Bought this 1963 SWB BBW with a small block 400 and Powerglide tranny in Wylie, Tx about a year ago and while I've been a big time lurker on this site I haven't made much contribution so I thought I'd share what changes I've made.
Keep in mind I bought this truck during my senior year of college (broke as a joke
) and had minimal wrenching experience so it has been a huge learning experience and I could not have done it without this forum
Also, note that I don't intended to blow my truck apart and rebuild it, this is more of a fix it up, drive it, fix it up some more kind of project
Attempted to drive her home(60 miles) and overheated her pretty bad and had to tow it the last 30 miles. Here's day 1.
First Thing I did was clean her up a bit and do some basic stuff like fuel filter, air cleaner, oil, trans fluid/filter, chase some bad grounds, and add some peep mirrors!
Added a cheap mechless headunit under the dash with some 6x9's behind the seat. Also added some gauges. Made some 7.62 knobs for the old radio
Swapped the old master cylinder for a dual pot MC with all new lines
Decided to go for the bare metal look on the door panels
Truck still had the original shocks on the front so I swapped them for some KYB's
Rebuilt steering box and new tie rods to fix the sloppy steering
Hand painted the grill letters
Headrests removed and a mexi blanket over the seat
Made a makeshift fan shroud out of aluminum flashing
Nice day to take my 61 huffy for a ride
Next up I put in some new balljoints, shaved the bumpstops, cut one coil off the front springs, and topped it off with an alignment.
To address the rear I added 2 inch blocks and cut one coil
My steering wheel would turn your hands black everytime you touched it so I took it off and painted it with appliance epoxy and it has held up great! Also painted and added the shift knob
Having that ratty shop truck look I decided to black out the window with some 5%
Painted the tailgate letters and went over it with some paint thinner to give it that patina look. I also painted in between the trim and hacked another half coil off the front. Added some half moon eyelid covers about this time.
I just had to add some Texas flare to this truck
I wasn't happy with the 1 and 1/2 cut coils on the front they didn't seat right and would fall out on full lift so I decided to just bag it. Being on a budget I found some lower control arms for $50 to cup. I cut everything out and gave it to my buddy to weld. I also built my own 4 way air ride controls using 3/8 lines and ball valves.
I also got some new u-bolts for the lower control arms since the old ones are prone to breaking
Viar 444c and 3 gallon tank
My buddy Grant is trying to get into pinstriping so I let him lay some lines down on my air cleaner. Not bad for his 4th or 5th time
Got some airlift dominators for the front, the cheap ass chassis tech bags leak and the replacements I got from them leak too so I'll just put them on the back for now.
I'm not even bagged in the back and I rubbed a hole in the hose going the fuel filler neck in the wheel tub. Decided I would just make a trap door in the bed and figure out some kind of filler underneath it.
Here is how she's sitting right now. I had to cut the rear springs out as the bolts were rusted solid. Need to drill holes in the frame for bags and run some air line back there.
I'll be sure to post updates as I go
