... it's YOUR truck and you do like the rest of us and make it like you want it ...
I've never seen anyone at stovebolt contradict that sentiment, so it's up to you, and you wont be judged for not following any advice here...
Knowing the current condition of your truck, ballpark of what you spent on it, and ballpark of what you still want to spend, and end up with, will help get you more applicable advice...
If your after a modern drive with an old truck skin, and the starter truck you have now is a refurbishable survivor, you might get advised to sell what you've got, and start with the chassis/drive train you want, (one that is compatible...) and shop around for body parts... your gonna have to spend some money for a showroom look, you can get by on the cheap if you are OK with a rougher looking sleeper on that modern drive train... There are fiberglass reproduction hoods and fenders if you want to factor that in...
Me, I'm with Cletis... I like old vehicles that are real. Assuming your truck is refurbishable, this is how I would start, (its what I'm doing with my 53, in fact...)
1) Tires that hold air... got to be able to roll the truck around, not worry about losing one while you're under it, or having to fill it up when it's not convenient... It's going to be a while before you need tires that can take highway speed or go a lot of miles or get good traction in the rain, so you dont need to spend big money on 4 new ones... but you need some workable shoes on the feet...
2) Brakes... You have 2 choices here... original or modernize to disc... I went with the original brakes, because the main "new" parts I needed to spend money on were brake lines, and for the most part, the same lines are going to be usable with the drum or disc brake setup... I had to spend $12 on 1 wheel cylinder, and $16 on a master cylinder kit, and a few bucks on a used distibution block... If I had needed a new master cylinder and multiple wheel cylinders, drums, shoes, etc, than I probably would have chosen to invest in the disc brake upgrade,instead of spending a fortune on the old brakes. As it is, I can still go with the disc brakes when I'm ready, and I'm only throwing away a very small investment... It took a lot of work, that I and my son enjoyed, and we've got very good brakes, but not a crippling amount of money invested in them...
3) serviceable wheel bearing/spindles, etc... Now that it can stop, you want to make sure it can roll without the wheels falling off... On my truck, I towed the truck home about 7 miles with a tow bar... stopped a few times to make sure that the hubs were not getting warm or hotter... I was lucky, and the bearings/axles rode nice and cool and were well lubed and still in great shape.
4) engine... Will it start, run? This part can be really fun... I wont cover the "how to" becuase I read through dozens or maybe even hundreds of posts here on the Bolt to figger our just what to do...
5) electrical system... You'll have to do ~some~ wiring or rewiring to get the engine running... ignition wiring and charging system, 12 or 6 v. are some issues you'll need to plan out at least to some degree to get the engine fully operational... You can probably determine if its going to run or not, before you invest in a 6 to 12 conversion... I went with 12v and an alternator. (I Got a chrome 1 or 3 wire 110 amp alternator on ebay for about $70, and am real pleased because it self-excites on the 1 wire hookup at pretty low idle engine RPMs, and regulates itself nicely after that.)
After the charging system, I am now facing a ground-up rewire... The PO ran 12 volts on a 6 volt system without any voltage converters, and the already brittle wiring is just too ugly and shot to bother with... I've got access to good wire stock without spending any money, so I'm laying in new wiring from scratch through some 5, 10, 15, and 25 amp blade fuses in a modern pair of 6 circuit fuse boxes... about $12 bucks for the boxes at Orielly's and $4 bucks for fuses at Harbor Freight... and a lot of work... It's not my first time to wire a vehicle thogh... I dont plan to write a tech-tips or how-to document, so if your wiring needs major work, you should look at buying a wiring harness... shop around. prices vary. high prices are easy to find... low prices for good value stuff, not so easy....
6) If your lucky, you havent spent to much money yet, have enjoyed putting a lot of work into the truck and can at least drive it around the block or the pasture... If you've got title/tags/insurance, then maybe you can drive it around a little more than that... Now you can decide if it has promise and you want to keep spending time and money on shoring up the front suspension/steering, and body work to make it pretty and water tight... Or if it's time to sell because its worth more now than when you bought it, even factoring in what you spent... but not factoring in your labor... that you wont get back in dollars, it was entertainment...
7] take it as far as you want...
