bwilli2's 51 5 window

[bwilli2]

Finally going to get started on my 51. It came into the family around 71. The previous owner did some... interesting things to it.

The bondo and other body work was done by my cousin. He didn't want to weld so there are some good patches and it looks decent but I'll be re-doing all of that.

Some interesting previous owner stuff:

283 V8 installed. It runs strong, but I'll be replacing it with a LS1 from a 2000 Camaro.


To get the 283 to fit they re-located the steering box on the outside of the frame rail, and pretty much butchered the firewall to re-angle the column and hacked up the inner fender well pretty bad. I've seen this before, but this seems a bit more crude than usual.


They cut a hole in the center of the dash for a tach... which I'll have to patch. Speaker holes in the doors... which I'll have to patch... and holes in the running boards... which I think I'll end up just replacing. They ran stacks up the back of the cab, through both boards. Looked neat, but kind of weird too.
Dash:


Doors:


Running Boards:


They also angled the driveline a little to the driver side due to the... scary mounting of the engine. You can see how it's not centered in the hoop for the emergency brake cross over:


And looks like some air shocks:


Also cut the stake pockets and flattened the bed rails. (broken welds under there):


I also noticed that at the back stake pocket, there are some holes that are 1/2 covered by the pockets... both sides. Weird.


and


And while it was sitting at the back of my folks summer property, the neighbor kids decided to break EVERY BIT of glass on the thing. Windows, gauges, even the dome light. Sigh.