Winter 2011-2012

We've been focused on bodywork and getting the glass in this winter. Thankfully the weather has been on our side. The corners of the cab needed to be replaced and there was quite a bit of bodywork needed on the cab and doors (inside and out). We decided to go with a hot rod flat black, and have painted the cab, doors and dash/interior so far. Next up is the hood, fenders and firewall.

Body Work and Paint on Back Cab

Dash body work and paint (still more to be done).

Front glass installed.

Corner glass installed.

Dad and I take turns installing the back glass.

A nice shot of the back glass, cab
and inner door body work

And now for a little Windex...

All glass installed (except door
windows, that's another project)

Fall 2011 Body Work and More

We failed to mention that we did the wiring - so we've got a few pictures here. Beyond that, fall we focused mostly on body work to include back corners and back of cab, doors, dash, roof and cleaning up window seal areas and prepping for windows to be installed.

Spring 2011

This spring we focused on getting the engine running. During the process we noticed the valve guides were cracked. The heads had to be removed, valve guides replaced and heads re-installed. Unfortunately the number six head bolt hole on the right side of the block broke. After having the truck towed to the machine shop and a heli-coil installed, then towed back home, the heli-coil failed. The truck was once again towed back to the machine shop where they repaired the bolt hole. With the heads replaced, we had a running engine and were finally able to install the wiring and take the truck around the block. The good news is, the transmission was functioning as it should (since we had no idea if it was good).

Finally, some cosmetics were addressed, such as, repairing the rear fenders, shaving the hood, sandblasting and body work on front fenders, and installing frenched headlights. We decided to go with all in one headlights (headlights, parking lights and turn signals), so we welded over the old parking light holes. More body work to come...

Winter 2011

Our winter project (after some awesome Christmas presents) was to fabricate and install the exhaust system. A lot of customization was necessary. Here are some of the "in progress" and final photos:

Summer 2010 Progress - Bed, filler cap, etc

The progress this summer included finishing the truck bed - we used a honey color spar varnish. We had to recess the bolts into the bed, and drill for the filler cap, which we also installed. The stainless steel strips and wood all had to be trimmed to fit and the gas filler tubing had to match up perfectly with the filler cap - quite a challange, but not impossible. We also installed the refurbished gauges.

New gauges!

Freshly primed truck bed!

Stained and ready to go...

Filler cap installed (attached to gas tank)