1947 Dodge truck back in service

[beardking]

What kind of money would it take to get the body and interior back to something like factory appearance?

All of it. Every single bit of it. :-)

Oh the patina stays for sure.
Yea a mopar engine would be nice but not a weak *** 440.
The 340 is a much better power plant unless you buck up and have indy 440 heads.

All my relatives up North in Oregon have the market cornered on Mopar stuff but will not let go of it.

When i got the truck it had a 1965 420HP 396 with tunnel-ram and different cam and made 625HP at the crank.
I sold it also in 1987.

I did mock up a BBC for this truck and have a 427 bored .030" 11:1 compression with steel crank and Ported and milled 781 heads sporting 2.19-1.88 valves.
A tunnel-ram and a little solid flat tappet cam 248-252@ .050 .589" lift on a 105 LSA.
I was expecting 575HP from it.. never put it together.. have all the parts laying here waiting.

That would also be a good daily driver set up.

I have raced against 440 6 pack Mopars with my old 350" nova with 270H magnum cam and ported 186 heads and beat the pants off of it.
Of course 3000 stall 456 with a spool. Turning 30" hoosiers and 11.9 compression 245PSI cranking pressure gives me a little edge.

I wish I had half the knowledge about auto mechanics as you do. I do fairly well at maintaining my own vehicles, but I'm sorely lacking the knowledge needed to be able to enhance them much more than just bolting on things. I have a 68 Mustang with a 302 in it that I would love to massage and make better, but I'm more likely to just ruin the dang thing if I try anything.

 

[swampratt]

I grew up around drag racers and NASCAR drivers I kept my ears open when those people were talking.
I think I was about 12 when I traded my stash of dirty mags for a stash car magazines.
I read and read until I grasped it all.
There were interior tricks and paint and body along with engine and transmission and everything else.

If you read and understand you can grasp it and then it becomes almost second nature to tweak things.
Since I was about 19 I have not had a cylinder head off of a vehicle that went back on in stock form.. they all got ported.

I found that has been the biggest bang for the buck and really not difficult.

I had a 69 302 Mustang and other year 302 mustangs we will not speak of
The older ones ran very well for what they were.

The 302 heads are lacking to say the least.
But can be made to work half way decent.. but for big power gains a bolt on head from say trickflow would be the fastest way to max power potential.
You can't port a factory old school head and even come close to what the aftermarket offers today.

But you can do some head work and cam and other basic stuff and have a respectable ride that will keep a smile on your face for many years.