The BT has to stand for “Bind a Torture”, right Frank?? Your gotta be just taunting us cus you gotta know that’s a restorers dream. To find a 75 year old truck that is as complete as that appears to be, is akin to finding the lost ark or a hens tooth or a needle in the hay stack. Any one of us would give a right arm to find one in that condition. Thanks for sharing the pictures, I’ve added them to my reference library.
It really is a nice find but like our moderator says, lets stick to the subject. I don’t mean to be the one to put a damper on the party but there are some facts one has to face, so I’m going to insert a little real world in here.
Ya really need to do some soul searching and decide whether you’re serious about, and have a true love for these old trucks before you tear into one. Restoring any vehicle no matter what the condition is simply a lot of work. If you don’t have the passion required to follow through on a restoration of this sort then you would be better off putting it up on the block for sale. The truck will be worth a lot more as it is, intact, rather than ending up as a basket case a few years down the road. In my lifetime I have literally seen hundreds of projects that started out with good intentions, with the belief that all one needed to do was change the oil, fill it up with gas and wash off the bird crap. The thought that this would turn them into daily drivers almost always failed to meet the expectations and a lot of damage, patch work and temporary fixes turned it into a not so original rust bucket. These really good, restorable vehicles usually ended up being sold in pieces down the road for a fraction of there original worth before they were (I hesitate to apply the slang for what a meat cutter does at this point, so I’ll just say) modified.
To answer your question about it being a money pit, assuming that the motor and running gear is still intact, and that is nothing blown or busted, if you simply want to start it up and drive it to the lumber yard twice a year and let it further deteriorate, then you probably won’t have to sink much into it at all.
On the other hand, if your going to restore it, lets look at some estimates. A valve job will run $300-$500, complete motor overhaul $2,000 - $3,000, trans rebuild $200 - $500, rear end $300 - $800, brakes a few hundred more. To restore the body, frame and bed/box $3,000 - $10,000 depending on who does the work and whether you want it for a driver or best of show award winner. The sheet metal looks to be in real good shape, the undercarriage and frame are going to take some serious filling and possible replacement. The interior will run another $400 - $1,000 for mats, upholstery, gas tank and gauge restoration and $500 - $600 for the radio. New window glass roughly $600 - $1000. That should get her looking pretty good after two to five years of diligent steady work.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
