Hope to be behind the wheel by the end of October. Description of Restoration 

It appears the interior work on the truck is complete. The door panels have been powder coated and a rubber liner added to the floor of the “tub” (rear part of the truck). In a previous post I confused “powder coating” with “rough coating” (the stuff they spray on pickup truck beds). I’m very pleased with the look of these panels.

The truck is about done. It’s getting “rough coating” applied to the footwells and the tub (the rear part of the vehicle). If I understand the procedure, rough coating is sort of spray-on bedliner. Protects the metal and less slippery. The door panel below is aluminum and they said we could cover it with vinyl; paint it the color of the exterior; or rough coat it. I went with rough coat.

Barring any problems, the truck goes to SF for break-in period and I hope to have it by mid-October.

The truck is mine! By that I mean I paid the last installment and the paperwork is on the way. Still a few items to take care of but the restoration is mostly complete. I received a detailed, two-page description of the disassembly and reassembly that might be interesting to fans of vintage cars and trucks.

“Down to the last nut and bolt. Every component was completely removed, beginning with the engine.”

The restoration seems to have moved to the interior of the truck which — I hope — means we’re getting near the end.

The original three-across bench seats have been replaced with bucket seats (vinyl) and storage compartment. These seats are about as modern as I would care to go. Would have been fine with the originals but then I have never ridden on those. I’m sure these are better.
All of the original glass has been replaced with safety glass. That suggests the original glass was not safety glass!

The side windows on the rear of the truck slide horizontally to open and close. Just like the side windows on the cab. Suspect sight lines might be better than the MINI.

There are four vents in the ceiling of the hardtop. These can be opened and closed to control airflow that’s scooped in from the top of the truck.

When Luke Richards started restoring this truck he was going to make it a soft top to take full advantage of the beautiful California weather. And my first thought was for a soft top, too. Missouri winters be damned! But in the end I decided to invest the extra money (and time) in a hardtop which I can remove in warmer weather. Six months on, six months off.


Can’t tell from the photo above but it looks like the seats might be in, so I’d say we’re getting close.