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does anyone feel guilty for chopping and modifing a clean truck?

R

REDCRO_REDNECK

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I have a 1987 shortbed truck. it has 200k but runs and drives like new. I bought it two day before my wife and I got married, and my first truck was an 87 c10, so it has sentimental value.

I am in the process of building a 1970 truck for fun, but am getting tired of the whole frame up redo thing.

so I see a truck sitting in my yard that runs drives and works that last year only had 3k miles put on it...........then I start to get the urge to put my 1 tons and 40s on that truck . the truck building demons are demanding some type of progress for an off roader


help
 
start cutting my friend.

My blazer was pretty as a prom date when I got her... I have since molested the fenders and about every ounce of sheet metal on her... all in the name of wheelin. DO EEETT!
 
Its your truck, do what you want. Personally, I wouldn't feel a damn bit guilty about it. What's the point of having it if its just going to sit there? Cut it up and put it to work.
 
Mine was cherry when I bought it. I had it about 2 months before I put a wrench on it. I'm so close to getting it done the only thing I feel even remotely close to guilty is because I can't drive it yet. I hate waiting on parts! :( Let the wrenching begin! :waytogo:
 
Then there is me spending a crapload of time and money trying to make a clean truck :P Impossible to find around here these days
 
Personally I think it's a waste of time. You asked for opinions, there it is. :)

If you have a nice truck, for gods sake, sell it and buy a beater to beat on. I don't quite understand why (other than laziness, lack of forethought?) you would take a "perfect" vehicle, IE one with no rust or other issues that make it worthless to sell, and turn it in to something that WILL be worthless knowing full well that is what will happen.

It is totally your truck...I used to get upset when people would do this, but then again, it makes everyone elses stock/straight one worth that much more. I'm sure the people that have owned their old Nova's, Camaro's, and Chevelle's are somewhat grateful that they used to be cut up/destroyed like we do with our rigs, later on they were worth that much more because of availability and demand. Our trucks may not ever get there, but look at the '67-72 trucks.

Friend paid about $4000 for a MINT Blazer. Took it offroad, first destroyed the tailgate, then the rest of the body. Truck value now? 0$. Why wouldn't you sell the $4000 truck, pay $500 for a piece of junk body, and spend $3500 on drivetrain beef? If you have more money than you know what to do with, who cares...for me, it seems like a no-brainer to economize AND keep a nice truck nice. I know there is something genetic with people like that though, as the same friend was talking about getting another one with nice body to replace it...either have a wheeling beater, or have a nice truck that you take care of. You can't have both, because wheeling WILL damage it sooner or later.
 
dyeager535 said:
Personally I think it's a waste of time. You asked for opinions, there it is. :)

If you have a nice truck, for gods sake, sell it and buy a beater to beat on. I don't quite understand why (other than laziness, lack of forethought?) you would take a "perfect" vehicle, IE one with no rust or other issues that make it worthless to sell, and turn it in to something that WILL be worthless knowing full well that is what will happen.

It is totally your truck...I used to get upset when people would do this, but then again, it makes everyone elses stock/straight one worth that much more. I'm sure the people that have owned their old Nova's, Camaro's, and Chevelle's are somewhat grateful that they used to be cut up/destroyed like we do with our rigs, later on they were worth that much more because of availability and demand. Our trucks may not ever get there, but look at the '67-72 trucks.

Friend paid about $4000 for a MINT Blazer. Took it offroad, first destroyed the tailgate, then the rest of the body. Truck value now? 0$. Why wouldn't you sell the $4000 truck, pay $500 for a piece of junk body, and spend $3500 on drivetrain beef? If you have more money than you know what to do with, who cares...for me, it seems like a no-brainer to economize AND keep a nice truck nice. I know there is something genetic with people like that though, as the same friend was talking about getting another one with nice body to replace it...either have a wheeling beater, or have a nice truck that you take care of. You can't have both, because wheeling WILL damage it sooner or later.
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Agree 100%, but also agree that it's your truck and you should do with it as you please. To me it just doesn't make sense though. If I'm gonna cut something up and beat the crap out of it, might as well start with something that cost me 700 bucks and that someone else isn't trying really hard to find
 
I swore up and down I'd never hack my truck. However there is a happy medium of conservative trimming and well planned building.

I received crap from both sides of the purist argument, I'm here to say you can do both with style. Just pick and choose your trails accordingly. In the end it's your truck, your time, and your dream to do with as you like.
 
I always buy cheap beat trucks for wheeling,my latest burb is a perfect example,some dents,some rust,but nice chassis/drivetrain,I can hack the body w/o any regrets,and I can take it to any trail I want w/o worries.
I bangded it up pretty "good" last sat. bending the tie rod,poked a hole in the tank,made a new shape on the rear right fender and so on.point is:I still feel good about it.
 
i might still buy a cheap rig to wheel, but since gas went up all that is left are the fullsize trucks.

than again my truck is not as "cherry" as it was when i bought it 3 years ago

rust is starting to show up 3 spots the size of a quarter one in each cab corner and drivers rocker. oh and the passenger dorr where water collected in the strip of trim. Oh well it is mainly that I would hate to kill this truck while haveing fun with it.

this hobby sucks I have tons invested in a trail rig that does not move by it self...........should have taken up knitting
 
heres something i've been pondering, my '69 blazer is good metal from rear of of door, forward the rockers and floor and firewalll are rusted bad. then i have a 70 air cab thats good. i was thinking of cutting truck cab at bottom rear of door and across floor and across the top of windshield and put them together, sort of like they do when they take a car wrecked from the rear and 1 wrecked in the front and they put the two good 1/2's together
then i would have a good solid blazer w/air, but at the expense of a prestine air cab.
use the top i cut off of truck cab to make a custom 1/2 cab, but like i said at the cost of desroying an original straight air cab, but then what about the rocker boxes, as the pu cab doesn't have them?
 
u mean no1 is going banana's and slandering me over hacking a cherry air cab.....uhhmmmph. so has any1 done this sort of splice job?
 
Why bother? Fix the rusty floors and rockers and keep both....

Or go ahead and cut up one of the few remaining '69 Blazers on the planet. You'd just be making mine that much more valueable. :deal:
 
Its not a big deal to me. After buying a rusted and dented beater to wheel in hopes of keeping my '80 sort of nice, I won't do that again. It was an incredible PIA when everything was rusted.

It took way to much work to go from this:

161quater.jpg



161rockerarea.jpg


To this:

06-2002_Orange_Crush_2_.JPG



The only car I wouldn't cut up is my dad's Camaro. If I get my hands on it I'll keep it mostly stock for sentimental reasons. He's had it since '70.

Dads_69_Camero.jpg
 
Well I cant say that I have ever had to or had the chance to cut up a clean truck, let alone a rust free one... or build one either:D
 
I understand what some are saying about starting with a beater to trash on the trail, but I don't completely agree. If I'm building a serious trail rig, I don't want to start with a rusted out hulk. Some body damage is okay, but a rusty truck only gets worse.

B_to_C started out with a relatively clean Mass. K5, but eventually the rust got to key structural portions of the body. Shortly after buying it he had to replace the floor pan and body mounts. Later after moving to Colorado the B pillars became rusted enough that they were weakened and affected integrity of the truck. That's not what I want to wheel with.

That being said, I wouldn't wheel a $4000 rig the way I wheel my $1100 rig - talking about original purchase price. I guess it's just a difference of geography, around here a "rust-free" truck is obtainable for $1100.
 
look on the phoenix craigslist!

we scrap em here more than their sold for sometimes!


bwahahahahahaha:haha: :D
 
that sounds like a plan

Greg72 said:
Why bother? Fix the rusty floors and rockers and keep both....

Or go ahead and cut up one of the few remaining '69 Blazers on the planet. You'd just be making mine that much more valueable. :deal:
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because mine is not near as rusty as the k5 shown after ur post greg, so maybe it is better to replace with replacement panels and keep my swb '68 c10 also, ... 1 tall and big '69 k5 and 1 low and smooth '68 c10,.. thats what i want, just have to many projects going...a '80 k5, '69 k5, '68 c10, '56 chevy panel truck, '47 dodge m-37, and a late 70's mantra jet boat, was thinking it maybe faster to narrow down projects....think, i'll just quit working on so many and focus on 1 at a time, until 1 is done, then start on another,...its just hard to call which 1 has more prioriety over the others :crazy:
 
blazin_blazer said:
because mine is not near as rusty as the k5 shown after ur post greg, so maybe it is better to replace with replacement panels and keep my swb '68 c10 also, ... 1 tall and big '69 k5 and 1 low and smooth '68 c10,.. thats what i want, just have to many projects going...a '80 k5, '69 k5, '68 c10, '56 chevy panel truck, '47 dodge m-37, and a late 70's mantra jet boat, was thinking it maybe faster to narrow down projects....think, i'll just quit working on so many and focus on 1 at a time, until 1 is done, then start on another,...its just hard to call which 1 has more prioriety over the others :crazy:
Click to expand...


naw,


that wont work because by the time you get close to finishing the second one, the 1st project will already be rusting again:p:
 
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