new to this , alittle advise plz

[odd_ball_chevy]

hey hows it goin , lets get the yellin over with lol Im mainly a ford guy , about 2 years before my dad passed away ( been almost 4 years now ) he found a 63 shoort bed chevy for $600 , nice little truck really stright , no major problems. At first i was just like ok , its a classic truck , wish it was a ford bc i have to many ford parts , at any given time i can build 3 more 600 hp 351s , i have stock pile in ford lol , anyways we never got to far with the , i fixed what little rust it had , redone the frame , and started to do the bed ( got the old out ) but by then dads healt went down hill FAST , was 7 mounths later i lost him , all this time iver built a few more cars and truck not giveing much mind to the 63 , dont knnow why , about 3 mounths ago i desided i was goin to rebuild this thing once and for all , so here i am. That being said , im not a chevy guy , nor am i a lowrider guy. This couldnt be further from my normal type of build lol , i normally lift stuff of build it for the drag strip and i just want a nice lowered cruser now. heres where i need help i dont want a bunch of pumps and stuff in the bed , just want it lowered a few inches with a nice aggressive stance , what would you guys recamend on that one , spindles and blocks ? bags? i dont know.... also , the mortor i want to droup in it isnt a chevy , the last car my dad and i finished was a 1979 pontiac bonnevil (my grandparents bought it new in 1979 and it was my first drag car before i ended up selling it to my dad , then he redid it again lol ) with a built pontiac 350 and turbo 400 any one ever droup a pontiac motor in to one of theese , anything i need to look out for???
would like to tuck 20's in the wheel wells nicely but still have a nice ride also just kinda want to finish what dad started , feel i owe him that much ya know? also , whats with the massive trailing arms lol , ive got a truck lifted 16 inches and there not that hary on that thing lol. If theres any little quircky things about these truck i should know please fill me in , and any advise/help would be awsome as soon as i figure out to to upload pics on here i will poast a few





P.S.
ive been lookin over 100's of sites for these truck , this is defently the best one ive come accross , hats off to the admin. and members

[monolith]

Welcome to the Site- as a new Chevy guy myself- I've found it to be quite an asset and a wealth of problem solving and inspirational information.

Very Sorry to hear about your Father.

Don't worry about being a Ford guy- seems like a few guys here have other projects in the wings- sometimes not so "Chevy." (I myself have a 68 Charger basket case that I've only received positive comments on from members here- they're a great bunch of guys!)

I think you'll have a blast working on your truck, no matter what direction you choose.

and now- I'll leave you to the experts.

also- I've found the search function to be very helpful in answering my questions- sometimes there are entire threads on the subject that have walked me through the process completely.

[TwiggyTheDrummer]

Welcome man! It's good to see that you're moving away from the dark side atleast a little bit. I must say that I'm sorry about the circumstances in which you got the truck but it's really cool that you're going to build it in order to stay true to him. As far as the stance goes, I wouldn't go with bags. It doesn't sound like you want to go overkill on the drop so you probably wouldn't need to go that extreme so drop spindles and blocks would work for you. And yes, the trailing arms on the Chevy's are massive. As far as the motor, you might be safer if we don't speak of that. But if it's the Pontiac you're all good because you're still using GM. But we'll be here to help you out! Also, get some pics up!

And though this is sacrilege, my buddy has a '51 Ford Sedan with a 351 Cleveland in it and that thing is a beast.

And Monolith, we're nice, the search button's not always necessary man!

[monolith]

Originally Posted by TwiggyTheDrummer

And Monolith, we're nice, the search button's not always necessary man!

You guys sure are! I was just pointing the search out because the first few times I lurked- I'd overlooked it.

I wasn't trying to come across as one of those "Use the search button and don't bother us" sorts.

I can attest that even if you do ask a question that's been addressed recently- these guys will be kinder than some folks on other forums I've been to.

I have nothing but praise for the way this board is run, and its participants.

[TwiggyTheDrummer]

Yeah, if you posted a thread asking for pics of certain drums or a certain color, etc., people would be hunting for your nuts with a splintered wooden spoon and swearing that they would fry them over a $1 butane torch. Then they would commence in explaining the search button for about 4 paragraphs.

[odd_ball_chevy]

yeah , i know how it can be sometimes , just kinda lookin towards advise one a wide bord of things so didnt know exactly where to post. I am how ever dead set on the pontiac motor , 400 hp , on a mild build with less than 3k miles , plus me and dad put it togeather so kinda fits the truck i like the stance on that truckjust dont know how to get there lol these trucks are really growin on me tho

[odd_ball_chevy]

oh , and paint is goin to be a purrple top goin down to the main body line with a flame pattern , black on the bottom , lime green pin strip to break up the dark colors

[TwiggyTheDrummer]

Definitely sounds like a deal on the Pontiac and the paints sounds like it will be pretty sweet. The fact that the two of you built the motor makes it an automatic fit. But I would recommend starting with an axle flip or the equivalent. I know that you can achieve a nice even drop by heating the springs and using jack stands but I'm not sure to what extent that it would work. But that's the cheapest way besides Jeep CJ springs. I'm lucky on the fact that I have a GMC with leaf spring rear and coils on the front. If I ever drop it I'll probably just heat the coils and pull a few leafs from the rear though I'm fine with it's stock height and my 20's.

[ruffrida2005]

Welcome and glad your doing this build for the ol' man. First off in the front do you plan on staying with drums? Either way check with a lot of the vendors on here. You can do drop spindles and springs to bring it down. For the rear, you dont need to do anything but change the springs. Cheapest way is to swap to CJ springs I'll try to find the correct years. also use the search, it's been done several times. I would recommend going with disc breaks on the front. You can swap to either 71-72 or 73-87. The frame is the same from 63-87. I dont know a whole lot about the 63's at all. As far as motor mounts I dont know if all the GM blocks mount the same. if they do. Their are tubular mounts that look better a lot of people use. My truck is a 64 and it was swaped to a 350 and it used the stock mounts, just the whole was notched a little to mount the bolt. For the trans you can use a tubular mount that a lot of people use or build your own. Mine just used the stock parking break cable crossmember with mounts welded on it. Best thing to do is just look around for a couple days on here and get better idea of what I'm talking about. which I dont know much. But were always here to help!

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the board.

Sorry to hear about your dad. I'm thinking he'd be pleased to know you're going to finish what the two of you started.

For lowering I would just update to the '73-'87 disc brakes up front with dropped spindles and springs. For the rear you can get aftermarket axles to convert to 5 lug if needed, and then go with dropped springs. You may also need to relocate the panhard bar and the shock mounts. There's really nothing wrong with the trailing arm rear suspension, it really does work well on the street as well as the track.

There is another member here that has a Pontiac in his truck.....a '63 as well. His username is Vin63

[jgh64pkup]

from texas
im sorry to hear about your dad
my dad has a 351 c in his 1970 mustang and isnt a ford guy
so it doesnt hurt to go out of your boundaries
im actually a mopar guy
do you have any pics of the truck

[odd_ball_chevy]

i'll put them on tonight , workin some crazy hours right now 8:30-5 go back in at 10 till 6 and start all over again , but with 40 hours a week double time for the next 2 weeks , well guess u know how im payin to do the truck now lol

[Tx Firefighter]

Originally Posted by TwiggyTheDrummer

Yeah, if you posted a thread asking for pics of certain drums or a certain color, etc., people would be hunting for your nuts with a splintered wooden spoon and swearing that they would fry them over a $1 butane torch. Then they would commence in explaining the search button for about 4 paragraphs.

Wow, I won't ever ask for any picture on this board ever again.

[TwiggyTheDrummer]

Haha, not this board. That's how it is on the drummers' forum. It's pretty ridiculous how pissy some of them can be. I honestly haven't even been on there since I started working on my truck and coming here. Much cooler place and awesome people. Plus joe keeps it all interesting.

[STL_66 Chevy]

welcome to the forum im sure you will get the help you need here...

by the way i am in St.charles/st.peters off hwy 94!

[odd_ball_chevy]

not the best pics , ive got more somewhere , might have to rescan them , as soon as i can i will poast more , i do have a roll pan on it now , 9 diffrent tail light cover , all diffrent , one has bow tie , one blue dot , one says cheevy one have a blue dot in a bow tie , u get the point lol , 62 & 63 painted grill , 63 pollisshed grill, same for the head light buckeets and turn signals bezels not bad for $600 no interior tho , just the dash wich is cool with me , i seem to have a problem with leaveing stock seats in things lol , goin to start frabcrating a fiberglass dash overlay ( smooth things out a bit and add some nice vents ) and a fiberglass center consol , any tips on moveing the tank while im thinkin of it STL 66 , i think ive seen you running around by chuck-a-burger ( imm right at mexico and mid rivers ) , did you see that orange dream sickle lookin 63 fastlane had , ppretty sweet clean truck

[jonzcustomshop]

there is a guy on here wth pontiac power... might have to do a search to find him
check out sir truck, his has a nice static drop... there is a good thread on here something like "show us your static drop" that has lots of simple ideas.
I have always liked the 61-4(?) ford trucks... I guess 'cause they kinda look like the chevys...

[odd_ball_chevy]

like i said , im new to the lowering thing , dont have a clue to what a static droup is l yea , i like the 60's ford alot to , ive got a 66 short bed 2wd and a 66 short bed 4x4 that im currewntly workin on , or was the muchstangs and the 66's kinda took back seat to the chevy right now , evvery time i look at it i see something eles i want to do to it been takein out body line , smoothed out the openings by the hood latch , power lift hood , seen a 66 malibu in a mag last week that had the whole engine bay shaved , best lookin engine bay ive ever seen , so now im tryin to come up with that concept for the 63 , have no ideal how he did it , but he managed to move the master cylinder and vac. pump under the dash , and to smooth it off even more , it was a fule injected 502 , eledelbrock super victor that thhey ran all the fule lines inside the intake , hhad the carb lookin injection system , he hid the fule rails under the breather , compleatly hid all the wireing and fule lines , was just insane , i'll try to find a link to it . my big thing is i like it clean and smooth , one of those things to where you got to look close at it to catch it , and still find something new every time u see it , also anouther odd ball ideal ive got right now , theres a 56 ( trailor queen ) that runs around here that had his licens plate air brushed one , like the thought of no screws lol

[srsummers]

Did someone say that you can buy drop spindles for drum brakes?

[ruffrida2005]

static drop is just lowering it where it's not adjustable. They do make a new firewall for our trucks where it's smoothed, but is inset for the motor to have room under the cowl. For the brake booster, you can either using a racing set up that moves it under the dash. Or use one that mounts to the frame. I think the Malibu your talking about was made for SEMA last year. I saw it on one of the Foose shows that had one done up like that! I want to know how your doing your power lift hood!

I'm not too sure about the drop spindles for drum brakes. Me personaly I wouldn't keep drums on the front of our trucks. just not enough stoping force!

[odd_ball_chevy]

hey ruffrida pm sent , also if you have a link for those firewalls cab you send it to me , im goin to go ahead and change everything to 5 lug , more wheel options , and 4 less nuts i got to take off all the time lol dose any one know if some ones eather streached the rear fender or centered the axel to make the wheel sit in the middle of the opening , thing about takeing an old fender ive got and cuting a peaice out of it and grafting it on to the bed side so the wheels actually centered , dont know why but its buggin me , guess im to anal about something i tried lookin in the forums and didnt really find anything on that

[Captainfab]

Here's a thread showing how Vin63 did what it sounds like you're talking about

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=324078

[ruffrida2005]

http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...d.php?t=295915 he did the shaved firewall. There is a link to the website on their!

[odd_ball_chevy]

thanx captin , looks like me and vin share alot of the same ideals , down to motors even lol thanx ruffrida , callin them tommarow and seeing about gettin one for mine , did that om i sent you make sence? right now im workin 18 hour shifts so im not to sure if i came off real clear lol

thanx for all the help guy , hope to get pics posted soon

[odd_ball_chevy]

ok , so i was wrong about the malibu , its actually a 66 fairlane , and before you try to shoot me for posting anouther ford.......take a look at this engine bay and tell me its not one os the slickest you have ever seen lol