The Truck Project Thread

I actually have a written agreement with a company near me to buy one of their trucks once they are finished with it this fall. 1985 Pete 359 with a 48 inch bunk. Still original interior, paint, and transmission. 18 speed. The engine has been replaced from a Big Cam II to a 1998 Signature series ISX. Mechanically the truck is very solid. Visually it needs just a little bit of help. The good part is I will be paying less for the truck then the tires that they just put on it cost them. Now the bad part. Since I work full time and have no time for trucking on the side on my own I am selling it to a friend who runs one truck right now. The good part of that is he will still let me drive it when he needs me too.

 

sanding around all these millions of rivets is soooooo fun i think i'll kick my dog!

 

i have replaced a bunch too. the PO ground the heads off a bunch to tek screw his homemade fairings onto the cab. much easier to sand the old paint off after they're removed.

 

...Got the striping done last night. We're close to finished up, ready to work this week.

 

Looks good! You'll soon be enjoying the fruits of your labor.

 

Fine looking A model! Looked at an A before I bought this L model, just needed to much for what I wanted the truck for. Friend has 2 A models and is in Cali now getting ready to unload, it runs every week.

 

This is the A I drive to Pennsylvania to look at, liked the 70" flat top but it was rotted out along the rear bottom edge of sleeper. Somebody had the steering apart and the pitman arm was hitting the battery box, that didn't allow to steer right as it should. Frame was cut and spliced behind the sleeper, 2 totally different height frame rails. Big Cam with 13 speed on Pete air ride.

 

I would have done the same thing with that one OLDSKOOL, some of them you're better to walk away from. Not knocking it, but it just depends on how involved we wanna get right?

Even this one, it's always deceiving from the outside. Looked like a nice truck (and it basically WAS,) so I took it home. Then once you start getting into it, the fun begins. And of course, it's all a matter of how far, how much, how long, how "everything" you want to get involved in them. My particular case was that this truck was replacing my wrecked one. I had a good chunk of insurance money, so I chose to reinvest it back into a truck that I would enjoy, want, and probably keep for a long time if it all sugars out.

But you never know...there ain't no guarantees that's for sure. Health, etc...I'm strong as an ox right now, but ox fall over sideways too, lol.

I took some shots last night of it FINALLY parked at home here after 3 months of being inside the shop down the road 5 miles. Been a good project overall. The effort and money (to me anyways,) was well worth it all. Now all I gotta do is make some of it back, hahaha.

Still have a bunch of little things to do, like get it shined up of course. A good weekend with the buffer and some sweat equity will change that as much as I don't care for that anymore...it's gotta be done. The passenger side step cover is a temporary one; I threw that one on just because I gave the other one to a local sheet metal guy who's building me another nicer one with a hinged door for storage. I have an enclosed headache rack with 3 stainless doors to put on yet too...all in time of course.