Dad's Budget Build 55

[Sinisterspeed]

Well, Here is alittle history to get you up to speed. My Dad had a 63 T-Bird for about 15 years. He took it to a couple cruise-in's and a couple shows. He did pretty well with it since it was almost a daily driver. He sold it about 1.5 years ago then bought a Harley. He rode the bike last summer then sold it too. He had been looking for a tri-5 car or some other car of that sort. I had been telling him Chevy,Chevy,Chevy for awhile now since I had worked on his 67 F-250, and his 63 thunderbird. The parts are harder to find and more expensive. I think he finally got it when he drove my 01 crew cab and finally broke down and bought an 06 Chevy crew. He loves it.

Now, We had been looking at wagons, tri 5 4drs alittle older, couple other brands when they came up through craigslist and word of mouth. The I told him to come see the truck I had just brought home (after 4 years of talking to the in-laws about buying it) its a 57 TF truck and runs and drives. After he saw it and sat in it played with the one working knob in the truck. He said "One of these wouldn't be to bad". So since he really couldn't afford a decent car of that era we began looking at more 55-57 trucks then I thought existed in this area. After answering 15+ CL ads and going out and looking at probably 7 or 8 of them, we both took the day off work and went to the Portland Expo center swap meet. We figured all the good deals are gone on Friday so we had better not wait until Saturday as we usually do if we wanted a decent vehicle. After making it about half way through we found this:



1955 Big window, 99% rust free. No motor,trans, no interior at all, no windshield, Basically its a really nice body on a rolling stock chassis that included the big back window and nothing else. Picked it up for $1600.oo with a clear Oregon title as well.

Although it was taken 4-5 weeks of the work on this truck to get it to where it is right now. The white grill was in it as well as the bumper but the filler panel was damaged.

Here is how it started. My Dad begins calling asking about catalogs I have around my house for 67-72 trucks (my project money pit) and wanted to know where to start looking for parts he wanted for his newly acquired 55. I told him anything you want just call me and I will look it up. (that might have been Pandora's box right there)

The first week Ebay and I got along real well. New chrome grill, headlight bezels, fuel tank filler neck, wiper arms, and a few other items began showing up.

SO, He buys this motor from a friend of his for 350.00 with the trans attached and calls me for some help putting it in. Got some motor mounts from TCI and wala I have an excuse to buy a plasma cutter. I drag it down to my house (about 40 miles away) and put in a solid weekend on the install. Here are some pics of the motor install weekend.







So first 2 week Tally

1600.00 truck
280.00 Grill
70.00 Headlight bezels
20.00 filler neck
350.00 Motor/Trans
80.00 Motor Mounts (frame side)
50.00 Motor mounts (motor side)
90.00 Trans x-member
25.00 Trans mount

= $2565.00 so far.