Quote:
Originally Posted by 71swb4x4
Looking good Mike. How long until you think you will be driving it regularly?
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What have you been working on. I thought you bought a truck last year, but haven't heard about it since.
To answer your question, somewhere between next summer and never
Here's the status of the apparatus.
IF I get the brakes working properly, and the exhaust in, and the tranny kickdown cable, and dipstick all done this fall,
THEN next spring I
might be able to do some of the sheetmetal work and beat it around during the summer and beyond.
At a minimum, the windshield has to be replaced and the floor pans replaced. In order to do the windshield, the frame should be replaced (I just happen to have a couple), which means the top will need to be lifted off, which will remove support for the firewall. So, in my own head I'm thinking about body mounts first. Then maybe some bracing under the bed where the cross braces rusted away. Then I have a fair set of used torsion boxes that should be installed, but I'll need to do cab supports too. Then I can do the floor pans, brace the door opening, take off the top, fix the windshield frame and put in a windshield.
Now at that point, the rest of the rust repair could probably wait. I have better doors and a driver side fender. Still looking for a pass side fender. The back half is seriously rotted though. If I decided to drive it topless next year, I'll be putting a support across from bed rail to bed rail, to keep the sides from falling out (not kidding). The tailgate is already hard to open because of spread.
My daughter has a car now, so there is no impending use for it. My son, who has since claimed the jimmy as his, is still a couple years away from driving. He has been helping me out now and then on my projects and likes them. I'm somewhat confident that this will be his later on. And by that time, this may be a pretty decent ride.