454 sure is impressive

[Tx Firefighter]

Some of you may remember, I started out with a little 6 cylinder 3 peed 6 lug no option truck.

Then, last fall I bought a 454 from a board member here and began collecting all of the parts to do the swap. Well, it took awhile to get all of the stuff rounded up to do everything I want.

Today was the first day I got to drive it very much. That big block feels like nothing I've ever driven before. Basically, it's a 454 with hot Turbo 400 trans and 3.73 rear end in a 1/2 ton shortbed truck.

All said and done, I spent a freakin wad of cash, but I'm happy. I'm an obsessive compulsive freak and everything has to be 100 percent right and all done properly. I wound up buying a package deal from PICKMUP here on the board that came with all brackets and pulleys and mounts and stuff. Then, I bought a core Turbo 400 from board member superchevy. I had the trans rebuilt to full on bulletproof $pecification$ by Phoenix transmission. It's got titanium this and bombproof that in it. Had to have a new driveshaft built, so of course, I went all out and got one strong enough for a dumptruck.

All brackets and pulleys and mounts were beadblasted and POR15 painted. The engine also got the POR15 engine paint kit done to it. Auto tranny crossmemember came from superchevy too. I took an old set of auto trans shift linkage and rebuilt it by welding up all of the worn places and remachining them back to like new.

I got an Edelbrock intake off of ebay for 30 bucks and a 750 Edelbrock carb from board member cableguy. Memeber teeitup sold me tons of stuff I needed too. Another board member (can't remeber who) sold me a big block fan shroud.

I used a tilt column out of a motorhome. It drops right in with no modifications. While I was at it, I converted the dash from idiot lights to gauges and replaced the whole inside wiring harness.

While I had the front clip off installing the engine, I converted my 70 grille to a 72 style and installed a billet insert. Then, I finished the front end off with a nice chrome 72 bumper I bought from a member in Louisiana. Then, I got a bunch of 5 lug stuff from member matt67350. I swapped the whole truck over to 5 lug front and rear and used a UPS truck full of Early Classic stuff to slam it down. Of course, being the freak I am, I totally rebuilt everything as I installed it. Also did the big swaybar thing too.

Anyway, enough rambling. It's been 9 months of work. The work was easy, the money was the problem. Wifey and I are having a new house built, so bucks are scarse around here.

I want to thank every board member that I dealt with. Everyone of them was completely honest and gave me at least my money's worth on everything they sold me.

Next up, is an old faded shop logo painted on the door. This truck has original paint and it's going to stay that way. We are going to age the new paint so it looks like it's 30 years old and was painted on the door when the truck was new.