I am restoring a 1963 chevy pickup. I want to change the rearend.It came with 411 gears and does not do the 350 short block justice. Can anyone help me? What model truck rearend works best under this truck.Please e-mail me at dhonnoll@msn.com. I have also put solid redoak in the bed. I first sanded it then used a##### oak stain. I let this dry and finished it with three coats of polyurethane. This makes a great looking bed but will not hold up if left out in the weather. If I can be of help to you please e-mail me.
You don’t have to change the entire rear end assembly. I had 3:73 rear end gears and felt they were lower than necessary and changed them to 3.42 and added positraction. The gear set new is less than $200 (Richmond Gear or Superior) and the installation on your third member (I had it done by a rear end specialist because the set up is critical) is about $150, you may be able to find the parts and labor for less. The other option is to find a third member setup from the junkyard with the gear ratio you want. Count the number of gears on the ring and divide the number of gear on the pinion that will give you the ratio. Because this unit is already setup there is no precision adjustments necessary. This is by far the cheapest route. You can easily remove your third member (release the C-clips from the axles and disengage them from the third member and replace your old unit with the junkyard unit. Your ‘63 have an excellent 12-bolt rear end and you should stay with that. http://www.geocities.com/richmond2_99/64PU.html
I have a 61 and I had the same problem.I had some trial and error. I thought 61 & 63 were interchangeable, but there not! I had to cut the mounting pads off and have them rewelded on to fit. It was worth it, I now have a set of 3.07.1 with a 4 speed and cruise at 70 at 2500 rpms, some 255/70s would bring it down to about 2200rpms....to answer your question from 63 to 72 are all interchangeable 1/2 ton & 3/4 ton, there are 3.07.1 that came in 63 ..hope this helped you out.
Wood finish For your wood in the bed, nothing is absolute, it may always need maintenance but using a Spar varnish or a Marine varnish will give you the best results with battling the weather. Ace or some box stores carry McCloskey? Man O'War? Spar Marine Varnish.3 coats. That's the easy part. The hard part is deciding if you want to go through the work of removing the poly since the varnish can not go over the top of it. Good Luck Esabenski
