Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Brought this home this morning. The poor victim of another guy that can only turn a wrench to the left...
I went through my drawers and found enough of the proper bolts, hung the passenger side door and the hood (fun to hold the door in place and then thread the bolts in- the hood was easy compared to the door).
Needs a new rocker on the right side, but new repros were included. Most of the items removed from the truck are in the bed- except the bolts/screws. I assume he threw those away?
No engine but the trans is there. Odometer says 20,xxx and from the looks of it I’m guessing 120k on the truck.
I’ll update as I peck away at it.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Looks like a damn solid truck, going to be nice.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks Brian- it really is solid. I was told it was a scrap/parts truck before I went there this morning. Hard to believe the guy was gonna crush her.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

What a shame that would have been! Thanks to you, this poor old truck will have a second chance.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Ha ha, that's hilarious - but a real syndrome. It's easy to take a car apart, but it takes money, know-how and dedication to put one back together again. My panel truck was a basket case; it looked like a whole vehicle, but I'll bet replacing all the little missing parts cost me nearly $2000.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Yep, I have been effected with that disorter. It makes me want to vomit when I think that I took my FINISHED truck apart 25 years ago for a quick rebuild. :no:

This is why I will suggest to THINK ABOUT IT MORE when people talk about frame "swaps" and crap. I thought I HAD to have a Camaro clip. I cut up a FINISHED truck and ended up trading the frame I did the clip on, (hope he made a good choice and is enjoying it) and am still paying for my mistake.

Yep, this photo is what it looked like the day I started turning the bolts to the left. Can you believe it, I could have been driving it all these years! Geeeez

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Nice save four speed! Are those a couple AD panels behind it?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Shot two coats of clear laced with a small amount of copper pearl today, then unmasked. Dull areas are scuffed only right now. Definitely a "ghost" flag with no shading required, in my opinion. Will shoot an overall three coats of clear in the morning and declare a victory, I hope. Not a "Foose" job, but I'm ecstatic so far...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Very cool, I like it! Not overwhelming like many, I dig it.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You are a perfect example of why I have not done a complete restore. I do a little and put it back together. Maybe someday if I see large amounts of free time in my future.
I think it also reflects how much care you put into wanting the truck to be right and your demand for perfection has cause many delays in the process. Come completion date that is gonna be one sweet ride.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You've done a great job on that firewall. Different and beautiful, good job DransportGarage.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Looks Killer

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Thanks, lowdownstar, MARTINSR and my56chevytruck! Shot the final clear this morning. I may not even scuff & buff.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

That's pretty clean looking. Keep it up, gonna look nice under the hood.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Got the reinforcement removed from the Left fender and a little sand blasting and stripping. I have to say I did some hack work back in 79 on this fender! LOL

But when I think of that as I am working on it I also think of all the fun I had driving it all those years. THAT is more important sometimes.


Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Finished welding and painting my homemade outside mirror brackets. I made my own because I couldn't find any commercially that had the look and angle that I wanted.

I also cut and fit a piece of 5/8" plywood for my seat pedestal. This will serve as a mount for the bucket seats that came with my truck. The original owner had them bolted to the floor pan but it bent from the weight. This will add reinforcement and something to bolt the seats to. It will eventually be covered in carpet.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

This is what hot rodding is all about, for the last 75 years! Nice job on solving problems without ordering something in a box (like I often do)!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I didn't know the rear floor was wood like a truck bed! That's friggin cool! I swear if I could afford it I would have a collection of "Working cars" and trucks. Things like that panel that was used in some business, so cool. I picture that floor being covered with boxes of milk or meat, or car parts or something, so cool.

I woke up in the middle of the night with the fit of the fenders to the running boards on my mind. The fender looked so funky I just figured I had to get the running boards out of the attic in the garage and fit them to the fenders. I was right, the left fender wasn't even close, I had to work on it quite a bit to get it there.
Check out the running boards, that's lacquer, look how nice that truck was when I tore it apart 25 years ago, crap!

But I got another step further now.

The little piece of aluminum was my measuring tool when I sectioned it. Just a little tip when you are doing something like chopping or sectioning, make something like that and you can't make a mistake with a measuring tape.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Guarantee they are wood and steel and very uncomfortable to sleep on. Ask me how i know.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Uh oh, did your wife make you sleep outside? :lol:

I may indeed camp in this panel truck when it's done. It will be replacing my 29-year-old Chevy Astro van which was originally purchased for camping and traveling but now is nearing 500,000 miles. Time to give the old workhorse a well-deserved retirement!

Heck Brian, tightening the bolts will pull that gap together, ha ha!
Sometimes I suspect Chevy actually wanted some stress on the sheet metal components when they're bolted together, using tension to prevent vibration.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Nah. Camped out in one for months on a cross country trips back in late 60's. The metal strips radiated the cold right thru sleeping bags and blankets. Had to line the back and sides with cardboard.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Understand the photo I show is AFTER I beat the crap out of it to get it that good! It was not close, the fender was buckled with a bunch of welds and crap that I did 30ish years ago so I had to clean that up a bit and get it back to shape. The other side fit WAY better than this without even touching it.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Yessir- a late 47 and a 49 AD panel. Good stuff here in the high desert.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

No doubt, they all pretty much rot away around here. Love the color combo on your new truck!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Uncle’s friend used to buy cheap rust free cars here and drive them to your area to sell and then buy low mile rust mobiles and bring them here for the drivetrain.

As faded as the color is on the outside, it’s bright and shiny inside.