donor truck

[1968aj]

im looking at a1988 chevy parts truck i can get real cheap. it has a 350 with an automatic . both have been recently rebuilt. the truck runs and shifts good. the rest of the truck is ragged out and looks like hell. i am going to keep motor and transmission and sell or part out the rest. any ideas on what else i could use off this truck for my 1959? its complete and running. i would hate to get rid of the rest of the truckand need it later. any ideas?

[1968aj]

ok no opinions on this idea. could someone tell me if i pull this throttle body 350 what i would need to keep off this 1988 to make it work in my 1959? hope im being clear enough. any ideas will be appreciated.

[mr48chev]

If you use the throttle body you need everything that connects it to the computer plus the computer. I'd very carefully pull the whole wiring harness out that goes between the engine and computer and ignition switch and then lay it out on a table and figure out how much of it I needed for the Fi and the ignition and what was hooked to it that didn't pertain to the engine.

One thing I would do is get it dialed in perfectly before I pulled it. That way you should be pretty sure that it's squared away when you go to fire it up in your truck with little or no guess work. I see posts on various boards every day where a guy pulled a good running engine out of a donor, made several changes and installed it in his project vehicle and now can't figure out why it won't run or won't charge. All of that should be addressed before it gets pulled out of the donor rig including changes you want to make to the engine.


The matching alternator and other pieces are a given as they come with the engine and you have already paid for them when you buy the truck.

On the donor truck, if the seat is in good enough shape to redo or use as is it might be a good one to swap or good trading material. If it is all beat up and rusted there probably aren't too many piece that have a market value outside of scrap. Then you can either sell the whole thing for scrap or cut the frame at the front of the straight part under the cab and make a trailer out of the bed, rear half of the frame and rear axle. having the truck's title makes it easy to get it titled and you can use it or sell it. A trailer for about 50 bucks when you count the hitch, jack and length of tubing to make the tongue after you bend the rails in to meet it to make a strong tongue isn't a bad deal as all you are out besides that is what the scrap value would be and the price of getting it licensed and you can haul the rest of the donor off to the scrap yard in it to boot.

Other than that use, sell or trade everything off of it.

[nhill]

Stash the donor till you get the daily driver finished!

[1968aj]

now your talking. good ideas i did not think of. ican get alot more use out of the donor than i thought thanks guys