1981 Chevrolet C50 Pick-up Conversion

[UPNADM]

Got the hood painted and is now ready to go on.

Painted springs, hinges, battery tray, lower fender supports and some other miscellaneous parts.

Hope to get the hood on tomorrow evening.

[UPNADM]

So with having nothing in the interior and the transmission cover off, I find the transmission kind of noisy in reverse and it emits some whining noise moving forward.

Checked the inspection plug and could not feel any oil. So I pulled the plug and got this oil out of it.

I will fill it with 80/90 gear oil and add some Lucas oil treatment... Any thoughts?

The trans seems to work good, I took it up the road tonight.

[y5mgisi]

Run it! If it gets worse, rebuild it.

[matchstick321]

I think I remember reading somewhere on this thread that you have a muncie sm465? If So it's an awesome heavy duty transmission I've been inside a couple of them real simple and a pain in the a** at the same time. haha I love mine the only thing I hate about it is how fast you go through your 3 highway gears... You could prolly just run it flush it and run it a couple times. I've heard somewhere that with the gear box transmissions people will run kerosene through them to clean them out. Not sure if that's true or not, but it's interesting. I had one of these that leaked oil and it sat in a shed for a couple years and leaked all it's oil out and rusted real bad on the inside. I took it apart cleaned it as good as I could redid all of the seals put oil in it droped it in my truck and ran it through all of it's gears flushed it and, put new oil in it. Still works like a champ! Heres a link if your want to know more about it. http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/sm465.htm

[motornut]

Originally Posted by UPNADM

So with having nothing in the interior and the transmission cover off, I find the transmission kind of noisy in reverse and it emits some whining noise moving forward.

Checked the inspection plug and could not feel any oil. So I pulled the plug and got this oil out of it.

I will fill it with 80/90 gear oil and add some Lucas oil treatment... Any thoughts?

The trans seems to work good, I took it up the road tonight.

it sure is coming together nice
bucket looks like its a watery mix
Buick I think i saw a buick....a lark?

[UPNADM]

Originally Posted by matchstick321

I think I remember reading somewhere on this thread that you have a muncie sm465? If So it's an awesome heavy duty transmission I've been inside a couple of them real simple and a pain in the a** at the same time. haha I love mine the only thing I hate about it is how fast you go through your 3 highway gears... You could prolly just run it flush it and run it a couple times. I've heard somewhere that with the gear box transmissions people will run kerosene through them to clean them out. Not sure if that's true or not, but it's interesting. I had one of these that leaked oil and it sat in a shed for a couple years and leaked all it's oil out and rusted real bad on the inside. I took it apart cleaned it as good as I could redid all of the seals put oil in it droped it in my truck and ran it through all of it's gears flushed it and, put new oil in it. Still works like a champ! Heres a link if your want to know more about it. http://www.novak-adapt.com/knowledge/sm465.htm

Thanks for the insight. The truck currently has a sm465. I am going to refill it with freash oil and see what happens.

As for the other trans I had posted on this forum it is a 5 speed trans from a 366 and a split rear end. After some of the challenges that it imposed I opted to keep the 465.

Thanks for the link I am going to check that out.
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[UPNADM]

Originally Posted by motornut

it sure is coming together nice
bucket looks like its a watery mix
Buick I think i saw a buick....a lark?

Thanks for the kind words. I agree with you that the oil looked not so good. Hoping freash oil will be a little better. As mentioned everything is uninsulated so these "noises" may be in my head... Ha.

You are right on the car, 1968 Buick Special Deluxe, 2 door post, 350 with a 2 barrel and a 2 speed all rust free from Vancouver with 62,000 miles.
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[UPNADM]

Put some pieces on before I head on into work... Hope to get the hood in place this evening...

[JRANGER]

Looking awesome!!

[superduty_59]

Originally Posted by jranger

looking awesome!!

x2

[Dieselholic92]

Best conversion I've seen so far!

[UPNADM]

So back to the Cummins swap idea, manual or automatic?

Any thoughts? I know manual is likely the way to go... but?

[wwj75c30]

i say nv4500

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by wwj75c30

i say nv4500

x2

[superduty_59]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

x2

X3 or NV5600. On second thoughtsince you have a medium duty truck how about a medium duty trans http://www.sanco-bg.com/Conversion_NV5600.htm it's a Fuller 6 speed.

[UPNADM]

Originally Posted by superduty_59

X3 or NV5600

That six speed is not cheap...ha. I have just been thinking out loud to myself, I know I have the room, but at the end of the day I have to justify the cost and time to do this.

I am sitting in the middle of the fence right now, this will only be drove around town, so the 350/sm465 is likely fine.

However, I think a 12 valve would add some more cool factor to the end result of the truck.

I think for now, I will get everything done a.k.a. the body back and interior. And then go from there...

[68Timber]

Originally Posted by UPNADM

That six speed is not cheap...ha. I have just been thinking out loud to myself, I know I have the room, but at the end of the day I have to justify the cost and time to do this.

I am sitting in the middle of the fence right now, this will only be drove around town, so the 350/sm465 is likely fine.

However, I think a 12 valve would add some more cool factor to the end result of the truck.

I think for now, I will get everything done a.k.a. the body back and interior. And then go from there...

That's the best route to finish it out and enjoy everything you've done, it's a cool ass truck. Drive it around while you decide if/how you'd go diesel and what tranny. Love what you've done with it.

[matchstick321]

Originally Posted by UPNADM

Thanks for the insight. The truck currently has a sm465. I am going to refill it with freash oil and see what happens.

As for the other trans I had posted on this forum it is a 5 speed trans from a 366 and a split rear end. After some of the challenges that it imposed I opted to keep the 465.

Thanks for the link I am going to check that out.
Posted via Mobile Device

Yeah it's a pretty good transmission especially for hard to get going trucks. Although the 5 speed would have been pretty cool!

[matchstick321]

Originally Posted by wwj75c30

i say nv4500

Definatly. I'd upgrade to that if I had the mulah

[MrBeast]

I think this truck needs a Cummins 12 valve and a Eaton 13 speed for full effect! xD

[UPNADM]

My Dad came over and he and I got some work done on the truck. Took care of some minor issues.

My Cousin was in the area, so I got him to stop by to assist with putting the hood on.

I need to spend some time with the alignment, however not today. Enough done for a Sunday... Here are some photos...

[UPNADM]

A couple more...

[UPNADM]

Bored after dinner so I started hauling parts up to my shop.

Got started on the front bumper I will be using for the time being, (skiing anyone)?

Removed the poles as per the photo... I was originally thinking a yellow bumber, but that may be too much yellow... Perhaps black may be the way to go.

Need to start on the driver side step... I needs some minor repair. It will be going black.

[JRANGER]

looks great and black sounds good

[68Timber]

That's going to be a lot of fun to drive. Looks great.