Chevy Restoration Section

Restoration of 1978 Chevy Shortbox 4X4

After many requests to see what this truck looked like when I brought it home, I have caved in and scanned my old glossy, non-digital photos for the entertainment and horror of all. I bought this truck in July of 2003 from a guy that was, frighteningly, a (now )journeyman "Heavy Duty Mechanic" working on semi tractors and other heavy machinery. You can tell from some of these pictures that the guy is a real refined mechanic and bodyman (what with the sawzall used to cut the fenders so the tires would fit).

We trailored the truck home on a hot July day, dumped it at our shop, shook our heads at what we had acquired, and I immediately set to taking some "before" photos that I could look back on. You have to realize that these shots are shitty because I had not plans on doing a website. I took them with my 35mm camera in poor lighting. However, they'll give you a good laugh at what the foundation or starting-point was for this project.

Here is a look from the driver side at the truck right after pulling it off the trailer:

Note the multi-coloured panels, the terrible cut-out jub around the fenders, the lack of rocker panels, and the munched front end in the photo above. Then take a look at this beautry from head on:

You can see the rad support is crunched on the right, as is the hood, fender, bumper, and lower grill valence where the genius I bought the truck from hit a tree while four wheeling. In another demonstration of pure, albino white-trash, "put the ass in the class" kind of move, look at this shot of the box. This stuff was in there when I got it: including a complete set of golf clubs hidden under the carnage and garbage visible in the bottom right hand side of the image.

When I opened up the cab, this is the crap I saw inside (note the heads, carb and intake, tarp, and wooden speaker boxes):

After pushing some stuff aside form the floorpan on the driver side, I got a good look at how solid the rocker panels and floor boards are:

Did you notice you can see right through the floor? Also, note the awesome, professional-styled speaker hole cut-out done on the driver door. After looking at it closer, it became clear that it was cut out with a mixture of sawzall and torch. I did a walk-around of the truck to see how sturdy the body was, and here is what I found:

The rocker panel on the driver side:

The rocker panel on the passenger side (what rocket panel?):

The front passender-side fender:

The engine compartment and frame (shitty image quality):

If you were really sharp, observant, and know your way around a chevy, you likely noticed that something was missing. That's right! The engine! It was on a stand, bored, milled, cleaned, but not assembled:

At last, I arrived a the pinnacle of white trash body work with the pop rivetted panel put over some rust on the driver side front box-side below the gas tank. The body has to be completely redone on this thing. It is in rough shape.

So, from these humble beginnings, the process of stripping, cutting, grinding, painting and POR-15ing the whole area became paramount. I had the cab, box, front clip, doors, tail gate, grill, and rad support off over the next couple of days. I wasn't gentle. After all, I was going to have to replace them all anyways.

Some people ask me, "why did you buy that?" There are two reasons. First, it was $1,500 Canadian at a time when that meant about $1,000 US. The transmission was brand new, the axles and hubs were recently done, the frame was straight and RUST FREE. The engine was totally rebuilt, though not reassembled. The transfer-case was a 203 and being replaced with a 205 but was solid and worked well nonetheless. One might argue that 5% - 10% of the money was compensated with the complete set of golf clubs I found sitting in the box. Ironically, I have used the 5 and 7 woods whenever I go golfing - so it wasn't a total loss.

I always find that if I am going to build something, I like to tear it apart first so I can be sure where everything goes back together. It makes it a lot easier to fix down the road (and lord knows I am going to bang it up a bit). That is it for the before shots. If you want to see the truck after I tore off the body and re-did the frame and engine, click below: