New toy

[bob deluke]

Bought this last week. Need a project to keep me busy. Right now, it’s a 20 footer. Sketchy body and paint, P.O. said engine smokes, may be valve seals, stuck rings. Has a 292Y block, 3 on the tree. This will keep me busy and out of my wife’s hair. She suggested I restore a pickup truck instead of a car. What the hell, why not? Porsches are long gone, time to play with some early American iron. Plans are to drop the truck in the weeds, disc brake setup for front end. Generally clean it up and put put around town with it.

[rfuerst911sc]

Nice score ! Enjoy the journey .

[rfuerst911sc]

Where in upstate NY are you ?

[pwd72s]

Love it...back in the day of "honest" pickups...before they became cowboy Cadillacs. A good excuse to break out your SAE tools.

[Jeff Alton]

Very cool.

[wdfifteen]

Great truck! I worked for a farmer who had a '59 Ford, 292 and a 4 speed. It was a great truck for weekend impromptu drags. It was red, but not that red. Maybe the color looked a little more subdued because it never got washed. The chrome on yours was painted white on this truck.
I wish it was going to be kept relatively stock, but it's your truck.
A couple of questions: Does "dropping it into the weeds" make it more driveable, or is it a fashion statement? Also, why go to the trouble and expense of adding disc brakes if you are just going to "putt putt around town?"

[GH85Carrera]

Cool project.

Be prepared for cheap parts price, no Porsche tax. Make it into your fun toy, but not so personalized no one else will want it when it comes time to sell.

One of my El Camino buddies built a really nice 81 El Camino and had easily a 20K show car black paint job, monster engine, all corvette suspension and it was suddenly so nice he would not drive it except to car shows. He sold it for a price that would not have paid for the paint job alone.

Have fun with the toy.

[MMiller]

Nice! Look forward to seeing your progress..

[Seahawk]

Tres en el árbol?

I love it! Learned to drive with one.

Enjoy!

[sc_rufctr]

Wow and I love the color!

[JackDidley]

Super nice !!

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Very cool truck Bob, congrats! I can definitely see you in it and glad you are keeping busy. Best way to stay young.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

One of my El Camino buddies built a really nice 81 El Camino and had easily a 20K show car black paint job, monster engine, all corvette suspension and it was suddenly so nice he would not drive it except to car shows. He sold it for a price that would not have paid for the paint job alone.

I see this as a big problem for some people going into the future. I'm part of the VW community, where the current fashion is to spend $$$ lowering the cars, narrowing the front ends, and installing some really sketchy front disc brake systems. They also all have to have a roof rack for some reason. I've probably owned 15 VWs and I never saw a roof rack on one until it became fashionable.
Anyhow, I'm afraid when the lowered and narrowed fad fades and the latest best thing is something else, these guys are going to have a hard time selling their cars. That is, the ones that aren't all smashed up after the crappy disc brake conversion cuts a brake line in two or has a caliper fall off.

[tdw28210]

Like it

[thingmon]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I see this as a big problem for some people going into the future. I'm part of the VW community, where the current fashion is to spend $$$ lowering the cars, narrowing the front ends, and installing some really sketchy front disc brake systems. They also all have to have a roof rack for some reason. I've probably owned 15 VWs and I never saw a roof rack on one until it became fashionable.
Anyhow, I'm afraid when the lowered and narrowed fad fades and the latest best thing is something else, these guys are going to have a hard time selling their cars. That is, the ones that aren't all smashed up after the crappy disc brake conversion cuts a brake line in two or has a caliper fall off.

Damn, and I just bought all the parts to do that to my 63 Ragtop.. (green font)

Sweet truck. Those pictures made me a little homesick (NY expat. ~Cooperstown area).

Dave

[Baz]

Congrats on your new toy, Bob!

Nice classic there!

Love seeing these works of art being taken care of!

Please keep us posted with updates!

[Skytrooper]

Don’t drop it. You will wish you had not. The ride, while harsh in a 50’s pickup will be intolerable once dropped. It also immensely lowers resale value. Just drive “as-is” and enjoy. I am in western NY and would love to see it !

Btw, my toy

[Skytrooper]

The stupidity of this site boggles the mind at times. You cannot add a picture after your post. I changed the ride height on this to get it a tad higher.

[bob deluke]

Thanks guys, it’ll be a fun project, nothing to crazy. Rfurest; I’m halfway between Syracuse and Utica, live in Oneida. Wd; no major drop, probably 2” dropped spindles in front, keeping the solid axle or may go for a dropped axle. Reverse eyes in rear springs, take out a leaf or two. Nothing major or expensive. Truck sits a little too high for my taste. Drum brakes have supposedly been rebuilt, I”ll pull a wheel and drum to see. If They’re in good shape, if so, I”ll leave it alone. GH85; parts are reasonable and I can use my SAE wrenches again. Pretty simple truck, I plan on keeping the column shift as is. Shaun; thanks, looking forward to putting the truck on the road soon. Guys, I”ll be 78 in August, in pretty good health and this is not gonna be a major restoration like my 77Targa was. That was a 10 year project! Don’t know how much time I have left, so truck gets up and running quickly warts and all. I’ll keep you posted on the build. 1st project, pulled the bench seat, clean out all the mouse nests, poop, groose.
Paint the cab deck, add soundproofing and insulation, new battery and fabricated battery tray, hot start it for now until I get an ignition key made to see what’s up with the motor. Odometer shows 35k miles but I don’t know if that’s true. P.O says it is afahk.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Skytrooper

The stupidity of this site boggles the mind at times. You cannot add a picture after your post. I changed the ride height on this to get it a tad higher.

Matt, all you need to do is:
Create a new post
Upload pics
Copy pic URLs
Edit your original post
Paste pic URLs
Save

Just close the pic upload post before saving and it's gone but your pics have been uploaded