Top Kick

[Willie B]

Here is a picture of the cab.

[jumpsoffrock]

Man that thing looks CLEAN. Is there any rust at all?

[Willie B]

Back of the frame has surface rust, it needs sandblasting.

[txagincali]

Looks nice!
How did you get the body off? Unbolt and lifted? Or plasma cut it to pieces? Just curious since I am about to tackle a similar operation on a 69 C50 former fire truck.

[Willie B]

Originally Posted by txagincali

Looks nice!
How did you get the body off? Unbolt and lifted? Or plasma cut it to pieces? Just curious since I am about to tackle a similar operation on a 69 C50 former fire truck.

The TBL (Case 580K) didn't have enough reach with front loader. We used the hoe to lift the front of the body. The back being much less than half was lifted with a loader on a small utility farm tractor. Both machines were over their capacity.

The phone rings twice a week with offers to take the fire body off my hands for free. My son has a brainstorm for a pickup flatbed cutting it up. That seems OK to me. I weld aluminum. Many times I've bought at top dollar the same material this thing is built from. The cast iron pump, I'll scrap.

The 1000 gallon poly tank is the stuff VT sugarmakers use.

[txagincali]

Originally Posted by Willie B

My son has a brainstorm for a pickup flatbed cutting it up. That seems OK to me.

Sounds oddly familiar! I have a C50 that was originally a fire truck but cut down and converted to a utility bed. Mostly capped off with diamond plate, but these pics might give you an idea for a conversion.

[Willie B]

C50 is a great looking truck. They are the right size for a work truck. Most had 350 engines, that is a bit mild for trailer duty.

[Willie B]

Originally Posted by jumpsoffrock

You've got some good points. What's really sad is I felt my 327 SBC powered C50 was a bit sluggish when loaded or on hills, and felt that a BBC would fix it.

I guess not. Not sure what I'll do, but when that tired old engine comes out, I'm gonna have to build something strong enough to make the truck giddy up. I couldn't care less about fuel consumption since I don't drive my truck enough.


To post pictures, are they in a file on your computer? When replying to this thread, git the "go Advanced" button, below the text box, click a button that says "manage attachments". From here a window will pop up and click any button that says "browse". This will open a search window that can look through any file on your computer, but that can be a bit hard to use, so patiently look for your photo you want to post. Then click "upload". After that post the reply and you're good.

The 427 is a monster. They have a massive forged crank, extra cylinder height to allow an extra oil control ring on the pistons, big valves, big cam, a cooling system bigger than other Chevy Big Blocks. Oil pump is a monster. They are built to run at full power all day long.
Still, horsepower is not huge. There are numerous listed horsepower ratings, I think about 230 HP.