Building your own truck

Like the others said. All you need is the cab and clear vin or “order number” (pre ‘78 model year) to build on. Everything can be new if you want. If cab is 25 years or older in some states it is exempt from mileage declaration or emissions any ways and you can get away with any truck engine you want.
Sold a ‘49 Autocar cab and hood off a complete chassis 3 years ago. The guy put it on a low mileage wrecked 2016 medium duty Pete chassis. Pete Cab was destroyed. Still tittled and Registered it as a ‘49 Autocar with antique “historic” plates.

 

Break it all down into sections, it will be easier.

 

Says it all

 

As mentioned ,
Get a cab with a VIN and a title if available.
Be a lot easier that way .

what you’re wanting to do is usually called a “glider “

the fedgov has mostly outlawed it . But there’s no fedgov regulations against rebuilding an old truck .
You won’t be able to run it much in California but not going to a commie state like that isn’t much of a loss

 

the only thing that stops someone from running in California is the age of the engine, put a compliant engine in it, run all day long being legal.

 

It may not be as easy as you think. A friend of mine used to do this in Yakima WA. One day he got in an inspection in Idaho, and they accused him of having a parts from a stolen truck. They impounded his equipment, and he had to bring all the receipts to prove it was all his. Then he had to get the serial numbers put on different parts like a OEM truck.

 

If I was gonna build from the ground up, I’d power with a 2 cycle Detroit.

 

The only way the inspectors would now they were stolen parts is if they ran the stamped vin number on the parts themselves and they came up as a stolen vehicle number. Otherwise salvage yards or used parts suppliers would never be able to sell a used part.

 

It's not easy but they can run backwards. If it's sucking air in thru the exhaust and blowing exhaust out the breather, it's not EPA compliant. And always have extra oil on hand.

 

Yeah but that’s the whole reason of having an older truck .
To avoid all the computer sensors that fail frequently .