I say , thats a large one ...

[Ratty]

Hi all , thought I'd make my first post on your excellent forum by showing you all my reason for being here in the first place . Last week I finally closed on a deal that had been ongoing for a while and drove home in this ;







Ain't she lovely ?

She's a 1963 Chevy P30 (I think !), the heavy duty long wheelbase model originally fitted with a straight 6 and column shift 3 speed . Though the 8 stud axles are still there the old drivetrain is long gone having been replaced by a 350 SBC and 4 speed floor shift box . Other than that she's pretty much stock . And bloody huge ! I've not had a tape meassure out yet but she's got to be well over 20' long nose to tail .

My good friend Roland bought her over to the UK from the States (Nor Cal I think) a few years ago now and although he'd had her out a couple of times this is the first time she's been out and about proper . The paint is obviously original and though most of is too far gone there's still a couple of bits of signwriting that are readable which is cool , not sure how well it'll show in the pictures ...





There's still a few bits and bobs to sort to get her running well . Though Roland was good to his word and did plenty of road testing and fettling before I picked her up she has developed a bit of a problem that required a tow home from Heritage's excellent breakdown service unfortunately. All part of the fun of old cars and it did nothing to wipe the smile off my face , really looking forward to getting stuck in when work allows .

I don't have any really radical plans for the old girl . Eventually I want to use her as my daily so there's a few jobs on the list . Firstly sort the running problem and then get a taller geared axle under the back , the granny gears may've worked well with a straight six but with a V8 she's massively undergeared pulling top happily from 25mph and screaming her heart out at 70 . Luckily Rol had already sourced an 8 stud rear axle from an '87 Suburban that came with the deal so that should be fairly simple . Plus there's a matching front clip with disc brakes to help bring things to a halt a bit better , the stock brakes are pretty scary if eventually effective . Then an LPG kit to help with fuel costs and away we go !

Not decided on the bodywork yet (Input gratefully recieved) . Despite the rust visible in the pic's theres only a couple of tiny areas that need attention , the underside is in amazing condition for a near 50 year old truck . Gonna have to sort some seat covers too as the gaffer tape holding them together gets stuck to your jeans !

Still scanning through the archives on here for advice on all the above but not finding much for 8 stud axle swaps front and rear so any pointers you guys may have would be gratefully recieved , as would any other words of wisdom !

So there ya go . I saw the truck pretty soon after Roland imported her all those years ago and told him then that I'd love to have it if it ever came up for sale , never thought she'd actually be mine . After sadly parting with my Cadillac a couple of years back it feels so good to be back behind the wheel of a daft old car again

[ChiefRocka]

I love it !!!

Welcome aboard my friend, from California !!!

My favorite year too ...

So what other plans you got for her ??

[Surfdaddy]

Great looking Carryall. Hope you don't have to go too many miles with the price of fuel in GB. The last time I was there gas, sorry Petrol, was about $5.50 a gallon. Propane should help with offsetting the fuel costs if it's cheap enough. You must get a lot of looks going down the road. Last time I was there I saw a F250 4dr 4X4 with a long bed and it looked HUGE compaired to all the other cars around. Great project!!!

[aerotruk63]

Subscribed, Aluminized grill, spotlight! Take more pictures and show us more of your truck please.

[awbrown]

I think you did ruddy well !! That will wipe the smile off of anyone driving a matchbox sized car ,just imagine the fear in thier eyes as that tank barrles down on them ... oh the joy of a big vehicle .

[DPowers]

Cool truck

[markeb01]

Welcome to the forum. Very cool truck, nice body, beautiful 63 grille, windshield trim and even a Unity spotlight. I hope you have a lot of fun with it.

[Delmo]

Awesome, that thing is huuuuge. Welcome aboard.

[Blue Heeler]

Slammer down. good buy.... carry on.

[Captainfab]

Welcome to the forum

Keep in mind that the '87 Burb differential may be a bit wider than the current differential.

Keep us posted on your progress.

[Ratty]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys , I'm hoping to get time for a bit of a nose around today and get to know her a bit better , I'll try to remember to take some more pic's whilst I'm at it . She does look a little large on UK roads but I drive a 14metre double-deck lefthand drive tourbus on rock and roll work for a living so nothing I can't handle , people do seem to dive for cover when they see it coming , though that could be down to the fact that the exhausts are just two short straight pipes with cherrybombs attached !

Yeah , fuel costs are ridiculous here . Its sold in litres these days but it works out at around £6.20 for an imperial gallon , at todays exchange rate thats about $10.00 a gallon equivalent , and nearly 60% of that is tax . Its a ****ing joke if I'm honest but thats what it costs so thats what we pay , hence me thinking of converting to LPG/Propane which works out at around half the price of petrol/gasoline . Diesel's even more expensive .

Captainfab , I've not had a chance to collect the axles yet let alone have a meassure up so I'm only going on hearsay that the rear will fit if I'm honest . My plan was to swap the entire axle in rather than just the diff , have you any info on whether they'd be a straight swap 9My truck is on leaf springs at the rear) ? For some reason the handbrake mechanism is missing completely on my current stock axle so that was another reason for swapping the whole thing , I figure give the 'Burb one a freshen up and roll it on in there !

Again , thanks for the welcome guy's , sure I'll have lots of dumbass questions for you in the near future

[glos55]

I have'nt seen one like that in awhile!! Welcome to the site!!!!

[kieth]

I cannot see it at all, kind of like the emporers new clothes, I only see little x's

[ChiefRocka]

Originally Posted by kieth

I cannot see it at all, kind of like the emporers new clothes, I only see little x's

Reload ....

[oem4me]

Neat truck. It' sooo long, it's like having two. I'd love to have a go at it with a little Goof Off and CLR to see what that orig paint and lettering could look like. I also dig the deluxe trim on a service truck thing.
More pics as you go, please.

[Andyboy]

Cool panel, more pics.

[Ratty]

Thanks again for the responses guys . Well its been a fun day if not as productive as I had hoped . I had planned to re-wire the ignition side of things as I think this was the cause of the old girl conking out on me on the way home from buying her , and also to fit some new door-locks that I have as I don't have a key for any of the doors . But we didn't quite get that far .

I started her up this morning just to move her from the parking space to next to my bus in the yard at work , she fired up fine and I crawled round the yard at a slow pace as the engine was cold , which turned out to be lucky . As I swung in next to my bus I put my foot on the brake and it went straight to the floor , nothing at all not even with a pump ! As I said earlier I don't have a handbrake either so I was left with the option of either hitting my bus or my boss's van (Both of which would be bad for my future job prospects) or the back of my daily-driver Ford Escort van . I chose the latter , only a small dent in the back of the Escort and not a mark on the Chevy .

So that delayed starting any fiddling for at least half an hour whilst everyone came and took the piss and had a good old laugh

Ah well , to cheer myself up I gave the inside a good clean out and took some more pic's to share with you . Here goes ;

Just for scale heres a shot of the Chevy next to my tourbus . You can just see my Escort licking its wounds in front ...



Heres the engine bay , the eagle-eyed will spot that there's two ignition coils , the result of my try-to-get-home bodge job ...



Bottom hose could do with replacing , need a long-nose waterpump to get that fan nearer the rad too ...



Thinking of maybe a double bed with en-suite in here , there's the original plank bed under the sheets of ply ...



Rear door hinge area needs some work at some point ...



And some seat covers need up here . Dash is complete (Got the spare knobs and switches) ...



Grille looks in good shape , and none of the dings in the front are down to me !



One of my favourite bits , the fully working Unity spotlamp ...



Also started piecing together some bits of history on her . As I said the car was imported to the UK from NorCal about 3 years ago , and from the signwriting thats visible has obviously worked in Portland Oregon for a time . But I also found a little red sticker that said WASHINGTON AUG on it which looks like the ones you guy's have on your registration plates , no year on it which is a shame . I also found this sticker inside the glovebox lid that indicates she may have spent some time north of the border too ...



I love finding little clues to things like that , sorta makes you think about the life the truck has had before coming to me . As oem4me said earlier it'd be interesting to see if I can make the signwriting a little more readable and really track down its history .

So back to things technical the brake failure was down to the rear wheel cylinder on the offside taking a leak , after much humming and harring I've decided to move on with the axle swap a bit sooner than planned rather than rebuild brakes that'll be removed in a month or so anyhow (Remember I have to order parts from the States rather than pop down the road to a store , even for basic consumable stuff) , so I'm off on Saturday to pick that up ready to start the transplant next week hopefully .

Went to change the door lock barrels only to find that the security head bolts on the rear of the handles on all the doors are butchered already and will need drilling off , so thats another delay whilst I wait til tomorrow for some suitable replacement AF bolts to arrive (Why can't the whole world use one type of measurment !!!) . Fixed up the rear numberplate light whilst I had dood cards off and to be honest didn't feel in the mood for re-wiring the ignition (Got a Blaster coil to go in and some mounts to make there too) so went and had a beer and typed this lot out .

Am I disheartened ? Hell no ! Might've hit a few stumpling blocks today but learnt loads and have it all planned out , just don't be disappointed in me if there's not a lot of progress for the next week or so . Off for another beer now , look forward to hearing your thoughts and still after info on 8 stud axle swaps if you have any pointers .

Cheers for now , Ratty

[jimmydean]

Originally Posted by Ratty

Again , thanks for the welcome guy's , sure I'll have lots of dumbass questions for you in the near future

Welcome, and that's NO different than the rest of us

[Ratty]

Originally Posted by jimmydean

Welcome, and that's NO different than the rest of us

Haha , I'm in good company then !

I've got a similar thread running on a UK forum and someone with more time on their hands than me (Well it is beer o'clock) has Googled Northwest tire company 3514 and they come up as being in Portland too , maybe the Vancouver in the address refers to a street in Portland that heads towards Vancouver WA ? Didn't know there was one in WA until just now , mind you I only have a vague idea where WA is too

[jimmydean]

Not sure where they are located, but I know where Vancouver (the street) is in NE Portland. But looking at google maps, it looks like an empty lot.

[Ratty]

Could be , sure looks like an old sticker !

One more question for you guys if you don't mind ? Member Woogeroo PM'd me a link to his excellent site that has loads of info on this era truck (Its here if you've not seen it) . I've had a look at the VIN number breakdown section to have a look at exactly what I have but there's a few missing bits in the code for my truck .

My VIN is 3C3650106564

From what I can tell this means I've got a 1963 Conventional that was assembled at Oshawa (Canada ?) , but what I can't spot is the series and model type of my truck . I think the series code as it reads from the VIN is 36 and the model would be coded by the number 5 . Can anyone de-code these numbers for me ?

[jimmydean]

Based on the address on the door, it looks like a cool spot in old town that is now a wine shop

[Ratty]

You guys ain't gonna believe this . If you go to Google Streetview and look at the address (Which as Jimmy says is now a wine shop) then scroll left of the building , take the road ahead of you and look back to your right at the side of the wine shop you'll see this ;



Compare this with the faded out signwriting on my truck ;



Its not just me is it , that is a pretty much perfect match isn't it ? Sorry if it seems daft but I'm blown away by this , firstly by the fact that a friend sitting by a computer in England can find this information in minutes , and secondly by the fact that its unearthing the history of my truck . Seriously blown away ....

[allengator]

Very cool!!!!!

[Stepside65]

Make sure you pick the MINI's out of your grill at least once a month so you don't overheat. Welcome to the board from hot and dry New Mexico
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