1950 chevy 6400 flatbed expedition build

mattblake42

New member
Just wanted to share this with everyone on here.
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This was my grandfathers pulp wood truck and ever since I can remember it has been sitting lifeless in the woods behind my uncles house. Well last week we drug it out. This is going to be a very extensive and long build but I will try to keep this updated as best I can here. Plans are to take the cab off and repair all the rust, build a complete new frame, 4x4 with dana's, lsx power plant, and a box camper on the flat bed. Like I said before this is going to be a slow build but I'm really looking forward to it.


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PhilipE

Observer
You might consider putting the cab on a newer Chevy 1 ton dually 4x4 frame?

This is the route I would suggest. Doing custom is a nice thought. But for a road vehicle it will need to be fully inside DOT rules and reg's. Starting with a suspension package all ready approved for the weights and size your wanting to build will make the headache at time of title work easyer. Once the orignal VIN numbers for the frame are gone. Then your going into a new title being issued for the vehicle.

Here is a link to your states guide lines.

https://www.dmv.com/ms/mississippi/custom-vehicle-registration

If you notice your state police will be involved in this build. I would recommend contacting them first thing. Your local MSP office will most likely have an officer assigned for titling affairs. If he knows form the get go what your doing and how your doing it. Life will be much easyer.

Incase your wondering. I have been threw the assembled motor vehicle title routine in my state with the truck you see in my sig. I replaced a cab a few years ago.
 

mattblake42

New member
Y'all bring up some good points. We are still in the planning stages so anything can change. My buddy has a 2500 4x4 we may look into swapping the cab on to.


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PhilipE

Observer
Right now is the time to beat ideas around. I ideas don't cost money. When you start working on it. Money starts to flow. At that point you don't want to redo work.

That's also why I mentioned talking to the local MSP office that would be do your build paper work. If that officer doesn't like thought of a full custom build on suspension and frame work. Now would be the time to find that out.

The officer that worked my case came out twice. On final inspection he didn't even come out and look at the truck. The two previous visits told him the quality of my rebuild.
 

Clawhammer

Adventurer
I had a boss once who did something similar. He swapped the cab and bed from a mid '40's Chevy onto the chassis of a late '70's Chevy. He was originally looking into doing a lot of custom work like you are now, but decided that having a more modern power plant, plus power steering, brakes, suspension, etc all ready there and ready to go, as opposed to being fabricated, was just plain smarter.

If you got a fairly recent donor, you could maybe even figure out a way to have cruise, air conditioning, etc which would be nice if you plan to travel in this thing. Of course, I'm sure everything is way overbuilt on the original chassis, so it would be stronger, but what's the max speed with the gearing and all? 45mph?

Keep us posted!
 

Conagher

Member
I am with wanderer - I will be following this build and it is going to be cool! I have always had the vision of one of these old rigs, rebuilt into an Expo camper.
 

PhilipE

Observer
Some thing to think about. Look at the size of those front wheel wells. If memory serves me right that old iron ran 800 or 900x20's on it. That is a tall tire. If you try to go much shorter the wheel/tire combo will not look right in that large wheel well. I would figure out tire sizes before getting to far into it. Then that will tell you gearing your going to need in the axles you get. A C&C frame would make the swap easyer. Your frame is flat topped. Most later P/U frames are dropped behind the front suspension. That drop interfers with mounting that cab on it or it makes front end sheet metal mounting harder.

Clawhammer 45 MPH was about all you wanted to push one of these to. With a little wear in that straight axle and brakes that most of the time didn't perform anywhere near what they should have. Anything above that was fool hardy. Plus with the 216 CID engine with a splash type oil system you didn't push them to hard. Oil pumps were not standard equiptment till 53 models with the 235 CID engine.

In this year range of truck the Ford was better. The flathead V8 put out more power and the brakes were better. I have driven both models of truck.
 

mattblake42

New member
Definitely looking at swapping to the 2500hd frame. Think it's going to be the easiest option. Plus it would be cool to have the ifs 4x4 setup. Always been more of a straight axle fan but I think the ifs will work out better with this build. Definitely not going to be doing any hardcore wheeling with the camper on the back anyway. After doing so measuring and research where the 50's cab bolts to the frame is 36" and the 2500's frame is 44". Going to have to do some figuring but first we are going to take the cab off and do some rust repair.


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pappawheely

Autonomous4X4
Whether you use the factory frame and install a newer driveline or swap the cab, it will be a lot of fabrication. Looking forward to the results.
 

Willys3b

New member
Subscribed! Good luck with your build! I am currently doing this with a 1948 4100. Thought I was the only one that thought this would be a good idea. Nice to see another one being done.
 

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