My daily driver/beater : How I turned lemons in lemonade

[Tx Firefighter]

So, there I was, screwed out of a bad ass little 89 SWB and left with a crappy old longbed, no money to speak of, and no real desire to spend what money I did have on messing with it. I planned to part it out best I could and sell the rest for scrap.

Valerie asked me why I didn't build the truck into something cool. I don't build longbeds. She said "can't you do something to make it a short bed like you like ?".

So I kicked around a few more months, still pissed off and thought about it.

Then, my buddy Shane (Shaneschevys) sent me a text with a Craigslist link.

75 bucks later, I had what I needed. A 73-75 model stepside bed.



Now I was seeing a vision. I could shorten the truck, drop on the stepside bed, and do a clone of a 73 model truck.

To start off, I dug around in the attic of my shop and found the grille I needed.



Now, we were off and running with my idea. Keep in mind, I was still dead broke though.

I went to Decatur swap meet soon after, armed with 50 bucks that I could spare.

Used bezel (pictured next to the broken original from the truck). Shane's wife found it for me at the swap meet and dickered the guy down to 5 bucks. I had the block off plate in my parts stash at the shop.



Getting better.



My PRNDL was broke. Those things are expensive.



A nozzle off of an empty can of carb spray. Heated and bent.



Epoxy.



A set of 5 dollar used lenses from the swap meet. Blasted and painted the housings. New bulbs, dielectric grease for corrosion prevention.







And my last 5 dollar swap meet score, a set of dog dishes. I got a vision here...



I used stripper to remove the old factory anodizing. They looked much better.



Still junk, but 5 bucks don't buy much when it comes to a set of hubcaps.