Betsy's 2nd Act

[Penguin]

Well, she's finally out of the shop. My body guy had a restoration that put us a couple months behind, but we finally finished up a couple days ago. Even he, being a modest guy, was surprised at how well it came out. Funny how new factory sheet metal will help that happen.

First we removed the body excepting the cab. Then we stripped the frame, treated it, and then urethaned the whole thing. The frame proper was in great shape but the connectors for a couple of the cross members weren't. We cut out the bad sections and Matt did a great weld job to repair it. We cut out the spare tire rack while we were at it since I carry a spare in the bed and the rack is a rust magnet:

truck_frame.jpg

Next we repeated this process for the bed and cab bottoms after replacing the cab corners and rockers. Then we assembled the bed. Then the inner bedsides were painted and urethaned. All told we replaced the hood, the fenders, the passenger door, both bedsides, the bumpers, and the hitch. After the PPG paint job I went through about 3 quarts of cavity wax (so far) and a half gallon of undercoating.

Here's the result:

truck_front.jpg

truck_corner.jpg

truck_side.jpg

Next up is a full brake job but apparently AC Delco brake pads are out of stock everywhere. Rotors are out there but pads aren't. Go figure. I hope the new tie rod ends and ball joints are available as that is up next as well. I'll know soon enough.

I was going to build a new engine for it next year but it really has been babied and runs like a top. I really can't tell the difference between now and when I drove it off the lot. That's what synthetic Mobil-1 from day one and transmission flushes at every 25k will do I suppose. So maybe Willie gets a tractor next year and the engine in a couple years?

Anyway it came out beautiful and it is nice to have my partner back up and running.

Will