WunTon's 63' BBW/SWB Fleetside build

[WunTon]

Hey all! I picked up a 63 a month or so ago and I finally got it home last week so I can get started on it. The plan is to look old but drive new and be fast and handle well. I've got a pretty extensive parts list so far some of which will be changing up so I'll have some new parts for sale at some point in the future.

Heres a picture from a few years ago before it was taken apart and stashed away in a barn since 2013 until I bought it and brought it home last week.





And here are some from bringing it home.

Loading was easy!



Ready for the drive



The sprinter makes easy work of all the additional parts and I have an aluminum ramp that made rolling the motor in and out a breeze.



And then when I got home the fun began. My garage is only 17x20 and I already have a fairly large amount of large woodworking equipment in there so space is tight. Not having a way to roll it we had to get creative.



The plan was to lift it up using the 4x4s we had put under it before setting it on the trailer and then drive the trailer out from under it, but of course the giant knot in the 4x4 had other plans and it snapped in half about 2" from our final height to clear the fenders of the trailer. The plan was to lower it onto a bunch of dollies and then roll it into the garage from the driveway but once the 4x4 snapped we resorted to pulling it off the trailer in the street with my buddies truck and tried to place it onto the dollies (which were a total waste of time and I destroyed 4 of them).



After some pulling and pushing with the truck and guiding the front with a rolling jack we finally got it into the garage 2 hours and 46 minutes after arriving home!



And thats how it sat for a day or two



More to come!

[WunTon]

As stated in my first post I have a pretty extensive parts list that I was able to put together from receipts from the PO and by doing an inventory of all the parts since everything is still brand new and packaged with the part numbers on it. Out of curiosity/necessity I put together a spreadsheet of the parts and prices from the receipts I found in boxes and this is what I came up with.



That total doesn't include tax or shipping and there are a few parts that I wasn't sure of where they came from or the cost but it's still a pretty decent list I think.

Included in the deal was a new GM 350 "330hp" crate motor and GM reman 4L60e trans complete with wiring harness and trans controller to run the electronic trans with the carbed motor. I will be selling all of this and going 6.0 LS and T56.







Also included were brand new wheels and tires that I will be selling at some point as well since they just aren't my style and don't fit the look I am going for.



I have a literal truck bed full of new parts to waiting to be installed including new rust free doors that I just realized I forgot to include in my spreadsheet.

[cwcarpenter98]

Looks like the start of a great project! I love those vent shade thingys above the door glass

[WunTon]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

Looks like the start of a great project! I love those vent shade thingys above the door glass

Thanks! I was looking at some other builds here yesterday trying to figure out what the the top of the door mirrors were called (which I now know are called "peep" mirrors) and saw the window visors on a few other trucks and I was thinking that I needed to get a set for mine and then forgot about it until I got home and saw that I already have them and upon closer inspection they are in great shape.

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by WunTon

Thanks! I was looking at some other builds here yesterday trying to figure out what the the top of the door mirrors were called (which I now know are called "peep" mirrors) and saw the window visors on a few other trucks and I was thinking that I needed to get a set for mine and then forgot about it until I got home and saw that I already have them and upon closer inspection they are in great shape.

That's always a pleasant surprise
Also, if you haven't noticed yet, those are 66 fenders that have been swapped on at some point. The fender badge is the telltale sign

[WunTon]

I have done a few other build threads on other forums of other vehicles I've built in the past and they are always very picture heavy so if no one minds I am going to keep with that theme here as well...

Heres a few random pics of parts that I find to be very nice.

The freshly rebuilt/reupholstered seat



The original gauge cluster with factory tach (not sure how rare the tach is but after seeing a few other posts about it being rare perhaps it is?) The entire cluster has been rebuilt by D&M Restoration in Greenville, SC. Notice the "1" mile on the odometer!



I even found a shop manual for the truck in one of the boxes that doesn't appear to have ever been opened until I found it.

[WunTon]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

Also, if you haven't noticed yet, those are 66 fenders that have been swapped on at some point. The fender badge is the telltale sign

I did not realize that! That makes sense though because the PO gave me the bill of sale from 1989 when his mom bought the truck for his dad and said that his dad had redone the truck back in the mid 90's. I had a 67 and a 70 back in the day but this is my first time owning a 60-66 body style so I still have a lot to learn thanks for the heads up. The bottoms of the fenders are going to need some patch panels installed remedy some rust so now I won't feel as bad about cutting up fenders that aren't original to the truck.

Sticking with the rust topic I am going to have to do a bit of surgery to the floor pans and inner rockers for sure. The cab corners are rock solid somehow and other that the floor pans and fenders I think everything looks pretty solid but I still need to finish ripping out the rest of the carpet and poke around with a screwdriver for a while.








Time to do some research on the "best" patch panels.

[cwcarpenter98]

Since you already have to do some rust repair, you could fill the holes for the 66 badge and replace them with the 63 badge in the correct location. Using the search feature on this site and the FAQ page is great for finding info that's already been shared. Also, reading through people's build threads can offer a variety of ideas and inspirations for your own truck

Also, I love the cluster. It looks great!

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

That is a desirable truck IMO. A '63 short fleetside, big back window, with all of the custom cab option trim including the polished aluminum grill. What a great find and will be a nice truck when you are done. I see someone has changed the differential at some time in the past 56 years.

Let me know if you need one of my '63-'66 booster brackets with the hydraulic clutch conversion to go along with your T56.

[Grizz1963]

Welcome.

Your opening posts make me grin madly.

Will be watching this build.

I am just restarting after 4 years of not working mine.

[WunTon]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

Since you already have to do some rust repair, you could fill the holes for the 66 badge and replace them with the 63 badge in the correct location. Using the search feature on this site and the FAQ page is great for finding info that's already been shared. Also, reading through people's build threads can offer a variety of ideas and inspirations for your own truck

Also, I love the cluster. It looks great!

Thats not a bad idea and I will be looking into it for sure. I love the cluster its one of my favorite parts of the truck.

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Welcome to the forum

That is a desirable truck IMO. A '63 short fleetside, big back window, with all of the custom cab option trim including the polished aluminum grill. What a great find and will be a nice truck when you are done. I see someone has changed the differential at some time in the past 56 years.

Let me know if you need one of my '63-'66 booster brackets with the hydraulic clutch conversion to go along with your T56.

Thanks I'm glad to be here, forums have helped me learn so much in the past and this one is proving to do the same already! I am really excited for this truck for sure and you are right it does seem to be well optioned. I wish there was a way to decode what options it came with from the factory like the newer vehicles with the RPO codes.

I'll be reaching out about your brackets soon once I figure out what all I need to put the T56 in.

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Welcome.

Your opening posts make me grin madly.

Will be watching this build.

I am just restarting after 4 years of not working mine.

I hope I don't disappoint you! I can relate to to just getting back to it it's been about 5 years since I built my last truck.

Just for fun here is a pic of my last truck I built. Dana 60 front 14 bolt rear all chromoly shafts on 40s plus a whole lot of other bits along the way. I miss this thing for sure.

[WunTon]

Found a little time over the last couple evenings while the wife has been out of town to get a couple small things done.

I cleaned the cab out and did a quick wire wheel of the floor to figure out which patch panels I need to order.

Driver side





Passenger side





And then pulled the windshield out. I have a new one and this one was destroyed so I figured I'd get it outta the way and allow a little extra fresh air and light into the cab while I'm in there.



It's only got one small rust area around the windshield which isn't to bad at all luckily.



I'll get my patch panels ordered after I figure out how much I am spending on xmas gifts but for now I am going to start working on getting the front suspension put together.

[DPowers]

very nice project

[J Williams]

Nice project! I am in the process of a long bed fleet. Love these trucks!

[WunTon]

Originally Posted by DPowers

very nice project

Thanks!

Originally Posted by J Williams

Nice project! I am in the process of a long bed fleet. Love these trucks!

Thanks! I am also a lover of these trucks and am beyond happy to finally have one of my own.

With the holidays time has been limited on doing anything at all but now that thats behind us I hope to be able to get some more hours in on it. So far I have only managed to remove some uneeded things in the engine bay, do a bit of wire wheel cleanup and got the power steering box installed on the frame. I still need to cut and weld the flange on the steering shaft but I am waiting to do that until I have the front suspension and steering done so I can clock it properly.



Thats all for now but hopefully the updates will be more regular and I can start to feel like I am making some progress soon!

[made2drag]

I'm in for this build, sweet so far

[WunTon]

Finally found a little time to spend in the garage this weekend. I got the front clip removed so I would have a little more room to work and this way I can clean up and paint the frame and firewall. This also makes it that much easier to install the suspension and motor. I dropped the front engine crossmember to make it easier to clean up and drill out the u bolt holes to accept the larger 9/16 u bolts.



Luckily a full replacement bolt kit is cheap for the front clip! I've got some broken bolt removal to do I guess. Some idiot put those two shiny bolts into the inner fender to fire wall holes and decided to just send it when they realized they weren't the correct thread size.



After that I pulled the rear axle to clean it up and rebuild. I have the outer bearings and new carrier bearings but I'll need to get new pinion bearings. I probably could have left them alone but if I'm this far in I should do it all I figure.





I still need to clean and de-grease the axle more but this is where I got to today. Hopefully I can keep moving forward and get this thing at least as a roller here in the next few weeks.

[rusty76]

Cool truck I’m watching for sure

[WunTon]

Nothing much to update other than I got the axle bearings removed last night after receiving my bearing and race driver set from Amazon yesterday. I almost ordered the proper bearing removers and slide hammer but I figured I would see if I could make this work and I'm really glad I saved the money! I slide the driver inside the tube followed by a piece of scrap 1x2 and three wacks with a dead blow and the bearings popped right out.

[WunTon]

Sold my motor on Saturday faster and for more than I expected so I ordered a full air ride setup today! After looking at complete kit options I opted to piece everything together via eBay. Ended up with the following

Accuair VX4 manifold
AVS 7 switch controller
5 gallon 9 port seamless aluminum tank
Dual Viair 444c compressors in stealth black
Airlift dominator 2600 bags for all 4 corners
SMC water trap
All the various fittings, pressure switch and safety/blow off valve
50 ft of 3/8 air line
Bag brackets for the front

The only pieces left that I need are air gauges, some sort of notch and shocks and shock relocators but I still need to do some research and figure out what I want before those are purchased.

[0ldSoul]

Subscribed. Good job so far, looking forward to the updates.

[WunTon]

Originally Posted by 0ldSoul

Subscribed. Good job so far, looking forward to the updates.

Thanks!

A few of the air ride pcs have started showing up!
The sticker is going to have to be removed...


And the controller, manifold, adapter harness for the controller and 50ft of 3/8 hose. Accuair does a killer job with the packaging on those manifolds. Opening the box is like looking into a display case!

[WunTon]

Nothing much to update other than a few more parts have arrived.







I sill need to order some notches and I plan to order the sheet metal for the cab repairs this weekend as well.

[WunTon]

I ordered a new trailing arm crossmember, notches, drop spindles and some mounts to mount the compressors on the frame yesterday to compliment the rest of my recent acquisitions

[WunTon]

Sorry for the huge pictures I'm not sure why they won't resize!

Well it's been way to long since I've worked on this thing but now that it's cold out and most of the honey do list is complete I finally found some time to spend in the garage this weekend and made some decent progress!

The first step was pulling the cab and getting it placed on the rolling cart I made for it.


I did square it up on the cart after I took this picture and it's now good and stable and rolls around easily.


After that was done I made a pile of rust, dust and cut/snapped off bolts


This was the end result after a couple hours last night.






Now I need to spend a few hours cleaning up the garage and getting the clutter sorted out and put away then keep on trucking with the truck. I am considering renting a storage unit for a few months to get the cab out of my way so I can have clear access to the frame and make life a little easier on myself since this is all happening in my 17x20 garage.