New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum. I joined because I just recently stumbled on what I believe to be a pretty rare old GMC pickup. It's a '63 SWB with a 305 and a powerglide - but the 305 is a plaid valve cover example that is very much unmolested and appears to only have 21,000ish original miles on it. The truck sat up for 20 years before I acquired it a few weeks ago. I have taken the time to do a little research and have already connected with a few people that know a lot about these plaid valve cover V6s and the general consensus is that so far - no one I have communicated with yet has ever seen one in a truck like this with an automatic trans behind it. Here's a few pics:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...CPickup006.jpg

The radiator had been stolen out of it years ago it looks like. Other than that, the only thing missing is the seat.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...CPickup004.jpg

Anyway, the odometer only registers 21,XXX. I didn't think much of it at first, but the more I got to messing with this truck the more I started to wonder whether or not these miles were original. The engine and transmission are nearly devoid of grease and filth you would expect to find and nothing has been tampered with. The rearend is very tight and it still has all the original brake parts on it best I can tell. I truly suspect someone had this truck and drove it very little - probably because of the poor gas mileage these things were famous for. It's been parked on my concrete driveway now for about 3 weeks and it hasn't leaked a single drip of any fluid, not one. I have run the engine for about 4hrs and run the transmission and rearend up on jack stands for a good bit too - still nothing is leaking oil. I am shocked.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welcome to the forum :D

Yeah, I don't think many came with the powerglide behind the V6. That's good that you have gotten it running. Have you tried driving it yet?

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

welcome
here are some links to your "rare" items
http://www.6066gmcguy.org/SM420.htm
http://www.6066gmcguy.org/GMCplaid.htm
ron

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

How cool is that! One possible explanation for the lack of leaking fluid is that the engine has no fluid in it! I'm thinking that radiator hose really should be connected to something. ;) .. Nice find!

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

:welcome2: cool find! what are your plans for it?

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welcome to the forum. I've never seen a V6 hooked to a Powerglide. I thought the only automatic they offered was the Hydramatic. Enjoy your truck!

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welcome to the site!! Great find! Whats your plans for her? I'd probably lean towards restoring it factory stock.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Haven't driven the truck yet - need a radiator and a seat. I have just finished getting the brakes working though. Only thing I had to buy was the rubber hoses - everything else was still in good shape. Just had to take all the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder apart and get them cleaned up and freed up.

I have already been to the 6066 GMC site and read all that information, chatted with that fella as well. He's also never seen one like this one.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it just yet. I'll know more once I finally get to drive it. It has a Dana 44 rear end with a 3.07 gear - I suspect it might make a pretty neat cruiser. If I like it as much as I suspect I might I may end up restoring it. There is very little rust on it, however the rust it does have is pretty serious. The cab is rusted out badly along the top of the windshield where ALL these trucks rust. It would take a pretty in-depth repair to fix it. However with the rare factor of this truck taken into consideration I feel like it might be worth it.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Also, GMC calls the Powerglide a Pow-R-Flo transmission I believe. It works perfectly also! Unbelievable.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

"I have run the engine for about 4hrs" without a radiator??? really??

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welcome, neat looking truck. How bout some interior pics. Nicely optioned.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welcome to the site and congratulations on that awesome find. As you begin to work on this old girl, remember the journey is half the fun -- no make that all of the fun as it never ends!

My '66 GMC V6 also has a Powerglide behind it. I had no idea this was such a rare option -- I guess we're members of pretty exclusive club. My truck (per the protectoplate) was orginaly bought by a convent for their farm. I can only speculate that the nuns did not like the idea of having to shift gears so the dealer set them up with an automatic. Of course their vow of poverty prevented them from upgrading to a hydromatic -- hence a Powerglide found it's way in there.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Great find! Just keep in mind though, even though it is rare, not many people care for the V6 except for the very few of us who own one and maybe a handful of others. But I'm on board with ya, I think it's awesome. Is it a big back window?
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Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welcome and nice find! ;)

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

I am thinking the same thing.....

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Probably means 4 hours total, doubt it would make it without a radiator running for 4 hours continuously.

Chris
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Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Mechanic when you get the engine all dusted off she should look like this. My trans is a 4 spd. hydra-matic, which is getting so rare, she almost a rumor.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

There's this neat trick where you can plug a garden hose into the suction side of the water pump and throttle the water to just the right flow to keep the engine at a normal temperature. That's what I did.

Not much to see there - there was no seat in it when I got it. I just picked up a very nice seat today in fact - from the U-Pull-It up in Waco. Came out of a '71 Ford pickup - if you didn't know better you'd swear this seat was made to go in this truck. Only thing I had to do was drill different holes in the floor to bolt the seat rails to. One other thing to note about the interior though is that it still has the original AM radio in the dash with the "GMC" script on the dial. Pretty neat I thought.

Nope - I think its pretty much a basic truck with automatic transmission. The bumper and grill are painted white, so is the V6 emblem on the hood.

Looks nice. I've only seen a few of those hydramatic 4-speeds, pretty neat!

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Your seat choice doesn't surprise me. My original 1960 GMC seat is in my son's 1968 F250 and other than the beautiful seat cover on it, the installation completely stock.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

"There's this neat trick where you can plug a garden hose into the suction side of the water pump and throttle the water to just the right flow to keep the engine at a normal temperature. That's what I did."


I figured a guy from texas had a plan , or that it was a typo... Now if it were a guy from Detroit .............................. lol Cant wait to see how it goes down the road for ya ...

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Yeah, I was very pleasantly surprised when I got it home and slipped it in the cab. I took some measurements before I headed to the junkyard - but they were very approximate. I musta looked at 250 seats today - when I found this one in this '71 F250 I knew it was the closest thing I'd find. I still can't believe how nicely it fits in there. I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow.

I hope to be driving it sometime next week. I expect to get the brake system back in order tomorrow, then the only thing I'll be lacking is the radiator and possibly a fuel pump. I had the tank out last week and got it all cleaned out. I was surprised how good a shape it was in actually. Even the fuel sender looks like it might work. Previously I was just bottle-feeding the carb with a homemade temporary gravity feed fuel tank that I have. I use it all the time on all sorts of stuff.

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Won't be long now - got the new radiator installed in it today - brakes are now working good as well. Just waiting on the NOS fuel pump that I picked up on eBay lastnight to arrive and I'll be headed down the road in this thing. I'm dying to see how it drives - the engine runs flawlessly and I haven't even had a spark plug out of it!!

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

Welp, this thing is running and driving now. I can't believe how well it does run and drive, all things considered.

HOWEVER...

Never in my lifetime have I ever piloted a vehicle that uses more gasoline than this one does. I've owned hundreds of different cars and trucks over the past 25 years or so and none comes to mind that even comes close to this thing. In second place woulda been a '77 Chevrolet C30 cab and chassis with a 454, TH400 and a 4.10 rearend...but even that thing was a penny pincher compared to this 305 V6. WOW.

I put 5 gallons of gas in a bone empty tank (I had cleaned out the fuel tank). I started it up and let it run for about 30 mins while I was doing some other things, then got in it and took it on about an 8 mile drive. It ran out of gas before I could get it back onto my driveway. At first I thought something else happened - like maybe the points closed up on it or something, but that was not the case.

lol, wow.

(Granted - it didn't use all 5 gallons that I poured in, there's still some fuel in the tank, it just can't pick it up)

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

yup....GMC V6 is notorious for fuel consumption

Re: New member - just picked up a rare '63
 

it can be made better though
ron