47-55.1 Long Time Coming......

[gsinon]

As I said in my introduction thread, I fell in love with Chevrolet's AD 3100 pick up when I was a young teen. While attending a Sunday car show with my dad we saw a truck that belonged to a friend of his. It was a 49 with a mild chopped top, painted black with traditional flames and a nice set of Cragars. Now you may not like the thought of that, but for a 12-13 year old kid in the early 80's it was like a Hot Wheels come to life and it rocked my world.

In any case, the stars never aligned for me to get an AD of my own for one reason or another. I have had many other hot rods in the mean time, just never the elusive AD I wanted..... Until.

In 2006 my family and I bought a new house in a new town. At the time I had a 1947 Ford coupe hot rod. One day the mail man came up the driveway to deliver something that wouldn't fit in the mail box. We struck up a conversation and he told me there was an Old Truck down the street that he felt I would just love. After telling me where it was I went for a ride. Sure enough, there sitting in some guys driveway was a 1951 Chevy 3100 five window. It appeared as though it hadn't moved in years, and yet didn't look to be in bad shape. Of course I knocked on the door and an old timer came out, we spent a while chatting but he said he wasn't ready to sell it. He only had a one car garage and not able to do anything with it, but as an old hot rodder I just don't think he was in the place to finally give up on it. He did welcome me to come back from time to time to check in on it.

Fast forward over a decade and a visit every year or so and it is now June of 2020. I'm out for a ride in my 55 BelAir and decide its time to check in on Fran. I knock on the door and we catch up and chat a bit about Covid and the current state of affairs. I of course bring up the truck that's still just sitting there when he finally says those magic words.... It's For Sale! We agreed on a price and it made the 1 mile trip home to me on a flat bed a couple days later. These pics are of it right after being unloaded.








So that's the back story. Now for a new beginning for this truck after sitting in the same spot since 1998. The truck is so ridiculously solid and has such a cool vibe that for now I am just going to scuff it down and matte clear it to lock down the look. I'm a body/paint guy so this goes against everything I am, but after the last car I did and all the car shows etc (see my Introduction) I am tired of the "pretty car" thing for now. Maybe at some point I will blow it apart and paint it, but for now I'm not going to.

So what is going to happen? FatMan front end, TCI 4 link rear, Progressive Automotive X member, full boxing of the frame, crate 350, TCI 700R4, fuel injection, Snowden seat, German Squareweave carpeting, Dakota Digital gauges, Vintage Air ac/heat, Ididit tilt column, John's Industries 9" rear, ET wheels and so on. In the end I'm looking for a super comfortable truck that will drive anywhere and have a bit of an old school hot rod vibe.

This project started over a year ago so I have a lot to catch up. Follow along if this is something that strikes interest.

Glenn