Well, the "Old Man" is late to the party, as usual. My last "rod" was a '59 Apache 3100, and I owned it and played with it for 40 years. There were many others during those 40 years, but that old truck was a part of me, it seemed.

Here is a good place to start looking to see what sort of upgrade and mod stuff is available for it:

Classic Chevy Truck Parts-1947-1954 Parts. The Finest in Suspension, Brakes, Steering and Accessories.

First thing: what engine and transmission is currently in your truck? What it is has bearing on how you can go about things and possibly stay within a decent budget, and not overwhelm yourself in the mechanical expertise department.

If your truck has a 265 or 283 original v-8 engine and a three speed, shifter on the column transmission, you are in pretty good shape for fairly easy performance up grades without having to do a whole lot of major modification and fabrication. If it has a six cylinder engine, then the engine mounts will have to be changed, and possibly the bell housing, to put a first generation small block in it. Second generation engines might also go in on the same mounts, but I am not certain about that. If you have the v-8 already, find yourself a good 350 (5.7L) engine, either a good used one, rebuild one yourself, or get a fully assembled crate engine from any number of different sources; get new "stock" front and rear mounts from CPP, Brothers, or other places, pull your old engine, swap the mount hardware from the front of the old engine to the new one, swap the bellhousing from the old to the new, replace the bellhousing to frame mounts, and drop the new engine right back in place of the old one. All of the clutch linkage will go right back in place as original, the throttle linkage will fit with minor mods, most of the wiring will go right back in place - although I would seriously consider rewiring a truck that old, and you could change it over to an alternator at the same time, if it has not already been done. Your old flywheel should work, but you should have it surface ground at a machine shop and balanced, and pput in a new clutch at the same time. Your old three speed wil fit right back, too,but there are other simple options you can consider. A Saginaw, or a Muncie four speed will bolt right up like it was meant to be there, and the driveshaft should fit like stock - rebuild the U-joints while you have it out. You will have to get a shifter for the four speed, most common is the Hurst unit, and do a little modification and cutting on the floor to fit it correctly. Your stock rear end will stand up to some pretty hard use, but not abuse; if you want to get into doing big smoky burnouts and speed shifting, you are going to have to spend some extra sheckles to upgrade stuff: rear end, tranny, clutch, and on, and on.

What I have described is pretty much the way my truck was set up. It started out as a 283 with a three speed, and 3.90 gears in the rear end; stone stock as it came from the factory. I bought a wrecked 1967 Camaro and took the 327 and Muncie M21 out of it and put it into my truck just the way I described; everything bolted right into place, even the driveshaft. I added a set of cheap headers, and went right back to driving it daily as a commuter and toy. Eventually, the old 327 got tired and wheezy, so I bought a new 350, took it apart and blueprinted it, added a cam and new intake, plug wires and other appurtenant stuff, and when it was tuned by a pro, it ran like stink - still on the original stock rear end. I never converted to front disc brakes, but I should have - there are different opinions about changing the rear brakes to disc, but in my opinion, it is not cost effective unless you are going to go to extreme performance levels, and then, you are going to be replacing the entire drivetrain anyway. I lowered my front about three inches with a set of springs from Posies, and had my rear springs rebuilt and three leaves taken out of the packs by a local spring shop; that dropped the rear about two inches. I never converted to power brakes or steering, either, and the truck handled fine, and didn't give me too much trouble stopping as long as I behaved myself, but the disc brake fronts are absolutely a really good idea. I also rebuilt the front axle with new king pins, spindles, roller bearing conversion, and other usual items like tie rod ends, shackles, etc. I did not change over to five lug wheels, because I retained the stock rear end with the six lug axles - just bought a set of six lug aluminum wheels instead.

That is probably about as economical as you can go on one of these trucks.

From there, the sky is the limit: "clipping" the front with the whole subframe from a first or second generation Camaro, finding a sound late model Corvette and using the front and rear suspension assemblies - they are almost a bolt in. Rear ends are fairly easy to swap; find one that has the same, or nearly the same, width, relocate the spring perches to fit your truck and bolt in your choice - Ford 9 inch, Dana, or GM 10 or 12 bolt. All of these things have been done, and they all have their proponents; there is just no limit if you have the desire, money and ability.

Good luck, and please, keep us posted; we all like to see what guys are doing with their stuff.