I bought Belle sight unseen a couple years ago for my wife. We have enjoyed driving her as is while we accumulated the parts needed to make Belle a classic truck with modern running gear.

Fortunately my wife's plans and mine were the same so conflict (I would loose) has been minimized. We bought the best truck we could afford. This has already saved us countless hours repairing damage and rust.

Plans for Belle:

Modern engine, we chose a Ford coyote as the cost was close to what we would pay for a good 302 with fuel injection.

5 speed transmission, Tremec

New front suspension, we went with a TCI custom IFS for 53-56 trucks (required modification).

New rear suspension, TCI 4-link.

Ac, Vintage air

Put the interior and exterior back to a close to original as is practical with our other goals. This includes upholstery, wheels and correct colors.

We will not be painting Belle other than correcting some of the colors and painting the fenders.

We have been working on her for a couple months now so I figured it was a good time to state a build thread. I will put photos in the next post. I have documented as much as possible, If there is something you would like to know more about I am happy to share.

 

First weekend. Drove Belle to a show on Saturday then spent Sunday and Monday on tear down. I took photos and measurements to document the changes, especially to ride height.




front ride height. Previous owner had already installed reversed eye springs so I don't know what original was.





Rear height.





Side view, wheels have to go as do the silver running boards.





Front view, grill will be change back to cream.





Upholstery will be changed back to stock vinyl an AC will be hidden as much as possible.

 

Still first weekend. Lois (my wife) spent two days helping me completely disassemble Belle.




Bed came off in a half hour. Other than being dirty frame is in amazing shape.







We took a ton of photos to document how things went together as well as condition.





The end of day one.

Someone had installed a Ford 9". A year ago I changed the ratio to 3.50 and installed a Tru-Trac limited slip. Read must have been ouy of a 4X4 as the pinion angle was 14 degrees!. I will correct with the 4-link.

 

Day two and our goal was to get the rest of the truck torn down. Still just the wife and I except for a friend that came over when we lifted the cab "just in case".



Watch your fuel! We had a good tank and Belle ran fine but the filter still looked like this.





This is the condition the entire truck is in, no rust anywhere. I need to figure out a way to use my 6 volt wipers on 12 volt or replace them.





Firewall pad was in great shape and came off in one piece. I am using a new pad so if someone needs an original I have one.





What it looks like under the pad.





Getting ready to lift the cab. This works amazingly well.





And it's off. It was all hands on deck for removal so no photos.





Engine came out the same way. Now I need to find a project for the engine, runs to good not to use it.





End of day two and this is what we have.





It's Miller time (look at the clock)!!

 

Looking good! I'm using an electronic 20amp voltage reducer in my '49 F4 build. It should be large enough to run my heater and gauges. Does the flathead have a center dump header on the drivers side? They won't clear the steering box on an F4.
Mark

 

I had to change the fuel pump in my Jeep. The filters on it looked like yours, I don't know how it was even running. The tank is plastic, so I had to have picked up the crud in the fuel I was buying.
Mark

 

Oh, this is going to be sweet, a sleeper build. Subscribing.

 

I'm looking forward to watching all of this.
So, did you purchase a majority of the parts before you started stripping the truck down? Speaking from the perspective of someone that has never had a truck I could drive any time I wanted. I would think with that beautiful truck you would want to minimize downtime.

And, yes that flathead needs to go into another project. Belle is in amazing shape.

 

Yes I had 80% of the parts before the start, this helped with the budget and with time. I hope to be done in March, we'll see. It has been fun driving Belle for the last couple years so the down time is not so bad.

After Belle is done I will go through the flathead and rebuild as a full custom vintage engine which is going to take some time.

 

That truck is in super condition.
And I liked your method to remove the cab!

Thanks for posting the progress. Carry on.

.

 

OK....I'll subscribe. Your truck is in amazing shape!

Dan

 

I was impressed by that too. I did something very similar but with chains. The ratcheting straps would make it way easier to balance the cab. Next time I have to remove the cab by myself I will use the strap method.

 

Awesome. Subscribing. I have a reduction gear to
put your flatty in a boat.

 

The ratcheting straps work great. If the cab is out of balance a couple clicks on one of the ratchets and it levels right out. Now that we have done it a couple times my wife and I lift the cab with just the two of us.

 

After forty years of working on boats I have decided I like old cars and trucks better.