Project '65 Short Step Daily Driver

[Mechanic77]

Well, I've been holding out on everyone.....I haven't made much progress on my '64 Pro Touring build (link in my signature) because I bought this:







It's a '65 with a 230 I6 and three on the tree that had sat for at least 14 years. I found out about it from a friend, and for $300, I couldn't pass it up.......and it was only 10 miles from my house

[Mechanic77]

I've had the truck since May, but I spent a couple months rounding up parts to get it up and going. New brakes, hoses, belts, tuneup stuff, rebuilt the carb, lowering springs for the rear, wheels and tires, front shocks....etc. I decided to do everything at once so I could do it in the new shop my family bought (family business), so I could do it all on a lift.....sooo much easier that way

Front suspension tore down, ended up cutting a coil and a half off the front springs, removing the bumpstops and brackets and replacing with late model gm 4wd bumpstops mounted straight to the arm (sorry, no pic), and installing front shocks for an early chrysler (I'll have to dig up the number, found it in a thread here ).



Drained gear oil from rearend, replaced both axle bearings (had to put repair bearings in because of rust from sitting so long). And when I did the brakes, I replaced everything, wheel cylinders, shoes, hardware, brake hoses, brake lines, and converted to a dual reservoir master cylinder.



All back together with 5" drop springs (no c-notch yet), new 15x8 smoothie wheels and 235/70r15 Generals.....I was so happy the ride height came out where it did



I got lucky and the fuel tank was bone dry, so I didn't have to drain any nasty old gas out of the tank. New fuel hoses, inline fuel filter, fuel pump, rebuilt carb, and all new tune-up stuff, and she fired up without too much fuss. First time moving under her own power for who knows how long.



Oh, and I did all this over the 4th of July weekend.....it was a long 3 days......

[Mechanic77]

Unfortunately, the old 230 was pretty hammered. She only ran on about 4 and a half cylinders, but it sure was fun to drive her around. That, and the old 3 speed would pop out of 3rd at random times going down the highway. But I drove her this way for a few months while I gathered up stuff to make her all better







It's a 355 I built with mostly leftover parts from other projects....block, crank and rods from my race car.....heads and roller rockers from off my 406 that's going in my '64.....I did put a new cam and lifters (Lunati Voodoo 10120703) and a set of Speed Pro flat tops in her. The intake is a stock aluminum quadrajet.

[Mechanic77]

Out with the old, tired 230.....



....and in with the new 355





And a new transmission to replace the worn-out 3 speed.....a Borg Warner T86 with an R10 factory overdrive on it.....from out of a Studebaker I wanted to keep the three on the tree, but still have overdrive to make her go down the highway nicer......it works awesome



And how she looks under the hood now....



Now she runs down the highway nice.....70mph @ 2200rpm

[Modges'66]

Saaaaawweeeeet!
Now that you have that runnin good, you need to get back on the pro-touring build.
I am having severe withdrawals!
All kidding aside, nice truck, and very cheap!

[Mechanic77]

Thanks Modges, your truck is on a whole 'nother level.....

This truck is what I should've built first before I went in head first on my pro-touring truck.....but, it has definitely helped the motivation to work on my '64. I've actually made some progress, just haven't posted up much yet.....

[Modges'66]

Good to hear that you are making some progress!
Your '64 build was one of the threads that interested me the most when I first bought my truck!
Keep forging ahead, there is no reason that you cannot get there!
BTW, thanks for the comment!

[67swb72klb]

Perfect driver!

[disasterbus]

What a great looking truck and a great bargain by the look of it.

What else do you plan to do to it?

[Mechanic77]

Thanks for the comments guys

disasterbus- I don't plan on doing to much else to it, well in my head it doesn't sound like much:

Front disc brake conversion- the drum brakes ain't cutting it in traffic.....it can be sketchy at times

Patch the rust on the right front fender (already have the patch panel) and re-do the fender brace on the driver's side and get it pulled in where it lines up better

Install C-notch in the rear (already have.....just not too excited about tackling that with the bed still on)

Make an adjustable rear track bar/brackets and find some different shocks for the rear. I've already moved the shocks behind the axle and used some old front shocks, but it rides too stiff for a driver.....before I moved/changed the shocks, it rode like a cadillac....I want that back

Swap the intake and carb for a new Weiand I scored off ebay and a 600 Holley I'm building.....the quadrajet works ok, and I could probably make it work really well.....if I had the patience. The motor's only pulling 12-13 inches of vacuum, and the quadrajet doesn't like that too much.....the Holley's an easy fix for now.

Maybe push some dents out here and there.....but I'm loving driving it as kind of a beater.....I've already put a couple thousand miles on the new engine/trans

[chad64chevy]

looks great mechanic77, what color did you paint the engine block?? kind of looks like a Pontiac color but I could be wrong!! also looks as you upgrade the master cylinder too

[Mechanic77]

Thanks chad64chevy, I wanted something a little different, so I ended up using Duplicolor engine primer and putting their high temp engine clear coat over it.....I couldn't bring myself to paint it orange

Yeah, I did upgrade the master cylinder....bad thing is, I'm gonna change it again here pretty soon.....almost have all the parts ready to do a disc brake conversion on the front.....

[Mikes66ChevyC10]

Looks great! Has a perfect stance.

[TJ's Chevy]

Looks sweeeet!!!