'66 Chevy Pickup Restoration
After going to a lot of car shows in 1988 and ’89, I decided I wanted to clean my truck up some and change some things on it. I had worked out of this truck, along with some other trucks I had–this was my personal truck. After a minimal amount of body work, I was in the process of repainting and reassembling of my truck, looking forward to possibly driving to a truck show in Pigeon Forge, TN.
While reassembling, a couple of my employees wanted to get the truck running again. I had just had the transmission rebuilt and the motor had been out to freshen up the frame. The linkage on the tranny somehow never got reinstalled, and the builder of the transmission had left it in gear. Fluid had been put in the transmission and upon start up of the engine (it had run before) the transmission started to build pressure and began moving the truck forward.
Needless to say there was an accident. The truck hit a tree which smashed in the front of the truck. As you can imagine, I was very upset (this was 1990 or ’91). So my truck sat for some time. I had purchased a new truck in the fall of ’90 and was depending on it as my work truck. I soon lost interest in the ’66 while dealing with teenagers and all of the stress that comes with owning a new house, which leads me to the beginning of this project in 2007.
The truck when finished will be completely reworked from the ground up with all the amenities. I am changing to a short bed with large back glass. Color was originally going to be close to original (light blue), but as you can see, I changed my mind about that. It will have air ride, power windows and locks, and air conditioning. Many years have gone by, and a new house has been built. An FL70 has been stretched. So this project will take time. I plan to drive it a lot if time allows me. What you will see here are the things you don’t see on truck TV shows.
My '66 Chevy Pickup in 1989 (left) and restored, 2017 (right)
