The Phoenix - Pierre's Build Thread

[WWPierre]

Hi All,

I was on the chat line the other night, and someone asked me if I had a build thread going, and I promised I would start one, and I am a man of my word, so here it is. I went to the welcome area, and copied my first post:

Peter Legere is my name, and I live with my family on half a block at the south end of Squamish B.C. We have the facilities on site to build or repair almost anything. If you enter 37700 Second Avenue, Squamish B.C. into Google Earth, the marker stops on the street just left of a big oblong blob which is my white roof, and there are a few air photos if my little empire. Edit 2010: We now have high definition and street view in Google Earth.

Note to any assholes reading this: One of my tenants is a security company, and they keep HD digital records of everyone who enters the property.

My stepson Jens works for CN, keeping their decripit equipment running. He and I believe that the '72 GM pickup represents the zenith of North American pickup truck development. He knows them and understands them to a molecular level. Needless to say, he knows the condition of every one within 200 miles.

20 years or so ago a particularly cherry one became available, and Jens and his brother Ole, (their mother, Hanne, is Danish) promised to build it up for me if I bought it. It was almost ready for paint and reassembly when it burnt up with Ole's shop, except for the cab and chassis, which Ole managed to roll out before the fire really took hold. He had hit a small welding fire with a fire extinguisher and blew it all over the shop.

Over the years, they have been saving the best parts they have come across for the resurection. A year or so ago, I bought a rotten diesel pickup that had been recently re-engined with a 6.2 and as soon as Jens finished his Acadian, we (well, mostly) he got to work on the pickup.

Most of it is at the body shop for tiddling and paint now, and we should be assembling next weekend.

The only big job left is the box floor. We have two old floors to make into one. We will do as nice a job as we can, but this will be a working truck, and the bed will be coated with some miracle plastic, so whatever we end up with will be good enough. It would be interesting to know, though, how much a new one would be, or even if they are available. I did spring for a new tailgate. 35 year old tailgates in good shape are hard to come by.

Another question is about the box sides. One of ours was a bit started in the middle, but with a porta-power and a jilpoke to the beam above, and judicious tapping, we got it to a slight curve with about a 3/16" to 1/8" light showing on the middle. I wanted to overstres it to make it perfect, but Jens didn't want to risk a catastrophic failure. The body man told us they are all bowed a bit. Is this true?

It's getting past my bedtime, so I'll just see if I can dig up a pic of Jens and his Acadian and post it.