I finally have a house with a garage and have been waiting many years to start this project! It is so nice to have my own work space.
Have some stuff figured out and other stuff needs to be sorted out as we go along.
Again, what I have is a 1955 Chevy truck 3/4 ton without motor or transmission. Front end has been pulled apart to restore/fix the truck.
What I plan to do with the truck is actually use it like a truck. I have a 1998 Ford F150 with 250,000 miles that I want to retire. I do custom landscape projects for people and would like a truck that I can pull around a dump trailer. I am not doing a complete restoration on the truck. To me a complete restoration would take too much time, money, and I would be afraid to scratch the truck after I use it. This is not going to be a garage queen. I plan on using it.
To start with project ideas, in place of the I6 motor that use to be there will be a 455 Buick motor. This should be a good torquer motor for this truck plus it is nice to have the distributor toward the front of the truck.
Things that are on the back of my mind:
Front drum brakes - love to switch to disk and think I found a solution that uses Chevy 2000 3/4 ton diesel brakes. Rear floating rear end - this is a tricky deal as I think the gear ratio is 4.57 which is steep! Looks like there is a 4.11 option but that is as low as it goes. I would switch to a newer rear end out of a truck but it looks like they are wider than the stock unit. I am also wondering how well this rear end was built as it is a product of the 50s.
Transmission - Another tricky choice. I have the TH400 that the engine came with but matching that with a 4.57 sounds stupid. Looking toward the 4L80e for answers for a end drive of .75 with locking torque converter but is that enough? I don't plan on going 70 mph in it all day. but it would be nice to travel around 60-65. I am not doing any road trips in this truck.
Gas tank in bed of truck or behind the driver - don't know. Replacement tank is $150 which isn't that expensive. Mounting something else will take more time and probably more $$
Steering box - found a reducer ratio option. We will see how the steering is first.
Looking for suppliers for this truck. Can anyone name some places that carries parts for these trucks? So far I have Classicparts.com and LMCtruck.com.
Any more places people can recommend?
Below is a picture of truck. There will be more later on
Next step is to pull apart front suspension. Start Painting with POR15 and replacing the grease zerks with fresh ones.
