Just bought my old Cheyenne back

[magsnubby]

In November of 1993 i bought a '71 lwb Cheyenne with a decent body, ratty interior, average paint (i don't know what the official name for it is but i just called it baby diaper yellow), 350/turbo 350, ps and power disc brakes. But for $900 i figured it was a decent deal.

I put a horse blanket seat cover on it (i had an '88 Chevy truck seat reupholstered for it later), tilt column, wood rimmed steering wheel, painted the interior smoke gray, added new carpet and did the door panels, dash pad and headliner in cheap gray carpet, shaved all the trim (it was pretty ratty and some pieces were missing) primed it gray, added a stereo, polished up a set of old US Indy slotted mags on 235.60 TA's, slammed it, added A/C and a bunch of other stuff. I drove it for a several years before the engine died.

I put a rebuilt 350 in it with an HEI, headers, Edelbrock Performer manifold & carb, bolted it up to a fresh 350 tranny, and had dual exhaust put on it. That truck surprised alot of new truck/car owners.

I drove it for a few years (about 30K miles) before it lost oil pressure and fried the engine coming home from work one night. I decided this was a good time to build a stroker engine for it, so i bought a new truck and parked the '71 in the garage. It sat there until about February of 2003 when i finally decided i wasn't ever going to do anything with it. I didn't want to move it outside and watch it deteriorate so i traded it to my brother in law. He dropped a used engine in it and drove it for awhile before the engine rolled over and died. He parked it and started collecting parts to build a new engine for it. He passed away before he got the chance to get it finished.

His son put another engine in it and used it for a daily driver until just recently. He offered it to me for $1200. Since it was one of the few vehicles i really regretted selling I just couldn't pass up buying it back. It needs alot of work. The front end needs rebuilding, it needs to be rewired, and it needs to be reupholstered.

This is going to be a long term project. I'm, pulling the engine and putting it in my '56 Chevy sedan, then i'll find a 5.3 with overdrive to drop in the truck. My original plan was to put a '67 front end on it then cut it down into a swb step side. But i found a lwb step side bed on craigslist...and i've always liked the long steppers...and i e-mailed him...

I'll try to get out to his house (he's about 20 miles from me) and get some pictures of it this weekend.