Lucy, wut do ya figur?

[Lucy57Chev]

Chapter 1: Wut do ya figur?

I've wanted an old truck for a long time. Years. Never really knew when or if it would happen but that didn't stop me from occasionally just sitting down and enjoying looking at them.

Last week my wife let me know there was an estate sale and he had a few hot rods on his property, some fixer uppers etc. and one included a 1957 Chevrolet 1300 short box. I was interested in seeing more of it, but didn't want to get my hopes up - we were expecting a newborn at any moment. Because of the newborn my mother-in-law was in town with her boyfriend who spent the last 40 years of his life doing bodywork including his own frame-off restoration. You couldn't ask for a better person to go with and check out a 63 year old truck with.

This is what we found,



It was in overall really good condition. Floor boards are awesome - aside from one gun shot wound and a few spots of more major rust, I was super pleased with it. Ended up picking it up and bringing it home after 2-3 days of discussion.



The odometer shows 49,999.9 currently. Curious if that's rolled over a few times or simply just that.





Getting loaded up,





Ready for the trip home.



Thankfully only a 10 minute drive. My 4Runner is rated for 5000lb and I was pulling about 4-4500lb with the truck and trailer.



Now the fun begins.





- - - Updated - - -

The plans..

Suspension:
Mustang II front end
4 link rear suspension
Airbags

Drivetrain -> Huge learning experience for me. I know the EJ platform well and variants, but domestic territory is relatively new for me. Sorry for lack of info but I'll
LS1 or variant
Auto tranny
Staying RWD

Interior:
I'd like to keep as stock looking as possible. It'll be a more updated bench seat, but I'd like to keep the shifter on the steering column so that my wife can snuggle up beside me on drives.

Exterior:
Running the petunia look for quite some time. I love the look and eventually it'll be resto'd right back to it's original colour, but the priority is getting it road worthy and ****** fast.

Back to pictures!

Interior is honestly minty.



And we were curious if the engine would turn over,





I was originally going to keep it all original, right down to the engine - if it ran, or was salvageable. Downside to that is its only 140hp stock and not really anything to call home about. Upside is it's staying original.

Ripped off the valve colour



Then pulled off the heads. We don't have an engine hoist (Yet) so I ended up straddling the engine bay and lifting this off. It was not an easy task.



Cylinder walls are rusty, one piston slaps back and forth and another has a crater in the middle. This is the time where I decided to go with a 350 small block.

You can see the amazing patch job below,



An old Texaco can that they peeled apart and riveted to the fender on both sides, same spot. I'll be cutting that metal right out and putting in a proper patch.

Injury #1 as I sliced my finger on the can lol. I'll be counting the number of injuries and hospital visits for this project as I'm sure I'll hit double digits, fingers crossed that's not the case, but I have knack for these things.

Original badges for the front fenders - a lot of guys shave these off but I think it looks too bland. These are in awesome condition so I'll polish them back to their original glory.



Popped her up to remove the tranny and driveshaft,



The bolts turn better on this than my old Forester STi conversion. Driveshaft is out.



Wooden boxes are my favourite. This wood was pretty rough in some spots specifically near the exterior. I put my hand right through some spots with ease.



Plan is to bring the rest out in it's original condition. I think I'm going to build a picture frame with it (Basically the way it is now) and then put a stencil of my truck on there and hang it in the garage.

[Lucy57Chev]

Last but not least here's the original tranny,



Beastly right? Three on the tree manual tranny. In comparison to a pop can,



Slid right out and straight onto my chest haha. Probably no more than 100lb if that. Big difference from my old STi 6 speed.

Well.. that's all at the moment. Researching LS engines, looking for donor trucks and I'll likely get started on the interior right away as it's relatively inexpensive.

Pick n pull is going to be a good friend of mine!

Continually just pulling her apart since there's not much else I can do ATM.



The wooden box is out. A lot of rot and the entire box was barely hanging on



Leaving the frame out and exposed. Makes it nice and easy to work on the diff now.



I'll be doing a 4-Link suspension in the rear with bags.



That'll help update the handling a lot, along with the new rear diff / brakes.

And pulling out my inner creative side I didn't want to just throw the box to the garbage. A lot of the wood is rotten, but I wanted to do something a bit different.. so I build a picture frame out of it.



Now I just need to coax my friend who has actual artistic skills in doing a sketch for me, which I'll share once it's done.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, first things first, time to clean er' up.





My son loves helping me out so he got a spray bottle and got right to work. Missed a bit of daylight so I set her back down on the ground,



And pushed her out of the garage. Not hard.. but not easy with two flat rears either.



Still nice for some fresh air. Neighbour came over, we talked red neck for a bit and then pulled out the chains.





Would you look at that?



Sitting pretty waiting for an LS.

Dropped by the local shop and talked with them about parts, they're putting together a quote for me right now. I'm neither rich nor famous, my mom thinks I'm cool, but I still don't have a massive bank account. With that said.. I'd rather have it spend another year in the garage and do it right rather than do it twice.

Narrowed a few parts down and will start with the suspension. I'll need a Mig welder so looking for a Mig 250, 251 or 252 in the mean time. After that I'll be starting up on the TCI Mustang II front suspension and TCI 4 link rear.

Decided on a 4th gen 5.3L LS, 4L80 mated to a Ford 8.8" rear end. Getting a Holley Terminator standalone and a full new body wiring harness from America Auto Wiring. The future will hold a supercharger, unsure of which yet, but the overall goal is to lay down 600-750whp.

Honestly scared to even see the quote - even more scared to show the wife, but thankful she's supporting me on this and understanding that it's going to be a long project. I'd love to have it on the road by next summer but realistically I'm looking closer to 2-3 years.

All caught up as of today for this build thread!

[never]

Looks like it’ll be a fun project!

If you want someone who can do the work really well at a reasonable price...and really knows the LS stuff, talk to Dario at Infamous Racecraft. Only downsides for you are he is in Calgary and I think he’s already booking for this fall.

[TomcoPDR]

So cool.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Repost.

[Lucy57Chev]

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Repost.

Figure it makes more sense here than a Subaru forum?

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Figure it makes more sense here than a Subaru forum?

Don't use your logic on me!

[HiTempguy1]

So, if I may make a suggestion: body swap.

Its as easy as doing all the work you are talking about, plus you get modern everything. You already are talking LS, so why not just get better everything while you are at it? My buddy is doing the same thing to a '63 thats getting turned into a 4x4 daily with a yukon chassis.

Just a thought. I understand the desire to keep somethings original, but in this case, it doesn't seem like a concern to you.

[Lucy57Chev]

Body swap is an idea, the most common being the S10 frame. With that in mind, going to the S10 is still using 20-30 year old technology. After that it ends up being almost as much work to just get a cab on properly than doing the work to the original frame - I read in to it quite a bit and think I'll keep with the original frame.

Anyways, figured an update would be kind of cool. Haven't really invested too much into this yet, maybe $1100... but with that I got,

A sander. Yay! Mostly using 100-120 grit sand paper, so it went from this..



To this..



And then this,



But that brings it all back to the original poll. This is my thinking,

Black is boring. It's sexy as hell, but it honestly is boring. It hides beautiful lines and gets dirty quickly. Shiny blue or red cars - either of those would be sweet and eye catching, but anybody can take a truck (With a lot of money) and restore it back to perfect and paint it a shiny blue or red.

The truck in its current state is a one of a kind. The bullet hole in the side, the dent here and there - they each have a story. Kind of like the laugh lines around a persons eyes. You get rid of those, you get rid of the story. The more I'm into it the more I'm digging the original style - I'm going to put my own personal twists on it but I'm currently very happy with it.

Anyways, enough of my "I don't actually want to spend the money on resto and am using that as an excuse to keep it patina" story, I picked up a van.

Part of a van.













5.7L of reliable goodness.

Just kidding, I only bought it for the transmission. It has a 4L80E in it which is used in a lot of the Chevy/GMC trucks like the 2500 and 3500HD. It's a beast of a tranny. Should easily handle the power goals and some time on the drag strip before it's rebuilt into something bigger and better.

[Lucy57Chev]

So with the vehicle at home I've only started taking it apart. Plan is to sell the 5.7L engine with ecu, harness etc, the rear diff, brakes, wheels. Everything I can. Hell, if anyone wants a frame to play with I can deliver it in Edmonton for some chocolate milk.

Here is what I really wanted,



Mind blowing the comparison to the stock one. That's almost 50 years difference in technology.





Aaand I'm still sanding..



Next up? A little art project. I love the Chevrolet stamped into the tailgate but wanted a bit more pop.









At this next photo you'll probably scream "TERRIBLE IDEA, TERRIBLE IDEA!!"



It turned out okay. But really, it wasn't great.



I was really going for a "It's aged and I didn't do anything to it aside from neglect it for 70 years look" but that didn't work out. My wife walked in and said "It's cool, but it looks like you did it"

!#$Q$#%

Back to square one.

[Lucy57Chev]

So doing some reading and not sure how I wanted to pursue my overall look for this truck now that I hated the white on the tailgate.

It has white bumpers, headlight bezels etc so I thought a white stamped CHEVROLET and white roof, both distressed, would be sweet but it's not as easy as I thought it'd be. So that gave me another idea...

Anyways. Still sanding.

Pulled the box off to make it easier and as an added bonus now I can get to the frame for when we notch it and drop it. Laying frame will provide this truck with a good.. 15" drop?



Probably just clear the box the way it is, mind you, I'll have to tub it with wheel wells to fit the wheels/tires I've got spec'd out for it.





Sanding is coming along really well though.



So with a few common household chemicals, you take it from this...



To this,



And with a little pat pat



So being unhappy with the tailgate I did that too. After sanding it back down and playing around with the amount of metal left over,





Far happier now. Tosses a bit of a wrench into my whole patina colour scheme plans, but that's okay. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

[Lucy57Chev]

Lastly, for the night, I picked this up which I was and am very excited about. Not only was it a steal, it was only a short drive from home.

A ford 8.8" rear end. Found in a number of Ford vehicles, this one came from an Explorer between 1996 and 2005 I think it is. Disc brakes, limited slip, 4.56 gearing and an upgraded cover. The gearing is steep but it'll just be a burnout queen.



Thing about this diff is it's actually off center. The drivers side is about 3" longer than the passengers, so you can shorten the drivers side and replace it with two passenger axles to fit. This will make for a slightly more narrow diff than my current factory one which is perfect as I'll be stuffing some pretty decent rubber under there.

Which brings me to the wheels. I'll be going 20x11 in the rears and 20x8 up front. 315 series in the rear and a 205-225 series up front.

Pretty sure I've also decided on an engine, I'm searching for an LQ4 which is a 6.0L iron block. It'll give me a little more low end torque than the 5.3L and once I have it boosted with a supercharger... well, it'll be pretty quick.

[Lucy57Chev]

This is the style that I'll be aiming for in regards to stance and wheels,

[speedog]

Btw, your most recent tailgate picture is much better than the tailgate on that truck.

[SKR]

Looks good so far.

If you're going to go with an LQ4, why didn't you buy a donor that had one instead of that van?