Golden Jubilee
Posts: 678
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:44 pm
Reminiscing~
The truck didn't look too bad from the first inspection..sitting in weeds and undercarriage hidden. After getting it home and taking it apart I discovered that it was much worse than I ever expected for a $1700. initial purchase price. The frame was rusted through and rusted thin in all the wrong places. Part of the original engine was in the bed that had no bottom and someone had put a small block 305ci in it. All no good. All four fenders were fairly solid except for the rear 4" portions that I had to replace. The doors, bad on the bottoms, of course. The cab was so rusted on all four lower corners that I had to buy another cab from Minnesota that had been stored upside down...so the bottom corners were good!
I was planning on repairing and replacing metal on the bed but it was too shot to work with for my quality build. I built the bed and new tailgate from scratch.
Stress cracks...omg you would not believe how many cracks were in the areas of the rear cab corners and door openings. The cab mounts were rusted through and that is probably were all the flex came from.
Anyway, lots of new metal, welding, shaping and banging later, I had a solid cab to work with.
So much work in the 6 years following doing body work, painting, wiring, installing a completely restored chassis from a 1996 Dodge Dakota, and then the 327ci small block Chevy build ground up, rebuilding the AX15 5 speed transmission and installing TracLoc in the 8.25 Chrysler rear end, on and on as you all know.
All new glass, rebuild window and door mechanisms and then the windshield and rubber...ugh.
Radio system, AC install, heat, carpet, vinyl headliner, seat belts and anchoring points, got the seat from a third row Chrysler Town & Country, then had it upholstered like I wanted..the only part I did not do myself..
What a trip, and here it sits in my conditioned garage. It is part of the family now and will be with me until I pass it on.
Was it worth it? Would I do it again?
The answer to those questions are yes, I would do it again....speaking of the past again. But, I would inspect the project much closer than I originally did. I spent so many hours that could have been saved if I had shopped for a better one with less metal damage from rust.
You can't tell a book from it's cover...so true.