Selling the Cheby led to a crisis of realizing I really do need to own a truck for work and around the house stuff.

Spent time sifting through all of Craigslist in a 300 mile radius with the parameters of Manual, Truck, preferably v8. Nothing was in my price range but decided to send a lowball offer of $2500 on this 84 f250 6.9 4mt listed at $3500.

Success! Previous owner was clear about its issues and had all the paperwork in order. Yesterday was 4hrs of driving each way and the truck felt great. Just got back from the dmv and it's in my name and ready to go.

Lots of little things to fix but none are drivetrain related, granted I know nothing about the diesels of that era other then they sound good.

Finally setup the rear suspension so it can roll around and look pretty.

As far as what itll look like, it should have slightly thinner wheels and the rear will have about 3" less width. Using some guestimation ive mocked up a profile of the body if I use a beetle A and C pillar with extensive modifications in between.

Still tons to do but its getting there

Went on a drive and when it came time to turn around I decided not to, this is something I'd been wanting to do since getting a license. Theres always been a reasons not to go, be it money, unreliable car, work, or bad time of year.
With winter on the way there's already snowfall starting in the mountain passes, so doing it now rather then later seemed good.


The idea has always been to drive more then any great planned event.

Today is from Elko to Salt Lake City then a hotel somewhere in Arizona, the Grand Canyon? Don't want to go too far east because I'd like to be back at the coast before Friday.

The old bed was made of 3/4" strandboard, it had been painted a few times over the years but clearly that was ineffective. All areas that weren't braced could barely hold the weight of a person, Not good when theres zero cabin space either.

Started pulling all the screws "holding" the boards down, whomever years ago decided to tap the screw points and use torx head bolts is a hero. Sure tons broke off but There wasn't the struggle of stripping out a philips head, or only having the torque of a screw driver.

With that done and the rot removed, the crusty flatbed frame was left bare. This photo is after washing off years of accumulated mud and grime.

Did a half-hearted job derusting sections only available with the floor out, then threw on some rustoleum. This way if the bed gets repainted it'll be easier to mask with fresh paint surrounding the floor.

After managing to avoid any amount of woodworking my adult life, the time came. Measured once and cut several times until both sheets of plywood fit. Some of the cut lines are wonky but the bed also is no longer square so perfection was never an option.

Bust out the stain (stopped halfway through the project and went to the hardware store) then lathered both sides up. I didnt see the point of using 50 screws to hold the floor in so after staining the floor, getting it back in was fairly quick. There are a couple screws in the center to hold both sheets level to each other, tabs on both ends dont allow them to escape regardless.

New tires inbound as I was 7 years old when these were new and having a mechanic look it over at the end of the month because I dont know jack about diesels.

Did some Cardboard Aided Design.

Still don't have a sheet brake so making the angles took a while and there are minor dents from the mallet. Its 19-20 gallon capacity using 18ga steel, pump is a walbro 255 on an sc400 hanger.

At least 2 Baffles will be added to do baffle things, but also Reinforcement. Along with that maybe steel bands around mounting areas? Not sure about that yet as the bigger fish to fry is making an access panel to the pump, grafting in a filler neck, and level sender(tank looks dimensionally off in pics but its the camera)

Nothings been notched out or properly fitted so its just dangling, looks better then I expected though.

See dealership maintenance warning popped up a little while ago, hopefully it just wants an oil change.


Went up to the north rim, the park had just reopened from being snowed in so there were only a few people around. The view is as spectacular as anyone says it is, pictures can't do justice, its something to be seen in person if you get the chance. 10/10 recommend.

Wasn't expecting most of the park to be wooded, only once you get to the rim does it look like a dessert.

This was another 6-700 miles from NE Nevada into Utah then down to Grand Canyon National Park, most of it was 80mph interstate but there was another good 150 miles of 2 lane highway with truckers doing 15mph over.

At first glance Utah looks pretty attractive as far as cost of living and climate. A cursory glance at rent says you can get a 2bd 1 bath house for $600 per month, in Ca that gets you 3 roommates, $850 if you want a studio.

This has been the past few hundred hours of saving this Old GMC, Im at least the 3rd person to take on this project over the past 25 years since work started. Here's how its been going in chronological order.



The body sits on a solid frame that's been powdercoated along with a suspension refresh. There are at least 50 seperate patch panels of various quality holding the body together along with vast swaths of bondo. With how far gone the body is and the fact that this thing just needs to get back on the road alot of the work done is less about being a perfect restoration with great metalwork, and more about rust prevention along with cancer removal.


And that takes us up to today in the last photo. Owner is adamant about keeping as much old bodywork as possible, it would've been nice to clear the sides down to bare metal but thats the explanation on why the sides look the way they do.

This is the hood lined up with the fender gap as good as it gets.

Getting this front end on has been an absolute struggle, most of the metalwork wherein 50% of the firewall was replaced in 6 different patches along with the entire bottom half in front of the doors; is wrong. Parts are not flat, not level, or sit high/low in units one might measure in 1/2" increments rather then MM's.

Front end panels are simple in theory, we have an inner fender that acts as a splash guard aswell as being the "Frame" tying the radiator mount and outer fender to the body. Bolt your inner fender to the outer, secure them to the chassis, bolt them under a mount on the radiator frame. Easy.

Fiberglass fenders are at least an inch too long and it's a problem baked into the part along every section. If the rear fits to the cab where its supposed to go, then the hood is sitting way behind the fender lip. If you line up the hood with the fender/grille mount, then your wheel is sitting offset in the well nearly touching the front edge. Furthermore, either the metalwork or the fender is wrong along the lower mount below the door meaning the fender cannot move upward to meet the hood and create a good panelgap.

The inner/outer fender is fixed by being pinched between each other -under- a mount on the radiator. Problem is the fiberglass is several times thicker then the steel fenders were, with this in play none of the inner mount holes align to the radiator. And how the panels are layered, there is no way around the problem other then to wallow out the inner fender holes or make the fiberglass thinner. Side note: all the holes drilled through the fenders by a previous person are wrong, Combined with the metalwork means there is nothing to reference for part positioning.

Hood fits and looks good though, took a couple hours of huffing and puffing but now we know its possible. Seeing as nothing else lines up the hood defines how far forward our fenders can go.

Apparently right around this stage is where the last person hired to restore it quit. (20 years ago)

Started fiddling around to see how the pedal box was going to go. Made a cardboard mockup to figure the dimensions then made the steel plates with a couple scrap tubes tacked in place to test pedal placement.

The brake pedal is from an sc400 and lightly modified, clutch pedal was traced off the brake and made out of 2 steel sheets welded together.
After deciding on where the pedals would go and messing around with lever ratios it settled into here with the crossbar moved back to hold it up.

Reinforcement around unsupported area using tube seemed inefficient so its being made out of 18ga sheet metal.

Started with the odd side panel then made did some CAD.


Spent a few hours today making these panels fit together and be reasonably square with each other. The passenger side was just Flipping over the template and adjusting for the side panel angle differences.(make the part, mark how off it was, cut)

Thinking of using the chebys old frame crossbar as a removable brace. Taking the holidays as an excuse for a few days off so Tomorrow will be to finish the box around the trans tunnel

@tripper Remember a few years ago when a beater e30 was 2 grand. Those were the days

@taylor-martin Clearly well diversified

@carbon-fiber-sasquatch SHAME TH....wait that looks pretty nice in green

@vondon302 Looks great, sounds like a few little problems that are more "character" then "money pit of regret"

The front suspension is really neat too

@tripper hit it with lots of primer, sand forever, then SEM 39033 Charcoal Metallic , and SEM 13023 clear spray paint.

@mm54 Always used Kilmat and been happy with it, but never seen dynamat in action to compare.

@mazda616 if they doubled the mileage to work out problems the price would be more warranted.(still way too much )

@pip-bip the Cabriolet is cursed

@jawzx2 that's an odd rabbit