Update:
I've owned the truck for a year already, no big complaints. I've put a few miles on it and I've been very impressed with how well the 53 year old chassis drives all things considered.
The 350 is doing well, around Christmas time, I got the opportunity to put it on a dyno and I was not surprised to find that this old "air boat motor" is quite wore out. It didnt even make 150 whp. Although looking back I realize it might have been better if my timing had been right. I recently found that my distributer clamp was installed upside down, allowing the distributer to turn with minimal effort. So my timing was very likely off which may have caused the low hp output on the dyno.
I decided to keep the flatbed. I plan to make this truck a hauler for my race truck, and the old "hay truck" look kinda grew on me. I built some wooden sides for it to keep stuff from rolling off, and yes it happened a few times before I built them. The "hay truck" look inspired me to install an old tractor style fuel filter for looks (have a real filter on the frame) along with some other minor details to give it the "fresh out of the field" look. The truck has been to several car shows and cruises, I even took 2nd place at one.
The plan is to upgrade to more modern brakes and possibly a different transmission so I can haul my ford ranger to the track with it. I bought a disc brake conversion kit for the rear axle but the front may end up getting a open knuckle axle from a later model. I figured thatd be easier and I'll get a better turning radius anyway. On top of that my cousin gave me some 6 leaf springs off of a c30 so those will get put on the rear to replace to factory 3 leaf springs.
What reminded me to update my thread was my cousin updating his 10 year old thread. Lol check it out here. My ranger is mentioned there and there's lots of pics of the truck that inspired me to buy this one.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=687878