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Originally Posted by Camaro Misfit
I did find out that my BIL has been driving the truck once a week and maintaining the basic maintenance on the truck, so that's great news for the truck. The hubby and I talked about it last night and this is what's been done and our plans:
Engine: stock 350 4 bolt main engine, last rebuilt in 1988. We will be doing a lot of maintenance and replacing a lot on the engine, but hope to avoid having to have it bored out. We will be changing it from a carbed engine to fuel injection.
Transmission: turbo 350 3 speed, was rebuilt sometime in the 90s. Don't expect it to need to be rebuilt, but if it does we will take care of that too.
Rearend: rebuilt a few times, last time being in the 90s. I guess my FIL had some issues even after the last rebuild. So, we will probably have to address that. If it's the original housing I'd like to keep it and rebuild it yet again with Dana innards this time. If it's not numbers matching then we might look into a Ford rear end.
Brakes: front are already disk, not sure if they were factory or after market. But my husband wants to put in anti-lock brakes in it.
Seat: currently stock, but we want to pull them out and put in split bench or bucket seats with a center console.
Seatbelts: just lap only. Will either move to a 3 point seatbelt or a harness. Need to do more research on that before we decide.
Steering Wheel: might already be a collapsible one, if not, it will get one.
Gas tank: going to look into moving it, need to figure out how dangerous it really is if it stays where it's at.
After all that is addressed then we will look into other things that are less pressing for safety.
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Couple of things to consider:
Rearend: Do whatever you want with it, these trucks weren't engine/vin matched like true numbers matching vehicles were. You can tell if it had the right type/size of the engine, but no way of verifying it's the original one.
Seatbelts: Regular 3-points are often safer than many aftermarket harnesses, so do some research before you invest. A 3 point will be an easier install as well, as the truck should already have factory mounting points for it.
Brakes: Adding ABS to it, while possible, will be expensive and extremely custom. You'd likely have to use some sort of standalone ABS from something, fab up wheel speed sensor rings, mounts, etc. While I'd love to take on a project like that, may not be feasible for many. I would, however, recommend upgrading the rears to disk. Not because it'll help it stop that much faster, but because it's easier to dial in the brake bias and prevent rear-lockup when the fronts still have more force before losing traction.
The gas tank in the cab: Some people think it's fine, I disagree. Just because it's made it a million miles doesn't mean it's safe. Crash standards don't allow fuel sources to be mounted directly to the firewall. You know why? Because the firewall is there to prevent fuel sources and fire from entering the cab in the event of a crash (hence the name firewall). So take that one step further and think about the entire fuel source being located IN the cab itself. The likelihood of fuel leaking after a side impact is, in my opinion, high. Doors get crushed, fuel leaks, and it's potentially a matter of seconds or minutes before ignition.
Just my opinions anyways . . .