My 1981 Chevy Truck

    I bought the truck in 1981. In 1992, it was repainted. In 1997 I took out the stock Straight Six and put in a crate motor from GM. I chose a 350 V8 and added an Edelbrock Performer Manifold with an Edelbrock 600 cfm carburetor. Then I matched it up with Edelbrock valve covers and a 14" round Edelbrock air cleaner (in polished aluminum with polished fins). Next, I bolted on some headers with dual exhaust coming out behind the rear tires. My car club friends of the Vicksburg Cruisers Car Club helped me do the motor swap. (Thanks guys) I had to put in a rebuilt automatic transmission. Aluminum wheels and new tires was about the last things that were added.

    The truck came with air conditioning, power steering, and power brakes. It’s got the Scottsdale trim package. 1981 was when they changed the outer looks from the way it was from 1973-1980.

After getting several nice comments from folks about my truck and getting questions from folks wanting more info about doing a motor swap, I decided to post this info here for you to read. I just went to my local Chevy dealer and bought the Chevy 350 V8 for $1295.00. I have seen ads in magazines that sell the same motor for around the same price. They used a wrecker to put it in the back 
of my truck and then I hauled it home. I called a friend of mine and he came over to help me get it out of my truck. Someone had borrowed the cherry picker, so we had a time sliding it out on boards to get it off the truck. So, when you decide to buy one and if you 
are going to buy it locally, then make sure you call a friend in advance to make sure he  can come over and help you get it out of your truck. I went from an inline 6 250 to this 350 V8 so I had to have new motor mounts (you might want to purchase some
new ones now). I also had to have all of the other brackets to mount other things, your brackets might work fine. Shop around for brackets at GM dealers, because I found that buying from a small town dealer, they have high prices. I went to a larger town and 
still ended up spending over $100 on brackets. Spread the word around that you are fixing to do a motor swap because I told my friends the next day after buying my motor, and I had one guy that had just thrown away a whole bunch of brackets. He was 
moving out of a body shop and cleaning the place out. Summit catalog is a good place to shop for parts (www.sumitracing.com). I have not totaled up the final bill, but I would guess that I spent around $3000.00 on mine motor swap. A big chunk of that was the 
new A/C compressor at $800.00. I look back over the last several years, since 1992 I have spent around $6000.00 on my truck and it is only worth $5000.00 on the market. I have still got to tackle the interior. What I'm saying is this, before you put this much
money into a truck look at the situation and see if you are going to keep the truck. But I look back at mine and say that the truck cost $8000.00 brand new back in 1981 and with the money I have put into it over the years, it is still cheaper that a 2000 truck and I 
know my truck and I enjoy it. I just bought that 1940 Chevy 2 door Sedan that's on my website. It's got the original straight 6 in it and so I am going to probably buy a motor from some place like Jim Pace (www.paceparts.com) to go in it. They have advertised a 
motor that's a Chevy 350 V8 that is complete from carb to pan with a little "lumpy" idle that should some good. So here we go again. That motor is around $3000, so you end up spending the same amount of money if you buy one put together or if you build one. 
You can either save up $3000 or buy a piece at a time.

Everyone has their truck stories and here's mine.

I put the truck in the local mall show for the first show (an event that I had wanted to do as long as I have owned the truck). Driving into the mall was interesting, it's something you don't get a chance to do all the time. Never knew there were so many planters to steer around (I didn't hit any of them). You don't notice them while you are walking through a mall. Have you ever tried to turn a truck around inside a mall before? (Watch out for those glass storefronts!) So, I am sitting around my truck and I am watching people walk up and down the mall. I notice this young woman looking at my truck and she tells the guys she is with: "At least he is smart enough to drive a Chevy!" You don't know how much that comment did for me unless you are a Chevy fan!

From the time that I bought this truck (brand new in 1981), people have been wanting to buy it from me. (It's not for sale) During the times that I wanted to sell it, no one was interested and when I talk myself out of selling it, everybody wants to buy it. When I was in high school, I talked most out of buying it because my price was $100,000.00 (I figured out that if someone would offer me that for it, then I would have to sell it.). When I got it painted in 1992, Dennis (the guy that painted my truck) told me that if I was going to keep it, then it would be good to paint it, but if I was going to sell it, then he would not advise putting the money into painting it. Right after I got it out of the paint shop, I stopped at a gas station and a guy in a newer truck offered to buy my truck. I told him that it was not for sale.

I have been shopping around for a street rod and I came across an ad that read: "1940 Ford Truck for sale; Trade for 1981-1985 Chevy." As much as I would like to convert a Ford owner, I could not become a Ford owner and loose my Chevy!

That's my stories and I'm sticking to em!

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