I have been lurking on these forums for awhile now and i think i am ready to try and revive my old pickup. I bought the pickup in 95, drove the **** out of it throughout high school and college, then I parked the truck and have not really touched anything on it since. I pulled the thing out of its 7 year storage and took a few pics of the "rough" areas. I know the bed is pretty shot, but I was hoping the cab is salvageable. Please take a look at the below pics and let me know if restoring this truck is worth the time and effort or should I be looking for something in better shape. I am not looking for trailer queen restoration, but i would like to fix it back up to a reliable vehicle that my son could possible enjoy in 10 years or so.

My plan was to tear into the cab, get it patched back up, and then rip off the bed and run around with a flatbed until I could find a suitable replacement stepside.

 

I say go for it !!!! Getting a different truck will not be the same as fixing up the one you drove high school. Your son could drive the same truck in high school as you did!! There are other people on here that have started with alot worse. Plus you do not see very many step side trucks anymore.

 

I agree, just having the one from H/S and Col is neat in itself

 

Your truck looks like "Showroom new" compared to this truck when I started. This was a truck I built for my first wife. As you can see, 16 square feet of patch metal later, it turned out pretty well.



Go ahead and get after it. It's really not that bad. Just take your time and do it right so the repairs last.

 

It'll be alot of hard work, but it should be worth it in the end, even if you just restore it for the nostalgic factor. I've only seen a few step sides, and most of them are worse off than that.

 

My highboy is sitting next to a matching highboy at my in-laws house and it looks like mine is mint compared to my father in-laws. I would be leary about putting a 2lb fishing weight in the cab in fear of falling through. In other words your truck isnt that bad. you and LMC truck are gonna get close haha

 

Go for it!

 

Thanks for giving me the push. the wife isn't completely happy but she wasn't the first girl in the truck if you know what i mean. lol. Woman are weird like that.

Looks like later this week or so i will run it to a few body shops and get quotes. You guys might see a build thread on this starting up.

 

I sold a nice vette for the same reason. If mama ain't happy nobody is happy. I was not attached to it anyway.

If you dated her in it tell her nice it will be to take her back out in it when you are done, how you fell in love with her when you were cruising her around in it. It's all about you baby....

 

If that doesn't work you're screwed no matter what you tell her. But you should play the father son project angle and that usually works.

 

yeah the wife really never spent any time in the truck and she is one of those people that has no attachments to any vehicle. they just turn the key and drive.

I will play the father son angle. I can never get enough bonding time. Bad part is the boy is 5 and he has no attention span. lol

 

Finding wrenches is a good job. That's how I started out

 

Not to mention, if this project takes a few years, your son will grow to appreciate the time spent working with you and eventually have a better appreciation for the vehicle when he is driving it. None of us wanna hand our trucks down to our sons just to find he was out hot rodding and put it in a ditch. but we can definitely hope that they will appreciate the vehicle as much, if not more, than we do.

 

I will play the father son angle. I can never get enough bonding time. Bad part is the boy is 5 and he has no attention span. lol[/QUOTE]

Thats easy put an XBox in the cab. All kidding aside the truck is worth restoring if you saw what I started with you would not be worried.