet and bean bag chairs for my pals in the back. Looks like you have a great starting point there! Keep the pix coming!
Up here in snow country,I had a 65 long box 4wd with 292/4 spd. It had a snow plow on the front and lock outs that had 2 long pins on either side that you had to flip up and turn and then flip back down. I can remember getting stuck in a 6 foot snow drift because I forgot to lock in the hubs. It was kinda cold digging out the front end so that I could lock the hubs and then just drive out of the drift. I have fond memories of that truck and have a pic of me in it somewhere. If I lived in Texas with not much winter weather then I would go 2wd and put a suspension on it so as to be able to slalom the truck if need be. Hot rod the inline 6 cyl and be happy with what you have. Lucky dog! Great looking truck in good shape,can't find them up here like that.
i have a 235 inline in my 53......runs killer and already has a split manny and duals.......lemme know if you wanna go that route! plan on 350/700r4 this summer...hate to, but wife cant drive a stick, and i wanna make it nice for her.....yeah, im just that friggin sweet!
I spent ten years in the 90s doing only 60-66 trucks for people. By FAR the best one was a 1966 C-10 with a 250 6 with a 700r4 with the stock 3.73 rear. I hated to give it back to the guy ...honest! In hill country, a 3.90 or 4.10 might be better with a small six with the 700r4 My 63 suburban I did in 95 has a 400sbc with TH350 and a 2.76 rear. Ran it for 10 years untill gas costs made it obsolete. I wish I went with a 230 and S-10 5 speed with the stock 3.73.
Looks like a nice start on a cool truck. It won't take you long to learn to watch your left knee when you get in, every one of us who has had one learned that. I like the idea of the six as I have run a 250 in the 48 since 1989 and am putting a 292 back in it on the rebuild.
My son built this on the cheap, and drove it for about 8 years before he sold it. Did most of the work himself during high school. Nothing too crazy but had a good look. It was fun to drive, I used to borrow every now and then, just to get my head straight. These are fun project trucks that do not have to require big bucks to have fun. Chuck
Truck looks good chuck! What kind of suspension mod did your son do? As for everyone else, I decided while working a boring shift today at the parts store to order up some parts for the 230!! Breeder, I will be in touch of course to get some parts from ya!
Curt kept it simple, It was a 3" front, 4" rear spring and shock deal. probably not the most sophisticated set up but one he could handle. Dual exhaust, 6" and 8" steel wheels, Cleaned and painted the chassis and suspension, and put in a new Plywood bed. A few dod dads on the stock 283 2bbl and he called it done. These things are pretty light, I don't know if you need a ton of horsepower. The thing was a blast to drive and sounded good. It had a 3 spd stick. He bought some stuff from these guys http://www.brotherstrucks.com/prodinfo.asp?number=LSS6372-1 chuck
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