• Welcome to The Truck Stop! We see you haven't REGISTERED yet.

    Your truck knowledge is missing!
    • Registration is FREE , all we need is your birthday and email. (We don't share ANY data with ANYONE)
    • We have tons of knowledge here for your diesel truck!
    • Post your own topics and reply to existing threads to help others out!
    • NO ADS! The site is fully functional and ad free!
    CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

    Problems registering? Click here to contact us!

    Already registered, but need a PASSWORD RESET? CLICK HERE TO RESET YOUR PASSWORD!

Project for the boys and i

so the wheelbase is somewhere around 110-111" the frame width is around 30" in the engine compartment and 40" under the bed. The only thing I'm really planning on using is the body. If anyone has any suggestions on a donor vehicle (preferably GM) I'm all ears. I'd love to put a 6.5 in there but I'm sure it's way to big/Heavy. Still undecided on whether to be 2 wheel drive or 4x4.
 
I tried to get my kids interested- Mistake. Just say "Ok boys lets go work on the truck." Part way through the build you start with "which of you wants this truck and who wants the next?"

I know I am stereotyping you Alaskan's but I'm not PC anyways.
How can you purposely build a 2wd truck in Ak? Florida, I get it. Big parts of Texas- ok. But Alaska?!?
 
The S10 frame seems like the frame of choice for the older truck restoration. I have a 1937 dodge 1 1/4 ton truck that has a flat head 6 cyl in it for that I'm using a S10 frame for. It still has the original hand crank bar sitting on the hood. The bed was a wooden bed and is rotten. I'm only going to use the cab and huge front fenders and grill. My plan is to put it on a 4x4 S10 frame with a step side S10 bed. I think it would look pretty cool sitting on 35's maybe 38's. I have a 427 tall-deck block sitting in my shop waiting for me to go through it for the truck also.

You awoke my obsession with staring the work on my dodge after seeing this thread. The wife knows after we finish the house that the truck is the next thing on the list.
I really hope your boys jump in and enjoy it with you. I sure enjoyed it with my dad. That's memories they will never forget
 
I guess my only concern is frame strength, these older trucks are pretty light tho. Got any pics of the Dodge?
 
The Dodge belonged to my Grandaddy. He bought it new for hauling cattle and for working on the farm and he also sold timber so having the 14' bed helped him haul more wood per load.

We have pictures of him with it loaded with timber that I'll try to find and I'll post them to.

I'll take some pictures when I get home from work.
 
Very nice indeed, good luck with it. I know where an old Studebaker pick up is sitting in the woods, not bad shape at all. It is way back on a mountain in the boondocks, it is a shame to see it sitting in the woods. I am shocked no one has backed up near it, winched it out and stole it.
 
nice Jaryd! I'm starting to wonder if I should use a full size pickup for the donor? Just got back from wandering around a wrecking yard and looking at trucks. I'd have to shorten the frame but they seem to have less contour to them plus beefier everything else.
 
When I was looking into what frame to use I read that a lot of people use the S10 frame because of how narrow it is and how narrow the older trucks body mounts are. It sounds like if you are not looking for serious horse power then a regular ol' S10 or any midsize frame would do. When you get into big horse power they start boxing the frame in for the strength.

It's been a year or more since I read up on any of this but I'm thinking with the S10 frame you had more suspension options than you did with ford or the dodge Dakota. The after market has more stuff for Chevy frames when it comes to rat rod kind of restorations from what I remember reading. Of course with a little brain power and a welder you can do about anything to a vehicle when you are that deep into it.

The 1937 Dodge sat on a old road bed about 5 or 6 hundred yards down in the woods in front of my parents house. My grandma always told us that my Grandaddy loaded it with a load of wood and on his way out of the woods to sell it the truck got stuck (This was in the 50's). He walked home and left it there waiting for the road to dry up but I guess he started doing something else on the farm and just left it there.

I was deer hunting last year and on the way out that morning I walked by the truck. I told my self that it was time for the truck to come out. All the wood he had loaded had rotted away by then. I went home got my Toyota with the winch and started winching it out. I got it in the yard and I wish y'all could have seen my wife's face. Her face had what the hell just happened all over it.
She's game for a 4x4 rat rod now after picturing the end result. That's after the house gets finished. She made that pretty clear. (I don't blame her tho cause my money would have snuck over to the truck probably)
 
The flat head 6 that's in it is not locked up. I just got to make my mind up if I'm sticking with that engine or my 427. My gut tells me to go with my 427. It came from the factory with 435 horse power.

I pulled the 427 from a dump truck. I seen a man wanting to part out a dump truck because he couldn't afford to fix the hydraulics on the truck. He couldn't afford 2 new cylinders for the bed so he was going to part the truck out. I looked at the engine and realized what the engine was and offered him $500 IF I could get it running. He said he would take it but all I had to do was turn the key and it would run. Sure enough it fired right off. I told him I would be back with my cherry picker to get the engine and when I got the engine out he said he was going to only ask $350 for the engine. I gave him the $500 cause you can't can't find these tall deck blocks anymore and when you do they are $1200 to $2000 without knowing if they run.
 
Sorry I didn't mean to steal the thread for a minute. You got me excited all over again about my truck. I guess it shows with the long post.

Back to talking about frame options for AK
 
Both of you guys have some cool projects here, good luck!

@Jaryd, when you do start working on that Dodge, be sure to start a thread.
 
I'll for sure start a thread on the dodge. Hopefully as soon as I get done building our house the dodge will be the next project. I have 2 1956 Chevy pickups to play with to. One is a big window short bed and the other is a small window long bed. They don't have a family connection like the dodge does so it will come first.
 
I'll for sure start a thread on the dodge. Hopefully as soon as I get done building our house the dodge will be the next project. I have 2 1956 Chevy pickups to play with to. One is a big window short bed and the other is a small window long bed. They don't have a family connection like the dodge does so it will come first.
OOH, nice! When I was in middle school, my dream vehicle was a pro-street 1955 Chevy pickup. One of those 56's sounds like a good destination for that 427 to me. If that flathead 6 isn't stuck, I think I'd be partial to keeping that in it, but it's your project of course!
 
Back
Top