New member - just picked up a rare '63

[mechanic58]

Hi guys, I'm new to this forum. I joined because I just recently stumbled on what I believe to be a pretty rare old GMC pickup. It's a '63 SWB with a 305 and a powerglide - but the 305 is a plaid valve cover example that is very much unmolested and appears to only have 21,000ish original miles on it. The truck sat up for 20 years before I acquired it a few weeks ago. I have taken the time to do a little research and have already connected with a few people that know a lot about these plaid valve cover V6s and the general consensus is that so far - no one I have communicated with yet has ever seen one in a truck like this with an automatic trans behind it. Here's a few pics:



The radiator had been stolen out of it years ago it looks like. Other than that, the only thing missing is the seat.



Anyway, the odometer only registers 21,XXX. I didn't think much of it at first, but the more I got to messing with this truck the more I started to wonder whether or not these miles were original. The engine and transmission are nearly devoid of grease and filth you would expect to find and nothing has been tampered with. The rearend is very tight and it still has all the original brake parts on it best I can tell. I truly suspect someone had this truck and drove it very little - probably because of the poor gas mileage these things were famous for. It's been parked on my concrete driveway now for about 3 weeks and it hasn't leaked a single drip of any fluid, not one. I have run the engine for about 4hrs and run the transmission and rearend up on jack stands for a good bit too - still nothing is leaking oil. I am shocked.