Hi all, I'm Louis B. I just joined. (duh) I live in the St. Louis, MO area.
I joined this site for a couple reasons. But a little background first.
I inherited my dad's '63 GMC fleetside. He was the 2nd owner. He bought it in Durango CO when he lived there in 1989-91. It's the only vehicle he ever finished restoring/customizing during my lifetime. So obviously, he loved this truck. So do I.
Happy Truck's all original except for the paint and the interior.... and soon the wood bed. (Dad and his buddy had the bright idea to PLANE out all the dings in the wood.
About 5 years ago he retired. He'd been living up in N.E. WY. Dad was a... collector. I love him, but it was mostly a LOT of junk. (7 round trips , 2 trucks w/trailers each time, 24hr drive each direction.)
On one of those trips he had me drive "Happy Truck"
back to IL. Literally half way back, I had stopped at the Canton car show, (a little south of Sioux Falls SD) When I started the truck it started making a "clunking" noise deep in the engine, which sped up as I accelerated.
Needless to say, I only went to the nearest shop 2 blocks away and had it looked at by an old boy. Diagnosis: spun crank bearing.
At this point I was really wishing dad had let me change the oil and do a couple other things maintenance-wise before I'd left WY.
(He'd gotten to a point of not spending a dime he didn't feel was necessary and it bit him in the *** on more occasions than I care to remember.) So, I was stuck in po-dunk for a week before he could come tow me the rest of the way.
We made it back to IL (outside STL) with no more incidents... that trip. BUT Happy Truck has sat in the barn ever since.
Dad passed away a little over 2 1/2 years ago. (I do miss the cantankerous old guy.) So I decided I would turn H.T. around, pull the motor, fix the issues, and drive it.
But there's an... issue. Dad collected about 14 vehicles.
Most of which didn't run and were, well, worthless. I've sold or scrapped most all. I still have: a derelict '77 Winnebago; an '82 Chevy PU; a '77 Dodge B300 camping van, a Ironsmith Bugatti replicar (NOT VW, Ford V6). AND THEN there's my '66 Skylark and '92 Dodge Dakota.
That's 6 for those not counting.
I don't need that many. I'm doing ok, but not so ok to afford the tags, insurance, time and maintenance on all these. I'm keeping my Skylark (daily driver), and the Bugatti (happy fun-time driving with my GF) and selling the rest.
I need a business truck, which I hope will be an early 90's Dodge diesel. I haul a lot of stuff to the shows I do. (Ren faires) I'm a carver and make a LOT of drinking horns. The diesel Dodge will do what I need and get better mileage than anything I've got now.
Hence the reason for restoring H.T.: to sell it to buy the Dodge and do ALL the work on it to bring it "up to snuff". Anything left over will go into... idk, the business, building a cottage.
Please don't get me wrong, if this were pre-08, I could and would keep it for sentimental value. But post-08 I have to be practical. :/ I'm not happy with it, it's just how it is.
So here's what I'm hoping to accomplish:
Post pics of HT as he sits now and get a well rounded evaluation of it's value as it sits in the condition he's in. (Yes, he. Idk why. It just "fits".) AND get an evaluation of price of him in fully operational condition.
Next, any and all advice on what I need to do to repair HT.
Help from this community "in the know" on where to find parts to accomplish all the above.
And then, if I don't find a buyer at my price here, I will load him onto a trailer, take him with me to the NY Renaissance Festival outside NYC come August and take offers there.
Where undoubtedly, some idiot will drop a 350 chevy in it with a powerglide or some other trans into it.
I am proud to say I think he's one of the best looking trucks of his kind/age out there. Most who've seen him agree.. or are at least being polite.
So. There it is. My intro to me and why I'm here. I love this truck and would love to keep it. But, finacially, I don't see any way. '08 sucker punched me in the.. boys. And I've been living in a 5th wheel camper trailer on the family property since. Slowly building my life back together. That trailer's getting old and it's tooo small for my GF to move in permanently.