Enjoi -- More feedback now that I am back at a normal keyboard ...
(as Mike says ...)
Anyway, I have a hard time seeing you make money driving that 305-powered behemoth around daily. At 19,500 GVW (same as my '65, by the way) and powered by a 305, my truck has the same nimble get up and go as a drunk Hippopotamus on ice. Just giving you some shock treatment before you get too far into this so you can make some big decisions armed with info before those big decisions also get pricey and hard.
If you proceed with this truck, think hard about pulling the engine and installing something more powerful and modern like a crate 350 or something like that. I don't know how hard/easy the 350 swap is with these trucks, but running the original 305 in a daily driver big truck is not a good way to go in my opinion.
The next big thing to check are the wheels. The wheels on my truck were the original Firestone RH-5 center splits -- the dreaded Widowmakers. Not all multi-piece wheels are deadly, so check to see if you have the center splits. Take a close up of the rear wheels and we can tell you. If you *do* have the RH-5's, and the truck has been sitting a long time, don't air up the tires! Those rims are dangerous and will need to be replaced. Again, if you are planning on using the truck as a daily driver for business, you will want to find some single piece wheels and go with radial tires. Cost for that is going to be around $3K (I went with new Sumitomos for the steers and recapped Michelins for the drives).
With the Holley 300 upgrade (and removing the governor), my truck will cruise at 65 MPH on good roads. It doesn't get to 65 very quickly, especially heavy, but it will eventually. Meaning that the rear axle gearing should be fine unless you have lower gears on yours than I have.
Bottom line -- The minimum things you are looking at on your road to turning that into a daily worker.
1. Do not rebuild that 305 if there is anything wrong with it. Yank it and sell it to a pickup guy. Put the money into a better/newer/bigger engine.
2. New wheels and tires.
The rest should be the usual. If your hood is rusted, Hambone can fill you in on how to find a better one ...
And one last thing -- the center grille bar ... if you want to replace yours, Jim Carter (look in our Links section) has a nice used stainless one in his used parts dept. I saw it last September when I was out there. It was sweet. Needs a little TLC but it would look beautiful on the front of anyone's truck.
For more info, stay in touch and catch up with us. Hambone is the resident expert on 60-66 trucks, Sweet is the expert on engines, tuning, etc. Grigg can weigh in on gearing, wheels, etc. The rest of us have varying degrees of expertise in other areas. Mainly, though, we're all pretty darn good at drinking beer.
Glad to have you aboard!
John
