Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The cleaning up of the garage to try to make a viable workspace continues.

I'm sure there's a truck in there, somewhere.

Oh, there it is.

 I started out trying to clean up the shed a bit more, when I had a thought- rather than try to haul these front end panels up to the attic, why not just fit them back on the front of the truck, at least temporarily? It's not as though it would take up that much more garage space, and the shed space can be much more effectively utilized. It took me a while to get the truck out of the mess that had accumulated around it (an important step toward that cleaner garage I've been going on about), but I pulled it out into the driveway for some work space. Literally- I pulled it out by hand while it was in neutral.

The two grille supports

Orange Support- missing metal

Blue support- bent

I hauled all of the front panels around- the fenders, the grille, that piece that goes behind the grille (grille support?), and those cowl things that go above the fenders. I was immediately faced with a decision- which grille support to use? I had picked an orange one up last month with a pile of parts, and I also had the blue one I've had for years. The orange one was straighter, but it had more surface rust underneath and had a piece cut out on the lower right. The blue one had less rust but was bent by a tree branch falling on it in storage many years ago. I decided to use the orange one- it fit up to the truck better, and the blue one didn't really seem to want to bend back into shape. I'll toss the blue one into the attic and maybe someday either attempt to straighten it, or cut a repair section out of it to weld to the orange one.



Once that was settled, it was a relatively easy matter to reassemble the front body panels. Since this is "temporary," I only put the pieces on with a few bolts each, and didn't tighten the bolts very far (except for on the front bumper). I figured out why I had taken them off and left them off for all this time- if the right fender and cowl are installed properly, the passenger door rubs on them and won't close (or open). This is most likely due to some deformity caused by the accident. I'll have to work this out when I redo the cab floor. For now, I just loosely installed them with a few bolts to allow for enough play for the door to operate. I also discovered (or maybe re-discovered?) that the grille is easier to bolt on before the fenders go on, for ease of accessing the bolts.

Front body installed!

Once I had all the panels on, I fired it up. I cleverly put a fan under the passenger side of the truck to blow the exhaust away from the garage and house this time. Fortunately I HAD in fact remembered to disconnect the battery after the last time, but it was still a hard start. I brought out the battery charger and had the engine going after a few tries. A little while later, I pulled it out of the driveway, messed around on the street in front of the house for a while, and then put it away. I'm not sure putting the panels on have helped its looks, frankly.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep the garage cleaning momentum going. There are a few panels sitting out in front of the garage, which I'll have to address pretty soon. If I intend to do a frame-off restoration, then putting things back on could be seen as a step in the wrong direction. Though it is supposedly only temporary.

Back in its spot. It's looking at you.