Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

So, here is the story. I wanted to buy a old truck that I could drive daily while I built my '53 GMC panel truck. I found, and subsequently made a deal for a 1964 3/4 ton long bed pickup. The guy provided me with an antique auto appraisal for the truck valuing it way above the purchase price. The motor had little to no evidence of oil build up and ran great. The trans shifted awesome...etc. So I bought it. Drove it home and to work the next day. On my way north at about the 24 hour mark, the motor took a dump. According to the compression test after the fact, the motor had lost the rings on at least 4 of the 8 cylinders. The P.O. wouldn't accept any responsibility let a lone willing to payout for anything.

I ended up finding a motor on the local ads that came as a package with a th350, a torque converter, and delivery! Realizing that I was taking another risk but not being able to afford anything else I bought the motor. Below is the photographic progress of the project. As of about 6pm today the new engine is firing/running and the truck is about reassembled.

After arriving at the shop and getting the hood off:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2330.jpg

The old engine:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2331.jpg

My cousin Jeff helping pull the old engine and trans:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2335.jpg

The engine hanging from the 2 ton chain ceiling system. If you haven't used a system like this before it is awesome!
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2336.jpg

Empty engine bay:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2337.jpg

New engine. This is the pre LS 350 but with Vortec heads. Same basic motor that's in my panel truck so I'm pretty familiar with it thus it was my best choice.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2339.jpg

The engine and transmission:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2340.jpg

Huge jump forward as I forgot my camera for a day. But the engine is in and partially hooked up:
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2343.jpg

Photo of the interior all torn apart and the Lokar Nostalgia shifter in place. Had to pirate the shifter from my panel truck!
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2344.jpg

Close up of the installed engine. This is right after it fired for the first time.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2345.jpg

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

With hood reinstalled and almost done.
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...y/IMG_2348.jpg

All that is left at this point is to put a timing gun on it. Tweak the carb a little. Button up the interior, specifically bolt down the seat! And I'm sure that I will have to have the exhaust redone since when the motor died, and I'm sure leading up to it, it puked out a bunch of crap into the exhaust. The pipes are just NASTY and full of black flakes. One muffler was so full it out weighed the new cherry bombs I bought by five to one and sounded like a maraca when shaken.

Any thoughts on the truck? I'm interested in hearing all opinions!

PS: The reason its name is Larry is cuz I'm a Three Stooges fan and my panel truck, being bulbous and rotund, is named Curly. When I get my dream car, a 49/50 Merc, it will be Moe.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Welcome to the '60-'66 forum Larry :D

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but it looks like you've got it under control. That looks like a nice straight truck and should be a good driver with a good running engine and an auto trans now. Just so you know that grill is a '62. I can't tell from the pic if it is the aluminum grill or if it's just painted. Oh and those heads aren't the Vortec heads. They appear to be just '88-'95 heads from a TBI 350 or 305.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Nice job I like how that shifter fits looks like a clean truck thanks for the pics :c2:

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Thanks. I was very pleased with the shifter. I ended up moving it to its most forward position on the mounting bracket just to make sure I would clear the bench seat in 1st, if I ever needed to go that low. I want to get the shifter knob adapter so I can use a custom knob on there.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Misfortune indeed!

You are right, the truck is very straight and very solid. In the end I get a motor with fewer miles on it and I did replace various thing while under there so the whole thing is better than before but it would have been nice to not get screwed! I was told by a friend that the grill was a 61 but whatever year I like it! It appears to be aluminum by the way and in great shape. I will have to look into the head thing a little further as that is what the guy told me they were and I am not expert enough to tell on a basic visual inspection.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Oh, and to make the story of getting screwed even more exciting, I found that, on the original motor, a corner of the intake manifold has a crack in it which was hidden back by the heater box, and the carb spacer was cracked completely through!

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Pleasant Grove, Ca. ???

Nice truck

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Utah.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Welcome to you and Larry to the forums from Kansas City, KS. It is nice to hear a success story, even though the beginning was a little rough. Congrats on getting Larry back into running condition.

Ditto on the grille...it is from a '62 Chevy light-duty truck. The medium-duty and heavy-duty grilles on the '62 trucks are a bit different, but your's is from a '62.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Welcome to the site from East TN.
Hopefully the rest of your "stooges" goes a little smoother!!!

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Welcome from the Northwest. If there's an upside to the saga, it's easier to replace bad mechanical parts than it is to find a decent truck with limited rust and good sheetmetal. The body and paint on your truck looks really clean.

You'll thank yourself if you get the custom shift knob adapter. I had a Lokar years ago and if you're not paying attention it's pretty easy to fold a thumbnail back if you catch the edge of the knob hole when the button is being depressed. Also just a note your truck has the "high hump" floor. It matters if you go to buy carpet or a stock floor mat. Sure hope you don't have any more surprises.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

I hope so too. I just have to come up with 30k for Moe and a couple more to finish Curly!

As always there is room for improvement when it comes to the body and paint but should be no problem for years to come as is. So yes, it could be worse. I drove a 66 for awhile with a solid drive train but has extreme rust in the usual places. The door handle would fall off and actually fell through the floor once!

Nice to hear from someone running the shifter adapter. I wanted it originally for purely cosmetic reasons but after using the shifter on my panel for a little while, I can see exactly what you are talking about!

Thanks for the "hump" info! The carpet in the truck is newer and pretty nice, though slightly faded so it should be awhile before having to do anything with it but its good to know.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

There are a few guys that think that any SBC head that requires center bolt valve covers is a Vortec head......not so. The center bolt valve cover heads started in 1987. The Vortec 350 was in production from 1996 thru 2002 and requires a different intake manifold than previous years. The Vortec intake is bolted to the heads with a total of 8 bolts instead of 12, and they are at a verticle angle as opposed to being perpendicular to the head (the '87-'95's the center two on each side were angled slightly up from perpendicular to the head) Here is a pic of a Vortec intake manifold. You will notice the pattern of two bolts on each corner. Just a little FYI.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Sweet truck, well worth the work! Good luck! Joseph.....I love the lokar shifter also, have to keep that in mind. I would go with the correct grill though, thats just me. Two thumbs way up!! again, Joseph

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Captain, thanks for the info. I did some research and found the same information that you just provided. Wish I would have just waited for you to post! I have a true Vortec in my panel truck and after looking it over it is pretty clear that the heads in the 64 aren't Vortec heads. I will have to call the seller and ask about that! Knowing this might save me some frustration though because I have a serpentine setup off a 97 Chevy 1/2 ton that I was going to use but if I don't have Vortec heads I might not be able to. Any thoughts on that ?

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Sanford66 - thanks for the praise! I'm pretty happy with it... now! The Lokar shifter looks soooo great in the truck. I have a new pic of the interior that I can post.

Larry is now home... well at work with me! Runs good but still needs some tweaking. The TH350 seems to be shifting very hard or not until I force it to shift so I need to look into that too.... never ending right!

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

I haven't messed with any of the serpentine drives, but it seems to me that there is something different about the setups off of the Vortec engines....I could be wrong too.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

No offence but I hope you are! I could always run the setup in my panel truck if it doesn't work on this motor though.

I'm not a tuning wizard so I'm thinking about taking the truck to a local shop for tune up. Is this something that many of you guys do after big swap like this?

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

On something basic like this, I tune them myself. I may not get it perfect at first, but that's part of learning to tune an engine. There's a sticky in the 'Engine and Drivetrain' section on engine timing if you're interested.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Thanks for the info. I will check it out.

On a related note, I just took the truck to an exhaust shop today to get that all fixed up. I one of my original mufflers was totally wasted and the other was junk so I put new ones in. But I didn't have a welder so I used a series of adapters and clamps to get it in place. Turned out to be a nasty mess so I decided to just get it done up right. Should be able to pick up the truck around 4pm MST today. When I dropped it off we opened the hood and that is when I noticed the vacuum for the transmission was off which would explain the shifting problems I've been having! The guy was gonna give the whole thing a once over to see if I missed anything; and see if he could see where the oil leak was coming from.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Here's is an update.

I've been running the truck without to much trouble and have been quite happy with it and its performance. I developed a cut out problem on acceleration but that turned out to be a vacuum leak. I also discovered that I am running my timing off a bit but the vacuum advance hits the intake so I'm going to have to turn it a tooth or two. Is that correct?

The only big problem happened two days ago. On my way home from work suddenly the transmission dropped 3rd gear and acted like it was in neutral though it was still in drive. Pulled off the road and check drive line, ujoint, and even made sure the converter was still spinning. Got back in, put in drive and it started to move forward again... but wouldn't shift out of 1st. Fortunately I was only like a mile from home so I limped home. Checked everything out, which is when I found the vacuum leak. Thought I had it taken care of until I tried to drive to work the next day... no go. Spent my lunch on here and other forums searching for a solution. Came to the conclusion that I would drop the pan and check from grit and also pop the cover off and remove the governor gear. THE GEAR HAD SHEARED COMPLETELY OFF!!! Worst part, the only parts place around my house is Checker and they didn't have the slightest clue was I was asking for nor could they find anything that even looked similar in their system! The pan was mostly clean, which raises a question. After a few thousand miles, like 2, should I have any grit or that gray sludge in my pan at all?

So now I'm trying to find one of these damn gears without having to order one and wait till Monday since this is a daily driver for me and my wife if pissed that I have her car! I found a used one that I'm planning on taking for now at least and might replace later.

Beyond this, my front end has developed some pops like when you need to start considering a rebuild so I've got my eyes out for an 89-98 setup for the front and rear.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Also, sold the old engine to a friend who tore it apart to rebuild. Found that it had the wrong sized bearing in it. Had a hole burned through the bottom of the intake and a variety of other problems.... kind of amazing that it ran at all in fact.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Cheap and dirty fix for the timing:

Don't pull the distributor, but just rotate the body 1/8 turn so the vacuum can is away from the firewall. Move the plug wires one hole in the opposite direction. Start the engine and set the timing. You can put the distributor in "right" the next time you have a legitimate reason to pull it.

Ray

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

THANK YOU!!! Excellent idea! When I put my vacuum tester on the motor and it read that that timing was off I played with the position of the distributor and when I realized that I needed to turn it further than the intake would allow I got pretty p.o.'d.

So to to confirm, if I just turn the distributor back toward the firewall approx. an 1/8th of a turn, relative to the entire distributor, then set the timing I should be able to solve the problem.

Sweet!

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

You'll have to move all the plug wires one terminal clockwise after you turn the distributor 1/8th turn counterclockwise......just like raycow said.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

You might try a local Chevy dealer, years ago I needed a new governor for my 700r4 and I got one from Gene Harvey in American Fork. Was cheap too, less than $40 if I remember correctly.

Hows that new shifter working out for ya?
-Jake

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Nice Truck! I'm looking at pulling the 235 (which is hooked up to a Powerglide) out of my '62 and putting in a SB Chevy with a TH350 or 700R4. The question I have is, what did you have to do to mount the tranny? Did you have to move the existing mount, or use a aftermarket mount, if so which one, and how hard was it to mount.

P.S. Would love to have that Grill, hard to find. I had to put on a aftermarket '64.
Clay

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

The frames for the '60-'62's are a bit different than the '63 and newer trucks, so what panelrodder81 did, may not work on your truck. Does your truck have a transmission mount at the rear of the transmission?

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

The following thread will give you an idea of what needs to be obtained or fabricated for the rear trans crossmember.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=369663

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Clay,

My truck was a manual/standard transmission and that xmember doesn't work for an auto, without modification. So I found a local guy on Craigslist and bought his automatic xmember for 20 bucks. Stuck the motor and tranny in place, bolted the tranny to the xmember, marked and drilled new holes, then bolted everything up. Funny enough it wasn't until I had to do this newest work that I found out I put the xmember in backwards which makes dropping the tranny pan VERY difficult. The last two rear pan bolts are extremely difficult to get to! I could be wrong but I would suspect that you could do something similar to your truck but as was mentioned the 60-63 trucks are a little different in just enough places to call in to question whether or not it will actually fit!

Thanks for the compliments on the truck though. I've been quite please with the thing, as I mentioned, and the look is quite nice. Photos, as you know, do cover up some stuff and this is no exception. I hope to be able to nail down all the remaining items, maybe do the front end and rear end swap to a 6 lug setup from the 89-98 trucks, then maybe I will need to start the body work to make it a REALLY nice truck! But then again, my 53 has been completely dead for over a year and I should prolly get back on that since that is were my heart really is!

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Shifter will be great when I get some time actually install it! It prolly won't go in the 64 though. I really want to transfer the Lokar from the 64 to the 53 and put your B&M in the 64 but I just don't want to have to pull my seat out and the carpet up and the tunnel off and etc to get the Lokar out! Oh well, the BM will look just fine in the 53 anyway.

We'll see though, I might get ambitious and do all that work anyway!

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Ok, so the day before my governor went out on Larry my transmission started clicking, when I was pulling into my housing development. After the repair to the governor it went away so I was pretty happy. But then about a week/week and a half ago I was going to pickup a 700r4 for my panel truck and while driving up a hill the truck started to jerk forward and backward until I down shifted, manually, and then back into 3rd. It did this two more times over the next week. Then about three days later I started to get the same clicking noise from the truck again. Weird thing is the clicking doesn't happen at first. I pull out to start my commute and it doesn't start until I'm between 10 and 20 min into my drive. Then when I pull off the freeway and stop at the first light it slows down and then stops and doesn't happen again until about 10 to 20 minutes into my drive home at the end of the day. The transmission seems to be shifting fine and if I stomp on the pedal the truck will accelerate fine, though the noise continues. Its almost like the trans is being starved of fluid at cruising speeds but I check my fluid levels and they appear to be fine. Kinda hard to check the fluids when its happening cuz I'm going 55mph down the freeway!

Thoughts?

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

When was the last time the trans was serviced......fluid and filter change? Could be a plugged filter.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

When I replaced the governor just a few weeks back I put in a new filter, pan gasket, and brand new fluid. And I put in a bottle of Lucas trans additive.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Ok, so I decided to to a test. Today when I drove into work I wanted to see what it would take to keep the transmission from making any noise... which I did but I went pretty slow the enitre way in. My speedo isn't hooked up so I'm not completely sure but just using all the cars that passed me I would estimate that I was doing about 50mph the majority of the way. I can't say for sure that speed was a factor but I can tell you that I got NO clicking the entire ride in using this technique. Is it possible that I've been pushing the truck to hard/fast?

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Things with Larry went south pretty badly. The trans ended up being rebuilt and after that I had to have a custom converter built, some crap about the flex plate being from a PG so a standard th350 converter wouldn't work. Fortunately since the shop that did the rebuild didn't catch it before giving me the truck back they did if for free minus the cost of having the thing towed to their shop.

After that though the clicking came back, sporadically, and I developed a heat problem. Since I'd blow so much money on the thing already my wife called it quits for me. She demanded that it disappear and when she demands, I have to listen. Plus she said that I could have a bigger budget for the 53 panel truck if I conceded. So, we sold the truck to my dad.

He put in a custom built 383 Stroker with a Bow Tie Overdrives 700R4. Swapped the front end to a 73 C20 front end and the rear end from the same 73. This let him keep the 8lug wheels but get disk brakes up front and a 3.73 rear end. After making some other modifications like adding some new gauges, an aluminum radiator, and a lockup switch he is driving the truck daily/regularly. He seems to enjoy it and can hit 75mph only turning 2k on the tach.

Sorry that it is gone but its better that way cuz the wife is happy and I got the panel truck almost ready to drive daily.

I will try and get my dad to post some pics on here of the truck and any he took of the build up. And maybe he can take over this thread.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Cool truck...keep us posted.

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Well, I've sent my dad the link for this thread and he has expressed an interest in picking up and updating it so watch for that!

-Panelrodder

Re: Project Larry - 1964 Chevy
 

Alright, Panelrodder (aka my son) has already outlined the changes I made to the truck. Lots of kudo's go to the contributors to this forum as I wouldn't have jumped into this like I did without the information I was able to gather here and the fact that I picked up the donor '73 truck for free. I just had to go drag it out of a barn.

To set the stage, my goal with the truck was (and is) to create a reliable driver that would be fun to drive, comfortable to drive and be a tow vehicle for a 25ft car hauler trailer and a 20 ft flatbed snowmobile trailer. With the exception of the towing, this truck is replacing '55 Ford F100 as my daily driver. I've got over 80K on that truck since rebuilding it (with Panelrodder's help) and it's in need of refurbishing. My wife and I recently traded our tow vehicle, a 2010 Dodge Diesel Crew Cab 3/4 ton, for a more economical gas-powered car (she ended up driving the truck all the time and is much happier with the car on less expensive fuel. Man, I was sad to see that truck go though).

I live 125 miles from my place of work, but only have to be at my place of work one to two days per week. So my commute is ~2.5 to 3 hours of about half country highways (65mph) and half freeway (75mph). Also, my employer pays for my fuel so fuel economy wasn't an overriding concern, although I wanted/expected to be in the high teens in mpg.

That's the introduction to the project, I'll follow up with the pics and all in a bit.