FIN

Well the end has come. For those of you who stuck it out with me I say thank you! I know things slowed down this past year. I wish I could have gone to the next stage but life happens and it was time to move on to something else. That may be another blog! It's replacement will be here at the end of the week!

Last walk through......

bye ........

First start of 2014 - Last June of 2013

    Another awesome day here near Atlanta so I had to get out in the garage. I decided to start the truck up. It had been a while to say the least. The last time I started it was June 23, 2013, when I fixed the shift lever!

    After pouring some gas in the carb, I had no luck starting it .... out of gas! I assume it evaporated from the long sit. A quick trip to the store and 5 gallons later she fired right up! I did find a small leak at the fuel filter so I will need to get some different clamps to replace the squeeze type that is on there now.

I moved it over to the middle of the garage and sanded a bit more on the body in a couple places that needed attention.. It is suppose to be in the 60s here next weekend so I hope to have it ready to cover the exposed body work in primer by then.

    The battery was down a bit by the time I was going to move it back to the wall so I used the jump box ... fired right up. this time I rolled open the windshield so I could see to drive (Duh). I put the nose closes to the wall and used the floor jack to slide the rear over ... worked like a charm!

    I did not take any pictures today but here is a cool video up the driveway and back! :)~

No Takers, So Back to Business!

Well Atlanta had a decent weekend as far as weather so I spent some time in the garage. I did a little touch up body work and started preparing for a little more primer.

    The blue vertical tape seems strange but the paper I used had perforations every foot or so,  I did not want it to separate.

    The truck is now back up against the wall so the Civic could come back in.

    I got a few decent offers for a trade and also a bunch that never followed up.Anyone that has played the trade game knows that you get a lot of offers that really do not add up to what you are offering. You also get some that you would like to trade for but they are just not quite right. Then the offers that you would take if some cash was offered along with it but never is. then there are the ones you would do but they never get back to you once you show interest. I have learned to not think too much on it and move on. I know what I have and I am not in need of cash so I will keep it for now.  I decided to delete the ads and continue work. I plan on covering the exposed bodywork then I may start taking it apart again for paint.

Cold Weather Delay

Well I was all set to get this thing back in primer .... then the weather took a dive. Too cold for paint.
In the mean time here is a summary of things that have been done. I have some pending project for next week but this will give the weather time to get back to normal! I should have it back in primer in two weeks.

55 Plymouth running gear (259 Polysphere V8 )

Carter 4 bbl (needs prime when it sits a while) I cleaned it up and put a rebuild kit in it. No choke assembly I was gonna put on a Holey

3 speed column to Floor shift home made conversion.

New clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing

New engine seals and gaskets (including rear seal and valve seals)

New rear trans seal

New exhaust

New tailgate parts

New bed standards in rear

New Rockers

Metal Floor and seat surround

New Glass(slight green tint)

New window regulators - Window track needs to be fine tuned so windows roll up and down better, also new top felt has not been secured yet (waiting to paint)

New windshield regulator

New wiring (not a kit or original harness) also ran wires for future turn signals

Ooohga horn mounted under body on frame with switch

Smoothed firewall

New 35 Car front bumper and brackets

I think 40 front axle

Juice brakes

Painted frame

cut out all body rust and welded in new metal

Have new windshield rubber seal (for around frame)(waiting for paint)

Have 12 to 6 volt reducer in case old style gauges are run

has electric wiper motor (not on right now)

new brake and gas lines (brakes could stand to be bled from where I had to take the lines loose to remove body panels.

Mostly stainless bolts and washers

Fire wall and inside painted "Leather Brown"

Engine was painted shades of blue when it was put back together.

Seat and door panels(not on right now) in OK shape black and red stripes

Lots more I'm sure I am leaving out.....

No bed floor yet (frame is there)

Bed was shortened and the tailgate was welded on ... I removed the tailgate extended the bed out about 8 inches and put on standards and tailgate hardware so the gate would work as it should.

Dodge rear fenders and running boards were on it when I got it. The running boards were formed to match up pretty good ... although I did rework the front edges to flow better with the front fender. The rear fenders work OK but something else could probably be done to look better. Also, they don't match up to the beds original bead rolls. I had not gotten that far into it yet.

When I got it the gas filler tube came out of the side of the bed through a very rough cut hole ... I welded that hole up and for now the filler is coming off of the tank in the bed area. Something would need to be done there when the bed goes in. I moved the tank to the rear but decided to move it back.

Seat back was too tall when I got it so I shortened it and put it back together so that it would rest back further (just under the window frame)

Dissembled stock gauges and cleaned and put back ... not sure what will work and what wont ... does have old school oil and temp gauges in dash center that work fine. Most of the truck has been taken apart and parts cleaned primed etc then put back.

I bought the truck in PA, before that it belonged to Jim Sibley of Sib's Hot Rods who bought it from an old guy that claimed to race it back in the day.

Old truck definitely worked in its day I worked out as many dents as I could and used filler on smaller stuff. Still working on areas and about to prime again.

Basically an old school hot rod I am just reworking (fixing up) and it still needs work.

Runs Drives Stops -

Vacations Over?

    Well it has been a while hasn't it? I suppose as life moves on with other projects and responsibilities one loses site of other projects. I got heavily involved in repainting my house as well as normal maintenance. I also started replacing all of the wood frames around my windows with PVC trim. All of this stacked on top of quitting smoking, replacing the garage door, several appliances that just got old and a handful of other life happenings. It was just hard to find time energy and money for he truck. I have been able to go out on occasion and do a little sanding or body work here and there but mostly so little it would have just been embarrassing to even post it on the Blog. Motivation had dwindles to say the least.

    Well I was going through some old postings on my traditional hot rod site and noticed the truck had received an impressive amount of views despite the fact that I had all but cancelled the "For Trade" listing due to a severe lack of quality offerings. Don't get me wrong, some were worth the truck but just not what I was looking for. A lot of it goes back to that age old saying .... "If I own it, it's gold, if you own it it's crap" and who knows maybe I do expect too much out of the truck. I do however think I can do better than a 6K four door! Well enough of that I am startng to drift off on a rant and I really do not want  to go there here.

    Long story short I had posted on the ad about my surprise at the amount of views, which in turn brought the year old ad back to the top for all to see. Once again the offers started pouring in. I had not expected that and it caught me a bit off guard and with my pants down so to speak. I mean the poor truck was left with a bit of it's metal exposed and in the middle of some body work and it had not been started in about a year!

     It was enough to motivate me! I spent today out in the garage removing the hood finishing up some body work and spraying a little primer. I only had about a pint of primer on hand and mainly wanted to see if my crappy spray gun still worked. It did, and yes still crappy but sufficient for primer.

    I am thinking I need to get a list together and go pick up some supplies and see if I cant get this thing back into a good coat of primer. Then I can re evaluate where I want to go from here. We have been contemplating a move and I am not sure I want to haul the truck along. It may get sold or swapped for a boat or something. Who knows ... I love to trade but it seems I cant get an offering of anything I want. Oh well I am cursed to own it a bit longer (sarcasm).

    The good news is it wont take long to make her presentable once again .. Here are a few pictures I took after what little I did get done.....

Just getting some primer on the door made a huge improvement!

Pretty good coat on the hood.

For fun!

Really needs a bath!

Hood back on!

Pretty ;o)

All Jacked Up and a Big Arse Door! or Transmission Woes and Let there be Light!

    Well it has been far too long since my last post! For those of you sticking it out, I thank you for your patients! I had to leave the truck for a while and get some much needed house stuff done. I guess you could say I have been restoring my house rather than the truck. The house is worth a lot more, so ..... Priorities!

In the months since my last post, the garage door decided to go into self destruct mode! Needless to say I had to have it replaced. The installer wanted the truck out of the garage .... when I went to move it something went in the trans shift linkage and I was unable to shift into first or reverse.

     There was work to be done!

Had to jack it up so I would fit under!

BTW ... Here is the new door .... it allows a lot more light for working on the truck! I was going to replace it myself but I didn't want to deal with disposing of the old door!

The old door did not have windows .. I'm gonna like this!

Some much needed light!

She's looking rough :(

    Once the door was on I got the truck back into the garage and took a look under it to see if I could see what happened. If you have been following along ... you are familiar with the shift mechanism drawings I did earlier

 .. if not here is the link LINK it will open in a new window.

    The spacer you see in the drawings had come off. I had tacked this on when I changed out the broken part for a new one. Since it is cast I obviously didn't do it right LOL ... I was not concerned at the time because the metal I used was too soft and I knew it would not be long before I would have to replace it anyways. I decided that rather than try to weld to the cast, I would just extent the steel on the shift lever instead.

    I welded on a piece of heavier steel and bolted the lever back on the truck.

yeah .. I still can't weld!

But it should hold  :o)

    So far it works great ... I don't know how much gas is in the tank ... so I didn't leave the garage.

    Here is a short video of it in action  HA!   Enjoy!

    Unfortunately, I still have the second floor of my house to do yet and some standard yard stuff, so I wont get much done any time soon :(    I am going to try and devote the weekends to getting the body in primer at last.

Still plugg'n away and Not!

    Ok so I have been sanding away on the truck as the holidays permit. Not much to show as far as pictures go. I did pick up a air file sander and that thing has been awesome for fixing some of my larger sections. You know I had to go back over some areas! HA

    I quit smoking at the begging of December so I have been avoiding the garage the last few weeks. All that dust would not help the healing process of my lungs. (smoked about 35 years) I would say I can go at it again at a decent pace towards the end of January.

Anyways ... I have some pics on my phone but i am being lazy so maybe I will transfer them over this week so I can have something for you to look at!

Thanks to everyone who followed in 2012 .. I look forward to 2013 ... maybe I can finish up the dang body!