Ace of Spades bought from a Dishonest Priest

[Hotdogcity]

This is my 86 Chevy Shortbox. 10 years ago I was looking for a C10 for a project for months, I grew up driving them and have always loved them. I was looking for a project for me to learn on and come out with cool daily driver. I was searching local papers and auto trader magazines waiting for the perfect truck to come up. After a few months of nothing coming available I was getting pretty desperate. I found a year old auto trader and decided to thumb through it. Magically I found the perfect truck. Even more magical I called the number and it was still available.

I arranged to look at it and it turns out it was being sold by priest for a guy in jail. I thought that was a strange situation but I was desperate so I rolled with it. Took it for a test drive, something didn't seem right. I asked the priest about it and I was told he had just had it looked at and all it would need was a tune up and it would be fine. A combination of desperation and stupidity led me to believe him and we made a deal, I owned it. Took it to my mechanic to have it checked out shortly after and it turned out the motor was a boat anchor, beyond repair. As it turns out you actually cant trust anyone haha.

I was pretty bummed when I got the news and it took me a while to get over. I located a decent used 350 from my buddy and that same buddy was skilled and willing to train on body work. We worked on it together on weekends at his dads shop 1 1/2 hours away from my house. Put in some long days replacing rust with metal and other odd jobs. I had 1/2 to a full day to go back and finish it up and get ready for paint when one Wednesday evening the hail storm of hail storms rolled through the town where I was working. Absolutely destroyed my poor truck. Dents everywhere that I could put my whole fist in.

So, this set production back tremendously. After a year or so I got over it and bought a hood, door and front fender. I bolted those items on and swapped the motor out and got it running. I bought some new rims for him because I don't have my priorities straight haha. I actually had a bit of money saved up and thought he deserved something nice since he's been through so much, kinda crazy that way.

Since then I have drug my truck through a divorce, a new marriage, 4 houses, and 2 beautiful children. My daughter is 2 1/2 and my son is 5 days old and I very much look forward to working on this truck with them as they grow and hopefully eventually passing it down to one of them. This truck has been with me a long time and it will be in the family until I go and hopefully longer.
We have just moved into a new house and I have spent time getting my small garage set up to work on him this winter. My cousin named him the ace of spades and now we call him ace for short.

This winter, I plan on doing a roof transplant, finish body and paint, pull the motor and have it rebuilt (or rebuild myself), adjust the stance (possibly upgrade the suspension) and complete the interior with new seat, carpet and cleanup the panels. Hoping to have this all done by spring but that may be a tall order with 2 little ones, wish me luck!