[Vic1947]

Yes, we participated this year and won Best of Show. Last year, when the event relocated due to the floods, we went as spectators. We were knocked out by all the nice hardware and would have loved to be there with ours, but it was in a million pieces at the time. We live up near Liberty off 435 and 152.

When we bought the truck, the young man that owned it wasn't sure of the engine CID. Said the numbers indicated it could be either a 305 or 350. When I got it out of the truck, casting numbers and measurements confirmed it was a 305. When I pulled the rods and pistons, I found the rings cracked on three cylinders with some resultant scoring. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as it forced me to source a new block. Bobby Morton, who had done some nice work for me before on a 460 Ford engine, found a nice 350 truck block that would clean up at .030" over.

You can see from some of the photos the accumulation of gunk. The truck was slightly lowered in the front using 2" drop springs which fell out of the buckets every time you jacked it up in the front. During reassembly, I used 2.5" drop spindles and a 1" drop spring and a taller tire than was on it.

The rear appeared to have been converted from a coil over to a leaf spring sometime in the distant past. All the brackets for the trailing arms were there and the retrofitted spring perches had been welded in instead of riveted. The rear was lowered using a re-arched two leaf setup. As it was insufficient to keep the rear from sagging, Air Ride bags were added to bring it up an inch or two to avoid looking like a tail dragger.