The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks 1964 Utility finished!.... mostly....

Well we got the 64 out of the garage and took a nice ride to the gas station to fill up yesterday- listening for weird noises and any odd clattering along the way...took some time for my son to get a feel for driving it around the parking lot near the gas station- got a few thumbs up and a few smiles along the way...

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums...2-C268D9C277F3-3729-000001FD2A2CBD04.jpg

We are going to clean it up a bit and take it to the local shows tuesday and wednsday this week - Then "Montana" starts her new life as my sons dailey driver. - Acutally we have a small leak at the rear of the transmission we'll need to address first but that seal looks to be realatively simple to replace- I wanted to thank all the folks here who have helped along the way- its a great community and a I know we'll be here for a long time-

Here's a "before" picture:

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/slawnski/1964%20chevy%20c-10%20Montana/be0210f6.jpg

Engine bay before:

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/slawnski/1964%20chevy%20c-10%20Montana/357af911.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/slawnski/1964%20chevy%20c-10%20Montana/1b4f3a1d.jpg

And After:

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/slawnski/1964%20chevy%20c-10%20Montana/c7fdf56f.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w497/slawnski/1964%20chevy%20c-10%20Montana/a4c60196.jpg

FANTABULOUS! Great looking work in a short amount of time! I'm glad to see you kept the inline 6. I plan to keep mine. Thanks for sharing pics and keeping us updated.

Thanks! The in line 6 was the right choice to make IMHO- also. it's what the truck came with and there just aren't many that have been cleaned and dressed they way we have done ours- (at least not around here that we've seen) With any luck it'll last another 48 years!
BTW Great website Lugnutz! Looking forward to seeing your progress on the 65!

What was the date of purchase? What date did you officially start to restore the truck?

The truck arrived March 18th- the restoration "officially" began the next weekend which was the weekend of the 25th. Which puts the process at about 21-22 weeks in total-

During that time I had switched phones so there was a whole series of pictures from the first series of panels that we cut out and replaced that are gone now- we found some on a digital camera and posted those to the photobucket site- all in all we replaced:
driver and passenger lower rear fenders (behind wheel wells)
driver and passenger inner fender braces
Drivers side fender bracket (lower)
driver side inner(50%) outer rocker complete
passenger side outer rocker components ( just what was rotted)
Drivers side lower A pillar (inside rocker)
bottom or rear cab corners ( small holes with hand made patch panels)
drivers floor section
drivers kick panel
drivers front cab support
drivers and passengers rear cab supports

That's it for the cab metal that was replaced- of course the box bottoms were cut out and replaced with 16 ga steel plate - that process was photographed pretty well.

The wrinkly steel sheet of the bed was replaced with new 16 ga plate

We made the rear bumper out of light gauge metal framing members

Never really planned on taking the whole thing apart- it just sorta "happened" as we started to get to the body panels that were bad.

"it's only a few more bolts then we can get to such and such and clean and paint it..." There was alot of that.

It was a fun and at times frustrating process but we received alot of support from our friends, families and Stovebolt through it all- and now my son and I have the memories and the experience we shared getting the truck to where it is- and that's so much more valuable than the truck could ever by worth dollar-wise....

Also- we have use the term "restore" quite too liberally- I wouldn't call what we did a "restoration" in so many words- we just took it apart- fixed stuff that was bad (to the best of our ability)-undercoated it to survive midwest winters for awhile, painted the pieces Then put them back together-
We painted it in our garage and if you look close enough it shows but from 20 feet or so it looks mighty "ok"!

I'd say it looks a lot better than "OK". I'm moving a lot slower because I am basically doing it all by myself. I'll have a friend stop by now and then who loans me a tool or shows me what to do next, but I am the only person wrenching on it and planning what needs to be done. I don't have a garage to work in ATM, so it's just me and the mosquitoes!

Mine will likely take another 2 years, but as you can see from my BLOG, I have a pretty solid truck to start with. It won't need many body panel patches.

Take a bunch more pics and post'em! We like pics!

Very nice job! Fast too!

Ditto on the very nice job. I think your son's friends might be a little bit jealous at welding school.

Just read through the Gallery write up on your sons truck... nice! Neat story and great that you and your son now have this memory.

John

John,

Hopefully before the weekend is over, we'll have Jim's stories in here, too! They are good stories ... I just got a little lost in the middle. Got a few things to sort out between his two trucks.

Stan's story is a good one!

Peg

Thanks guys!

I wish I could turn the corner on the 54 as quickly as we did the 64....