Meet Gourd. Sure, he looks like a 1986 S10 now, but over the next few months Gourd will be stripped of all of his body panels, and will be resurrected as a 1953 GMC. Plans are to treat this as a winter project, with completion by fall of 09, in time for the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta and parade. We shall see.

Gourd was purchased for the paltry sum of $450, and driven home. The front brakes are shot, and it looks like it needs an oil pan gasket, but the 2.5L 4 banger and auto tranny (with 106,000 km on the odometer) ran perfect. Aside from dropping the driver's window off the track, there were no issues getting it home. I expect to make a few bucks selling the box, fenders, grill, and assorted parts I won't be using.

That's it for now, teardown will begin over the next couple of weeks, and I'll post some pics of the 53 parts as soon as I can get them. Those are currently sitting in a barn at a friend's a couple hours away, and they'll stay there until Gourd is ready to be fitted with his new parts. I only have a 2 car garage, and my wife likes to park on one side, so I have to be careful about how much space I take up.

 Well, progress got delayed for a little while so my frinds and I could build a hang glider and a 12 foot tall lighthouse for entry into the 2008 Red Bull Flugtag on Ottawa. We took 3rd place, and looked damn cool doing it! But, it was time to begin work on the truck.

I've only had a couple hours to dig into it so far, but the fenders, grill, front bumper, and both doors have been removed and are up for sale to help fund some of the project. Check out the mess that Nova Scotia road salt can do to a 20+ year old truck. Ugly. Luckily the frame is relatively solid.

For now the bed is a storage facility, but that's next on the list to be removed so it can be sold. I also need to get the gas tank out of the way so I don't blow up the garage when I get to grinding and welding.

I call this picture "Incentive". The thought of a completed truck is my long term goal, and provides long term incentive to keep working. But when I've got stuck bolts, busted knuckles, and rust chunks in my eyes, it's Nova Scotia's finest beer that gives me the short term incentive to get my ass back to work.

 Interior is stripped, and with removal of the carpet came the added bonus of the removal of the "Old Guy" smell that had been lingering in the truck and in the garage. Still a half dozen bolts on the remainder of the front clip and the bed that need to be cut out to be done with that portion of dismantling, then it's on to the firewall so the cab can be removed. Cab removal will be easy as there's only a portion of 1 cab mont left still holding the entire cab on the frame. The other 3 are already completely gone due to rot.

 Took some time out from the truck to take part in my other hobby, Giant Pumpkin Boat Racing. Take a 455 pound pumpkin, paint it like the Ecto-1 (including simulated Caddy fins with working taillights, and blue rotating beacon), dress up the whole family like Ghostbusters, and load them all in the truck for a parade.

Then you drop that pumpkin in the water, climb in, and paddle like a bastard to the other side of a half mile lake against 60+ other like-minded fools. I placed 9th this year. That guy behind me is a competitor in the motorized category. I'd do it but I don't own a 5 Horsepower outboard motor.

And back to the truck, we're down to bare frame now. I'm working on cleaning and painting the frame, I've got new brake lines and cables to run, 4 new shocks, and there's an oil leak from the pan I need to deal with. Then I can make the trek down the South Shore of Nova Scotia to pick up the mess of 1953 GMC parts that are waiting for me in a barn.  

 The cleaning and painting is now 95% done. I still have a small amount of work to do in the area of the front suspension, but that should be finished up this wekend after I get the engine pulled. The 2.5L is getting a new oil pan and rear main seal (oil pan is shot, rear main seal is preventive maintenance), while it's out I'll get the front shocks out and the rest of the paint finished, then new shocks will go in. It's a 4 day weekend for me, hopefully I can get all that done, then I'll be ready to pick up the 53 parts over the next couple of weekends. I've decided to wait on running the brake and fuel lines until after all the welding on the frame for body mounts is done. I figure it's a smarter move, even if they're easier to get at now without the cab in the way.

Had an extra long weekend to work with, managed to pull the engine, replace the rear main seal and the oil pan that had a couple pin holes in it, and get it all put back together. It was the first time I've ever pulled an engine, and it went really well. My lift consists of a 4x4 sitting across 4 of the joists in the ceiling. I then put a 10" long eye bolt through the ceiling and through the 4x4. I paid $30 for the simple cable hoist. The whole set-up worked like a charm for the engine, and will hopefully work just as well for manhandling the cab, which if all goes as planned, will be salvaged from the barn next weekend and brought home, along with the apparent pile of spare parts that comes with it.