The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk What to do next?

Now that my truck runs, what should I do next? That doesn't involve brakes or body work? I will do the brakes next, but I don't know if I could do anything to the truck before I get the parts?

it is a fulltime job just hunting parts that are affordable. Never rest!!!!!

So when you say your truck is running, do you mean the engine runs? Or do you mean you can drive it? If it were the latter, that's what I would do. The upside is that it's fun. The downside is that your list of needed parts seems to grow. At least at first. Isn't it why we have these trucks?

JDL, First, congrats on a running truck. however like everyone mentioned, you will now be hunting parts and supplies, so obvious the next step would be some sort of side job to help pay for the parts and supplies....

Scott

I'm with Scott on this one. Babysit if you have to. Maybe start a "working on trucks" day camp. Free labor on the truck, and you make $$ for parts. Something will turn up - it always does. Work a job that you know you hate. It will make you appreciate school even more. Then you can tell your kids(eventually) - "When I was a kid, I..."

Jordan,
theres lottsa servicable small parts like interior levers and such you can tinker with and clean an spray bomb black like the cowl vent linkage,shifter, things like that that just take time an a few bucks worth of sandpaper & a can of gloss black duplicolor from, NAPA.
maybe remove your heater box and get it cleaned up an painted.
theres lottsa low dollar things to do.

A good charge in your battery, you say? Start looking at lights, switches and other electrical components. If switches are stiff, spray into 'em from the outside, and work 'em to loosen them up. If that doesn't work, see if they can be overhauled.

Get your fuel tank out, dismantled and cleaned.

Acquire a grease gun and make use of it by finding and serving all your grease nipples. Whichever ones won't take grease, remove them, scrape out the insides you can reach, and replace with a new nipple, then try again. Don't overgrease: as soon as you see grease working its way out of a joint, you're done.

Let me know when these things are done.

man its the little stuff that eats your time. if youre savin bucks for somethin big like the guys said do some of the small stuff.thats what i did...............dave

Yeah, and Scott, my brother supposedly has jobs for me.

JDL: all the guys give some good points. So, get Scott to let you go to work tomorrow!!
Try to do SOMETHING EVERYDAY on the truck no matter how small. It may be a simple thing like getting a catalog and highlighting things you know you are gonna need or want to do. Just do SOMETHING.
Someone said its the little things that eat up your time anyway. A good example is what I did today. To practice what I preach I try to do some little something on my panel everyday. TODAY I simply cut the old fabric off the inside sunvisor, took the rod out and clean it on the grinder brush, sprayed it good and got it working nicely. Total time was a little over an hour but it is now ready to cover and it "swings" back and forth real smooth. I think you get the idea!!
And if you run out of things you can always come back here. We love giving advice

He meant Scott Danforth.

Thanks for telling him 54Tow! Sorry about that, I confused myself when I reread it!

Just thinking back to when I built my 55 up,there are so many things to do.First of all I put a message board on my shop wall with everything that needed to be done,then as I did each job I crossed it off of the list.I found it was best to tackle the hard jobs first,and get them out of the way.If you are gonna do a complete restoration,it might be a good time to start taking it apart.Then perhaps cleaning and painting the frame,and also making any frame repairs that are necessary. Sometimes there are so many things to do,you just cant figure out where to start.