1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT NEW PIC 1/26

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

You could buy the front clip off of a 1980's olds or buick and clip your frontend. Gives you independent suspension v/8 motor mounts and power steering and brakes. Its a simple swap. Can be done in a couple days if you dont know what your doing. Then any chevy v8 with a short tail 350 turbo (super cheap) Easy to hook up and even easier to put a floor shifter on. If you beef up a 6 cly they sound like crap. Never can make the exhaust sound good...rumbly....cam talking. Heck Hit a junk yard and get the motor and trans out of a Colorado ...inline 5 cyl 235 hp and runs like a scalded dog and gets 20 in town and 25 on the highway...sounds good too with 3'' exhaust. Wish I was close I would fix that puppie up for you. :lol:
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

Good luck with your project, looks like you're off to a good start. Either I6 or V8 power are cool, but I like the inlines in a bomb. Out here, a lot of guys split the exhaust manifold, and run one straight pipe (no muffler) and one with a glasspack muffler. Gives you a mean rap on when on the gas, and a wicked backfire when you let off the gas, especially if you have a manual tranny.
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

Oh Yeah!! I love this trucks!!
I love to see this old lads returning to life.
Very nice project, good luck with it!!
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

maddogrider said:
I have a 230 overhead cam 6 cyl out of my 67 Firebird. Its a torqu monster. That would be kinda cool lookin your truck.

They used that engine in the Lemans Sprint too. Sort of an alternative GTO. You rarely ever see any of those OHC six's now. They would run! Thanks!!!
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

Yea they did, i think they are rare because everybody pulled them out and scraped them for a V8. This has the 2 speed trans kinda cool
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

got the cab pulled off tonight. was pretty easy, put a 2x6 in through the cab and raised against it with the cherry picker and off she came! hey maddog, what would you take for the motor/trans? not for sure yet what i am going with yet, still weighing my options. it will be a I-6 though. :D
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

glad to hear youre keeping the 6
i guess im not the only one whose pulled a body by myself with a cherry picker(spend $30 and get 4 of the movers dollies so you can move the cab out of the way when you need room..theyre worth their weight in gold)
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

harbor freight,osh,home depot,lowes,ace,and true value (i think i got mine from homier when they do the tool sales at the fairgrounds since they were really cheap) would have them.
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

Nice looking truck. Definitely build the six cylinderr. There is a guy around me who runs a six cylinder in his car and his car will pull the front wheels. Don't put a small block in it like everyone else. Watch trucks on spike tv they're building a 5 window truck like yours and keeping the straight six in it
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

thanks for backing me up on the 6. :D i have seen one of the episodes on trucks, need to down load the others and watch them.. are they building it up any or keeping the motor stock?
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

Cool Project, I am doing a 57 GMC Big Window right now. Up here in the Pacific NW most guys are using S-10 2wd chassis swaps on the 47-55E Chevys. Not a bad deal for a couple hundred bucks you get the IFS, tilt steering and disc brakes and a common wheel bolt pattern. A Small block will bolt right in, a friend of mine did a conversion on a similar truck in about three days and drove it out of the shop. He even used the bench seat and fuel tank. As I recall he retained the under the floor master cylinder. Good luck with it. SDH
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

yeah, i have read about putting these bodies on newer chassis w/all that, but to me that is kind of like taking the seat and handlebars off of a schwinn phantom and putting it on a wally world bike. :roll: i just don't like changing all that stuff, like to keep as close to original as possible. not saying there is anything wrong w/it, its just not for me. :D
 
Re: 1953 CHEVY TRUCK WINTER PROJECT

People used to take the front axels off of those trucks and mount them to the front of 55-57 Bel Aires.
 
got the cab and bed off and bed outside out of the way for now. going to concentrate on getting the new metal in the cab and on stripping/painting the frame and getting the motor that i am going to use bolted in. here is a pic saturday me moving the frame around, it is amazing what one person can move with a cherry picker!!! :eek: :lol:
DSCF9272.jpg
 

Latest posts

Back
Top