$50 paint job on the highboy

[crazyhorse]

Mr Hazelnut, Mr Blue Oval, I thank The Good Lord that you both are doing better health wise.

Good to see the truck coming along .
I like the pictures.

I hope ya'll continue to have good health.
God Bless You.

[BlueOvalDave]

Thank you sir for the kind thoughts.

I am very fortunate, and I thank the good Lord for a second go round

[Mancar1]

Very happy that u r doing ok. Gottcha in my prayers

[hazelnut]

Thank you for the well wishes guys. Dave I hope you can get the clot taken care of in your leg. It's amazing how a doctor can speak and make your whole world change isn't it. Keep me posted on what the outcome is with the plan the doctors come up with to help you, I've got some clots in my legs to. Just can't afford to fix them right now.
Thank you for the prayers Mancar&crazyhorse. I need them And thank you for looking in on my project. Hoping to be able to drive it this summer and enjoy the ride.

[BlueOvalDave]

My thoughts and prayers are for you, Hazelnut. Your situation was far and away much more serious than mine. I hope you had family to lean on for support while you were going thru this as I cant imagine having a doc give me the news you got, I would have turned to jelly. I'm gonna guess that your clots are a result or a byproduct of your surgery. The treated me with massive amounts of thinners, then the only way they would release me was if I or someone in my family could give me injections of thinners in my stomach. I was on rat poison ( warfarin) as well for seven months til the clot dissapated. It did destroy a couple veins in the leg but oh well that goes with the territory. Two things to be aware of, pain behind the knee and sharp pain when taking a deep breath. That means it's already in your lungs/heart

But hey back to the good news, your truck is lookin good and spring is around the corner and we can work on them with the garage door open soon enough.

[775_70f250]

That turned out really nice! Good job

[hazelnut]

Almost 2 years without any update or anything being done to the truck. I ordered a bunch of parts for the truck Thursday night and FedEx tracker says the parts should be here sometime today. I'm going to finish the interior first then move onto the brakes. I've give myself a goal of being running by April and at least be able to drive it around the yard if I want, Then I'll be motivated to finish it up and put it back on the road.
Engine has been built for over a year and sitting on a stand so it's mostly labor to finish the truck.

[EDVSU]

Godspeed brother. I hope you get it back in tip top road worthy condition soon man. Hopefully we can get some more pics soon.

[popeyes71]

Welcome back! Hope your feeling better and we look forward to seeing some progress on your Highboy!

[crazyhorse]

Mr Nut , good to hear the news.
Hope you enjoy the repairs.

Sounds like you got a plan.

God bless you sir.

[hazelnut]

Thank you everybody.
I've gotten the rubber floor mat from Dennis Carpenter, I ordered the one for 73-79. I like it because the sides go all the way back to the tank and the front goes up the fire wall pretty far. My firewall pad was original and was in decent shape but I wanted to insulate the firewall so I pulled it out.

I've put in the sound deadener everywhere in the cab and inside the doors. Should be as quite as a new truck on the inside now. I double layered the firewall and floorboards. Had to pull the A/C unit out to get the deadener behind it. But that's a good thing. Want to replace the heater core in it anyways and make sure everything inside was working and sealed. So that going to be a project in its self but it don't have to be in the truck until I go for a state inspection.

Having some kick panel covers being made out of thick black vinyl, The stitching should make the panels look like the door panels. Also having another piece done for the headliner. Thinking about making a overhead console so I can have navigation, back up camera, and can play some videos. Never know when a restless kid might need to be entertained

I'm going all out on the interior because I want all the modern convinces of a newer truck with the great bumpside look. Planning to make the radio a MP3 player, Having heated seat, Heated cup holders and a mustang rally pack tack & clock. I'm just going to get the 6k tack. Motor will never go over that. Only built it to turn about 5500 RPMs.

I'll post up some pictures when I get someone to help me out with it. swapped to windows 10 and haven't learned to post pictures with it yet.

[hazelnut]

I haven't gone to buy the materials yet for the interior, but I have taken out the A/C unit, controls and the factory AM/FM radio.
Was going to do a MP3 upgrade tonight on the radio but I didn't have any electrical cleaner so have to buy some Tuesday before I get back home.

Was surprised at the amount of dust and dirt under the cover of the radio. once I get it clean I can start wiring up the stereo system. Going to build a box/storage unit to go behind the seat. I have some 10" speakers so I'll see if I can make them work in the cab somehow.

Hoping to have a jamming system when I'm finished.

[hazelnut]

I put the 390 in the truck this afternoon, Got it in and sitting on the motor mounts and bolted to the transmission so just need to put the headers on and bolt up the accessories. Been a long time waiting for that to be in the truck, Hope the break in goes smooth and I can bolt up the rest of the truck and enjoy it this summer.

Built a behind the seat storage compartment for it the other night, going to put 8" speakers on the ends and have shelves in the middle for storage.

I also put some vinyl on the kick panels to make the interior look nicer, I bought a drivers side fresh air vent and put it on the passenger side to be able to stop the air from coming in as needed. Tried to find a boot for the factory A/C unit but I don't think there's any to be had any more. And I think I'll like the shut off being there because I can have outside air or inside air when needed. Should help the A/C cool a little better not having to cool outside air.

I've been taking pictures of the progress as it goes along, I'll try to talk a friend into posting some pictures on here because I know everybody loves pictures to go along with what's happening

[FOWLER]

Hope everything goes well with the Engine start-up, and glad your healthy enough to do it. Quite the journey, truck and otherwise! I'm in Smithfield Va. I Might have even seen the truck in its previous life .

[hazelnut]

Hay Fowler, You may have. The truck got passed around a little bit by some friends that worked at the power plant. All of them said the same thing. The gas mileage sucked I only rode one time in the truck before I bought it, #3000 of grain in the back and the truck never squatted. Truck has springs in the back like a dump truck. I'm sure once I get it back on the road I'll be pulling some of the rear springs out, Don't want a truck that rides like a wooden wagon.

When I get the truck back on the road I'm going to ride the ferry over there and stop in at Cowboys Place. It's a little beer joint on the right between the plant and Smithfield on Rt 10.