Highschool Build: 1984 Chev

[YMC]

So I have been perusing this site for a little over a year now and I am only now finding time to post my little project on the site. Due to that please excuse me If my pictures don't always jive with my text.

Anyway on to the show...

So I bought this truck back in 2009 for $2500 (1st Pic). Now being in Canada both my mentor and I were pleasantly surprised to stumble on a truck that still had its original floor, rockers and paint; not to mention a near mint dash-pad! However, the first picture shows the truck in a lot better condition then it actually was. There was rust on the bottom of the doors cab corners and fenders. Not to mention the previous owner had done a nice job of backing the truck into a pole and smashing in the driver's side of the bed. Regardless, Canadian trucks are notoriously bad for rust and I was just glad there were no major holes in the body.

Mechanically and electrically however, the truck was a disasters. I honestly do not know how the previous owner managed to drive the truck to my house. As a result we began by ripping out the electrical. The previous owner had butchered the original harness in an attempt to add power windows (which still have their issues). At the same time we took out the computer because who needs those right? I wish I had taken pictures this early in the build but alas, I did not. In the end the old harness was replaced with a donor harness out of an 87'.

As for the motor, a family of mice decided to move into the air filter as well as the heater core. The carb was junk and the old M-style manifolds were half clogged. In favour of my laziness I am going to list all the changes made to the motor at this point.

-throttle body style manifolds
-Edlebrock 4-barrel w/electric choke
-platinum plugs
-all new belts
-ignition wires

The new style manifolds allowed me to install a 3-inch exhaust backed by a nice hollowed out cat and a dynomax muffler.

The second-third pictures were taken about 1/2 way into the body work of the truck. At this point I had sprayed the hood/fenders as my first paintjob before trying to paint the rest of the truck. Needless to say, it did not turn out well.

However, after investing into a better gun and spending some more time playing around with paint I proceeded to lay down my first ever paint job. I primed the truck using a rust-check rust killing primer and then sprayed the black with a tractor enamel paint.

I will post more over the next few days...

[YMC]

Some Continued pictures of the paintjob. All in all it took me about a weekend to paint the truck. Being my first paintjob I think it turned out all right. Only a few minor runs here and there (you can see it on the tailgate in one of the pics). The final picture is how the truck sat for a good 3 months.