1953 Chevy Back In The Family

[Motasupra]

Starting my first build and this is the story of an old truck. When my wife was a kid her Dad would drive this 1953 truck around every day to work in the 80s and 90s. In the early 2000s he gave it to my wife after hitting it with a back hoe moving snow. We had it for a few years but I lacked the skill and storage to keep it around or running.
The sell.
We sold it to an older man from a few towns over and thought it was going to be back on the road. 2011 by farther in law passed and my wife wanted to find the truck badly. So I asked around and a friend of mine was able to fine out what happened for us. Turns out the older gentleman we sold it to had passed on as well and it was gone.
2015 ran in to the truck cruising around at a local car show and followed them to make an offer. Turns out they weren't interested in selling because they loved to drive around with their kids. My wife was happy that the truck was making memories like the ones she had.

May 2016 popped up on Craig's list with no brakes and a blown motor. Slapped it in the trailer and now I'm getting to work.

[Motasupra]

[IMG][/IMG]

[84blaze]

What are your plans with it?

[Motasupra]

So far the plan is daily driver for my wife and a few car shows/ drag strip. When at the drags the plan is 13-14 sec no 100mph club. Haven't ordered yet but this is some parts we would like to order.
5.3 ls chevy
4l60e trans
8.8 rear
Mustang 2 front
Disk brakes
Power steering
Real seat belts.
I'm going to attempt the body work my self but it will be the first time.

[IMG][/IMG]
This was this weekends work

[nvrdone]

good luck with this one & glad you found a "family Member"
there's lots of good info on this forum & the changes you propose aren't all that hard even for a beginner. do lots of research & take your time

[oldman3]

Nice story on your truck, welcome to the group. I'll tag along for the build...Jim

[Advanced Design]

That is a great history on your truck and I will be tagging along. Have fun!

[Motasupra]

It's been quite some time and a lot has happened. We ordered the speedway independent front suspension and Mustang 2 Kit. I sanded down portions of the body and strip down the interior also I took out the bed.

[Motasupra]

It seems that my entire garage is full of car parts someday we will need a bigger garage.
After about a pot of coffee and walking out to the garage to make sure everything looked level 1000 times it's time to install some stuff

[Motasupra]

Cross member

[vdawg1973]

That's gona be a nice truck.

[Motasupra]

My phone only lets me load one photo at a time.

[Motasupra]

Thanks I hope so. My wife's new drive to work in the summer rig. More pics

[Motasupra]

OK I don't really know what I'm doing but last night this seemed right.

[Motasupra]

Then the last thing I did last night was to test fit some suspension parts. Looks like you do need to notch the frame for the steering.

[Motasupra]

Just in time for turkey day test fit the rear. By the way the speedway bolt in 4 link doesn't exactly fit the Ford 8.8 but with a little work it's all tacked in.

[Motasupra]

Taking the spring hangers off.

[jkeating1]

Does that Speedway bolt-in kit have enough adjustment to add 1.5"-2" to the original wheelbase to center the axle in the fender?

[Motasupra]

This was the test fit I'll grab a pic of it tacked in soon. Set the pinion angle at 2%. Also I attempted to set the axle back just a bit from stock for bigger tires.

[Motasupra]

I would say 1 would be the limit because I don't know how much of the rod end I wanted exposed. I think we're back about 1.5 but the .5 is from the larger axle diameter from the 8.8 vs the chevy 10 we pulled. The axle mounts fit the 10 bolt perfect by the way. The offset of the 8.8 was a reason to adjust the upper link placement. Once the bolt to align the upper bracket was in the frame I used it as a pivot point to accommodate the offset housing. Then made the other side match. Once in place I'm going to just weld the upper bracket to box that part of the frame.

[lv2tri2]

Good progress, I'm along.

[Motasupra]

OK so I welded the rear in place but found that the axle being back just 1.5 inches makes the speedway shock mounts not fit. Anyway I cut the tabs off and moved the hole thing back then welded it in place. After that I set her down to see what happens. 9" front 9.5" rear running boards to ground.

[fisherman420]

Great looking project! Keep it up. I spent basically two days locating my rear end making sure the geometry was right. The "measure twice, cut once" theory turned into measure 100 times, weld once on more than one occasion with my build.

[Motasupra]

It has been quite a while but we got back to work on the truck with more shop space. Pulled the cab and now I need to check the frame. The back had been hit so I'm hopeful the 4 link will be I front of the bend. I'll do more boxing and get ready to locate the engine and transmission.

[8man]

Nice story on the truck and a good start.