58 GMC Fleetside Beulah

[dubie]

Some of the older members may remember this truck from years back when we bought it. A local guy had this "56" Chevy pickup for sale so I went to check it out. I pull up, it has no front fenders on it, half buried in snow, the body looked pretty straight so we started to deal. I asked it if ran he said " i'm not sure, it hasn't been started in a couple years as far as I know" See, the guy i bought it from is a local used car guy that buys and sells. Fortunately I knew one of the previous owners, the guy that built the truck and drove it year round for 15 years. So the guy wanted $1500 and I immediately hit him at $750. We ended up settling at $900 and it was in our shop within 2 hours. We let it thaw, charged the battery over night and poured a little gas in the carb and cranked it over until she fired. It was a turn key driver indeed and a score at $900. We started to tear it down and then I accepted a transfer with the company I was working for and the truck got left behind for a few years. We came back and brought the truck home but it still hadn't had much done with it. Well now it's time

The plan is to mount the body to an S10 chassis and get it good and low. The reason for the swap is it already has a Nova clip welded in it, but it was done poorly and the frame was cut in the wrong spot. Instead of messing with someone else's crap, we're going to start fresh. It'll run a nicely built up 350 paired to a 700R4 and the rear end is a 3:73 posi. The can needs some love on the floor pans because years ago when the floors were bad and there weren't patch panels available, the owner made panels out of fiberglass. Well 25 years later, it all has to come out and be replaced with some metal. We lucked out and scored a beautiful straight rust free bondo free short fleetside bed from a guy in Alberta and we grabbed a set of original 58 fenders that need a small amount of attention. If all goes well, we should have the frame ready to go in the spring.