Well the next day was one of assessment of what we had, as well as decontaminating it. It still smelled awful, and we were sure that there were still several mice still residing in there. Kevin had already snagged two of them in the traps he set the night before. (We would eventually catch 4 more.) So cleaning started in earnest. I sprayed some strong detergent throughout the cab and hosed it out with hot water. With things slowly getting better on this front, it was also cleaning the engine compartment.
As we surmised, this was a pretty solid truck. It had a Minnesota collector plate on it, and the flat bed was from Texas. It has a 261 engine, and a 4 speed transmission and two speed rear axle. There was a painted over dealer decal on the back of the cab. (Waren Motors, Northwest) I did some digging, and there is a Waren Minnesota in the Northwest portion of the state. There no longer seems to be a dealership there anymore. I have not been able to find any more info on the dealership. The truck was built in Janesville Wiscinsin, just 50 miles west of us in Kenosha. Almost a homecoming. The truck had several minor dings and dents, but rust was not too bad for a midwest truck. Both cab corners had rust as well as the lower door hinge area. Mice had built nests in the lower cowl and rusted out the hinge area. The dump frame and rams were still in place, and look to be in good shape. There were no broken springs, no frame rust, and some play in the king pins. It had 5 tires, and they were shot.
As for the interior, someone had hacked up a huge hole in the dash where the oe radio should mount. They had also replaced the bench seat with a pair of bucket seats from a 2001 Silverado. I was in the fence on them. They were in fairly good condition and being grey they didn't look too bad with the OE interior light grey/dark grey or colors. The big problem was they had been welded to the floor! The guy knew how to weld, but I can't imagine why they thought welding them in was a good idea. That would have to change.
As it was still obvious that we still had a mouse issue, we started to dig into the dash. The glove box was of course involved as was the heater. This truck has the deluxe heater and the complete assembly was removed. It was stuffed full! The heater was one of the first assemblies to be restored. The assembly was glass beaded and any rust repaired. The blower motor was seized and we rebuilt it. I also discovered just how many wheat husks could be jammed into a heater core! I spent hours cleaning and picking them out. Also mouse droppings...1" deep. ..yuck! The heater w Assembly was all repainted with a hammer tone grey that seemed to be a perfect match. It is complete and waiting to be reinstalled when we get to that stage.
Now it was time to deal with the seats. It was also time for Kevin to decide just what he wanted to do as far as restoration. Keep a patina, do a modest repaint, full resto, etc. As it is his truck, I really wanted this to be his decision.
