Hello to my new favorite group.
I'm Brady, a journeyman electrician located in southern Oregon.

I have a 1964 GMC stepside pickup that I've been dragging around since high school.
Picked up the truck for $1,500, with the straight 6 230 ci motor and granny 4 speed. It was so gutless, it couldn't even drive itself up the ramp onto the trailer.
My dad gave me a 350 that he had thrown together in the past, and that really woke the truck up!


Unfortunately, just after graduation, I ended up putting the truck into an embankment to prevent an accident, ruining the frame.
as I was only 20 at the time, I wasn't financially able to do anything further with truck, and parked it.
My dad "bought" it off of me, in hopes to get it back on the road. (He later shared that he just wanted to hold onto it for me so I would be able to continue the project later.)
In the year that he held it, he was able to secure a '65 short bed Chevy frame.
After some time, he gave me the frame, as well as the truck back, and I began to restore it.

I picked up a square body frame for $100, and replaced the front crossmember onto the pickup for power/disc brakes, and power steering. SCORE!
In having the pickup torn down to the frame, went ahead and encapsulated the frame with POR15, to make it look nice and "new".
I got the trans and the engine swapped onto the '65 frame, called in the crew and barely managed to swing the cab over the drive train. (Later pulling the engine back out, OOPS.)

I got distracted with another project, which was a turbo '89 foxbody Mustang, that came with an '03 Cobra T56.
I started to put together a 331 boost-ready motor for it, but then changed directions and sold the motor and the car... but kept the T56 and driveline. (More to this in a moment.)

***I am now back with full intentions to get my truck going again, before it is too late.***


Here's the part where the LS comes into play.
I drove 12 hours roundtrip to go pick up a lower-mile LQ9 with harness, comp, and accessories, that I plan to mate with my Cobra T56.

I have been scouring the internet, looking for the perfect answers on how to make this all work, as it is a bit of a Frankenstein build.

I know one option is changing the trans input shaft, but I am trying to go in a less-invasive and cheaper route, as I have a few of the necessary parts for keeping the input shaft the same.
I will need to relocate the shifter forward, but I have seen the kits for doing this and have a neighbor with a milling machine, I don't think this should be any issue.

My goal for the next few months is to get it into the engine bay and of the stand, as my garage is a little tight.

I just ordered a few parts this weekend for this swap, including:
-QuickTime bellhousing (less than $300, what a deal! RM-8022)
-swap pilot bearing (Lakewood 15975)
-Hooker Blackheart LS swap parts (clamshells and inserts, hardware, long tubes, trans crossmember. Kit is VK090195)

- I have a clutch disk that I'm going to use that doesn't have many miles on it, and am trying to figure out which flywheel/pressure plate to use with this transmission,

Going to make a separate thread in the newbie questions, but thought I would put a little background about my project in the intro forum!

 

cool build, looking forward to seeing how your stepside turns out.