Blast From the Past- The Truck Story

Since Blogger conveniently puts the date at the beginning of each post, I decided to discontinue using the date as the title of my posts and start using something more descriptive.

It has come to my attention that not all of my readers know the whole story behind this truck. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to fill you in on some of the details.

The whole thing started back in May 1997, when I was 16 years old. I was on the very edge of getting my drivers license, so my Dad decided he wanted to get me a car. When he asked me what I wanted, I told him I either wanted a classic car or a pickup truck. A Chevy El Camino would have been a good compromise, but he didn’t find any before he came across this for sale in Lakeland:

A 1966 Chevy pickup! I remember him telling me that he had gotten it the day before he went and picked it up, but either he said or I heard the wrong year- I couldn’t fall asleep the night before thinking that tomorrow I would have a 1955. Not that I would have even known the difference at that point.

I was pretty excited about the whole thing, so I could hardly wait to get home the next day . . . and there it was. A 1966 (thought I was told it was a ’65) ½ ton Chevy pickup, with a long bed, step sides, a ’72 230 CID straight-six engine (that’s 3.8L for those you keeping track), single barrel carb, three speed manual with column shift, and a tool box. I didn’t have my license yet, nor any idea how to drive a stick, but I remember at one point driving it forward about three feet before hitting the edge of the driveway and stalling out. I think I may have pushed it back into position, I really don’t remember now. I remember my Dad and I (mostly Dad) tuning up the engine a bit, which ran great. The rest of the truck was a bit rusted. This is the truck that was doomed to become the parts truck, whose fate is described in my December 8, 2000 post.

To be continued . . .

December 19, 2011

Christmas came a bit early this year. Due to my in-laws various work schedules, we're doing the family Christmas this week. The main gift exchange will be tomorrow afternoon, but it was decided that some unwrapping of presents would occur tonight . . .

and my wonderful wife bought me a pair of "universal" floorpans! Maybe I'll unwrap a set of rocker panels tomorrow. Tonight I opened a few other useful items, a set of dremel attachments and a heat gun. More to follow tomorrow, if I receive anything else relevant to this blog.

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.

December 3, 2011

Two weeks ago something happened. Mike and I had seen some flyers at the local Chick-Fil-A for a "Car show / Cruise-in" or something to that effect, and we decided to check it out. The whole thing was pretty small as far as number of cars on display.  We found out that it was put together by some people from a social network called Mid Florida Cruisers. I decided to join up. Going to car shows and being connected to people that are into classic cars and restoration help keeps the energy in my own project. So what does that mean in terms of action?

First of all, I checked this blog and realized that it's been a year since I found out about the parts truck still extant. I notice that I had never posted any update on that front, so here goes. I went down and looked at it sometime, I don't recall when. There are still some parts worth taking, but I think I decided it wasn't worth hauling it out of there. Sadly now it's been so long that I've forgotten exactly what I wanted to do with it. I called up the people who own the place where it's stored and said I'd be down to start taking care of it the following week, which is the week that is now gone. ( Some stuff came up for work.) I plan to go down there next week and have another look, maybe pull some stuff off of it. More updates on that to follow.

Progress on the truck itself- very little. Radiator seemed to spring a leak and magically heal itself. I started cleaning all the junk out of the bed in preparation to get moving on the restoration again, much of which has been there since I moved here a year and a half ago. Beside the fenders and other various body panels that are back there, I found two boxes of water guns, chrome rings for the wheels, shelf brackets, a vacuum, various hoses, a slingshot, a pile of brass disks, that fender from the Porsche 944, styrofoam coolers, a bird feeder, and yes, a kitchen sink. It's still an ongoing process. I've started building racks and shelves for stuff that up to now has been sitting in or on the truck. That kitchen sink will make a useful utility sink behind the garage.

In other news, at the Cruise-in I met (or re-met) a local guy that's got a restored '65 truck. He told me he had seen some parts listed for a '64 on craigslist. I was able to make it up to Osteen today to check it out. The guy had a bunch of parts left over from a restoration he and a friend of his had done. We spent maybe an hour picking through it. I got a new "Deluxe" heater (an upgrade from the "Thrift Air" heater from the parts truck), a new windshield gasket with aluminum trim, a few other gaskets, new glovebox, aftermarket fuel gauge sender, door stops, dome light lens, door and window handles, aluminum headlight bezels, a license plate light, rearview mirror, turn signal switch, horn button, door windows, vent window assemblies, and a new grille support panel. All for $100! Now I gotta find a place for all of it...
 

 Aside from all of that, my Christmas wish list is full of body panels to replace the floorboard. We'll see what happens...

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

July 2nd, 2009

It occurs to me that maybe not everyone is so concerned with the minute details of this project. To you, I say "sorry." Today I removed the drivers side step from the bed. Now THAT was fun- lying underneath the truck with an angle grinder going after what at one time had been 7/16" nuts, shooting sparks into my face and slowly roasting next to the worklight. I can only take comfort in knowing that the more body panels I remove, the less material will be overhead to rain rust particles on me every time I crawl underneath.

The following information regarding attachment hardware is mainly for my own information, so I can reassemble it sometime in the future properly. The top flange is bolted to a matching flange on the bottom side of the bedside panel with 7/16" nuts and bolts. Two of these were the ones that had to be ground off. The front of the flat step surface was attached by carriage bolts. One was missing. These go down through a metal support that appears to mount up under the bed to one of the bed cross frame pieces. The four remaining holes were 1/2" nuts and bolts attached to the fender removed earlier this week. Once I got the step on the bench, it was easier to remove the two that remained- one by grinding and one by drilling.

Once the piece was removed, the rusted hardware taken off and the Bondo removed, the step itself actually appeared to be in decent shape. There should be minimal work to refurbish this piece to be able to re-use it.

July 1st, 2009

Yesterday I went down to Harbor Freight and bought some bodyworking tools. Hammers, dollies, pliers... well, mostly hammers. On the trip back I stopped into every auto parts store I passed (Carquest, a paint shop, Napa, skipped Advance because I had already looked there, and AutoZone). No one had a flexible cheese grater for shaping Bondo. Everyone has the rigid ones, but I can't come across a flexible one anywhere!

Today, instead of cleaning the house or anything else constructive, I decided to try the chemical paint stripper. Now normally I would set up in the front yard underneath the oak tree, but since I am dealing with the great outdoors, wind currents can never be predicted, so I decided to move a safe distance away from my other cars. Sure, I could have moved the cars a safe distance away, but it was easier just to move the fender.

I set up against the neighbors fence. Now, before you go worrying that I might damage the fence, I assure you that I've taken every caution to be careful not to overspray. At least I did after I got the can pointed in the right direction. The fence itself is rotten enough on its own, and there's moss growing all over it, not to mention that the house has been foreclosed and has been vacant for some time. There was also plenty of room to step away and avoid the fumes. This was especially important because I don't have a respirator and was simply holding my breath during the application.

The immediate results were surprising. The paint started to peel and curl up within just a minute! The instructions had indicated that this would take longer, and a full hour was necessary for the maximum effect. After just three or four minutes, the effect was quite noticeable, as the paint had started bubbling in the entire treated area. At this point, it started looking like it might rain again, so I grabbed the fender by its non-toxic end (as I had only treated the forward third) and put it on my back porch.

I went back to look at it after 20 minutes, and was disappointed to see that it hadn't changed much. After the initial dramatic results I was expecting something a bit more exciting.



Much later in the day I went back and was disappointed to find that it looked about the same as it did after only 20 minutes. After scraping it down with a putty knife and a wire brush, I ended up with this:




I was expecting to get much more paint off than this! I may try one more application, but if that doesn't work, I'll have to go back to more tried and true mechanical means of paint removal.