Projects 58 Chevy Pickup build · Can O' Worms!

This is a build thread for my buddy's truck, I'll start off with the story and follow it up with pics...

So my buddy Jeff (lunchboxlbc) calls me up and has decided he wants to build his wife a pickup! She's wanted one for a long while! Nothing fancy just something cool that she can run to the grocery store or the nursery in. I'm like OK I'm game. He says we have to keep it a secret I want to suprise her. Uh ok! So he prods her and finds out what she wants, and shows her trucks on ebay and tells her he'll watch them, but eventually they all end up too expensive... at least that's what he told her. So I'm looking around and he's looking around. We really wanted something that already had a late model front clip in it. Luck would have it Jeff finds one here on the hamb.. looks decent but the pics are small so it's hard to tell. So Jeff calls the owner and talks with him about it and he goes over the truck while Jeff is on the phone... Here's what we get from the seller...

The fenders are workable, needs cab corners, small hole in floorboard and small hole near rearview mirror, bed in great shape, rear fenders good.

We're like ok sounds good, so Jeff asked for larger pics... but we never got those! Because this seller was a friend of my friend, Jeff went ahead and sent him some money.

So we scheduled a time to run to Salina to pick it up, Jeff told his wife he was coming up to hang out with me and work on my car (Jeff and Jen live in Dallas). We planned on doing all the work at my place and he'd just come up on the weekends. Jen was under a huge deadline with the Prince of Abu dhabi designing the interior of his home... so there wasn't any red flags for her as to how often he'd be coming up. It was perfect timing!!!

So we meet up to grab the truck during the KKOA Spectacular in Salina... the truck was left at my friends place. When we got there it was so far from what we expected and what was described it was kick to the sac!!! Unfortunately Jeff had already paid for the truck so there was nothing we could do but roll the guy at the car show... Which we didn't, dang it! We really needed about $1000 back from what we had spent on it. The only good thing going for it was the camaro clip it had installed, which was a great job from someone who knew what they were doing. But the rest was like the old chicken soup saying!! Man we had a mess on our hands and our deadline was blown outta the water. All the rust was going to kill the budget and kill our timeframe.

Multiple calls, emails and pm's to the seller after we got the truck were unanswered, that to me just meant he knew he screwed us!!

Here's the pic.... I'll be updating as we work on it.

 

Basically the whole bottom 6" of the truck had to be replaced, along with new front fenders, rear fenders and bedsides. I think what happened is someone had the front clip installed and then realized how much rust was in it and abandoned it.

On the way home, the bed fell down over the frame it was rusted so bad there was nothing to hold it to the frame. The PO had thrown some chinese bolts in the bed and the front bumper before we got it... They didn't hold!

We ended up finding another bed in a lot better shape and new front fenders.

 

Then I decided to look into this rust out above the rearview mirror... Apparently a mouse or two had gotten up in there and pissed on everything, year after year... it was so rusted that I had to find a donor piece from another cab...

 

Lots of work there but I have seen worse restored on the hamb. I have o lot of surface rusted parts that are still good if you are interested or missing something.

Looks like fun though. I love mine And mine was approaching yours in rust

 

For what we paid, it should've been in better shape or 75% of what the seller said anyway!!

We kept looking at the cab corners and really didn't understand what the pocket was for, so we just capped it off.

The good thing about this truck... we'll know exactly what we got when we're done!!!

 

I've read through your thread a bunch and checked out all your pics... it's helped me a bunch working on this truck!!!

 

Looks like a great job on the cab corners. Yeah, I never understood the pocket either...maybe it was a good place for your stash back in the day.

Are you guys doing a radio delete?...I noticed you kept one radio knob hole...

 

Thanks Buzz... Well it had a radio hole cut into the dash... we had thought of keeping the one hole and putting a switch in it, so I started filling all the ashtray holes and the radio hole... we've since decided to put the guages in the dash where the radio would have been.

 

When you end up with a lemon.....................time to make some lemonade!!! Your friend really got hosed on that deal but if the pictures don't lie it looks like your well on your way to making a very serviceable truck. Keep us posted on the progress.

Frank

 

Thanks Frank!! I surely wouldn't recommend the seller to anyone else... in fact I would do my best to steer them away from him!!!! We've had to buy every patch made for that truck and made a few they didn't sell. Jeff has the doors and is putting the lower 6" on them along with repairing the hinge pockets!

 

looks good so far, what are you going to do for the bed? Who are you ordering parts from?

Cl***icparts.com is a pretty decent place, runs stiff compe***ion with truckandcarshop.com. Cheapest place for the same quality and they sell Counterpart. I highly recommend the oak beds and for them to drill the bed mount holes and offset washers.

Like I said, I have a lot of parts sitting in tubs in my garage, just let me know what you need and they are yours. (I think 4 overflowing tubs of parts for this truck is enough. Are you guys looking into using a roll pan? I have one of those too...

 

We scored a bed from the salvage it was in better shape so we're using it. We have a local guy that sells all the patches and we've gotten a bunch from him, he deals with us well and gives us a brake and no shipping or tax. Jeff has picked up the patches that he didn't have and had them shipped to me. We're going to do probably a pine bed so that it's inexpensive and we can throw stuff in the back and not worry.

Really appreciate your offer on the extra parts! I'll let you know if we find that we need anything! Thanks a ton!!

 

Contrary to popular belief you can make chicken salad outta chicken s#it!

HRP

 

looks like it's in good hands

 

wow, that is quite the undertaking. From what I see so far, you are making remarkable progress. Keep up the great work!

My only question...why didn't he have another HAMBer inspect the truck before he bought it?

Perhaps you need to call out the seller to help the rest of us avoid making the same mistake.

 

I guess the lesson here is if the bigger pics never came, he shouldn't of purchased it, he gambled and lost. I have found over the years that each person's perception of poor/fair/good/excellent can go from one end of the spectrum to the other, thats why you have to see it before laying down your good old hard earned money. On the other hand if you wouldn't of gotten the truck it could of went to s****, so kudos for saving the ol girl. Good luck on the rest of the resurection.

 

i feel your pain... i have bought a few of someone else's opinion of "restore-able" trucks myself... i wanted them i guess so no ones fault but mine for not checking more..but it does look like you are gonna have something nice when ya get done..... i feel bad right now now i just sold a 60 chevy to a guy i told him it was a parts car i hope he wasnt expecting more..because he had to pay more than he paid me to get it shipped!!!! after we loaded it i thought to myself i would hate to think i had 1600 in that car..but i guess if you want one sometimes you have to take what ya can find and pay the price

http://s202.photobucket.com/albums/aa84/rcplumley/60 chevy leaving/

 

On my 55 step side that my step father bought in 56 the pocket on the drivers side is where the original jack, which is a screw driven bottle jack, went. It installed with the base in the up position into the pocket. The jack handle went under the front seat.

 

Being a softer wood you need to be careful, it will want to wallow out easier making the bed sides unstable. Pine was used in a lot of work trucks because it was cheap and they were going to replace it anyway (they would screw 2X4's to block in things they were shipping such as equipment, engines, tools, etc. Just as a fair warning to you. Looks great so far, I am surprised that the patch panel on the drivers side turned out the way it did.. The patches that I bought were trash, so I stuck with American made only, not Taiwanese. Keep it the good work.

I have an extra set of bed strips too, just plain steel if you want them. How are the floor patches coming along? I am considering using some on the drivers side, but wasn't sure how good the fit is or if they are junk or not.

 

Seeing how it's my/wife's truck I suppose I should chime in a bit here.

First 1959apache, Thank you very much for your great offer, but I believe we have everything we need to at this point. Soon as I finish the doors, there will be no rust left in the truck.

Second, Thanks Chad for starting this thread. I was, going to get to it at some point. I promise
Also, thanks for all the help brother. We are so freaking close!

As for the condition of the truck, I did take a gamble. And I won and lost. I won in that if I had bought a truck with camaro clip done on the level of the truck we are working on down here... All I would have gotten was the frame. I lost in that definitions of workable metal differ from person to person.

It is what it is. The truck will be awesome once we put it together, and my lovely bride is on cloud 9 about it. That is all that matters to me. HELL, I have a wife that digs old cars just as much as I do. I won the freaking lottery there.

 

You can say that again.

 

[/IMG]






First coat of blue for the door panels.

 

There's some more photos

 

For those who are hunting part, Ken (I forgot his last name) from around Tulsa really helped us out with some trading. He has a ton of parts for these trucks. Then fixmyrust on Ebay had the best prices on the other pieces we needed. AND if anything ever got damaged in shipping, they would just ship a new one and not want the dented one back.

 

damn fine job on the metal work. You've really had your work cut out for you on this one

 

Repaired both lower hinge pockets today and fixed the gaping hole in the trans cover!






Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

Got the lower hinge pockets repaired and got the battery tray fixed.






Also got the dash gauges cut and lined up!




Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad

 

looking good, keep us posted

 

nice work man, ive seen guys that capped the cab corner pocket off just like you did but also cutout the inner cab corner below that patch to prevent any moisture from holding in there and rotting the corners again. thats how im gonna do mine

 

looking good so far, keep it up! Sorry about mentioning about the parts, just wanted to make sure that you had everything to make it nice for the wife. I know my wife saw this thread and was absolutely jealous (looking for a 53-56 Ford/Merc to do for her). This truck is going to be killer