Welcome, and nice truck with a great family story. Sounds like you have a great plan for it and your pole barn/shop. West Columbia is a nice part of Texas, I am just up the road in Houston - in the Heights.
Good luck with it!

 

Welcome to the forum. Great looking 54 and excellent intro. I too have a "family" truck but unlike yours it has lots of rot (not wood rot either). Be thankful you Great Uncle left you such a straight, rot free truck. Enjoy your ride.

 

Looks like a great start. If it runs, get it on the road and start having fun. Projects you can drive are much more fun than projects in the garage.

 

It seems like since I got the bed off, everything else in the has needed my attention. But I finally got a few basic parts made. They may seem small and not neccessary but for me, I have to do it right the first time. I got the fuse box bracket, battery tray floor, battery tray L-bracket, and the battery splash guard.

First is the fuse box bracket. I know being made of the gauge of metal is a little overkill, but it ended up the cheapest. It is designed to fit directly into the driver side kick panel and be hidden behind a cover later.






Next is the Battery splash guard. I know the replacement ones are great but I didn't really want to pay for it so I got this cut cheap.




For the battery tray I didn't like how it seemed like there was a lot of points to hold water and end up rusting. So I designed a simple solution, 1 L-Bracket, solid metal floor, and then a marine battery tray.



I hope to get things clamped on for a test fit soon. Need to mark and drill some holes and the bolt it all in. Then I can run all my wires!

 

I just cough this thread. Welcome aboard. Great story, and very nice truck. Love the 54

 

Thanks, I find a lot of inspiration on this site. Your truck included.

 

Good looking truck and a great story. Thanks for sharing, I look forward to more progress!