The hunt for big parts and the big work has begun for "Moose", so I figure I'd just as well make a thread deticated to its progress... first thing's first, if anyone has made projects out of any of the 8th generation(87-91) trucks your help, suggestions, and links to your project threads would be greatly appreciated as this is my first project truck.

Alright, so initially heres the vehicle as it stands now...



ive got the bumper/tailgate off and im in the process of removing the bed, once thats done im gonna start on taking apart the front clip and then the body goes so i can replace the frame as this one is bad...



went down to the local junk yard and they wanted 500 for disassembly and the part, does this sound normal? i mean thats more than i payed for the truck to begin with...


<center>...and so it begins...</center>

 

I am new to the site, i have an 88 project that is in good shape, so it shall be a fun adventure but good luck on the build ill be checking in and showing progress on my build as time goes on.

 

good god. What happened to that thing? As far as the junkyard frame. I would just give them 500 bucks for the whole truck and take it apart yourself, that way you would have more spare parts!

 

That's one sad looking rotted truck. Not fit to be on the road.

I noticed most trucks on e-bay from CT, NY, NH, MA, ME, PA parts of OH all
have rotted frames.

I lived in Detroit, MI where they do use road salt and none of my
vehicles ever had frame rot. I washed them down after evey storm.

Good Luck.

 

I think once its on a new frame it would be a great project truck. Body looks to be in ok shape.

 

yea for sure you can get a whole truck for 500, that way you have unlim spare parts, then when your done the junkyard will take the truck back for free !! at least... around where i live

 

Yeah at least the body is in nice solid shape rust on a body is a real pain in the *** but looks like a fun solid project nice to see people fixing up 80s trucks instead of older ones but the older ones are fun too except the frame there but you sound like you got it covered good luck and have fun!

 

Man that first pic you posted made me chuckle! Looks kind of funny sitting like that! I know where I live, there is a wrecker where i live, you can go to, take everything off of the frame, and they would sell you the frame for 125 bucks.

 

yeah, its gotta come from somewhere, preferably for cheap. i payed 450 for this truck because originally i was just going to use the 4x4 system to transfer into my daily driver but i figure ill make a monster out of this one that probably wont be legal on the road, haha, so alot of the body is coming off/being replaced/being cut up to suit new tires/suspension once i get around to that part of the project

 

got through those tough bolts today and got the bed off...

Before...





After...














Made some progress today, haha

 

Oh dont you just love rust!
How did you find taking the box off, was it pretty easy?

 

The frame looks relatively straight, why was the bed so ****-eyed?

 

the bed was easy to take off once we had the bolts ripped out, that was the tough part...




and the frame is fine exept the very end, look at the leaf springs in the pictures, the back half of them isnt attached to anything and theyre resting on the bumper brackets, thats why i need a new frame, haha

 

Oh yeah you did a number on the bed! Arent those bolts a pain in the *** to get out?

 

A few word for those bolts = Air Hammer. When i removed my bed, i just used an angle grinder and ground the heads off. Then punched the bolts through.