Projects Father/Son 63 Chevy C10 SWB Build Thread

Very little to report over the weekend other than more bodywork on the doors Friday night. Silas is liking this part at least for now. We will see if he still likes it when we get the whole truck done. Trying to mainly focus on the cab for now so we can start putting stuff back together instead of taking more apart.

 

He will for the first 400 hours or so....

 

I like what you guys are doing. I did a similar build on a 65 El Camino with my son starting when he was 13. With his, once we got it running and driving he started making passes at the local dragstrip (I had been taking him since he was little and running myself) all thoughts of bodywork passed. We've had countless hours together building engines, rebuilding 4 speeds, fixing rearends, fixing old wiring etc. Funny thing is now he's a professional bodyman, and still hasn't touched the bodywork on his car.

Devin

 

Well, I wish I had something to report, but we have been doing other things until someone’s attitude gets a little better. I know how bad he wants this thing going as we can all likely relate to, but we have spent the last week doing other stuff around the house until he learns a little respect.

Anyway, last night, my younger son asked about getting to work on his build since he also turns 16 this year. So, we moved junk around and pulled my 312 y-block off the engine stand so we could put his 283 on it to pull it apart and check everything out good. The motor was rebuilt in the mid-90’s but sat in an open barn ever since, so we are at minimum checking everything out and sealing it back up. I guess I need to start another build thread for that pu too so as not to clutter up this thread.

 

I feel your pain Jeff. Justin had 2 project cars and never finished either one. I sold them, because he wouldn't put forth the effort. I think he probably regrets it now.

 

Big respect for this... I've been there too. He will come around. Just make sure you outlast him during the standoff!

 

Yea, I remember that Chris. It isn't that Silas isn't willing to put forth the effort on this pu. He is just letting his teenage bad attitude keep him in enough trouble that his punishment right now is me stalling to help him on what I know means the most to him. It is tough since I want it done too, but seems appropriate to wake him up a little right now.

 

I have been deployed all over the world since Bosnia and I tell you the greatest challenge in my life so far has been being a dad to a teenage boy. Keep up the good work dad!

 

Thanks for the encouragement! I would have to agree on it being the greatest challenge of about anything I have done as well. I just pray that my wife and I can get through these teenage years with three 15-year-olds in the house all at once...

 

It killed me to never finish them, but I am a man of my word. If you don't put forth the effort, I'm not either.

 

I’ve raised 3 boys - it’s tough duty. Sounds like you have a good handle on the task though. Put a link in this thread to your younger son’s build so we can find & follow it, too, please.

 

Here is a link to the other thread too. Thanks for following along and the encouragement.

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ad-pickup-build-thread.1193039/#post-13571490

 

Decided to go pick up the parts truck this afternoon. Talk about an easy way to load a vehicle with four flat tires! Anyway, not a bad old pickup overall actually. The V6 even turns over. Lots of stuff we can use and maybe we can sell a few things to recoup what we paid for it. I’m wondering about using the windshield stainless for a little different look on his. Silas says he wants to hang the grill on his bedroom wall. We will see about that...

 

That grill guard is nifty in an ugly sort of way. I've never seen one like it.

 

Heck, this thing even has power steering and looks like it did have under dash A/C. This was one fancy pu when it was new! I always hate making a vehicle into parts, but I suppose they all can’t be saved either.



Oh, and my borrowed machine from work isn’t quite as strong as the one at the salvage, but also beats pushing.

 

That's a pretty nice truck!!

 

Back to work today...finished stripping all the paint on the drivers door this evening and cut out two small areas down in the front and rear lower corners where some rust was just starting to show up. Silas was not excited about more “backing up”, but I promised him we are closer now than when it bubbles up through the nice paint in just a few years... We also started covering up my lack of metal working skills. Should be able to get this door knocked out tomorrow as well as the other one since it is in much better shape and needs no more welding. It will be motivating to both of us to get these in primer.

 

I always have expectations of finishing more than we do. But, we did get the drivers door smoothed out and in primer. Started on bodywork on the passenger door, but didn’t make it very far yet. It was fun teaching Silas to use the paint gun. He is willing to try anything which is good...most of the time. I also learned that after 20 years of not doing this kind of work, I am WAY out of shape when it comes to blocking. I am happy with how nice the door turned out considering how bad this one was.

Silas is done with school now for the year, so has a list of things to do to continue progress while I am at work.

 

And, a reminder of just how bad this door started out. It had the typical dent in the upper body line from the door stop failing at some point. It had a previous repair that involved drilling lots of holes in that area which later caused it to crack when the door stop apparently failed again at some point. I know this fails in comparison to some of what gets saved by some guys here, but no more than I like bodywork anymore, I think it turned out ok. Between the messed up body line, multiple mirror holes to weld up, rust, and a few other dents, it was questionable considering it isn’t that hard to find a decent door. We were at the point of almost bailing on this door at one point when I kept trying to weld up the holes and they kept blowing through since it seemed someone must have ground the area pretty thin or something.

Now, we just need to block the filler primer and get a smoother coat of primer on it. Last night, he mentioned that he thinks he wants to run it in red oxide primer until we can get around to painting it. Not sure I am completely on board with that idea yet. but we will see if that is where we end up or if it just ends up gray or something else. Oh, also seems he decided on the original gold color for the interior sheetmetal with some pinstriping. So, now we need to get back to work on the cab too. And, he wants the firewall white which will be the color of the roof and stripe down the side.

 

Looking good Jeff.

 

Unless there's some big dark secrets that truck looks like a project not a parts truck!

 

Yea, I agree. But, it does have quite a bit of rust in the cab and also has no title. It isn’t terrible to get a title in Oklahoma, but I don't need another project and the price was parts truck price. Depending on what all we need off of it, it may likely make someone else a good project if they don’t mind getting a title.

 

You guys are making good progress!

I wish I had room to haul home parts vehicles but then I would do it.....

Devin

 

Yea, I was just talking to my wife about that. I like having them and figure they may even come in handy after the boys start driving their old trucks. But, I could easily end up with a salvage yard behind the shop if I am not careful too. Thankfully, we have a little land and none of my neighbors can see them (other than maybe in google maps in today’s world ).

 

Nothing new to report as far as progress on the truck since the last week or so has been work on the house. But, knowing this isn't going to be done by the time he gets his license, we did go ahead and buy a beater OT 1-ton for him to drive for a month or two while we get it going. I figure it was cheap enough and I can use it to pull stuff instead of the worn out Yukon that currently gets worked harder than it should as soon as this is done. It will also be something he can drive when we blow this back apart for paint later.

But, the excitement for the day was getting some t-shirt artwork from B-Scott Studios with this project. If you are following Samuel's AD build thread, you may have seen the other one of these that is similar. Anyway, I will be ordering shirts for both these truck builds this week and letting the boys sell them to help them fund these projects. Silas has been waiting on this and hasn't seen it yet. Maybe now I can get my Dickies jacket back once he has one with his own truck on it...

 

Well...I am embarrassed to say that another month slipped by with no progress. Silas turned 16 and got his drivers license about 3 weeks ago now. He is driving an old Yukon and a 1 ton (that he complains about the gas mileage ) for now until we can get his truck on the road. Oh, and my younger two kids got their learners permits, so they are all driving now. I did take this whole week off though, so hope to knock out quite a bit of work on it. I think we will both be glad when we can start putting things together for good. Not sure what all we will tackle this week, but I am hoping we can get most of the rust repair on the cab done since we are both dreading it.

 

Another excuse/update on no progress I suppose...

The week I took off to get some things done turned into having to fix stuff he broke on the two other vehicles he was driving. He got a deer with the Yukon taking out the grill and transmission cooler on the Wednesday of that week and then crashed the 1 ton the Sunday after. He and I got the Yukon back together the middle of the following week, but the 1-ton is still sitting in the yard with more to do to make it drivable again. The deer incident was an accident. The 1-ton was being stupid, so he is paying for the parts and doing the labor to get it back together. I now know what it takes to sheer off u-bolts and spring pins keeping a solid axle in place if that tells you anything... They will slide right down the spring and smack the fenders too when that happens. I am mainly thankful that no one got hurt in either situation and that neither involved another vehicle (or insurance)... This teenage driving deal is going to wear me out. At least he seems to have learned a lesson on what not to do and I am just thankful it wasn’t the 63. We would both be sick if that were the case.

 

I remember backing my dad's 63 olds into a telephone pole. Bought it from him for my savings and pushed out the trunk area with the bumper jack and a pipe.

Sent from my LG-TP450 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I learned young the price in terms of money and labor in messing around. If nobody is hurt and insurance isn't involved, the lesson learned is invaluable.

 

If it's any consolation, at 17 years old I learned that yes, you can get a 3/4 ton truck completely airborne if you try hard enough. I also learned that the landing might seem innocent enough, but tomorrow you will find a number of "things" that are not the way they are supposed to be on said truck.

The best lessons of my youth were paid in cash and sweat. That one cost me a bit of hide as well.