Truck Bomb Blues

[FLATBEDFORD]

This is why I haven't taken mine apart. Good luck.

[sargentrs]

do you have any attic space in the garage? bags and boxes under the bench for the stuff you dont want to loose and let get outside in the weather.

Nah, fordman. Got an apartment up there that my stepson lives in.......Wait a minute......It's a big room.......he's a little guy........hmmmmmm...... Yeah, plan on "baggin' and taggin'" the little stuff and get a few of those plastic bins with lids on 'em. Got a huge crawlspace under the house I plan on taking a lot of stuff but I'm limited by what I can carry down the hill. I've got a pretty decent pile of parts down there now, and my "workshop". Those are the parts I've been accumulating and trying to clean up. Thanks for the suggestion!

Good idea about the camper shell, Morgan. Hadn't thought about that. Wouldn't have to be the right one just for cover. Thanks! I like your "Zone offense" tactic, too. Good way to put it.

I appreciate all you guys' tips and suggestions. Thanks!

Keep after it, R & S! When my girl's down, sometimes I just sit in the garage and look at her, waiting on money or parts. P.S. Pardon the hijack!

[70 ranger]

It's great to hear that we all go through the same stress when working on these things! I was amazed to see that so many of you guy's had a similar strategy as I did. For me I took my truck apart, then stood back and asked myself what have I done? Then I painted it in pieces. This gave me huge motivation to get it back together, but I still had to look at every bit of it in little stages. I also had lots of people asking me what was I thinking? (That was a motivation booster) after a while my truck stopped looking like a bunch of parts and began to look like a truck... that needed finishing. That was when those same guys started to see what I was thinking and the good comments started to come. I agree with all the guys that said to keep the projects small and try to keep motivated. As it comes together bit at a time you will get more into it! Oh and move your beer fridge closer to the truck!

[mhobryan]

same theme to the 'little project' approach... I hit the same wall with my 68 ... what started out as a simple engine swap has turned into a mini restification .... while i'm in there, I should replace the steering column; jeez if I replace the steering column I should replace that rusted cab corner and that leaky steering box, jeez these parts would look so much nicer if I paint them ..etc. etc.

I took a week off work during the holidays to do the engine swap, but it became apparent that it wasn't going to happen. To keep from getting discouraged, I would go out to the garage to do 'one thing' ... i.e. bolt up one exhaust manifold, or paint hood hinges; i call it my 'one thing' approach.

[Fo-Mo-Co]

Does this help?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuOJyZBMZQc[/video]

Or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wUfz8WjNTE[/video]

[eggman918]

Dont quit..I am 2 years in to my diesel swap and am at the point where all I have left is ALL the "little" things,
and it seems that they take much more time than I planed.It is amazing how many little things there are to do when you start to think you are close to done
Keep at it ...the build is supposed to be fun but it always twice as long and three times the money that you planed
Steve.

[Rust&Smoke]

Its nice to know that I am not alone, thanks for the support. I'm cleaning out the garage for motivation and going to start those cab mounts this weekend. Thanks again guys.

[Bumpside Collector]

One thing that might motivate you is to go to a used car lot that has a bump or dent and go for a test drive. Driving one of these old trucks always gets me motivated to get to work on mine. You could buy a portable shelter to put by the garage to store parts in. There are some that are just a frame that is covered with tarps. It wouldn't be much but it would keep everything dry and out of sight.

[MaxKlinger]

STICK IT OUT, MAN!

I totally understand where you're at. Soon after I bought my truck I bought an 80 year old house. I'm glad I never took the truck apart, because I took the house apart and three years later it's still not completely back together. But like the other guys said, the only way to get through it is to divide everything into smaller projects and do those one at a time. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the big picture.

Most importantly, DON'T GIVE UP. Every once in a while I look at the project photos on Fordification and it sometimes helps me get motivated.

[Whateverman]

I'm glad you're not giving up on your truck.I've been in the same situation as you god-knows-how-many times with my ol' pig over the 20 years I've been tinkering around with it.
I've often found that the more disassembled the truck is,the less I want to work on it...Tearing it down is the easy part,putting it back together is the hard part.
Being realistic about the time ,$$$ and skills required to complete whatever great idea comes along is something I hope to soon master, my last rip down & rebuild ended up taking 3 months longer & cost $400 more than hoped for - but at least i anticipated that this time.(And it still needs a partial disassemble so i can redo some stuff and make it a little less butch )
The best part of the getting into these projects is when you can finally hop in,and drive em again,its just better when you've actually done it yourself and it actually works better than before you laid hands on it.
good luck

[1971ford]

I lost motivation when i had my '69 torn down to nothing. I have two bumps though, and just had to take a break and work on the 2nd bump for 2 months then I wanted to work on the '69 again. Try taking a break and going back at it.