Welcome to project Rusty, a 1976 Chevy Shortbox, Stepside that I hope to breath life into once again! The history on the truck is sketchy at best but I will try to fill you in the best I know how as we go along. This is my third such truck but my first to tackle that is so far gone, I picked up the truck from my brother-in-law who originally planned on completing the project but lost interest or something when another project came along. A deal was struck in which I would fork over a MSD system in trade for a perfectly good 76 stepside shortbox project! I headed for Strathmore Alberta, a three and a half hour drive to pick up my pick up and head back to complete what should be an easy project! I felt almost guilty at first but I soon got over it.
You see when I first laid eyes on my brother in-laws project (we'll call him CJ from here on out) I was only mildly interested. It seems when looking at somebody else's project things always look easier than they really are. We rarely crawl around on our bellies and backs looking things over and combing through it with a fine tooth comb. This truck was waaaaay worse off than I ever imagined and about four times as bad as I remembered! My guilt from the deal that was "too good to be true" quickly gave way to the "what have I gotten myself into" chant I have become way too familiar with over the years!
A quick tour of the truck revealed that there were absolutely no good panels, the hood was shot, the front chin piece was rusted out, the hood had cancer and the box looked like swiss cheese, don't even get me started on the cab or doors!! The entire body was garbage, there was absolutely NOTHING that could be salvaged save the front panel on the box, the rest would simply have to be replaced. Feeling as if I had just met my first of many hurdles I turned around to see CJ greeting me.
A quick exchange of hellos and how was the drive comments and we got straight to business, "lets see those parts." We headed off to one of many out buildings on CJ's land, in one such building he showed me a couple of fenders in prime condition along with inner fenders as well, this deal was quickly looking better! A little more digging revealed a rear fender, a tough find to say the least for these trucks in my neck of the woods. This fender however was in much worse shape but truth be told in a lot better condition than what was currently on the truck.
Soon CJ appeared once more from below his "parts shelf" and surfaced with a near perfect hood and front chin piece, both more than putting a smile on my face! Another fender and some hood hinges also made an appearance but more importantly CJ had one other piece to show me. I put on my hiking face and we headed off behind the house into a large deep hole!
In what can only be described as a "crater", much like you'de see on the moons surface, an easy 200 feet across and probably 50 feet deep sat a 1980 Cab. From afar it looked rusted, tired, almost tossed from the top of the crater and somehow managed to settle right side up when it landed but this thinking would be wrong. A walk through some thick underbrush and some thistles proved to be worthwhile as the cab proved to be in prime condition like many of the parts included. The metal had been worn thin on the passenger side cab corner and had actually pushed through just a tiny bit but overall it was a fantastic piece, one that any Chevy man would gladly have for his project!! I was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel........
Believe it or not this thing did run, it smoked like a chimney, the front right brake was seized , the tranny leaked and it had more problems than OJ Simpson but I saw the diamond in the rough........ the wife saw the money flying out of the savings account!! I was alarmed, I was shocked but I was not deterred, I handed over the MSD system and decided to get this old girl ready for the trip home!
After a preliminary check of the fluid levels we decided to see if the beast would come to life, after a little persuasion and a couple of batteries, a boost and so forth she breathed ............ then coughed.......... sputtered......... and died! A few more turns and we had her alive!!
I slammed down the hood and my brother in-law threw her into reverse, she died........ we did this a few times before she decided to run but she wasn't going to budge!! The right front brake had seized, clamping the front rotor with the grip of an angered pitbull! The rear tires pushed, they pulled, the steering was pulled left, then right again......... I was standing in a dust storm as my brother in-law worked the transmission from reverse to drive and back again until finally ........... success!!
With all four wheels now turning freely we headed over to one of the shops on his acreage where we decided to pull off the fenders and hood as I seen no sense in towing garbage parts four hours just to toss em out! The air compressor and impact made short work of the rusty parts, as many as we unbolted we had lost to the rust. The familiar sound of cracking rust was heard as half the bolts we latched on to simply crumbled under the weight of our twisting wrists or send the impact gun screaming at high RPM as it ripped through the crumbling heap!!
With the old parts off we decided to shortcut the install of the new fenders, inner fenders and hood by installing only as many bolts as we thought we would have to put on to hold for the trip. These parts would be coming off to be prepped and painted anyway so 4-6 bolts per piece should be plenty! In a strange way the fenders and hood made the truck look so much better almost instantly, it was time well spent!
I decided against putting the rear fender on as it needed extensive work so I tossed it in the back of the bed after spraying the raw steel with some Tremclad primer and we headed off to town to rent the tow dolly! We found one very local, only a 15 minute drive away and snagged it! There was a slight problem with the wiring, we worked it out and headed back to the acreage excited to get the truck loaded and ready for the road! My excitement quickly faded as my brother in-law tried to guide me onto the dolly and stopped me, scratched his head and motioned for me to get out of the truck and "come have a look". There was no two ways about it, this truck was not going to fit on the dolly. Defeated we headed back to the local U-Haul for a refund......... the truck would not be coming home today after all.
Not wanting to leave empty handed we dug out an old trailer, a tiny little thing and decided to try to clean it up and see if it would hold up to the weight of the cab, it did. So we loaded the cab, tied it down best we could, tossed in the rear fender and a front chin piece that was also located and hooked her up to my truck. The ride back was as scary as anything I've ever experienced in a moving vehicle, the little trailer was way overloaded, the fish tailing I encountered really scared off the tail-gaters! We got it home OK after all and now it sits, awaiting my free time to try to bring her back to life and be joined with the rest of the parts when the truck gets driven up here in two weeks time.
