the love machine build

[kev63rod]

Hey guys just stopping in to introduce myself and start a build thread for my truck. I’ve been a lurker here for 3-4 years but never posted over here, but I know all about the picture police my name is Kevin I’m 24 and I’m located in south central South Dakota working as a tree cutter for the electric co-op. before moving out here I worked in a couple different mechanic shops for 2 years. My draw for trucks/mechanics came from my dad owning his own body shop for years and for most of the time he was based out of the garage behind our house. Unfortunately for me about as soon as I got interested in it he got tired of it and started over the road truck driving. So enough about me, just wanted to give an idea of my level of understanding for fixing cars, or lack there of. So 4 years ago while at a car auction while at work I saw a truck sitting again the junk fence for auction and wanted it bad. It was a no sale for 750 and the guy wanted 1000 because he took it in on a loan for that much. I talked him down to 950 and winched it up on the rollback and drove it home proud to finally an owner of a classic. All I new about it was it was supposed to run but had a busted flywheel and of course a dead battery I was also told it had been a drag racer at the local track there. it ended up being a 63 GMC short bed having a 350/350 combo so when I got home I charged it up and it ran good but made tons of noise, had a missed, and smoked like a freight train. It had awesome throttle response and had 2 holly 4 barrels with an edelbrock hi rise intake and msd controller box, coil, and distributor. Tear down showed a busted flywheel, a beat up piston from a dropped valve, but it was a 4 bolt main punched 30 over with needle bearing roller rockers. All the trash from the busted rocker was in the oil pan so I knew it was going to have to be totally checked out so I tore it completely apart. Thinking that I would have the money to fix it soon I started a complete sand and tear down of the truck and of course found tons of surprises along the way. I started buying odds and ends but soon landed in the hospital, and as a result of being off for months I found myself without a job or money. So now my truck has set for a couple years torn down completely with lots of bare spots. Now that I’m out here it killed me to have it just sitting in pieces on the ground back home but there was no way to fix it at the time. But at Christmas I went home and picked up the pieces and headed back here with a very heavy load. While it was sitting I tried to come up with a direction to take the truck and decided that it needed to be cheap, reliable, and decent looking enough to drive to my wedding. I bought the truck with the main thought being that this is what I’m going to drive to my wedding (hence the build name) so I started doing research and found that 5.3 are incredibly cheap and reliable so I started looking for one. Luck would have it that I would be able to get home for Christmas and find a motor/trans combo with the computer and wye pipe with 90,000 on the clock for $1000. So we loaded it on a 20 year old trailer my dad built and a 200,000 mi suburban of my brothers and headed 1,000mi back home. The trip went without incident for the most part and now it is safely snowed in at my house. (its nasty cold, going down to -27 tonight with -42 windshield) we have drifts up to the eaves and I’m sooo ready for summer. but anyways my girlfriend of 4 years thinks I should be getting this together fast if I’m going to take her to my wedding in it the plan for now is get the cab fixed, if its fixable, and get the motor in and going. It could be drivable with no bed so it’s low on the priority list. The paint scheme is going to be flat black for now with shop lettering on the doors. If anybody has info and/or pics of how to do the worn look I would be interested in seeing them. I know the 5.3 and flat black is getting common in these trucks but I don’t care its getting built to fulfill my lifetime dream of driving a classic to my wedding. So that’s a little about me and my truck and now I will try to load up some of those pics before the police start harassing me so if there’s any questions or comments I’m open to anything

[kev63rod]

ok here is another try a pic

[kev63rod]

testing once again

[kev63rod]

picture of the beat up piston

[198plus]

Welcome......Very interesting, pretty neat going to drive it to your wedding.............If I ever get mine running I might be driving it to Divorce court ..........I wish you lots of luck with your build.

[billdo]

get rid of those rockers they look like procomps and they are junk get comps

[astrochimp]

NICE! The '63's are the best

Looks like you can sell some of the race parts and make some $ back

David

[jgh64pkup]

awesome so what are you doing with the tunnel ram?

[kev63rod]

yeah if you look at the pic of the motor, the 4th rocker back is different because at so point it busted and shreaded the valve into the piston. the tunnel ram along with the carbs would be for sale. im tryin to load more pics of the truck but the net is really screwy with the snow storm goin on

[jgh64pkup]

oh
what heads were on it

[kev63rod]

not really sure what heads were on it. they were cast iron but thats all i know

[jgh64pkup]

pm sent

[kev63rod]

here is a pic of it gettin loaded up to come here

[jgh64pkup]

cool pic

[jgh64pkup]

sorry double post

[kev63rod]

here is a pic of the new motor getting loaded up.

[kev63rod]

here is a pic of my 65 gmc. eventually i hope to make this a 4x4 on a newer frame.

[kev63rod]

slowly trying to work on the truck and had a question about the rearend. it is a 10 bolt rear with 5 lugs and disk brakes. was wondering if anyone could tell me what it is out of or a way to find out. it doesnt have an ID tag on it. here is a few pics. let me know if there is something i should look for on it to help ID it. thanks.




and in my "spare time" i am slowly working through the wiring

[lukey]

thats an 8.5 inch 10 bolt out of a camaro or firebird. its a good rearend for mild performance...probably fine behind the 5.3

[kev63rod]

thanks for the info i was told at one point that is was probablly a camaro rear but the guy didnt know for sure. whats the best way to put a year on it. it needs brakes thats why i was needing the info

[lukey]

camaro and firebird are all the same from 73-81. I belive rear disc was available from 76 or 77 up. just tell them it is a 78 with rear disc, I had one also, and wasnt sure what year so i always just said 78 with rear disc and they always worked, only to find out later it was actually from an 81.

[kev63rod]

thanks for the info. i will try that.

[erock805]

sweet project man...keep rollin, it otta be fast as hellll

[kev63rod]

a little update. no pics cause of technical issuses, but i have ordered a bunch of cab repair panels to get started on my cab. my doors are both shot beyond repair so i called up a rancher i know and went and looked at a 62 he has in the field. solid doors and a fairly solid cab, way better than mine but his is a chevy. my question is what is a fair price to offer for a decent cab with good doors plus a 62 hood? the eyebrow above the windshield is shot and maybe some of the drivers floor pan and the hump is gone. my thought is that maybe i will run the cab for now while i patch my cab up. i just dont care for the chevy cabs as well. he would not even give me an idea of what he wanted but he did say that back in the day he gave 800 for it. im thinking of offering 350 for cab with doors and hood. is that fair? also along with my progress i made a cab lift using my cherry picker. hopefully have pics up tomorrow of it.

[Captainfab]

Well it's say on the price without knowing just what all comes with the cab and doors, ie: glass, wiring, instrument panel, heater, etc. If it comes with most everything, then that's not a bad deal as long as it's in good condition.

Keep in mind that a '62 came with a different style brake master cylinder that included the master cylinder for the clutch. This is different than what is on your '63. The other thing is the front cab mounts are wider on the '62 cab. You can mount it on your '63 frame by simply drilling new holes for the front cab mount bolts. You just won't have the recessed cups in the floor so the bolt heads are below the floor surface.