Dad has not seen the truck since it was in his garage. He has seen the blog and we’ve talked a little about things as I found them, until this last week because he was traveling. So he basically knows what is going on, but I have to admit I’m a little anxious with him seeing it for the first time in pieces…
When the discussion about me working on the truck first came up I was going to put in a new battery, change the oil, probably drain the transmission and differential and make sure the brakes were safe and working fine. The goal was to do the things he could not easily do to get it to where he could play/tinker with it and drive it, then go from there.
Each time I started something, starting with draining the oil, it just seemed to lead to one more thing. So in some respects a simple oil change has lead us to the block is almost stripped down and needs to be rebuilt. Going this far would have to have been done whether I started working on it, or he did it. But I feel kind of like the little kid showing his Dad something he accomplished, or at least was working on, and wondering how he was going to react… I’m not sure I thought that at 50+ years old I would have felt that feeling again… LOL 🙂
But for me, this project is a labor of love and I wouldn’t give it up willingly for anything else in the world (assuming of course my wife doesn’t get too jealous)…
Getting down to the block
The next step is going to be a little work on my garage I think, I need to open up the other side of the garage and move the woodworking shop to the front. My wife has lined up some photo jobs that will require some custom frames. I make reclaimed wood frames for her photography, so I have to keep the wood shop in shape. But also so I can get an engine hoist into the garage and have room to pull the block and transmission I think. 🙂