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Hey Guys,
I've been following BS for several years now, but this is the first time I've posted anything. I have been a tractor puller since I was 16 (over 30 years ago now), and I've had my share of cool vehicles (my daily driver is a '72 Chevy Custom 10), but my current project is a special one and one that I really didn't see coming. I had driven by a '53 Ford F100 for about 2 weeks before I stopped to check it out...since it hadn't sold, I assumed that it had a high price on it, so I had to know how much. But, when I stopped, he had $3500 obo on it, and the town was hassling about it, so it need to go! So, I didn't really have any choice...I was going to be building one of favorite trucks...completely out of the blue!
The body is in pretty nice shape...well, for Northern NJ, it is in Great shape. But, the down side is that someone decided to put it on an S10 chassis! I'm not really sure why you would do this, but, is on air, so I'm hoping I can get rid of the chassis and get a little $ for some goodies.
The Monday after the '53 followed me home, I did a quick search on NJ Craigslist, looking for a usable chassis...and, you guessed it, I found one! A '53 chassis that already had a '77 Nova front clip welded in and c-notched over the rear...
So, I worked a deal to trade an old Snap-On toolbox for the frame. I don't think I've ever had a project get off to this good of a start. If you look just above the frame in the above pic, you'll see the rather greasy 350 Chevy that came out of my pickup...which will be getting a simple rebuilt and put in the '53. And I also have a 700R4 that was going to go into my C10, but will be going in this as well.
Last weekend, I pulled the bed off the S10 chassis...they had bolted it to one side and welded it to the other side of the frame...genius! I put 4 5" caster wheels on a 4'x4' pallet and set the bed on it...I was surprised that it worked very well for rolling the bed around! The front clip will hopefully be coming off this weekend...
I'm, mainly a Chevy guy, but I have loved the '53-'56 Ford F100s since I was a kid. And it is pretty cool to have one sitting in the driveway. My plan is to have the chassis as a roller this winter and start working on the 350 in the spring (while doing some head scratching about how the front sheet metal will mount to the Nova clip). I'll keep you guys updated...it should be a pretty cool build
-Chris
I've been following BS for several years now, but this is the first time I've posted anything. I have been a tractor puller since I was 16 (over 30 years ago now), and I've had my share of cool vehicles (my daily driver is a '72 Chevy Custom 10), but my current project is a special one and one that I really didn't see coming. I had driven by a '53 Ford F100 for about 2 weeks before I stopped to check it out...since it hadn't sold, I assumed that it had a high price on it, so I had to know how much. But, when I stopped, he had $3500 obo on it, and the town was hassling about it, so it need to go! So, I didn't really have any choice...I was going to be building one of favorite trucks...completely out of the blue!
The body is in pretty nice shape...well, for Northern NJ, it is in Great shape. But, the down side is that someone decided to put it on an S10 chassis! I'm not really sure why you would do this, but, is on air, so I'm hoping I can get rid of the chassis and get a little $ for some goodies.
The Monday after the '53 followed me home, I did a quick search on NJ Craigslist, looking for a usable chassis...and, you guessed it, I found one! A '53 chassis that already had a '77 Nova front clip welded in and c-notched over the rear...
So, I worked a deal to trade an old Snap-On toolbox for the frame. I don't think I've ever had a project get off to this good of a start. If you look just above the frame in the above pic, you'll see the rather greasy 350 Chevy that came out of my pickup...which will be getting a simple rebuilt and put in the '53. And I also have a 700R4 that was going to go into my C10, but will be going in this as well.
Last weekend, I pulled the bed off the S10 chassis...they had bolted it to one side and welded it to the other side of the frame...genius! I put 4 5" caster wheels on a 4'x4' pallet and set the bed on it...I was surprised that it worked very well for rolling the bed around! The front clip will hopefully be coming off this weekend...
I'm, mainly a Chevy guy, but I have loved the '53-'56 Ford F100s since I was a kid. And it is pretty cool to have one sitting in the driveway. My plan is to have the chassis as a roller this winter and start working on the 350 in the spring (while doing some head scratching about how the front sheet metal will mount to the Nova clip). I'll keep you guys updated...it should be a pretty cool build
-Chris
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