Here I go again. HELP

[Rodk65]

I recently purchased a 71 C20 camper special that Sharpie had for sale. I have intentions of using this truck as my daily driver/tow vehicle and I keep telling myself it is a quick fixer upper and drive. I find myself looking for information that is going to get me in trouble. It is a 350/350 with leaf spring rear with 4:10’s.

I am considering a gear change to make it more highway speed friendly. Anyone know what it available?

The truck has upper and lower trim (see picture), but the bed is not the original and never had trim. Is this trim still available and can it be installed on a bed that never had it? Maybe I should remove all of it.

On other trucks some of the lower trim is painted black and some is wood grain. Why is there a difference?

I will be converting to HEI to make it more reliable. I have heard a lot of people talk about a certain HEI dizzy that was reliable and affordable. I believe it was on EBay but I can’t remember the name. Or I could use the one pictured below. I don’t have any history for it and I would need to replace cap and rotor.

I had thought of changing everything over to ½ ton with 5 lug but that seemed extreme and expensive so I purchased a ½ ton SWB coil spring 5 lug frame that I might blast, paint and change everything over to. It never hurts to have an extra frame sitting around just in case I don’t get over this sickness and end up building another truck.

I am leaving Friday to go and pick up the truck. If anyone from my neck of the woods has purchased something from Sharpie that they need transported back towards Wisconsin I would gladly bring it back if I have the room. I live in Holmen, WI 4 miles from the Minnesota border and just north of interstate 90.

[heavy71chevy]

All I can anwser for possitive is about the trim...it is still available from lmc and others and it can be mounted to your no trim bed...If memory serves it was just a matter of drilling holes for the clips

[Rodk65]

I will check out there catalog. Thanks

[Rodk65]

What is the quality of the trim from LMC?

[raycow]

Originally Posted by Rodk65

I am considering a gear change to make it more highway speed friendly. Anyone know what it available?

It depends on what axle you have in there now. If you have an H052 (perfectly round cover) 4.10 is the tallest you can go. If a Dana 60 (irregular shape cover) you can get at least down to 3.54. However, if you have to pay someone to set up the new gears, it will usually cost less to do a complete rear end swap than to replace the gears in the Dana. In that case, you might want to look for a corporate 14 bolt. These are more plentiful than the Dana and are available with gears down to 3.21. If you have the H052, a rear end swap is your only way to get better gears.

Another possibility would be to replace your present transmission with an overdrive type like a 200-4R, 700-R4 or 4L80E. This might be preferable to a rear axle swap if you use the truck for serious towing, especially with a TH350. It will be more $ though.

Ray

[VA72C10]

Originally Posted by Rodk65

I recently purchased a 71 C20 camper special that Sharpie had for sale. I have intentions of using this truck as my daily driver/tow vehicle and I keep telling myself it is a quick fixer upper and drive. I find myself looking for information that is going to get me in trouble. It is a 350/350 with leaf spring rear with 4:10’s.

I am considering a gear change to make it more highway speed friendly. Anyone know what it available?

The truck has upper and lower trim (see picture), but the bed is not the original and never had trim. Is this trim still available and can it be installed on a bed that never had it? Maybe I should remove all of it.
Trim is available aftermarket. LMC will be higher priced than most. Try looking for some nice originals too.
On other trucks some of the lower trim is painted black and some is wood grain. Why is there a difference?
Different trim levels (custom, cheyenne, cheyenne super...

I will be converting to HEI to make it more reliable. I have heard a lot of people talk about a certain HEI dizzy that was reliable and affordable. I believe it was on EBay but I can’t remember the name. Or I could use the one pictured below. I don’t have any history for it and I would need to replace cap and rotor.
Skip White HEI is the one you're thinking of. Many have run with no problem but some have had issues with theirs.

I had thought of changing everything over to ½ ton with 5 lug but that seemed extreme and expensive so I purchased a ½ ton SWB coil spring 5 lug frame that I might blast, paint and change everything over to. It never hurts to have an extra frame sitting around just in case I don’t get over this sickness and end up building another truck.
Sonds like a good plan!

I am leaving Friday to go and pick up the truck. If anyone from my neck of the woods has purchased something from Sharpie that they need transported back towards Wisconsin I would gladly bring it back if I have the room. I live in Holmen, WI 4 miles from the Minnesota border and just north of interstate 90.
Attachment 646152

Attachment 646153Attachment 646154

Answered above in red. Looks like a really solid starting point. Enjoy the build!

[Rodk65]

Originally Posted by raycow

It depends on what axle you have in there now. If you have an H052 (perfectly round cover) 4.10 is the tallest you can go. If a Dana 60 (irregular shape cover) you can get at least down to 3.54. However, if you have to pay someone to set up the new gears, it will usually cost less to do a complete rear end swap than to replace the gears in the Dana. In that case, you might want to look for a corporate 14 bolt. These are more plentiful than the Dana and are available with gears down to 3.21. If you have the H052, a rear end swap is your only way to get better gears.

Another possibility would be to replace your present transmission with an overdrive type like a 200-4R, 700-R4 or 4L80E. This might be preferable to a rear axle swap if you use the truck for serious towing, especially with a TH350. It will be more $ though.

Ray

Thanks Ray. I will look into the Corp 14 bolt swap to see what is available. I thought they were wider then the Dana 60 that I have. I might see if I can find a Dana 60 3.54 or a I will look for a overdrive trans.

[VetteVet]

Here's the link to the HEI on E-Bay. This is the store so just surf through it and you'll find several distributors or do a search for v8 distributors. I posted the web link cause they sell tons of stuff for chevy and gm.
http://stores.ebay.com/whiteperformance1

[Rodk65]

Originally Posted by VetteVet

Here's the link to the HEI on E-Bay. This is the store so just surf through it and you'll find several distributors or do a search for v8 distributors. I posted the web link cause they sell tons of stuff for chevy and gm.
http://stores.ebay.com/whiteperformance1

Thank you for the link. That is the one that I had read about. A new Skip White is about the same price as rebuilding the ACCEL that I have and I know nothing about it.

[Rodk65]

Well, we made it home. I highly suggest everyone take a road trip to Wyoming to visit Sharpie. Beautiful part of the country and Dennis and Tara are great hosts. Looks like I will need a driver side rocker and a patch for the driver side floor board. The truck runs and shifts great and I am hoping that the HEI conversion doesn't affect how great it runs. I have to find out some info on this Carter AFB carburetor. Will post more pictures as thing progress.