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**mr48chev** · 11-11-2012, 09:34 PM

Guys started sticking overhead valve V8 engines in them just about as soon as the engines came readily available. Usually Olds, Cad or Buick nailheads until the Pontiacs and Chevy V8 engines came in 1955.

I had a student with a 390 Ford in a 53 3100 and the frame was so butchered that I was afraid it would break in two on the passenger side. They had cut the top rail away to clear something possibly the oil filter and didn't reinforce the frame.

The owner of the first shop I worked in in Texas had had an AD truck sitting on a 55 Pontiac chassis with Pontiac V8 for a shop truck for a few years before I went to work for him. I never saw it but heard a lot of stories about it. Quite often from guys who had lost a street race to it. My friend an coworker JD Fikes in Waco in the 70's set a 48 Chevy 3/4 ton cab and shortened bed on a 55 Chevy chassis with a 400 Pontiac and turbo 400 in it. He built the whole truck including chopped top and tilt front end in under two months. It ended up in Oklahoma and I saw it for sale in an add in a magazine a few years later.

11-11-2012, 09:34 PM	#9
mr48chev Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Toppenish, WA Posts: 15,838	Re: Just wondering, non chevy motors? Guys started sticking overhead valve V8 engines in them just about as soon as the engines came readily available. Usually Olds, Cad or Buick nailheads until the Pontiacs and Chevy V8 engines came in 1955. I had a student with a 390 Ford in a 53 3100 and the frame was so butchered that I was afraid it would break in two on the passenger side. They had cut the top rail away to clear something possibly the oil filter and didn't reinforce the frame. The owner of the first shop I worked in in Texas had had an AD truck sitting on a 55 Pontiac chassis with Pontiac V8 for a shop truck for a few years before I went to work for him. I never saw it but heard a lot of stories about it. Quite often from guys who had lost a street race to it. My friend an coworker JD Fikes in Waco in the 70's set a 48 Chevy 3/4 ton cab and shortened bed on a 55 Chevy chassis with a 400 Pontiac and turbo 400 in it. He built the whole truck including chopped top and tilt front end in under two months. It ended up in Oklahoma and I saw it for sale in an add in a magazine a few years later.