Well I've thrown in a pic of the mostly ready frame, primed and painted with POR black. Before I got the body on the rotisserie I wanted to do some mocking up. I bought an engine/tranny off Craigs List. 5.3/4l60e out of a 2004 Chevy Silverado 4X4 with 120K miles. Purportedly running and was removed to swap in a larger engine. How scary is that?! Guy seemed honest, looked like a mechanic, so what the heck. After I got it mostly stripped down I did a compression and leak down test. Amazingly passed with flying colors. Felt good about that. Now what? Clean it up and run with it? Clayton of course said NO. I pulled the pan, no sludge, intake galley cover, no sludge, heads, clean also with plenty of crosshatching. I think we got lucky. A mechanic friend gave me a pair of "243" heads which have a little bigger valves than the stock 706 heads. Had the 243 heads milled and valves cleaned up with new guides and seals. New oil pump and water pump to be sure. Also a Competition Cams RV cam. New gaskets all around to assemble. With some research and trial and error I found some Camaro exhausts that fit very nicely and hopefully would improve the performance.
Now it was time to put the body on and do some fitment. Wanted to make sure the wheels looked OK in the openings. Also make sure engine placement was good. Then welded in the engine mounts and trans crossmember.
Next post I'll show the seat placement and mounts.
~ Richard 1952 GMC Army Ambulance "Building the Dream" The story begins here in the DITY Gallery Follow the build in the Project Journals (If you can't wait, the "final pictures" and details are in Panels & Burbs) First vehicle-1967 Chevy short bed pickup. Sold when got married | 1953 Chevy pickup restored-sold to purchase Toy Hauler trailer | 1964 GMC long bed Pickup 305 big block V/6 bought to restore with son and his 14 yr old son
| 1953 Chevy pickup restored-sold to purchase Toy Hauler trailer | 1964 GMC long bed Pickup 305 big block V/6 bought to restore with son and his 14 yr old son
