my first hot rod

In the summer of 2009, i got the "itch" to restore an old vehicle. The only problem was...what kind would i like to do..and how long would it take me. I was in Dallas Texas when i found it, a 1967 chevrolet c10 short box. The truck was canary yellow and was in a little town called Scott City Missouri. We made a deal for 5500.00 and i took her home that day. When my father passed away he left me an old tractor and farming equipment...beings im not the farming type, i sold it to a gentleman that could use it....now i have some "playing money".  The next day i took a drive to a place called Custom Automotive in Calvert City Kentucky to get some new wheels and tires...ran me about 1200 bucks. I got 26 inch wide tires all the way around it as you can see in the picture. Next i needed a new engine. I hit up a old frind of mine that built engines his buisness is called SRF Productions "music and cars is what we do" www.srfproductions.com check that link for some of his builds, he also puts on a car show every year in a little town called Big Sandy Tennessee, every spring. After explaining to him what i wanted which was a 383 stroker with about 425 hp, we were able to start building it. We used mostly parts that he had around his shop

 

First the old engine had to come out...we wasnt sure about what the previous owner had done to it, also as part of out agreement i told Steve i would give him this engine turn key as payment for his labor. The old engine was a 350ci small block.

next thing we did was pull the engine out...he did this in about 2 hours. Next we started to build the new engine. Steve had a older block in his parts room that was in good shape. We had it "punched"...which is term for the cylendar walls being widened 60 thousands

With a shot of Chevrolet orange it turned out pretty good! Next i had to buy parts....heres where the "play money" gets chewed up. the term 383 "stroker" comes from the term stroked crank....its basically a 350 block with a 400 crank..which increases the "stroke" of the pistons, most dirt and asphalt racers use strokers for the torque. I purchased a "rotating assembly" from Scat witch included the crank, flywheel and forged pistons ands connecting rods. The kit was about 600 bucks

 under the cranks you can see the camshaft, we used a mild cam for this engine from comp cams i believe this cam was about 200 bucks. Next we installed the pistons

 We then set pistons 1 thru 4 and put on the timing chain (note that we used dual chains on this build). Then we put in 5 thru 8

 After we got the "bottom end" completed it was time for a new oil pan, this is because of the stroke of the crank is so long that it would hit the bottom of a stock pan so a "stroker pan" has to be bought. I believe this pan was a bout 95 to 100 bucks through jegs....its a miloden

 As you can see the cylender heads are on it now also...lemme flip it over...

 Here you can see the new water pump and harmonic balancer pump was about 40 bucks at advance autoparts....the cylender heads were about 900 for the pair. next we put on the intake manfold, carb and valve covers..

 intake was a air gap clone we got off of ebay...carb is a 650 holley double pumper that was rebuilt..got it for 125.00. fuel pump is a holley...got that from jegs for about 60 bucks. next we test fitted the headers, and the air cleaner and pullys. the headers and air cleaner came from advance...ran me about 250 for both of them...the air cleaner is a k&n extreme...advance matched the prices of the jegs book so i got it from them without having to pay shipping. Next we broke the engine back down and got it ready to put into the truck. the starter ran about 50 bucks at advance also...the transmission was rebuilt buy a builder down here where i live...all new hard parts and clutches...their claning machine was down so they couldnt get the outside clean...in front of that tranny is a tci converter with a 3200 stall got it form summitt for i think around 125.00.

 We got it in the truck ready for all the other parts to be bolted on...we also painted the firewall ans the inner fenders...there were in need of some tlc!

 Next came the distributor and the msd ignition box, and the alternator...ignition box came from advance, along with the alternator.

Next we got the headers, fan, and plug wires ran...we still have to wire up the msd box and find a pcv check valve for the open hole in the valve covers.

Next we had to plumb up the fuel system..its not complete in this picture..if you look where the blue connector is comming out of the fuel pump, that line goes to the carb...it turns behind the pump and leans against the frame....were going to change this route to prevent the line from rubbing the frame and causing the line to break and start a fire.

 Next we decided to do something about the instrument cluster...new ones from lmc will set you back about 600 bucks...by this time my "play money" was almost gone so we decided to change some gauges so we went from this plain cluster to this.....

 and this is where the "play money" is gone.....all in all i have invested around 6000.00 just the engine and gauges alone....please remember i used rebuilt "like new" parts and did alot of trading with my engine builder....total investment for the entire project 14150.00 thats the price for the truck...engine...tires..and transmission rebuilding..ill have a video soon when we get it running please come back to see it....if you have any questions please email me bjb24485@gmail.com thanks for taking time to read my first ever blog!