We have some age and abuse issues here....












she's ugly but she's still mean!



an old scaned photo from "back in the day"

 

I kind of grew up with this truck in the 70's & 80's, it was my uncles truck.

it was one of the area "tuff trucks"

Well the years have been tough on her.

The truck has been to hell and back, over 500k on it.

360, 4 spd, manual brakes, manual steering. 1970

I drug home a 67 2wd non titled parts truck a few weeks ago mostly for it's body.

I intend to start transfering & fixing body panels as early as June. It's going to be a budget project, I just want it to look decent again. I'm sticking with the stock steel rims, tall skinny tires & going back to the yellow & white paint job my uncle did in the 70's.

I'm working on my daughter's 65 mustang at the moment but as soon as that is done I'll begiun on the old truck here. i'll dig this post up & post progress when I have something to report as progress

This will be a surprise to my uncle, I haven't told him I'm fixing the old truck up, he'll get a kick out of it i'm sure.

Later,

Dave

 

Make sure you keep us all updated on your progress. It will be a awesome to see you fix her back up. Good luck!

 

Thanks, here's a couple of pics of my donor truck. I plan to just use the 67 grill because it's pretty nice and my 1970 grill is just wasted (budget project here bigtime )







donor truck aint perfect either but i'll have enough to work with.

 

That grill on the donor truck looks awesome! I really like that style of grill. I wish I would have found a good donor truck for my project. I definitely could have saved some money and time but live and learn . Let me know how it goes as you get moving along. Best of luck!

 

Thanks man.

Yeah I'm definately going the crafty backwoods redneck style with this refurb.

Little things like the lower rear front fender patches will be cut out of the bottom sections of the old original box sides.

Why not right? it's the same contour. Same trick will be used for any lower outer door skin patches needed.

don't get be wrong, there won't be any pop rivets or super thick layers of bondo involved. i'll do it right, I'm just going to be... frugal where ever possible

My goal is to save the yellow truck's cab, that way it will still be the same truck to me. But the rest of the body is coming off, box, fenders, doors, hood, grill, it's all junk.

I might just make my own cab floor patches, keeping in the spirit of how the truck has existed for all the years I have known it it's had home made floor pans in it for as long as I can remember. I'll also have to fix the front cab supports.

This will be kind of a fun project because no matter what I do to this truck, no matter how little money & effort I throw at it I will see a huge improvement. LOL!!

I'm also getting a set of hiboy leafs from a friend to put under the ole yeller feller because the original springs have settled very badly.

 

Sounds like you have a good base plan. I lucked out my truck never left San Antonio, TX until I brought it up to Austin so I didn't have too many major body cancer issues to deal with. I ended up putting a new driver's side floor pan in (bought it from LMC). I should have thought about fabricating my own to save some $$ since I coated the inside of the cab with acoustical paint and put in a new rubber floor mat. Can't see it anyways . It is pretty cool you have such history with your truck and it will be cool to get her back in shape. Definitely takes a lot of work but worth it in the end. Take care - James. Oh yeah, not sure if you know about these guys or not but they are located in Arlington, TX and they have original parts or can find whatever you are looking for. Check them out when you get some free time. I found them to be really helpful. Antique Auto Supply, Keeping the Old Car Hobby alive for the last 50 years"

 

Thanks for the link!

 

Dave love the old yeller truck. She will be awesome when you get her up to par.

 

Too bad your far way from me I got some old snow stud tires on 8 lug rims that would go well on your truck.
Its great to see a true work horse be restored back to its glory day's.

Mitch

 

one thing im just wondering.... what happened to those bee itching stacks?

 

i believe that grill on that truck is a 68.
but i am positive it is not a 67. cause 67 grills are my favorite and i have been trying to find one. if it was a 67 grill all the bars would be the same size, and the one in the middle wouldnt be any larger than the others.

 

LOL! I don't know what happened to the stacks, that's how ole yeller rolled back in the 70's

I've actually given some thought to putting a set of stacks back in the truck just because.

You guys should have seen this truck back in the day. I was just a kid but the older guys all had big trucks & on a Friday night outside the tavern in our one bar, no cop small town was our only stretch of pavement. These boys would hitch their trucks up back bumper to back bumper out in front of the bar at night and try to pull each other around. You'd hear 2 engines screaming & tires howling & you knew what was going on over in front of Larry's bar. You could hear it anywhere in town, if us kids were up we'd hop on our bikes & peddle up there to watch and laugh.

Ole yeller was about the loudest of the bunch with those stacks and my uncle had welded some long heavy metal flat bars from his hitch point in back up to the front of the frame with the idea being he was hooked a little more solid & could maybe help transfer some of the load to the front when they were dragging each other around on the dry tar in 4 low with the tires howling. LOL, god I guess you might be a redneck if that's how you grew up was around stuff like that huh?

Ole yeller really had a reputation & she held her own against many a chevy & dodge & even some smack talkers with half ton fords with big tires.

Yeah those were the days, seems like a hundred years ago but I can still see it in my head plain as day. My uncle with that chitty smile as he climbed into that old yellow truck with the plain steel wheels & tall skinny/ugly co-op tires, he'd be hooked up to some shiny new lifted chevy with chrome wheels & big mud tires..... and you just knew it was going to end with a broken axle & probably a fist fight before it was all done with.

 

great story.... we had some old worn out 81 f150 300 i6, 530k + miles and put it in 4 low and pulled a 4x4 jeep and a race car ( straightning the frame redneck style ) backwards and it didnt even break a tire loose. and the jeep was smokin' all 4 lol

 

That truck reminds me of ones my uncle used to use on the ranch (Kamloops area, BC). A truck would start life as the 'town' truck, then get demoted to being the 'farm' truck, where-upon my uncle would do his best to beat 'holy heck' out of the truck on the farm. The truck was a tool and got used as such -- repaired as required, and abused as required. I was always impressed with how long they stood the abuse. I too clearly remember bouncing around in old fords as a kid...
darrell