[Hblee]

I've spent the last 2 days reading this thread, wow..., as many others have stated you have very impressive workmanship and fabricating skills. I've done a couple of body-off restorations but haven't built a hot rod yet, it's a whole different skill set.

I have a 57 stepside that I've recently started on. It belonged to my brother and he and my dad were restoring it. They got quite a bit done and my brother became ill and passed and my dad stopped working on it. Dad passed away in January so my goal now is to finish this truck up.

I have known this truck my whole life, it came from the Panhandle and was bought new by my grandma's neighbor, it was purchased at Steve Johnston Chevrolet in Dumas, TX. It finally made it's way to the Houston area in 1997 when my brother bought it from my uncle who had been using it for his lawn care business, so my family is the 3rd owner. It is very straight with only a couple of rust issues. I found a couple of pinholes in the floor and the cab corners have some small holes in a few places. The frame was blasted by my dad and I sprayed it with Eastwood frame paint back in 1998 and it still looks great, it is the nicest, slickest frame I think I've ever seen on a older vehicle, absolutely no issues.

The plans are for a 427 BBC w/alum heads, 700R4, MII IFS, and a 12 bolt rear diff. Your thread has given me many ideas on how to proceed. I don't even have a welding machine but hope to get one soon. I'll have to fix the cab corners and the floor plus the firewall and I want to close up some holes in the bed sides like I've seen done. I just need to start practicing, I've welded a couple of small items using a friends flux core mig in the past but that's about it. I have a good friend who's a circle track racer and quite the welder and fabricator who hopefully can teach me a few things. I'll probably have to farm out the paint work or find another place to do bodywork. I only have a 2 car garage and have a 67 Corvette (newly restored) occupying half of that so I can't really don't want to be spraying and making a mess.

I'm a new guy around here and have spent the last couple of weeks following different builds and seeing how guys do many of the things I want to do. There is obviously a lot of talent around here, I'm jealous of a lot of you guys.