Hoped to post all the progress up to this point this evening, but I got carried away in the garage again.
My wife and I took a drive up to Myrtle Beach to take the kids to spend a couple weeks with my parents. This will be the first time we've been without kids in almost nine years, so should be interesting. There were lots of talks of big plans including a date night and day at the beach. We got home around 9pm and my wife went to bed and I went to the garage. So yeah, we are party animals.
Finished priming the frame under the cab tonight. I've been working in sections, I can only take so much time sanding on one piece before my ADHD kicks in and I have to move onto something else.
Goods news... I talked my wife into going to the beach with her friends this Saturday for a girls day, so that means I get a whole day of working on the truck, uninterupted. I'll probably take her out for a nice dinner that night to make up for whenever she figures out I made the suggestion for a girls day so I could work on my truck.
New parts arrived today. Got my oil pan, oil dipstick and tube, trans dipstick and tube, and new manifolds. I ordered the 60s Corvette style rams head manifolds with the 2.5" outlet.
I guess this is a good time to talk about the engine/trans for the truck... At some point, my grandfather had a 307 installed. Here's the paperweight of an engine a few weeks ago.
I decided I wanted something that would sound bad@ss and had plenty of power, but at the same time I wanted a setup that had a classic look to it. A good friend of mine had a high nickel / high tin block with flat top pistons, new crank, and a bunch of other crap I didn't care about. I picked it up for only $500, less than 100 miles on it. Also included was a set of 461 double hump heads, HEI distributor, and two carbs. Not sure which carb I'll be going with yet.
Here's a shot of the engine two weeks ago when I got my heads back. I couldn't wait to sit them on and see what it was going to look like.
I picked up a used Edelbrock Performer intake from a guy for $40. He also sold me the cam I installed, brand new Thump'r for $60. Like I said, I want that classic look so I bought an intake mounted filler and had the intake machined to accept. I also picked up some Chevrolet script valve covers for $15 locally and bead blasted and painted them.
I didn't realize the heads came from a family owned car until I got them home. My buddy called me up and told me that they came off a 63 Impala he bought from my family almost 12 years ago. He took the heads and the 327 out and stored them until he found out I was building this truck. Nice score. I had new hardened guides and seats installed, along with all new valves and springs matched to the cam. I have another friend that runs a machine shop and he really did a great job on the heads. Shaved just a hair just for the hell of it.
That's all I have in me for tonight. I'll post more tomorrow while I'm supposed to be working.