Hey All, New Here....But Not Too CHEVY'S!

[Operation No Budget]

Hey everyone,

New to the site, actually I've been lurking around for awhile now and see there's a ton of knowledge and plenty of good info on the site.

I've had chevy's growing up (since 12 yrs), my 1st pickup was fixed and given to me by my dad, it was a '55 Chevy shortbed stepside (small window), then I he and I fixed up a '57 Chevy shortbed stepside, then followed up w/ a '64 Chevy shortbed stepside. Man, I love all these trucks....I always had an urge to build a 67-72 Chevy.

So w/ that, when I was a sophmore in H.S. I bought from my Dad his '71 Chevy LWB Fleetside. Mind you, I am not a long bed type guy, matter of fact, it's gotta be shortbed and stepside or nothing. But I saw potential in this truck, so we dropped-in a 350 SBC, kept the original auto transmission and got her running. Started up the bodywork, etc. even straightend out a few dents on the LWB bed, but the budget didn't allow for much progress.

Well, fast-forward 15ish years later... I now have my own son (10 mos), and still have all the pickups I've mentioned before. Am thinking of starting a project for my boy and though....what better than the '71 Chevy. And though things haven't changed much in the budget since H.S., it's a little better. So I started gathering parts, found a stepside 68 GMC bed complete for $70, and edelbrock carb/intake for $160, american racing wheels and tires for $50, replacement step plates for $30.

So far the theme of my project is to put the truck together as a short wheel base stepside, get her running, and do all the body work on the lowest dollar possible. Right now I have $412 into her... Plan on adding a roll pan, billet grille, and make my own bed cover out of sheet metal. Lot's of plans, but let's see what happens. My issue is I'm in the miltary and the truck is 1K miles away. I'm gathering parts though and am gonna chop the frame and mount the bed on my 2-weeks of leave this summer.

Any tips on chopping the frame would be good, I've read alot of the sticky's here and got a good idea of what's done but any tips on driveshaft shortening, frame fishplates, etc. would be good. Also, I can't remember but I believe my '71 has the power booster Master Cylinder. I know my carb has the threaded vaccuum input on back but don't know if I'll need to buy a plug for those, or if it's plug-n-play. Any pics of an edelbrock carb setup would be helpful for all the vacuum lines too.

Without further adieu, here she is (not much, but I still see potential). Oh, and sorry for the novel! lol...