Slow and steady wins the race. Lookin' good. Your new hoist is just like my little hoist. You'll be amazed at how handy those fold up lifts are.

Well - its been more than 6 months and I've made no progress on the '71 because of work, other priorities, and life in general. This has been getting me down and grouchy in general and I have decided that it is time for a different strategy.

I have been working on the assumption that I would take care of the major issues first and then worry about the little stuff. A major monkey wrench got thrown at me when I realized that the cab would have to be gutted so I could repair the firewall without the risk of damaging anything. I've been kind of overwhelmed since then.

Tonight, I had an a epiphany that has renewed my faith that I can eventually get this done. While I'm gutting the cab, I'm going to start working on things that I had written off until I was closer to being finished repairing rust. I'd like to repaint the dash, go through the electricals, check the heater blower motor & wiper motor, possibly make a custom gauge cluster, and all those other items that got put on as a lower priority.

When I do finally have the time to attack the cab, it will be wide open for repairs and repainting. After that I would just have to reassemble everything. If, in the end, the cab has more rust than is practical to deal with, then the cab is stripped and ready to be pulled when I can find a decent replacement one. There is no wasted effort since the parts I would have already gone through could be put on the new cab.

Why it took me 6 months to come to this conclusion, I have no good answer. Hopefully I'll be able to post some progress again soon.

Good thinking Dave!