Hotrodders.com Hot Rod Search • Bulletin Board • Free Newsletter • Photo Album • Project Journals • Tech Article Wiki • Hot Rods for Sale • Company Reviews • Knowledge Base • T-Shirts • Advertising Got a hotrodding question? Get free help on the world's largest hotrodding discussion community. click here to check it out  We have thousands of experts: mechanical engineers, custom car builders, machine shop owners, mechanics, welders, body techs, interior specialists, drag racers, and many more.

Hotrodders.com Project of the Week
To see our Project of the Week archives, click here.

S10 Project
Jim Weimer

In the pics below you can see basically what I started with. I was ready to start on a project, but I didn't want to just jump into my 1 owner (I am the 2nd owner) 1971 Chevelle convertible project. I wanted to build something to learn/hone my welding and bodyworking skills on. So I decided to buy a cheap and plentiful truck to 'practice' on. I saw an ad in the local classifieds for a 1987 Chevy S10 -- $400. I went and looked at it and it was setting up to its door handles in weeds. I made an offer of $200 and Kevin45 (my father) and I loaded it on the car trailer and took it to my house.


      
(Click photos to enlarge)


The next day, a friend of mine called and said that he had a S10 that he was trying to sell and wanted to know if I was interested in it. The price: $150, and he would deliver it to me. I sold my Malibu wagon to Dad and the cash went from Dad to my friend for the truck. 2 trucks, total investment so far: $200.

I swapped all the body panels from the blue truck to the white truck. The white truck had a good cab and frame, the blue truck had a bad cab and frame but decent sheet metal. I sold everything that I could that I had left over on either ebay or locally. I made about $900 from the extra parts. Total investment so far: -$700. You see where I am getting here?

I sat down with about 50 truck magazines and parts catalogs and started clipping out parts/pictures and started getting a mental vision of what I wanted to build. I haven't swayed too much from my original plans for the truck. I plan on doing ALL of the work by myself: bodywork, air ride suspension, body drop ("channel" for you old skool guys), paint , interior and engine/trans. This is a budget build and everything is paid for with cash or trades to get what I need to complete it. No credit cards or loans here!

Here are pictures of the white truck that I bought from my friend. Purty ain't it?!


      
(Click photos to enlarge)


Click here for Part 2: The Bumper


Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Record your hotrodding project in our Hotrodders Project Journals. Add photos and information as your project progresses. Easy to use, and completely free. Click here to check it out.

---