I say , thats a large one ...

[Ratty]

Hi all , thought I'd make my first post on your excellent forum by showing you all my reason for being here in the first place . Last week I finally closed on a deal that had been ongoing for a while and drove home in this ;







Ain't she lovely ?

She's a 1963 Chevy P30 (I think !), the heavy duty long wheelbase model originally fitted with a straight 6 and column shift 3 speed . Though the 8 stud axles are still there the old drivetrain is long gone having been replaced by a 350 SBC and 4 speed floor shift box . Other than that she's pretty much stock . And bloody huge ! I've not had a tape meassure out yet but she's got to be well over 20' long nose to tail .

My good friend Roland bought her over to the UK from the States (Nor Cal I think) a few years ago now and although he'd had her out a couple of times this is the first time she's been out and about proper . The paint is obviously original and though most of is too far gone there's still a couple of bits of signwriting that are readable which is cool , not sure how well it'll show in the pictures ...





There's still a few bits and bobs to sort to get her running well . Though Roland was good to his word and did plenty of road testing and fettling before I picked her up she has developed a bit of a problem that required a tow home from Heritage's excellent breakdown service unfortunately. All part of the fun of old cars and it did nothing to wipe the smile off my face , really looking forward to getting stuck in when work allows .

I don't have any really radical plans for the old girl . Eventually I want to use her as my daily so there's a few jobs on the list . Firstly sort the running problem and then get a taller geared axle under the back , the granny gears may've worked well with a straight six but with a V8 she's massively undergeared pulling top happily from 25mph and screaming her heart out at 70 . Luckily Rol had already sourced an 8 stud rear axle from an '87 Suburban that came with the deal so that should be fairly simple . Plus there's a matching front clip with disc brakes to help bring things to a halt a bit better , the stock brakes are pretty scary if eventually effective . Then an LPG kit to help with fuel costs and away we go !

Not decided on the bodywork yet (Input gratefully recieved) . Despite the rust visible in the pic's theres only a couple of tiny areas that need attention , the underside is in amazing condition for a near 50 year old truck . Gonna have to sort some seat covers too as the gaffer tape holding them together gets stuck to your jeans !

Still scanning through the archives on here for advice on all the above but not finding much for 8 stud axle swaps front and rear so any pointers you guys may have would be gratefully recieved , as would any other words of wisdom !

So there ya go . I saw the truck pretty soon after Roland imported her all those years ago and told him then that I'd love to have it if it ever came up for sale , never thought she'd actually be mine . After sadly parting with my Cadillac a couple of years back it feels so good to be back behind the wheel of a daft old car again