Yeah I hope I get around to doing something with it, It deserves some justice, and its a truck my grandpa never got to do his thing with.
The rear axle swap, if the stock one is a bust, should be easy, just have to find some good leafs and shackles to adapt it with. If the current axle looks alright, then I'll use it, sandblast it and overhaul the thing, ideally if i keep the rear axle or put a Dana 44 or 60 in it, I'd like to put disk brakes on it, which will be daunting as hell (the front dead axle would get the same treatment if the rears were to receive disks)
The engine/transmission swap would be decent to do, the problem with that is the logistics of adding a computer to power a Cummins 4BT (The 4BT is a newer motor and would need a computer and harness from a newer vehicle to make it run, which sucks, but its the only way...) The current inline 6 would be cool to get running, and flathead motors are some of the most reliable engines ever with their low parts count... but their odd shaped combustion chambers didn't exactly give these motors alot of balls.
In the end I can envision this thing as a lowered street truck, two tone paint, white on the bottom, yellow on the top, sky blue pinstripe splitting the blue, nice basic interior, something that's comfortable and close to original, brushed aluminium action going on in there. Chrome 5 Spokes all around with some nice disk brakes, and ideally, that dana 60 posi rear, with some trailing arms to put the power of a cummins 4bt mated to some 5 or 6 speed manual trans. Wood flatdeck that is capped with aluminium rails would also look great. But for now I'd like to get it running and maybe get it on the road, looking sort of "as is" Not really a rat rod, but close. I have big ambitions, but they may not happen, all a matter of TIME and MONEY...
For now, gotta get her home and plan some things out. Here a load of pics, taken a few weekends ago.
