A New Project In My Driveway.

Well after all these years I have finally rejoined the ranks of the cage owners. I didn't go hardcore and buy a new Prius or some other crap like that. I bought a 34 year old Chevy truck. One of the owners of my company is a wheeler dealer who has his fingers in everything.  He uses the building next to the one we're in as well as the yard around it to store stuff for his Victory dealership and old cars and trucks that he's in the process of dealing with. For a while this poor girl was sitting outside the building looking sad. My Boss was being funny one day and told Dudley that I was interested in the truck and asked how much he wanted for it. Dudley replied with a crazy price, but then added that if it was for me he'd let it go for a much lower price. I was leery because the truck was rough and I had only been considering getting an old truck sometime this year, not right now! When this took place the truck had been there for a while and one of the people who work on the old cars had taken the trim off as well as the grill and all the lights PLUS he had taken the dash pad out and sprayed the truck with primer. Like I said it was ugly. I jump started the truck the next day and drove it around. Other than having to wait for the torque converter to refill with fluid it seemed OK, just topped off the oil and transmission and took off. I decided I wanted it and started to mess with it. I put the grill and lights back together after polishing them a bit. It was looking better already. I also drove it around some more and every time I drove it the ol' girl got better. Finally we struck a deal and I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks. I pulled the seat out and scrubbed all the old crud off of it. Other than some fading and stains it is in GREAT shape. The carpet under the mats was like new even if the the rest of it had faded from red to almost white. The interior is now clean and I have a used steering wheel to install (the original has SCOTCH tape wrapped around it and a stretchy cover over it. I'm afraid of what is under the tape). I got the wheel at Pull-A-Part along with a wiper switch and a mirror. I plan to get a left front fender soon. I think the rest of the stuff will have to be replaced with new repop parts.  The outside has been going well. I pulled the tailgate off during a rainy day and worked on it in the warehouse during my breaks, then primed it black. This weekend I got the trim clips on the left side drilled out and sanded off the glue residue from the ancillary trim clips. I'll weld up the holes soon and do the same to the other side then I'll paint it satin black and try to bribe someone to give it a little Von Dutch style striping. That's it for now, check out the pics and be sure to check back, I hope to actually do some bike stuff soon that I can share.

How it sits now.

The tailgate is ready for paint. I sanded and painted the bumper this weekend too.

You can see how both sides looked. 35 year old adhesive rubber stuff is a pain to remove.

Driver's side looking clean.

Had to drill out a LOT of these damn things and still have a bunch to go.

At least the wheels and tires are clean on this side.

Dots, dots, dots...

Dots and clips, clips and dots.....

AND busted mirrors. I found a drivers side mirror, hopefully I can one for this side soon.

And here is how she sits today!

Hopefully before too long she''ll be black and beautiful!