My first build SAFETY ORANGE

[JP238]

I had been looking for an old truck off and on for about 2 years, when I came across this one. She's a Craigslist special, but I'm glad I got her before someone else did.

She's a 1970 with a 400 SB and 350 T. She may not be fast but she'll do a pretty good burnout!! (even with those big 20's)



I live in the gulf coast area of MS, and had to drive to Memphis, TN to get this truck. Long story short, trailered the truck all way back. Then began working on her. I'm sure many of you know this feeling right here..

Attachment 1228232


The body is in decent condition with a few dents and dings here and there and some rust of course. But all in all she is pretty straight.


The motor ran good and the transmission shifted good as well. But the guy who I bought it from swapped motors and pretty much just threw it together and didn't really do everything right. Had to do a few minor things like replace the headers, change valve covers and put a new drain plug in the radiator.





Next task was replacing all the busted ball joints..

There may be easier ways to do it but I cut the factory studs off the top with an angle grinder and beat the crap out of the bottom ones to get them out. Top was easy to bolt back up and used a ball joint press to get the bottom ones. Definitely not an impossible job, but definitely makes you use your brain when you've never done it before. (as far as not having the right tools for the job)





I got really lucky with interior. It came with some factory bucket seats out of who knows what and some vinyl flooring. I ended up finding a guy who had a factory 68 bench seat and traded him straight up for my bucket seats. A guy I know with a 67 re-did his whole interior and sold me his tan carpet for $50! The heater control panel rivets were all broke off. Had to drill the old ones out and put regular screws in them. Installed some white faced gauges from the parts store.







And now comes the fun part..

I was really wanting to put some newer factory wheel on this old truck. As I found out the hard way, the hubs are different diameters. The older trucks being and larger diameter and the newer trucks being a smaller diameter. This is an issue because the rim does not sit flush on the hub and the lugs are no where near long enough. There are several options to fixing this problem.

Option 1: Wheel adapters. Which I heard 50/50 on. Some said they launch at the drag strip every weekend with them and some said their wheels rolled off past them. Too much bad for me to pull the plug on them.

Option 2: Boring the center hub out. I would have felt more comfortable doing this option. That being said, I would hate to mess with the integrity of a wheel that's going to be traveling 70 mph+. I also have heard people say that they have done this process many times with no problems. On the flip side, I have heard of wheels cracking and separating from this as well.

Needless to say, I kinda gave up on trying to make that work. I figure, old school truck needs old school wheels.




These are the factory 20's that came with it. As I quickly found out, it is hard to find good looking factory GM wheels that are 6 lug. I ended up finding these on Craigslist for a decent price and they look good, just not exactly what I want..





And would look a lot better like this..




Cheesy edit job, I know. Gets the job done though.


As far as lowering it, I know how I'm going to do the front. Just not 100% on the rear just yet.

The front I'm gonna to the disc brake conversion with drop spindles and possibly some drop springs as well.

The rear I would like to do the axle flip kit with the shock extensions. I have heard that with the axle flip you are prone to axle wrap and other problems as well. My truck has the leaf springs in the rear and I personally don't see how it would affect it much if any. But I've never dealt with them before either.

If not the axle flip I suppose the only other options are drop shackles and lowering leafs? I do not want to cut the frame for a notch, so I'm guessing my max lower would be around 5" Which should be fine.


Not going to go crazy with the truck. Just lower it some, nice wheels and roll with it. MAYBE.. In the future put an LS motor with 4L80.