December 8, 2011

I left this morning around 11 feeling as though I was heading off on some epic adventure. I had loaded up my truck with wrenches and pliers and all manner of things. The mission: Assess the parts truck; grab any easy-to-remove useful parts; and decide whether or not it was worth pulling out of there for more serious salvage operations like cutting out body panel sections to weld into the other truck or extraction extra parts to sell to other enthusiasts.

Here's what I found.

It didn't take long to decide that it was almost a complete loss. The body panels weren't in any sort of usable condition, the gas tank had been left uncapped and was almost certainly full of rust and water, and any parts worth pulling to try to sell as extras would need more than a little reconditioning to be of any use.  In short, there's no way it would be worth pulling out to store somewhere. There were a few pieces that looked like things that I could use, so I set to work.

The two parts I had hoped for the most from this truck were still there- the linkage arms that connect the shift knuckles on the steering column to the transmission. Mine had been lost previously after a real bodge job of a three-on-the-floor conversion we did back around summer '98 after the shift lever broke off the steering column. After a bit of study two or three years ago I decided I could go back to the original three-on-the-tree by reinstalling the linkage rods and getting a new shift lever. At the time we had assumed the parts truck was long gone, and there were no shifter-transmission linkages to be found in any parts catalog. Despite the fact that the engine had been removed from the parts truck and now lay in a rusting heap in the bed, the transmission was still under the floorboard, but conveniently detached from its mounts. It was a relatively simple matter to detach the linkage arms from the transmission, disconnect the speedometer cable from the transmission, and pull the whole lot of it out. Now I've got a spare transmission whose gears are hopefully in better shape than the ones I've got. No doubt they're both worn down, though.
I've also got the linkage rods, a spare speedometer cable, an extra window crank, a starter of unknown condition (but was just sitting there so I grabbed it), the rearview mirror which is shot except for the mirror glass looks better than anything else I've got, an extra linkage rod, and the taillight mounting brackets which I think can be used for reverse light brackets (if I haven't damaged them too badly pulling them off).

For the record, this was, in fact my first vehicle. I only ever drove it about three feet, but I can still remember how excited I was when I came home from school and there it was, or when we got the engine tuned up a bit and it ran smooth. It's a bit of a shame that it should have to come to this, but I know the parts I've taken from it, both then and now, are part of the bigger picture. The guys that own the place where it's stored are going to sell it off for scrap. Oh well, it did what we needed it to do. So long, old friend.

September 25, 2010

I realize it's been a while, but there is actually very little to report, progresswise. Since the last posting, I've started an annual homemade boat race, gotten a new job, bought a house and moved. The truck is now sitting in my new garage collecting dust, junk, wood scraps, tools, various home improvement materials and the like. In fact, there's still some junk in there from when I moved- I had loaded it up with things from the old garage, put it on a car hauler, brought it here and haven't unloaded yet!

Since this blog is not a forum for all of that personal kind of stuff, here's why I'm writing today: A few days ago, I got an interesting telephone call from my Dad. First, the back story- Many years ago (1997 or '98) Dad and I had hauled the parts truck from our house in Bartow to a sheet metal shop in south Lakeland for long term storage. (That's a whole story in and of itself.) We left it in the back corner of their yard, and after about five years, they decided to clean the place up. We had all assumed that they had scrapped the truck, as we had been back a number of times since and hadn't seen it. Now, fast forward to this past week- The guy calls my Dad up and asks him what he wants to do with it! Evidently it's still there, hiding amongst the junk and the weeds, rusting away right were we left it.

This, needless to say, caused a fair amount of excitement, but also raised several important questions: How badly has it deteriorated? Are any of the parts I need still on it? Are these parts intact? How much work will it take to move it? How will I move it? Where will I put it? The real thrust of all of these questions is whether or not it's worth it to extract the truck and bring it here. I expect that if I did bring it here and scrap it after I stripped it, I would do well to break even. The answers to these and many more questions would probably be answered, at least in part, by a fact finding trip down there in the next few weeks. So stay tuned!

FILE PHOTO- 1997