My grandfather left his truck to my dad when he passed away years ago. Four different sized tires on four different sized rims (one of which had a an extra hole drilled into it to make it fit). Blinkers added from who knows where. Seatbelts frankensteined from an Oldsmobile. Headache rack made from black steel pipe, complete with couplings where the piece wasn't long enough. Gramps for damn sure did things his way.

Dad retired last summer, and my parents are in the process of moving to SA where my bro and I live. This weekend we went out and brought the truck back to start tinkering. It has been promised to my 10 yo nephew, but only after he learns what elbow grease is.

I've got catalogs from LMC truck, but I've heard there are other suppliers, some in Texas. Any other good ideas?

Saw one for sale in College Station with a beautiful Candy Apple finish. Also, it seems like everyone in my neighborhood is working on one of these in their garage. Good luck. Post lots of pictures!

Wasn't there a Johnny Cash song about a car put together "one piece at a time" ??

Excellent! Nice to keep a relic in the family...have lots of fun bringing her back to glory!

Suggestion #1: Join Stovebolt dot com

An absolute treasure trove of information there.

Suggestion #2: Decide what you are shooting for.

A parade vehicle?

Something to drive on a Saturday afternoon?

A daily driver?

Resto-Rod?

Full out hot rod?

You've got a real treasure trove of memories there, though not necessarily in $$$. The cool factor is off the charts. But you've got to decide what you are going to use it for, then go for that.

If you just simply fix it up good enough to drive, it will be hot, slow, noisy, accelerate and stop slowly. But still freaking cool. You just won't drive it very much.


If you have questions about any of the options, I'll be glad to answer. Personally, I think I might just fix it up well enough to drive, and leave granddad's patina on the rig. I wouldn't even paint it.


But on my '53 (which yours appears to be) I am going resto-rod. It will look very much like a '53 on the outside, but the guts will be modern.


As regards the Johnny Cash "One piece at a time" song, my project will have:

1985 S10 frame
2 piston front disc from later S10
rear axle/rear disc brakes from 2000 S10 Blazer
gas tank from first generation S10 blazer
hood and front fenders from 53 pickup
5-window cab from 50 pickup
bed from farm trailer, possibly also a 50 model
seats from a 2004 chevy pickup
LS1/T56 from 2000 TransAm

On another note, preserve the cattle guard on the front. It is probably home made, but there were a few factory add-on grill guards. Unusual to find those. I'll try to find a photo of the factory one and see if it matches.

Sunday driver is probably the likely result. We really do want my nephew to have it to teach him the value of sweat equity. At the same time, none of us want to hand it over to a 16 year old as a daily driver. There's been a number of older cars in our extended family that were victims of teenagerism - wrecked, "forgot" the lock/alarm and was stolen, etc.

We've also talked about keeping as much stock as possible. My dad wanted to take off the cattle guard aka "tumba burros" and the rack. My brother and I insisted that since Gramps stuck it on there, it's gotta stay. Ditto for the diamond plate bumper on the rear. Used to be a deep fire engine red with black bumpers, rack, guard. Color coming through on top is an old canary yellow. Gramps asked my then five year old brother what color he should paint it. Dumbass blurted out yellow, and off it went.

It took all of 20 minutes after leaving my parent's house to get the first offer for it. Semi passed us, and then went out of his way to come back even with us with the passenger furiously pointing, waving, guesturing. As I told somebody in Junction yesterday, I don't care too much what it looks like or how it runs, the fun part for me is the process, and teaching my nephew a little more about Don Lupe.

i beg you, keep us posted with pics and updates

WOW!
You are going to have so much fun with this. I have been doing a frame up as original as possible restoration on a 1954 Chevy 3100 5 window with a whale nose grill. 235...3 speed on the column. It was my dads. I (we sorry Aggierevenge)have drug that SOB across three states from Amarillo to Hays, KS and down to Wichita Falls. I am 18 months into it and around 6K. I wish I was tech savvy enough to post pics. I think of dad at every turn of a wrench. It is fustrating, and rewarding....but alot of fun.
LMC has been good to me.
Stovebolt is an awesome website with more info than you will need.
Classic Truck Parts is also very good.

You are going to have so much fun! Please keep in touch.

My best,
Stump

Stump---What are you apologizing for. It was worth it just to sit outside and drink beer while the paint dried!

Underoos- you are going to have a great time working on that machine. Family ties to the truck makes it even more special.

Stump,

If you email me pictures, I will post them for you.

No 16yr old kid should have a car nicer than about 1k as most likely it will be wrecked. Also growing up my neighbor bought his son a nice old chevy apache pickup truck. Son drove it for a month before deciding he wanted a honda crx. So the truck which was really dad's dream became dad's toy!

Cool

Congrats....I am in the middle of the re-do of my truck I built in HS. It is a 50 GMC that was bought new as a service truck at my great uncle's Texaco station.

Nice pics. Subscribed.

Here are some pictures of Stump 93's work in progress.

I approve of this thread ;-)

Nice looking projects.

The garage thread reminded me I needed to get some updated pics.

WHERE DID THE OP GO

Anybody seen this guy on Youtube that runs a body shop in Tijuana.

Takes in classic cars people want restored and has a group of highly skilled people go to work on it. Bodywork, upholstery and so forth.

Seems like a good option if you got a project sitting that you want done in a reasonable time.

So like Mexican Overhaulin?