I actually did go look at a few nailheads this past Saturday for this truck. Guys has about 5 running 401 engines in cars that he is parting out. How cool it would be to run, I am not sure if I want to dump a ton of money in an adapter setup to run a manual trans behind the nailhead. The guy had a few engins that were connected to dynaflows and a few that were connected to ST400's.
The ST400 is a good tranny.........I picked up a Buick stick set up on ebay for a pretty good price. Good luck
Your right , the ST400 is a great trans, Buicks version of the Th400. I was under the impression that a Nailhead that had a ST400 behind it meant that it had the standard BOP bellhousing and you could mount any GM trans behind it without an adapter. Still have some other engines to check out. Guy has a 332 FE engine and another guy has a 430 Lincoln MEL motor. How long ago did you pick up the stick adapter for the nailhead?
Been a while since I have been able to put some time into the truck over the holidays. Just got back from 2 weeks on the road for work. I was finally able to get the whitewalls mounted on the chrome gennie wheels. L78's in the rear and g78's in the front. I think its starting to come together. Still working on the grill so hopefully by the end of the weekend I can have that mounted as well
Picked up a set of 49 Merc Tailights to mount into the rear fenders. This is such a classic look for these trucks, those tailights follow the curve of the rear fender perfectly.
Cool project! My first car (truck) was my '55 F100. It looked VERY similar to your pics when you first lowered it... black steelies, caps, and black walls, beat-up old silver paint that lots of folks still mistake for primer. Then I ran G78 and L78 Denman WWWs for the last 10 years... loved the look on mine, and yours looks great!
Nice look with the grille...you may want to consider putting 56 headlights in those old "bugeye" buckets. The frenched look of the 56 headlights really sets off these slant cab grilles.
Thanks Charlie, I am actually working on putting in an 52 f1 grill that I extended to match the width of the f100. I have 6 grill teeth that I put on it as well as the f1 turn signal housings. I think it will look neat. Have a 58 caddy front bumper that I may try to integrate. Trying to locate an edsel dash as well.
Hey! No one calls me great and gets away with it! Yeah, get it out, drive it to my house, and I'll pay for your bus ticket back home, old buddy... old pal...
Lookin' good! I'm voting for a nailhead as well. Hook it up to a T-5 or Chevy Tremec for the overdrive. You always seem to have cool cruisers to drive. Get the Buick back on the road?
Tjm, those are actually radials on mid seventies truck wheels that came with the truck. I think they are 225/15's in the front and 255/15 in the rear. They are looking for a nee home if you interested, lol.
Koz, hope all is well. We got to get together soon. I actually picked up a 371 olds motor that I may throw in there behind a T5.
I have working on scoring new parts for the truck. Since last month I was able to swap out the 56 International truck heater for a stock '55 F100 heater. The International heater worked fine but its was too big and took up too much passenger leg space. I had to have the F100 heater recored and it looks right at home there. I am adding heater controls out of a '51 Ford car with the round chrome knobs. About a week ago, a good buddy, Homemadehardtop57(Jerry) clued me in on a wrecked 1956 Oldsmobile that was being parted out so we took a ride to check it out. It was a nice running 324 4barrel motor out of a Super 88 which had the 4 speed Hydramatic in it. I ended up buying the engine, trans, driveshaft and complete rear. I am giddy with anticipation of getting the engine swapped into the truck Here is a pic of the front of the engine which is complete all the way upto to the air cleaner. Another pic of the side view of the engine. Note the one year only silver valve covers denoting a 56 engine
Nice truck. Im building a 56 along the same lines but used a 57 axle with the Posie springs. If you want to run a anti roll bar front and rear, the Bronco 2 bars work very well. Get all of the brackets with it.
What size, width, backspace, are the wheels? I looking for that same look. Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Thats what mine looked like. I had it when I brought my daughter home from the hospital when she was born. Man I miss that truck. Mike
Any progress on the truck? I want to see how that grille comes out with the teeth on it and lights in it.
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