Sad News!!!

[romeske1950]

Parked at a red light, and some complete idiot barrels into my 1950 pickup at 60 mph! my truck slammed into the honda infront of me and the hond hit a minni van. all but the minnivan had to be towed. :( The rear frame of my truck is BEYOND repair, and i have fixed some "unfixable things", but this is just amazing. the front is not so bad, just grill fenders and radiator screwed over, engine still runds fine, but the frame is just contorted in ways that i cant stand to look at in the rear. I moved my gastank back there too, and now thats toast, no leaking gas though.

Should i try to fix it or move on to a second serries or apache chevy pickup?

[Mr_Mac]

Ouch! I take it that you're ok (all things considered) and that's the best news! If the insurance company is the right one (one that insures classics for what they're worth and not just a few hundred bucks worth of scrap) then I would move on to a second series.

Shame about your '50 though!

[admin]

Well, you could install a late model chassis under your 1950 sheet metal and buy the new front end parts. Everything is available. I hate to see the truck scraped or just parted out.

[romeske1950]

with the money im getting from insurance, i bought a ford ranger to get me around while i fix my truck. I decided to do a frame swap, but still use an original frame. i found a frame with 1949 235 drive line for $200, and by all means im not gonna use that drive train, i decided to upgrade to a 250 ( i want a 6) and do some moving of the radiator. This accident can be seen as a good thing now, for now i can do a frame off restoration like i wanted to :D and extra money to do it with. The fron isnt that bad, just need a new grill radiator, hood latch panel left fender and hood. every thing else is fine. xcept the frame, but im swapping that. I really have no problem with the straight axel front end so im still just gonna leave that. Whats a good cheap transmission i can throw in there, 5 or 4 speed? i need to be able to get those highway speeds, and i was using 67 3 speed saginaw.

[Mr_Mac]

Very happy to see the silver lining to an otherwise gray cloud! You'll be sure to post pics whilst you perform the restoration...yes?;)

Mac

[Rich-Md]

WOW..sorry to hear about the accident. But I think you're doing the right thing by using an original AD frame. Lots of work ahead for you but It should pay off.
Maybe you can use the best of both drive lines for the transmission and rearend.
I'm also using a Sagnaw 3 speed with a 3.08 rear end out of an 86 Camero and 305 V8. However I'm going to change that out to a 75 Nova rearend, 3.08 also. The reason is the 86 is a 9 bolt rear and the 75 is a 10 bolt rear.
I suggest you keep the 3 speed and go with something in the order of 3.42 or 3.55 for the 6 banger engine.
Keep us posted.

[romeske1950]

So now should i not seek an over drive transmission? when i had the 216 in there with the 3 speed and 3.08 rear end i could hit 65 fine, but around 4000 rpms. If i get a 250 in there, i know ill have a large amount of power compared to the 216, but ill still be at those high rpms. Is an overdrive trans not what i want then?

[Rich-Md]

Transmissions can be a little expensive. How about changing out the rearend to something Like a 2:73 0r 2:56 ratio. They were available from about 1965 thru the 70's. Here is a site for Nova rearends, but are the same for all models of Chevy's. (Camero, Chevelle, Nova, Caprice etc...)
The 2.73 means your engine will do 2.73 revolutions to turn the rearend one full reveloution.

http://novaresource.org/axle.htm