57 Chevy 6400 2 wheel to 4 wheel drive

[elpound]

I found this nice 57 truck in North Dakota. I decided to make it a 4x4 since I travel from North Dakota and Washington State often. Installed a 454 with a sm465 4 speed, atlas torque splitter overdrive. Has Dana 70HD rear axle and Dana 60 front. My plan was to emulate a Napco. I have always liked Taskforce Napco's It is now at the shop awaiting wiring and brake lines.

[elpound]

A few more pics

[Katrina/10]

Very cool idea, and I see you found some of those rare 22.5 wheels for tubeless tires. What are your plans for the exhaust manifold on the driver's side?

[elpound]

I was able to use a corvette style big block exhaust manifold for the passenger side and put it on the driver side. It's tight but will work. Otherwise I was looking at Sanderson cast big block hugger headers.

[sweetk30]

also c-60 med duty big block manifolds are center style dump .


LOVE the direction this build is going .

only thing i might have done was 19.5 p-30 bread truck 8lug drw rims and tires .

but the truck still looks killer with your tire/wheel combo .

[elpound]

Originally Posted by sweetk30

also c-60 med duty big block manifolds are center style dump .


LOVE the direction this build is going .

only thing i might have done was 19.5 p-30 bread truck 8lug drw rims and tires .

but the truck still looks killer with your tire/wheel combo .

Thanks SweetK30!

I wish I had known about the C-60 manifolds. It took me a while to find one that would work. The factory steering box was a hassle.
I did have a set of 19.5s that were 10 lug on the rear. I just wanted to keep the rubber height around 37" like It had on it. Believe it or not the front wheels on this truck were 22.5-8's. I put them back on with 9r's. They are about an inch taller. This is the second chevy of this vintage where I have found 22.5's. The other was a 56. Riveted together tubeless wheels. I did some research and found Chevy started offering them in 1956. I put those wheels on my 68 ford N600. Same bolt pattern. Crazy....

[elpound]

I found a nice seat out of an 88-89 Chevy truck to replace the one destroyed by mice and many hard miles. I wasn't a fan of the extra wood butt support either. I also picked up an instrument cluster from Dakota Digital. It will be easier to adjust the speedometer with electronic unit.

[Katrina/10]

That was a very creative idea on the exhaust manifold! Should be no problem with the steering box with that.

[CrewCab59]

Any pics of the wheel adapter ? Looks good.

Thanks

[elpound]

I have pics of them them in the production process and an example of them for another application. Got so excited that I forgot to take some for myself. They were made by Motorsport Tech in Sparks NV. They were made from high grade billet aluminum. 130lbs total weight.

[elpound]

Another pic.

[l_alvis]

Really cool build! That's a helluva lot of aluminum. I'd love to build a medium duty truck one day.

[elpound]

I will take some more pics as things progress.

[elpound]

I found a 1955 2nd 4400 truck with the cool factory grill guard. Pretty nice truck. It has the extra stainless trim on the cab. I am going to swap bumpers and put the guard on my green truck. I'm not to sure how common these are for the larger trucks. I have seen some for pickups on eBay. I'm pretty sure the guards on the larger trucks are wider because of the wider fenders. I tried to buy the grill guard separately but they wanted to sell the truck complete. Oh well, I sure I will make use of it.

[FoxCustom]

This project is SO COOL!!! You're doing an excellent job of emulating the NAPCO feel and staying true to the wheel/tire combo and ride height. Looks so tough!

And score on that grille guard / parts 4400 series truck!

Any current photos of the truck you could share??

[elpound]

I don't as of yet. The truck finally made it into the shop where they are going to finish the brakes and wiring for me. They are a smaller operation and my buddies 50 Willys Wagon was first in line. I have not seen it in over a year.My buddy has, and says they are working on it. If I wasn't working all the time I could do it, but in the end, I save money letting them do it. I'm hoping in a couple months they'll have it done. It's a pretty straightforward job compared to what he had done.

[special-K]

All I can say is how'd I miss it? Very cool. I like the who thing top to bottom