As I said in my intro I’m starting a build thread. This will be my version of a Muscle Truck. This may be the last square body I own, so I plan to enjoy it!
It’s an 85 cab and front cap sitting on a 76 chassis. Salvage title, but that doesn’t matter to me.
I recently finished a completely off-topic project and was looking for something else. This is the other project:
Since it’s off-topic for this forum, I won’t talk about that again after this unless someone asks. The car is an Austin-Healey replica that I completely redesigned. Custom 3-link suspension. It’s LS powered with a T56. Just about everything in the pictures except the body I fabricated or modified. It was an eight-year full custom project. I’m 65 now and don’t want to spend that much time on another project before I can enjoy it, so the truck won’t have nearly as much custom fab work involved. At least in the beginning. I might build a custom rear suspension later on.
The truck is solid, virtually rust free. When I built it the first time, I had enough experience with these old trucks to know where they were rust prone and applied some coatings to help prevent any from happening. I might find some during the build, but so far, I haven’t found any.
Chassis was rebuilt, but I’ll go over it just to make sure everything is still good. The front wheels are pretty much roached by brake dust, so I’ll replace them with something else. Probably with a bigger diameter tire than the 15’s that are on it now. 15’s are getting harder and harder to find. I’m looking into 17’s or 18’s, but that’s about as big as I want to go. I might luck up and find a good used set and save some cash.
I moved the gas tank to the rear and also moved the filler door to the rear quarter. That was pretty much the only body mods except for a rear roll pan.
The tank was a custom job and was just bare steel, so I imagine its full of rust by now. I will be replacing it with a Suburban tank from an 87 and going with an in-tank EFI pump. I’ve already ordered all that stuff.
The engine/trans combo will be a 6.0/4L80E. I picked up an old LQ4 drop out that a friend has had sitting in the corner of his shop for several years. Mileage unknown, but everything looks good. Came out of a wrecked ¾ or 1 ton van. Cable throttle and non-DOD. Harness and computer all look good and usuable, just dusty.
I’ve ordered a set of mounts from Tejas Steelworks for this. I could build them, but there’s no need. The engineering is already done and I can just get on with the program.
I’ve collected a bunch of car stuff over the last 40 years, and I’m planning on using as much as I can and selling the rest to help fund this build. I have about 75% of a Ford 9” that I’m going to finish and put in this truck. It’ll have a 31 spline Tru-Trac (sp?) diff, 3.50 gears and disc brakes. Using an old Lincoln housing I have had stuck back and a chunk (3rd member) left over from another project. The disc kit I bought this year while at Cruizin the Coast. Still need to order the axles, weld on some spring pads and get the whole thing assembled.
This project will be built as a practical hot rod. Something I can use anytime I want to and actually haul or tow with. The Healey is a toy, like a motorcycle, a ton of fun to drive and play with, but not very usable for anything practical. When I was much younger, my buddies and I all had hot rodded trucks. We hot rodded them because that was what we had. They were cheap and the old smog engines were pretty puny, even by the standards of the day. 140 HP out of a 350 was really bad. Hot rodding them made them much better to drive.
It won’t be getting show paint, in fact, I plan on painting it myself since I painted it the first time. I used to be silver. It’ll still be red because I don’t want to paint the firewall and door jambs. It’s torch red now, but that might change a little. My plans right now are to get it running and driving, then work on making the interior a nicer place to be. A better seat, power windows because my bad back don’t like stretching over to roll the windows any more, sound deadening, sound system, AC/heat and maybe one of the nice aftermarket instrument clusters. No digital stuff though.
Having been around at the start of the square body production (and then some), I’m amazed that some of the project trucks I see cost more than the trucks did when new. I remember when a parts truck might cost $50 or be free if you would haul it away. A decent truck that needed a little work might be $300-$400 and a nice-looking runner could be had for $700-$800. For that kind of money, all it needed was your butt in the seat! Guess I’m getting’ old!
So that’s the start. As always, my plans ARE subject to change without notice, but what I’ve laid out is pretty much the plan. Let’s see where it goes from here!
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