I was in your boat a few years ago with my 52 willys pick up. I had the same ideas you have. A reliable original body with a BB that sounded the part. I drove this truck to work today and do quite often. The big factor you're going to face is making something work with your original chassis and making it reliable enough to be useful for any purpose. I highly suggest you forget about the original chassis all together, sell it to someone who wants an original chassis. Get yourself a vehicle with whatever motor you want in it and do a body swap. I stumbled on an econoline camper (the camper portion was already scrapped) with a 460 in it, it's EFI and makes roughly 250hp 400ish torque with 34k miles on it! I have disc brakes all the way around, plenty of power, updated chassis, and didn't have to do too much in the way of fabrication to make it a simple swap... but I did. I cut 56" out of the econoline chassis, boxed the frame front to rear, 4 linked the rear end and put air bags at all 4 corners along with a lot more. It's a rat rod that I've put together using roughly 10 other trucks and wagons.
Moral of the story is pony up some money for a newer vehicle someone wants to "give away" and save yourself tons of time and money down the road. Plus you'll be able to go down to the local parts store and get 95% of what you need off the shelf.
Last edited by Justhorsenround; 07/24/2022 2:26 PM. Reason: Removed video
