[cwcarpenter98]

Rust wise, not the worst, but definitely not rust free. Needs rockers and probably the edge of the floor pans. Also needs some help at the bottom of the fenders. The cab corners look to be pretty decent though. Of course, the interior is rough from sitting in the Georgia sun for many, many years, but that's all fixable stuff.

There's a possibility that the truck only has less than 60k original miles, but we aren't completely sure about that. It is mostly original though, and I believe it still wears the paint job from GM.

The first day I looked at it, I put a wrench on the crank pulley to check if the engine was stuck. It wasn't stuck solid, but would only go a small distance before not wanting to turn anymore. At that time, I didn't have the time to tinker with it more. This morning, I went back to the truck armed with some tools and a fully charged battery. The Pennington's haven't found the key yet, but the ignition switch must have been left in the accessory position because it can still turn the engine over without the key. Or maybe the key broke off inside? I'm not sure yet on that one. Anyways, I used one of those ignition bypass buttons so I could be under the hood to start the truck. On the first attempt at hitting the button, the engine turned over quite nicely. No funky sounds, but it wasn't firing off. I then tried the ignition switch and found that it still worked. That was quite surprising because of how many wires have been chewed through. We poured some gas down the carb and tried again, but the engine just wasn't lighting off. After some investigation, I discovered that the power wire to the dizzy has 12 volts, but the 3 wires going from the cap to the base of the dizzy have been eaten. No spark for me. At that point, I was ready for lunch and out of luck, so I called it quits for today and will try again another time.

So, what are my plans for Penny? Well, I've got to start the rust repair on Frankentruck soon, but I'd like to still have a truck to take to cruise ins and shows. Penny fits the bill perfectly for that because of the A/C.

This build will be a slow one for me and definitely on a budget. My plan is to get the engine running, fix whatever is broken mechanically, get the A/C working, and then enjoy it for a while. I might throw some lowering parts at it as well, but I haven't made that decision yet. Definitely keeping the original steelies and hubcaps.
At the least, I'll hang on to it until Frankentruck's rust repair is finished, but maybe by then I'll decide to keep it around and fix all of the rust issues. Either way, it should be fun!