Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Just made my first post in introduction section.
Now I want to get a thread going to refer back to when progress gets problematic. So to explain
Upside down - in Australia, down under, hangin off the bottom of the earth.
Back to front - we drive on the other side of the road, nearly said the correct side, but thought probably too early to be controversial.
Long and low - cos long looks lower, thats an opinion dont shoot
63 - love the wrap around screen, love those A pillars, wanted the later chassis. Just cant go down to the local junkyard and pick up a later chassis to put in a 60-62 around here. A 63 has it all, for me.
Fleetside - cos I like em. Love steps on fifties. Appreciate that someone bothered to design a tub for the new shape of the sixties. Thats another opinion, please like whatever you like.
Just got this 63 from a parts yard in Los Angeles. $1000. Few bits missing from engine bay, carb, radiator, alternator. Otherwise all there. 350/350. My buddy in LA crawled all over it, couldnt find any significant rust except the bottoms of doors, fenders, cab corners, rockers.
Its about to land here and I cant wait to get into it.
The shipping co said to feel free to fill it up with parts, no extra charge, so Ive got lots of boxes of large or heavy items coming too. Spindles, brakes, rust repair sections, rear tank, windshield, and a windshield and gas tank for my 71 Camaro. Otherwise these items would cost a bomb to get shipped here.
Plans first up are to get it driving asap, but at the same time get it as low as possible, keeping 4" clearance, and on coils. Looking at 2.5 spindles, cut springs, pancake crossmember, tubular lcas, dont know if a body channel is possible, cant find a thread on it.
Seems to me getting the front down is the biggest challenge, especially to keep the 4" ground clearance we have to have around here. I dont mind cos I want it safe and dont want to smack the road with the lcas.
And then theres the rust repairs, must do to get it going, paint can wait till i can get some brainspace back.
A few pics for now and I'll be back when I've actually done something.
cheers
Tony

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Welcome to the board. Looks like a Good starting point

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Welcome to the forum :D

'63's are my favorite year.

Looking forward to your progress.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Welcome, looks like tons of fun.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Welcome to the forum, keep us posted on your progress. :)

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Thanks guys. Would love to report progress but still waiting to get it off the boat, customs inspection, blah blah. So keen to get into it. Got it all planned out, got a few cans of wd40 ready. I've read so many builds on here I think I'm ready for anything it can throw at me.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Looks like a great canvas to start with. Congratulations!

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

A few more pics.
I've been unpacking some boxes. 2.5" spindles, 3" front springs, 5" rears, front disc kit, wheels.
Lots of other boring stuff that you've all seen a million times, rubber moldings, rust repair sections.
I dont know how many mobs are making these repair sections and I've read a lot of criticism of them. Gotta say so far these look pretty well made and dont scare me from a welding point of view. Hopefully fitup is good.
Want to get all the new suspension bits in asap to check the ride height before anything else. Work is pretty busy right now so not a lot of me time lately.
Got a few days off coming up in a few weeks so hoping to hit it hard then. I'll let it soak in wd40 till then

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Nice find..working on my 63c10 also

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

where did you get the push through cap?

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Yeah lovin the 63s.
We seem to be a small group within a small group.

https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...16bt/overview/
cheers

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Cool truck. I will be watching.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Little bit of progress over the last few weeks.
Ive been way too busy but a buddy told me a bit of a horror story about the pressure washing they do in quarantine so we just had to investigate.
The motor is full of water, we tried to turn it over but its hydraulic locked.
The truck is in the carport so i have very little space to work but got the intake off, see pic of water in intake ports.
Got heads off, 3 cylinders with lots of water and rust already, and seems its a dislexic 350, you know the 305 model 350, so nothing i wanted to remember in pics.
Anyhow the heads are 416s with the 194 valves and theyre flat top pistons so its probably a good enough motor for what i want, just not a 350.
Researched 305s a bit and lots saying to just go down the junkyard and pull a 350 and trash the 305, but those kind of junkyards dont exist in this half of the earth. Not impossible, just not that easy.
Just gotta get the block out of it and get it all cleaned up asap and we'll make some decisions then.
Also check out my grill, saw the damage in the pics I'd seen, chose to ignore it, looking at the big picture, you know. Now I need to deal with it. You all probably know how hard it is to get a good 63 grill in the states, let alone trying to get one posted to here.
If anyone has a partly trashed grill that could give up a section of criss-cross that i could graft in, that may be an option I might like to hear about.
Thought about cutting the rest of the crosshatch out and replacing with horizontal 3/8 square bars. Custom!!? Jury is still deciding.
Also if anyone has any theories about why cutting it up was a great idea in the first place, that could be interesting.
Anyhow gotta get back to making some space in the workshop where I have some solid roof beams that can handle the weight of a sbc.
My camaro is in there with all the front sheetmetal off and that takes up a lot of space.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

That's too bad about the water getting into your engine. A lot of people really bash the lowly 305's but in my opinion they aren't that bad of an engine. Like any SBC they can be built to be a decent running engine that is plenty good for a driver.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

That motor is clean inside.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Hey Captn, realistically a good 305 is as good as I need for a daily work truck.
Cant feel any lip in the bore tops, can still see plenty of crosshatching in there.
With those heads and flat tops it really should do what I want.
If I knew it was a 305 it wouldnt have stopped me buying it, other things are better than i expected, so its snakes and ladders.

And rvr if you mean clean, like washed with water, ok I get it.
Otherwise yeah it doesnt look at all cruddy inside, I dont think its done much work actually.
But when i dropped the oil out of it, the first litre was clear water.
So i think i gotta get inside there asap if i want to save it.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

How did water get inside of it?

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

There was no carb, but a rag had been stuffed into the manifold.
The customs/quarantine people pressure washed it to get rid of all grease, dirt etc. I guess the pressure washer forced water into the intake. I reckon about 2 litres got in there. It stripped the black paint job off the firewall back to the original color in a lot of places.
The upside is that the chassis, front suspension, pretty much everything underneath is dirt and grease free, and back to bare metal in most places.
I'm glad its not a vehicle I planned to just drive away.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Oh ok cool.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Digging the truck man! Should be a cool rig, the 60-63 long fleets are a beauty!

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

OK so its out and pulled down.
Looks like very little wear anywhere. I'll measure it all soon.
2 cylinders with a fair bit of surface rust and some rusty rings.
Looks like the hone will clean that up ok.
Might get lucky with a rings and bearings reco.
Lucky I tackled this sooner rather than later.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Hopefully you can get by cheaply. Flat top pistons is a good thing.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Yep Captain,
I didnt think GM made 305s with flat tops, but the rods in this arent numbered so its either factory, or if not, hopefully whoever rebuilt it kept a close eye on which rods came out of wherever.
Everything mics up great, virtually no wear anywhere and standard bores and journals. So I might get out of it pretty cheap.
Rings, bearings, cam, lifters, timing gear. $300 rebuild will make it a nice little engine.
Savings here will soon go on other stuff.
Sorry no new pics today.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Maybe the HO305's had flat tops? I don't know that much about the 305's.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

12 months plus, Seriously!?
I know Ive been real busy building our new work premises but this makes me realise how much the rest of my life has been put on hold to do that.
I've had a little bit of me-time, got the camaro running and driveable but still needs some wiring and interior finishing.
Got all the front sheetmetal off the truck and front suspension out and torn apart for mods, painting, new bits.
Plan on pancake, castor modded cross shafts, relocate forward, move all steering to suit.
Motor is torn down ready for hone and cleanup. All new internal bits sitting ready to go in.
Dropped my phone off a ladder doing the work build. Lost the camera and gps but the rest is ok.
About time i got a new phone and get some pics of whats going on.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Okay we will be waiting - :gi:

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Just after my last post my phone totally died and I couldnt get any of the photos off, until last week a guy told me he could try to get into the memory.
So he did well and got it all backed up.

Started fitting 3" front springs, 2.5" spindles and 245 45 17 front tyres. Took a photo with 1 side done to show the change. Wanted to get an idea of the ride height.

Put the motor back in to give the suspension something to suspend.

Bed wood then no bed wood.

Have to push it out into the big blue shed to work on it for the moment, tight space in the carport.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Moved the camaro out of the back workshop to make work space for the truck. The camaro is nearly finished and can fit in the carport with still room to walk past it.

Got the truck out the back in its new home for the moment.

some pics of hood damage and rust.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Nice, looking forward to seeing you get rid of the crustieeze.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Some more pics of rust, everything i expected.
Probably the same old shopping list most people have.
Inner and outer rocker panels, floor outers, cab corners, a pillar bottoms, b pillar bottoms, footwell pieces, fender bottoms, door lower inner and outers.
There should be a rust pack special.

Also a bit in the knee knocker area.

So we have original light green, an off white, light brown, dark green and dark brown.

Another pic of a bit of a mockup with the suspension at ride height and a new wheel/tyre sitting in.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

The mock up with the wheel in the front wheel well didnt do it for me.
I need 4" ground clearance to be legal around here and thats what Ive got in that pic.
So getting into it now and pancaking the front suspension.
Came up with a mad idea to take 2" out of the front and 1.5 at the back.
Posted about it in the suspension forum, nobody there came up with any reasons to not do it so i bit the bullet and did it.
Because of the curves everywhere it wasnt a straightforward cut.
The front cut line varies from 2" in the middle at the front to about 1.75 at the outer edges where it mounts.
Overall theres about 5/16" tip back from front to back where it mounts to the frame. This should add about 2.5 degrees of extra castor, which will be negated a bit by the slight nose down stance I'm planning for.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

That's a neat idea by angle cutting. I never thought of that. I moved the lower control arms forward 3/4".

If you're using the 73+ control arms, you will lose more ground clearance because the a-arms are thicker. My '61 has the crossmember 4" off the ground, but the 73-87 arms hang another half-inch or so below.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Hi Skinny,
I reckon I spent a good day on the grinder getting everything lined up.
A consistent 1.5 would be easy by comparison. You can measure, mark, cut, weld.
With the angle of the cut and the curves of the crossmember its a lot of back and forth, trial fitting, measure, mark up, grind some more. Ended up with a pretty good file finish for the tig.
My other theory is that the standard suspension has the cross shafts sitting horizontal, as long as the truck is horizontal. If its nose down, bum up a bit, the cross shafts actually have a bit of a negative rake. That cant be good for suspension travel with the lower ball joints trying to actually move forward and upwards.

Ive also moved the cross shafts 1/2" forward, no clearance issues around the pivot area at 1/2", just a bit around the shock body when you get down to the bump stops.

I dont have an option here to drop in to the local parts yard to get later model arms, discs etc. I do plan to build some arms once the truck is actually approved and on the road.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Angling it back will change the anti-dive built into the suspension geometry (that's why the upper arms are angled back. This will likely increase the effect). I'm not sure how this will affect handling under braking, but I do hope you fill us in when it's on the road.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Trouble is Ive never driven it so I wont really know if theres been a change.
With all the changes planned I wouldnt be able to pinpoint credit but hopefully its a big improvement overall.
A few pics now of the finished crossmember. From the fill in pieces beside the spring towers you can get an idea of the angle of the mounting.

I also noticed the pigtail pocket in the lower a arm was the lowest point at my ride height. So I cut out the bottom of the spring pocket, removed a bit of the pocket and then re-attached the bottom piece at about 180 degrees rotation. That gets the pigtail bulge out of ground clearance issues.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Every time I see someone do this it makes me wish I new how to weld

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

So we trial fit the crossmember at 1" forward, all good. Fit a wheelboard under it to move the chassis around easily to help in getting the cab off.

Then the cab is off and then the rear end is dropped out.

The plan has changed. Long and low was the plan. New plan, Not so long but more low. Chassis is getting marked up for the chop.

Amazed how dogs can find space amongst the chaos just so they can be involved.

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Just found your thread and I also love the 63s.
The double hump dash and the knee knocker shield plus that one-off and most beautiful grill, what's not to like. Looking forward to what you do next and how you do it. Very good work...

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Great write up! I am working on a "66 and I am looking at done something similar. looks great!

Re: Upside down, back to front, long low 63 fleet
 

Thanks for stopping by guys and positive vibes. Most of what I am doing has been covered before. I might do a few things a bit different. Biggest issue is lack of local parts. So I will make stuff that could be bought if time and expense werent an issue.

These pics are a bit out of sequence just because the bed was cut up and removed before lifting the cab off,
Its getting the old 12 out of the middle, 8 off the back.
So I cut the sides 8 1.4" forward of the tail light panel seam, then unbolted the side from the front panel. So the whole bed is into 4 manageable pieces.
Put all 4 pieces aside for the moment. Its going to need to be built in place once the cab is back on. Planning a kick up in the rear frame so its going to need the floor height raised a similar amount. Future fun and games.