The stake bed for your truck was probably not factory.If it is a long wheel base truck the 8 foot step side will bolt right back on.If it is a short wheel base truck the short step side or the Cameo bed will bolt right on.The fleet side bed is available in short or long bed and will fit too but it was available in 58 and 59 only.

That's where my battery is going. I'm making up a bracket that will let me drop it down to service. I need to get a battery with side terminals like that.

I was having a problem with dust and worried about when I paint, getting it on everything so I spent the day putting up a temp spray booth. I put some eye screws in the ceiling, then ran a piece of polyestor rope around the area. Finished off with 4 mil plastic clamped to the rope. Worked better than I thought it would and at a cost of about 50 bucks. I can take the plastic down and reuse it when I'm ready to do more spraying. This will keep dust and paint off of everything including the walls.

I checked the AD site, and e-mailed them they are only working on 47-55 first seris trucks, Thanks Bo

need any hub caps.
if so pm me.

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try the stovebolt garage.com

I finally got around to pulling the engine and transmission out of the 58.The good news is no metal in the transmission oil pan,so the transmission is not grenaded.The bad news is when I poured the oil out of the engine oil filter it looked like it had a bag of glitter in it.Looks like I have to pull the 427 apart and see what is wrong.It is balanced and blue printed so I sure hope it is a cam bearing and not a rod or main bearing.I will post pictures of my progress later.Right now I am going to go check out a car show.

Hey DD hope its nothing serious in the engine.
We just had a 4.7 quake.
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ca/
Kim

Kim you probably just felt me shaking in my shoes in fear of what I will find when I open up that balanced and blue printed 427.I don't have 15 grand for another motor

DD , If that 427 still ran and didn't puck parts all over the ground I dought your looking at 15 grand to fix it , unless your wanting replace it with a 720hp 572. What did your motor do when you broke it ?
Gene

Sorry to hear about your engine, DD. Sure hope it's nothing bad.

Dad bought a '64 Impala SS 409 for $500. No motor or trans, and it needs a new driver's side door, and the frame up front is moved over towards the pass. side from a wreck. Depending on the price to fix the frame, we may just consider reselling it. Overall it's in real nice shape, I'd say it's a steal for $500. The Apache is still the priority though, this one is for later.

Right now I'm redoing some of the interior on the Apache. Just got tired of it being a mess. I have the dash down to bare metal and the top half of the interior is primered. We bought a headliner, sunvisors, a rubber floormat, and a couple other items for the interior. I haven't decided what color to use yet. Headed to the truck right now to work some more.

Good luck everybody!
-Matt

The engine was running fine.No knocking or anything.Even the oil pressure was ok.I pulled it out to change the transmission.When I pulled off the oil filter to take off the header the oil I poured out of the filter was full of tiny speckles of metal.As long as the balanced crank shaft is ok I can fix it for a few hundred bucks.

DD , Check the cam and lifters , sounds like it may be going flat , lobes starting to wear off and bottoms of lifters wearing concave. Not worn enough for the lifters to start ticking , but it won't be long . I had a 454 in a 4x4 Chevy pickup that ate 3 cams before I got rid of the truck.
Good Luck , Gene

Howdy, everybody; how's things??

DD, I was pondering your "speckled oil" dilema, and 57HalfTon beat me to the punch. I'd sure be looking at the cam and lifters, too. The big blocks I used to run, a 396 and a 427, both had an appetite for cams of the high performance variety; actually, even a low po (about a 260 dur.) aftermarket went flat on the 396, but it was still running the heavy valve springs from the previous big cam - a 286 Isky - lumpety-lump type. Those engines went through four cams, 2 Isky's, a Crane, and a GM LS type cam, in about two years. I have been thinking on this subject some lately, what with all of the talk about oil formulation changes and such, and I am not too sure that the current situation is totally to blame for so many cam failures. Many of us back in the seventies, who were racing on a real tight budget, and couldn't afford to run a roller setup or change out cams after every few runs, were having problems with cam failure, running radical grinds and driving them on the street in day-to-day use; my race car was also my commuter vehicle. That was one thing that made me drop out of racing; the expense of trying to be competitive, and be a workaday, family guy, too. Something had to be put on the back burner, and it sure wasn't going to be the kids or the bills. I hope your problem is nothing; but a failing cam, and/or some scuffed bearings would be better than a boogered crank.

Thanks for the info guys.I will tear it down and inspect everything.I have a line on another 427 for 2 grand if I need it.

Something else I just thought about, DD, is to check those filings with a magnet; rinse them well in solvent through a bunch of coffee filters to get the oil off, and see if a magnet will pick them up. They could be piston, or bearing material; it might help to aim you in the right direction before teardown. Was it me, though, I'd likely just pull it all apart anyhow - but that's just the way I'm twisted.