Project Papaw: reviving a rusted beater thats been sitting nearly a decade.

[Rodent]

My grandpa brought this truck home when I was just a kid, and proceeded to work the hell out of it doing septic tank installations and various carpentry jobs.

Pap moved on to smaller, more efficient vehicles for awhile. It was planned to be a high-school beater for me, but I ended up with a Nissan Hardbody. Which costed more to keep running than this old truck would've used in gas.



After sitting for eight years with mostly flat tires, no starter, alternator, or radiator, I didn't think I would ever get the old truck going again. I'd had opportunities, but between a full time job, wife, and home, they were few and far between.

[Rodent]

Once the old truck was pulled from the weeds, most of the garbage cleaned out of the bed, and some tires that held air was on it, it didn't look that bad. Me and pap turned it over a couple of times by hand, then stuck a starter on it and poured a little gas down the carb and it fired up fairly easily. Some rats tried to repack the blown out glasspacks with stuffing out of the seat, which smelled awful when it started to burn out of the pipes.





Didn't take us long to realize that another pretty important part was missing. The oil sending unit. Managed to blow out three quarts pretty quickly lol. Probably the closest to an oil change this old truck has had in a very long time.



Typical old greasy 350. It was freshly rebuilt when Pap acquired the truck. Supposidly mild cam, rusty crusty long tube headers and a Edelbrock Performer, and I may be wrong here but I think 305 heads. Old truck still sounds good. But damn does that motor need some serious cleaning.

[Rodent]

Speaking of cleaning, inside needs it too. Years and years of dirt, dust and mold in there. Floors seem pretty solid except a little spot on the passenger side. Think i might pull the carpet and try vaccuming and hitting it with the pressure washer a time or two.



How about Pap's home made, hand carved, door pull? One of my favorite things about the old truck. The door panel was "Refurbished" by me and a rattle can at the ripe old age of 9 too. Even got the custom chrome dry rotted speaker option!



I also was responsible for this Wal-Mart pin striping job as child, not to mention helping pap "install" that too small bug guard, International load star badges I found in the woods, and one of them cool old Swan hood ornaments from a old Ford dump truck my dad used to have.

[Rodent]

My long term, unoriginal plan with this truck, is to just cheaply and safely get this old truck cleaned up, tuned up, and back on the road without going nuts and breaking the bank. The body is going to stay exactly as it is, as tacky and beat up as it looks, atleast it has some character lol. I dare to say patina if you could call it that. Maybe eventually I'll put some decent wheels on it, possibly lower it some, but I'm pretty burnt out on paint and body as of right now.

[l92powered77]

hey man trucks with sentimental value and that are from a family member are the best to fix up. lookin good

[rusty76]

I'll ride. Hope to see more.

[mcnally351]

cool project do it up

[twangismythang]

Drive it!

[73Super8]

Awesome that is was your Papaws. I too have a Project Papaw. I own my papaws 88 S10 he bought new.

[Hankster]

I'll follow along! Seems pretty cool!

[Rodent]

Made a little more progress on the old truck today. Had the day off for MLK so I got the radiator hooked up, and stuck on a $21.00 alternator from Advance that I ordered online with a coupon code. The sleeve was missing that goes from the back of the alternator at the lowest bolt to the block, so I took a small piece of pipe and made my own. Seems to be working good so far. I know the wiring is a mess, and the fan shroud is missing, I'll get around to fixing that.



Filled her up with antifreeze and lost about a 1/2 gallon out of the missing temperature sending unit! I quickly found a pipe plug and stuck it in there for the time being. Added a little ATF and got the old truck moving! I backed it up a few feet and was satisfied, so I hopped out and let papaw take it for a little short drive. You can sorta see him in there.



So, satisfied that the truck can now move and stop under it's own power. I cleaned it up with some mold and mildew cleaner and a sponge. Just used a water hose to spray it off, and it seemed to make alot of difference. When warm weather finally gets here, I'm going to pressure wash the body and chassis.





Going to try and straighten that hood up a little and stick a headlight in it soon. Just makes the truck look so much worse lol.

[Hankster]

its cool you got it moving!

[Rodent]

Been working on this truck a little at a time over the winter. Cosmetically, I've straightened the hood out a little, removed that warped bug shield, and finnaly put a headlight back in. Also got tired of airing those junk bald tires up so I swapped on some decent 235's from my bronco 2.

[Rodent]

Mechanically a simple thorough tune up has done wonders for this truck. Federal Mogul cap and rotor, cheapo plug wires and some hot NGK plugs. Cap and rotor button were terribly corroded, I have no idea how it was firing. The Champion/Delco/Autolite plugs were covered in soot and carbon as well. Long tube headers made changing them interesting. Starts pretty good, runs smooth, and plenty of power. I've took it on a short drive or two, about a half mile or so just to check her out and seems to be pretty solid. I'm ready to tag and insure her pretty soon here. Just a few links to work out. Master cylinder is leaking down the booster, one transmission cooler line is leaking from a clamp, and both upper and lower radiator hoses are dribbling around the clamps, so I think they're shot.

[Rodent]

Double clamped the cooler line, no more leaks. Upper radiator hose fitting on the radiator was a little out of round on the brass radiator, so I bushinged it with some black tape and got that leak fixed. Tightened the other clamps down good and seems to be holding coolant in pretty good now. Need to rig up a cheap temp gauge now so I can keep an eye on it.

Brakes are next. Before the truck was parked it had some new lines, pads, etc. on it. If I can get the master cylinder on and get the bleeders loose I think I will be good. It stops good right now, and the fluid looks clean so I'm not too worried about the rest for right now.

Next on the list is pulling the differential cover and draining what, if any oil is in there. Would hate to destroy the rear end after coming this far.

My wife helped me clean the inside up a little. Seemed kinda dumb vaccuming and scrubbing torn carpet and armoralling a cracked dash, but man does it look and smell better lol. So much dirt and grime. I love the old work truck look and I'm 100% convinced that I would probably never get the door sills and seat belts out without a torch and grinder, so the old carpet is staying for now lol.

[rusty76]

Progress is progress and at least it runs under its' own power.

[Hankster]

That headlight looks good!

[Rodent]

Been chipping away at the old truck little by little. Stuck a new master cylinder on the other night with my wife's assistance. She turned the wrenches most of the time while I pumped the brakes lol. A new upper radiator hose solved my coolant leakage problem. I broke the fan shroud trying to bolt it up so I'm keeping my fingers away for now. Nothing interesting, but progress is progress.

Hoping to have the old truck tagged and insured by the end of April. That is my goal, we'll see.

[Hankster]

Progress is progress,

[Rodent]

Been driving the wheels off this old truck over the last week. Set up a mechanical temp gauge, new radiator cap, wipers, and got the top half of the shroud stuck on there. Me and pap put the swan back on the hood also. So glad this old turd is back on the road.

[Hankster]

Cool! As long as you take care of it you can drive it too, lol

[Rodent]

Yeah now that I've got the old truck back on the road, in my name, and insured I'm going to keep her going and not ever let it get back in the shape it was in. Not ready for any long drives yet but I've been driving it to work and around town here and there.

I did have a '89 C2500 light duty that I sold recently and used some of the cash to revive this old truck, it did it's job, but had a very weak 305 that got about 12 mpg and was just sort of a boring ride with just enough electronic bits on it that I didn't enjoy tinkering on it as much. Figured I could simplify a few things by selling it and putting the '80 model back on the road and using it for my trucking needs.

[Hankster]

Cool man! Its never fun to see any old vehicle sitting,

[Rodent]

Had a little thermostat/temp issue this week. Would get up to about 200 and then fluctuate down to about 190. At idle it would get to about 205 in a drive through. Then the thermostat housing started leaking. I went from a 16lb radiator cap to a 8lb and it still leaked so I put a 180* stat in it and discovered the old one was a 180 but had started to hang up from corrosion, causing it to run a little warmer than usual. Now it sits at 180 even with the new one.

[Hankster]

Well at least you got it figured out with out to many problems.