Brought back from the dead!

[HSRACER]

I am not sure if this really qualifies as a build project but it sure feels like one.

I have been a member for many years and have had the pleasure of reading so many peoples builds as well as learning a great deal of information on all years of trucks.

A few years ago I was living in the New Orleans area and met a bunch of great car guys. My friend “Pert” was working on a 41 Willy’s gasser and had a 91 chevy short bed that he drove every day to work. At 250k miles the fuel pump went out and he parked it in his driveway.

Every time I would visit him it hadn’t moved at all. Fast forward a couple years and it still was in the same place! I finally told him to sell it to me so I could get her going again! He said never as he was going to get around to it some day.

I moved back to Houston in 2011 and would ask about the truck annually. Still no progress and no desire to sell.

Out of the blue a year ago, Pert calls and asks if I still want the truck! Yes I said and when can I come get it? I ask if he ever fixed it and he said no.

So I hadn’t seen it in at least 5 years but I remembered it as a cool old truck with great patina. So we struck a deal and I made plans to rescue her.

After a 7 hour trip to his house I saw her for the first time in years. To put it mildly she had deteriorated badly. All the tires were flat, wasps nests every where, dash crumbling from the sun, headliner falling down, exhaust falling down and crumbling, among many other things I was not sure if I still wanted to mess with it!

But the overall body condition and that cool patina just kept calling out to me to be revived.

So we pushed it up on the trailer with a tractor and end loader and I was on my way home to Houston.

It took me awhile to get it off the trailer and into my garage as it wouldn’t even roll when I put tires with air in them. Rear brakes were locked up with rust. Kinda gives you an idea of what I was working with.


The truck has the bullet proof 4.3 v6 and a 5 speed trans. Roll up windows and the only creature comforts were a radio and air conditioning. Btw, neither worked nor did the heater!

I took pictures of the truck the day I bought her but the camera died a few days later and those were never recovered. I had a set of torque thrust two wheels and tires that fit on her so I put them on after loosening the rear brakes and got her of the trailer. Washed the 9 years of mold. Mildew and dirt off of her and pushed me it in the garage.

Here is a picture after the wash.

If you look closely, you can still see some of the mildew under the lower trim and on the rear bumper.