A couple of things, Coyote. The truck is supposed to be a hobby, I assume? Remember, hobbies are things that you enjoy doing. Things that you do for self preservation are considered work.
My father grew up near farming and, for 30 years, felt that he would love to be a hobby farmer. After he retired he tried it for a year, and it didn't click. He ended up having a lot of fun with wood working, which he had done before kind of as a necessity. Not everyone is cut out to be a truck restorer. The minute you lose interest, or it starts becoming work, you need to stop, at least for the moment.
You remind me a lot of myself. I've got several hundred dollars worth of parts for my 1951 Chevy 1.5 ton, 195? Chevy 1 ton dump, and 1973 Chevy 1 ton chassis, but I haven't felt like working on them lately. Maybe I'm learning the same lesson that my father did. But I don't think so.
Another problem I have is that I can always turn a simple job into a complicated one. For instance, I had a fuel flow problem. The truck would start but was basically running off the accelerator pump. This truck has the gas tank in the cab. I spent a day making a substitute out of an old Briggs & Stratton tank, which I selected because it had a water separator and a shutoff valve.
Well, it actually caused more problems than it solved. I found out that there is a metal restrictor in the cap that controls max fuel flow. The valve was a nice idea, but didn't work, and, since it was filled from full empty with fresh fuel, the separator served no purpose except to make it necessary to elevate the tank four inches in order to keep it kind of level.
I also bought 3 eight foot sections of 5/16" fuel line, because I misplaced the first two; a low pressure electric fuel pump, which is 12 volt and of limited usefulness now that I have decided to leave it 6 volt for a while; and a mechanical fuel pump that I haven't installed yet.
I don't know about you, but I'm going to try to change my methods. I need to get excited about doing something, for instance pushing out the roof of the '51. I need to think about how to do it and discard all methods like hiring a body man to drop by. I need to put together the bare necessities to get the job done, such as sand paper, primer and a glove. Then, when the weather is OK (no rain, little wind), go out and get it done. If I have problems, I need to re-think the method, starting with the next simplest, which is usually also the next cheapest.
I'm only 57. Chances are that I will live another 40 years at my current speed. I've got time.
