57 Panel "FAKMLC" build

[FAKKY]

It begins

Bought the truck a few months back - planned to drive to work for fun before tearing down and doing a restomod. Well the rear gears whining, no AC and just a bumpy ride had me park the truck and today I'm starting teardown.

57 Chevy Panel 3100. Paid $8250. Had less rust than other trucks I had seen and my wife loves "hearses" so this was a good blend of the apache look at front to hearse at rear with the ability to have the dogs and/or sleep in rear on trips in the future.

Plans.
Dakota IFS front suspension and power steering from Industrial Chassis.
8.8 Rearend from mustang/explorer.
LS swap. Shooting for a 6.0 but might be a 4.8 or 5.3 and turbo it later.
New side windows and air vent windows, new door latches.
AC.

My background. My name is John. Work in IT. 5 years ago bought a 2001 diesel truck. By the time I got it home had a fuel supply issue that killed the IP so a bill for $3k finally got me in learning to turn a wrench. However NEVER done anything like this. Have replaced injectors, turbo kit (bolt in mostly), suspension kits and replaced transmission with a friend - but I find once you've done it once ...... its not that bad ..... just takes me 4x as long as most people

Looking forward to building this and appreciate in advance all the people that have helped me so far with ideas and info and will be helping ,me on this and other forums. You guys make the difference in getting things like this done. kudos.



As I bought it.