1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

And so it begins. A picture of this truck was texted to my wife around Christmas 2019 from her step-dad with a message that said Merry Christmas. We didn't get to pick it up from Arkansas until last October. This gave me some time to do some research and formulate a plan.

Sorry about the matchbox car looking photos from the side. I scaled the hi-res pics to meet the size limits and that's what happens.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

So what's the plan?

- 6.2L and 6L80
- TCI Frame
- Must be "Red" according to the boss
- Power windows (removing the vent window)
- Power door locks
- Power seats
- A/C
- Dakota Digital gauges
- Wheels and tires TBD, but probably 18s or 19s and as wide as I can go in the back w/o interference
- Gas tank under the bed with a behind the license plate access to filler cap

It took about 6 months, but I picked up a 2008 Escalade donor from auction for slightly more than the price of a used engine and tranny from one of the wrecking yards. These pics are after giving it a good cleaning inside and out before I started taking it apart. Since it was going to sit in my driveway for several weeks, I needed the HOA to think all was well while I pulled everything from under the hood and all of the front seats, electronics, and misc parts. Then over one weekend, I stripped the hood, front bumper, fenders, a couple of doors, HLs, mirrors, etc for sale on Craigslist before hauling to the Pick and Pull.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

I pulled everything that I thought might be of value. I wish I had a place to "park" it out of sight as there were a few more items I would like to have had after the fact. I could have sold a few more parts also. Oh well. That's how you roll in the land of HOAs. :cuss:

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

While all of this was going on and still a couple months from going to pick up the truck in Arkansas, I got the frame ordered and started putting it together to transfer the body parts to the new frame. This thought process is all about the limited space. Once the truck arrived, and I started dismantling it, I would only have a few days before the HOA would start complaining about a junk vehicle sitting in the driveway.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Next I tore the engine down and inspected it as it had a "tic" in the valvetrain that I heard when I did a preauction inspection. I knew something wasn't right, but wasn't as concerned as I knew I would be doing a basic rebuild anyway. I sent the block and crank out to the machinist and the tranny to the tranny shop to get new clutches and the tail converted to 2WD from the tail and housing for AWD.

Sorry no pics of the tear down as I was in a hurry to get it to the machinist. The tic was from a lifter that looked like it wasn't pumping up fully and was galling the lobe. But, all is not lost. I promised the boss it would go back stock. No wild or loud engine with an aggressive cam. This gave the excuse I needed to put a mild cam in it form Texas Speed. A win for the little man!:metal:

You can't really see it in the picture behind the engine, but that is the radiator from the caddy. I built a rolling test stand for the engine/tranny/radiator/exhaust so that I can hook the ECU and harness to it and check the initial fire up and tune without it being in the truck.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

NICE!!!!!..i like it ..

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

About now, it's October and time to make a trip to Arkansas and pick up the truck. For once, with COVID in full swing and going stir crazy at home, I was looking forward to the 13 hr drive back. We have made this trip many times through the years, with and without kids and it gets old so we generally fly when given the option. The weather was good so we picked up the trailer and headed out. We only stayed for the weekend as we were expecting our first major snow storm in Colorado and got back just in time. The next weekend was nice so I started pulling it apart and determining how much rust I was going to have to deal with.

An interesting note, the tires were certainly from back in the day. They actually held air. Wow.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

More tear down. It has rust in the usual spots: lower cowl, front half of floor, cab corners, radiator support, lower doors, but for the most part everything else seems to be solid enough to take through media blasting.

I sold the old rolling chassis to a nice guy in the Springs. He was restoring his back to stock. Said he had it since HS. That's cool. I delivered as part of the arrangement.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Ok. Last post for tonight. Here are a few pics of things sitting on the frame. The crappy wheels and tires look ok in the picture, but are bald and flaking the chrome and one doesn't hold air more than 48 hrs. That's ok as I picked them up off Craigslist for rollers and to estimate the size I might want to go with. These are 20 inch rims. Dropped the engine block and tranny in because, well, I couldn't help myself. Also set the seats in from the escalade for giggles.

I'll move to the rust work next. Thanks. ;)

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Thanks. It's going to be a long journey. :)

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

I’m in for the build.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Nice. Going to follow your progress.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

dude, playing the full HOA game on a top-down build, well played! awesome start to the build too.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

As said before, nice start to the build.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

I'll hang around for this build, nice job on everything so far...Jim

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement.

I started next on the floors. I ended up replacing the sub-floor supports, front floor pans, inner kick panels, re-working the existing inner cowl braces and part of the bottom of the right door post. I'm waiting to weld the outer cowls until it's media blasted. At that point, I will do final welding of all the panels and filling the extra holes in the floor and cowl. I also want to do some additional bracing underneath across the floor to each door and around the tranny cover. The stock seat frame provided a lot of the floors rigidity. I'll try to use the braces for the seat mounting points also. Debating on Epoxy Primer at that point.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

More pics of flooring and cowl work.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

More pics... Everyone likes pics right...:lol:

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Now the passenger side. Step and repeat with additional work on the door post.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

More of the same.... :smoke:

The black shiny appearance of the cowl braces is due to rust treatment and a rust encapsulator. At the time, I wasn't thinking about leaving that are open for blasting.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

More pics.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

At this point, I started working on the door bottoms. But then I started thinking that I should do a number of things while I had open access through the door bottoms. I decided to combine a number of objectives that were intertwined. I started adding the electric door locks out of the caddy along with Miata door handles and Specialty Power Windows. Doing it this way will also give me access to do a better job of rust treatment inside where media blasting won't be able to get to.

Needless to say, things turned to a snails pace as I problem solved each aspect as it relates to the other. I've currently got the passenger door mocked up, functional, and hung. I need to do final welding and complete the door bottom. Now I'm in the process of stepping and repeating the driver door. When I get this done, I'll post all the details.

More to come. Thanks

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

I like that door bottom brace, wish I'd seen/thought of it last year.

You are making great progress.

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Looks great your making good progress...

Marc

Re: 1953 3100 "Honey-do"
 

Everything is lookin real good.