Dad's '50 Chevy Barnfind Build

[theastronaut]

Long story, but here it goes. A few years ago we moved out to the middle of nowhere and there's lots of old houses and barns still out here. The house we moved into was built in the 1860's and the barn was built in the late 1800's/early 1900's. Everybody has old barns in our area, so we are always on the lookout for neat old stuff. I had met the owner of the truck right after we moved into the area when I was driving our '57 VW and it started skipping and cutting out (had been having trouble with trash in the gas). I turned off on a side road and coasted to the side of the road near a house and called dad for a tow. The guy in the house came out and offered to help push the VW down to his driveway to get it off the side of the road until they came to help tow it home. Instead of dad showing up, mom came with our Tahoe and towbar, we hooked it up, thanked the guy, and left.

A few years later dad had the grandkids over and took them to our local fire department to let them play on their playground, and dad met the same guy while they were there. They got to talking about the house dad and mom had bought, and it turns out that this guy had bought a few things that came from our place when our house had been auctioned back in the 80's. Dad was interested in buying one of the old tables the guy had so they went over to look at it, and during the conversation the guy mentioned that he had an old Chevy truck in the barn that he bought in the late '60s and drove until the brakes went out about 16 years ago. He put it in the barn and it had sat untouched ever since. Dad had always wanted a 48-54 chevy truck and tried to buy it then, but the guy wouldn't sell it. They kept in touch but the guy wouldn't budge on it.

Fast forward a few years, dad bought a 5 window truck that was in good shape but had been taken apart and never finished. Needed the floor patched and cab corners but everything else was in good shape. He's been wanting to get started on it but it's a pretty good sized project and needs everything replaced since it's just the sheetmetal and a frame. I mentioned to him that he ought to go make an offer on the '50 in the barn near the house, since it would be a much better start and would be a ton cheaper to finish than the one he already had. He went two weeks ago and the guy said that he had actually been thinking about selling it but wasn't 100% sure that he was ready to let it go. They came up with a price if he did decide to sell it, and the guy said he would call when he made up his mind. Dad got the call a week and a half later, and we picked it up yesterday.


Here's some pics of it in the barn and right after we pulled it out.



















Plans are to lower it with a dropped axle, get a set of 16" steelies and bias ply tires, get it running, and roll it as-is for awhile. It's got an engine out of a '59 that was running when it was parked. The wiring will need to be gone through, gas tank removed and cleaned out, and the brakes fully gone through. I'm going to knock the fender back into shape and the left side tailgate hinge mount area is rusted out so I'll have to cut that out and repair it. I've got a '66 C10 that I'm putting back together and restored a '65 at work but have never worked on an earlier truck so I've got alot to learn as we get it going again. I'll keep yall posted on the progress, and hopefully we'll have it up and running again in a few months.