My part in this build started on April 1st of 2014, and has a story to go with it. My grandpa bought this truck long ago and I have fond memories as a kid riding in it with him and my grandma on camping trips. He used it to pull his 5th wheel and fishing boat during his retirement years. Around 5 years ago he passed away and my uncle got the truck. Whether they were just hard on it or the truck was just getting old the poor thing was showing its age. It put out blue smoke, AC sorta worked, and many other quirks. Honestly it made me sad to see it in such shape. Then about 4 months ago my uncle decided he was done using (abusing?) the truck and it came into my parents possession. I was ecstatic and immediately told them the truck is mine when they are done using it. They needed something to haul dirt around, loads to the dump, etc... since they had a big yard and the truck did the job well. They proceeded to sink 3k into it for new tires, exhaust, AC tune up, and various other things. The motor still smoked but pulled strong. I imagined getting the truck one day and restoring it to its original glory until....
A few days ago just after 8 .m. when my parents left for work, a driver of a SUV who was on drugs or alcohol ( or both) was going fast north on 400 West near our house when he veered off the road for some reason and crashed through our neighbors fence, our mailbox, and the big green electric-company box, and then smashed into the driver's side of our truck that was parked in the driveway. You can see from the photos that the SUV pushed the truck nearly to right angles with the garage.
The SUV had no plates; and, of course, the driver had no driver's license and was not insured. He got out and ran around the fence into our other neighbors' yard. That neighbor saw him--she had heard the crash and was coming out to see what had happened. She followed behind him and saw him climb over their fence in the back of her yard. The driver behind the one who hit our truck saw everything happen and called the police, who arrived in just a few minutes, found the man cutting through yards, and arrested him. He is in jail now.
The electricity was out for several hours while the power company brought in a new green box and installed it. My parents were at work until nearly 6 p.m. and came home to find the mess.
June 18th 2014 - Im a little behind on this update but I grabbed some new power lock switches at the junkyard, unfortunately that didn't solve the problem. My parents then told me its had that issue since they got it so I suspect a broken wire somewhere. Got the door buttoned up, and replaced some interior lights so it was more convenient to drive at night.
What do you do with a truck you just rebuilt? I did what grandpa would do and immediately put it back to work removing large rocks from grandmas flower bed.
At this point there are some odds n ends ill be picking up at the junkyard next time im there, but the bulk of the repair is done and its fun to drive around in grandpas truck again.
May 28th 2014 - It doesn't look like much but these photos sum up two days worth of work. I managed to track down some gold left and right fenders with the inner liners. Its a darker gold so not a direct match but its straight and cheap so ill take it. The process of installing it was pretty intensive as I had to modify/repair further damage I wasn't expecting to deal with. By the end of day one I managed to get the new fender installed.
Day 2 was spent swapping over the door internals and putting the mirror on.
Im so close to being done but in the swap process some of the pinouts on the power lock switch came out. I didn't have time to mess with it much but basically right now my power windows work on both doors, but the power lock switch on the drivers door does nothing and the passenger door can unlock the car but not lock it. I tried figuring it out with the Haynes manual but that was a no go. Tomorrow ill probably just start switching up pins and hope I get it right
So close to being done though and it turned out pretty good.
May 15th 2014 - Got the old door removed(royal pain since its power windows and locks), and the new shell put in place with my wifes assistance last night.
Closed it and.....bummer theres still a massive gap. So I went to bed.
This morning I determined the front fender needed to be removed to straighten it and make the door repair easier. Didn't realize I was in for a 16 bolt and hood removal procedure to accomplish that.
Then I busted out the tree saver, attached it to the hinge, and put the jeep winch to work
Results of first pull looked pretty promising.
Lined up again for the second pull. Getting better....
I had to get going to work and only had time for one last pull. the problem I was running into was either the truck would slide, or the jeep would slide from the force of the pulls. I chocked the wheels with everything I had, and even chained the other side of the truck to a heavy press I had to keep it from sliding, then gave it one last go.
Success!
Im super pleased with the results. Now im trying to decide if ill stick with my original plan of just hammering out the existing fender, or getting one from a junkyard. Hammering the existing one out is cheapest, but I really don't want to have to take it back off later. Decisions decisions...
May 14th 2014 - Not much of an update but I feel pretty accomplished. Over the weekend I ran up to get pre-tech'd for OSRC and thought I may as well check out the junkyards in the area. Found one that had what was supposed to be a complete door, that turned out to be just a shell. Since the system said it was complete the manager threw in the regulator for it as well all for $100 which seemed reasonable. But more importantly I got the door open!! Now I just need to switch over the existing internal panel and I should be set door wise. Looked at the A pillar and it actually appears to be undamaged. The picture makes it look cockeyed but I double checked the other side and it seems the same. Fingers crossed. Hopefully I get more time to work on this soon.
April 2nd 2014 - Fixed the upper ball joint this morning. Luckily it had been replaced before so there were bolts instead of rivets, but I did have my grinder just in case. Put it all together, hopped in the truck, dropped it in reverse, and the car drives forward? Put it in park and it goes backwards. Odd. Well I tracked down where the linkage goes and from what I can tell I think the firewall got shifted a little and it threw off the column shifter linkage. Made some adjustments and its all back to normal now. Drove down to the junkyard for a new driver side mirror that I put on to keep it legal. The good news is it tracks straight and I got it up to 65 with no issues. Probably get an alignment on it anyway though. Next project will be figuring out how to get the door to open. Currently im trying to take off the inside door panel but im not sure that's going to be feasible since parts of the panel are inaccessible.
Also found this little gem under the hood. Took me a few minutes to figure out how it all works. It has a 25ish foot cable on a reel that comes out and a switch on the box to power it. Pretty neat little item.