How long did it take you to build yours?

[47 Fasttoys]

752 hours to go from field find in Colorado to regular driver in South Carolina.
Start:

Finish (for now)

[_Ogre]

i've owned truk for 25 years, the last remodel took 8 years

life gets in the way

[Ricos54]

I bought my 54 almost 2 years ago and have put countless hours with zero experince restoring anything of this nature. I always bought new in the past. I have work on this truck mostly night and day with few breaks as things came up. I'm approuching the 2 year mark and it's almost ready for paint. I thought I would have this project done in one year. Boy what a dream that was. I had no idea what was involved to take on something of this magnitude. With zero experince I have changed everything on this truck from 3 window to 5 window and also changing out the front clip and bed to changing all the suspension and putting bucket seats from a Lexus. I'm finally seeing the light at he end of the tunnel. Anyone that's says you should have it done by now has no clue and no idea what it takes to restore vehicel. Now with all this time invested I just laugh when people come to me and say the people on tv get done in a month. Those shows do not show the 24 hrs they are putting in, not to mention the 20 guy's with 20 years of experince doing it everyday.
August 10, 2013 The day I pick it up.


Today doing the final sanding for paint

[Graniteguy]

13 years and I know I quit four or five times along the way. And by quit, I mean I was going to cut my losses and sell it for parts. Having kids, building a house, starting a business, it all seemed to take precedence over the Money Pit Truck.
Life does get in the way, but the truck is now part of my life so stay the hell out of my way!

[msaintg]

those are some really good points.... experience level plays a large part in the timeline, available tools to do the project (full shop vs backyard mechanic), and the condition the vehicle was in when the project started (complete rusted out basket case missing everything vs driveable only needing completion)

I hear a lot of people siting 'life' gets in the way. for me, focusing on a project gets me though the day.... it is my life. I personally had a son pass away right in the middle of my build. It took a real toll on my family. I found myself working on the truck even more, it was a great therapeutic escape for me. that does not work for everyone, but it worked wonders for me.

[oldman3]

Life does indeed get it the way. 5 yrs for me with a good 3 times nothing for 6 months (wife and me health issues). I never let it get the best of me and knew I would finish it, and I'm picky about my work, not the best, but not the worst either. All done in my shop with basic tools. Been on the road for 11 yrs and enjoy it very much. Here's some before and after shots...Jim

[Az. Hank]

Ummm, I don't know about you guys but I,m not ever telling the wife it's done. (HeHeHe)

[capnduane]

Bought this '55 2nd in August of 2013. It was a old time hotrod from the 60's. Has a Pontiac 400 and a Muncie 4 speed. It ran, and you could drive it, the ad on Craigs list said. We picked it up and trailered it home, And I set to work. This was a retirement present to myself, and a project to spend the time that I had been working at as a building contractor on hi stress projects. I treated it as a contract job and worked on it 7 days a week for 3 months. Electrical, brakes, steering, suspension, body work, and paint. Just about the first of December I had it pretty much where I wanted it. 3 months of enjoyable work and it was pretty well done, ready for use as a daily driver. I was lucky in that engine, trans, and rearend were solid. Body needed minor work, and being a Calif truck, rust was minimal. Parts were obtained from RockAuto, and off ebay. Some came from LMC also. It has been a fun truck and I have driven it almost daily for the last two years.

[capnduane]

Couple more pics

[lowrodderchev]

roughly 3 years I did everything but the seat and headliner. stripped her down to bare metal, Camaro clip, step notch, new wiring harness, stereo system

[wolffcub]

Back in 1996 it was a 3/4 ton i bought for $600 fully running and driving. Was torn apart to work on it and it stayed that way for many many years.






Just late last year i got it back on the road. It has been changed over to a half ton chassis now.

[pvienneau]

Hey 2ndGenRR, it took you 6 years to transform the truck on the right to the truck on the left?

[JML55]

Over 10 years for me, some years i worked on it more then others.

[billrobbobjo]

I got mine last year started this spring, was done with what I got before back to the 50's in MN so about 4 months and about 300 Hours I'm guessing, Got alot more to do but just push hard and it will get to where you want it! Longbox to short box

[1-ton of fun]

Too freakin long. Mine is in storage right now. We bolted the front axle on my sons tonight. Things do indeed get in the way
Posted via Mobile Device

[mikec4193]

Hi everyone

I guess I picked the wrong hobby....I ran oval track stuff for years....you rebuilt a the whole car every week and then you went out on Friday night and had fun with it...

This every night busting your knuckles and getting rust in every nook and cranny on your body...spending gobs of money on...constantly waiting for the FedEx truck to drop my parts off...

All of this just to drive it work and have folks trying to run you over.....

When this project is done...I think I am going back roundy round racing...at least there is some joy when the green flag drops....

my 2 cents

MikeC

[1project2many]

Originally Posted by mikec4193

Hi everyone

I guess I picked the wrong hobby....I ran oval track stuff for years....you rebuilt a the whole car every week and then you went out on Friday night and had fun with it...


When this project is done...I think I am going back roundy round racing...at least there is some joy when the green flag drops....

my 2 cents

MikeC

Hey, Mike! I spent several years with roundy round cars then spent a bunch more playing with vintage stuff (no class restrictions!). If you're still missing racing like I was those cars are fun to play with. Then the trucks seem like the relaxing project they're supposed to be.

[scooters52]

I bought my little 1952 truck when I was fifteen and I'm 32 now. So I've been working on it for at least 17 years. It seems like when I had the time I didn't have the money and when I had the money I didn't have the time. Throw into the equation, getting married, college education, kids, and everything else...I just keep plugging away. It will get done someday. If there is such a thing as getting it done...

[67GMCkid]

At the rate it's going,,,
Mine may be done several years after they lay me in the ground and the next P.O.B. hauls it home...

[jackson]

3 years so far, I think im half way up mount everest

[99 to Life]

You can't stress too hard, that gets you no where but stressed out. LIKE I do! My first build, I didn't know anything about cars before I decided to "build" a truck. Took me a little over a year worth of weekends to do and about 10k. Went with s10 chassis route full frame off build. Built the engine too. I'v had it on the road for almost 5 years now. It was a huge change in my life working on that. Past 21 months I managed to get over 700 hrs in on my current build which is 98% done. Add a few more months I put 70hrs into the dash and atleast 30 in the engine. Much much better build, more money and on air ride with a way better scratch build engine. Fully done interior and engine bay. I went through a lot with this truck.

bottom line, don't skimp cause if its worth doing, its worth doing right. a lot of "swappers" meaning tossing the body on an s10 and going with it, can have it done in
a few hundred hours. but if your doing a frame swap, building the engine from ground up, going LS, or doing up the OG frame etc your going to be at 500 hrs easy. you start fixing everything under the sun and you'll end up like me with more hours than you expected. You wanna do real deal metal work and prep for paint, your talking thousands of hours. All depends on your desires, budget and quality of truck to start with. Even a budget build will take up a lot of time and money. You start getting higher standards and your going to spend more time and money. You get trigger happy and money aint an issue then you see guys spending as much on a truck as you would a house. Do you and don't sweat it. Truck aint gonna build itself. Its always worth the time and effort.

[mobileortho]

Been working on it for ten years, I'm done but always looking for something else to do to it!

[roger55]

I've got a TF but if you are interested at all how quickly it has gone for me, take a look at my detailed build thread.

It's a cab-off restomod where I painted the frame. Lots of metal work with several patch panels were needed to repair rust. The truck was never in what I'd call an accident. There were several dings and a couple of minor dents though.

I kicked off tearing it down on on 4/27/2013 and am now in the final stages of completion. Should be able to call it done in about 30 days. So it will have taken me 2 years and 5 months to complete.

I'm retired but I have had other house projects get in the way of the truck project along the way. I also have another hobby which I usually spend a few hours every morning working on before I get to working on the truck. So most days I don't get out to my shop until 10AM to noon. I had one stretch of not touching the truck for about 7 months as I was working on an addition to our house during that time.

Anyway, hang in there. Before I retired, I would say this would have taken my about 4 or 5 years to complete.

[T-P Auto]

Hello;

I started my "Frankenstine" project 20 months ago.
I still need to do the elect windows, the wiper motor,the head liner n the floor carpet.
So still a couple more months of work to do.

T-P Auto
Tim

[jremig]

So far not done yet, sooo my answer is too long