Lil’ Pullstart’s Horse Hauler

[Pullstart 68,543]

I can’t believe we are knocking on months from driver’s training for my youngest!  August (July 29 actually) will mark eligibility for taking classes and getting behind the wheel.  My kids have grown up driving, getting dirty, failing and excelling.  No surprise there, with their father learning to wrench on Christmas toys long before they were played with, and their mother following in the footsteps of their grandfather, Adam Petty’s ASA teammate and 1994 ASA Rookie of the Year recipient.  This 1992 Chevy Short Box C1500 toted Mrs. P’s Hobby Stock circle track dirt car to every race she could afford to get to, when she wasn’t penciled in for a swim meet in high school.  It was a 4.3L Automatic bare bones 2wd work truck, no A/C, no power windows, just a good ole’ first set of wheels.  It was passed back to her dad, and long before I was involved with this side of my family, it’s been sitting victim of high miles, hard work, and a ventilated V6 block.  When we were dating, I pulled a donor engine from a junk yard and wheelbarrow toted that hefty thing about 300 yards to the register.  @Lil’ Pullstart’s Great, Great Uncle Steve is a well known hot rodder in the area.  He took the engine down to his shop, had it bored .030” over, rebuilt it with all new pistons, cam, timing set, bearings, valve, the whole ball of wax.  It’s been on a stand waiting for this project for over 15 years, maybe 17 or so if I can count and recall dates correctly.  About a year or two ago, we were camping at Grandpa’s house and Rylee started having a conversation with him about buying the truck back.  It has been pushed from the yard, to the barn, filled with stuff, pushed out, pushed around, leaned on a time or two, etc.  They settled on $300 as is, with the engine.  I picked the engine up about a year ago.  Her truck has been loaded on Grandpa’s ramp truck with a dead battery and flat on the bottom tires for even longer.  Last weekend, we went over, popped some 5 on 5” wheels and tires from a race car on the back, pushed it off the ramp truck and tugged it home.  I have a 5 speed manual swap to go into it, thanks to a local CL ad for the transmission and Tony Angelo from Motor Trend’s Hot Rod Garage and now his own show Stay Tuned.  Since anything in the engine bay that is plastic or rubber has been cooking in the sun for a few years with no hood, I am thinking a lot of electronics will go away in favor of a nice carburetor, and an HEI ignition.  I have a 2000 K3500 (5.7L 4x4) parts truck for the things like grille and headlights, washer and coolant tanks, any interior parts needed, I found a clean front bumper in my stash, and some things will be needed like good tires, brakes, etc, and we will search for those.  There are more parts still at Grandpa’s like the hood, motor mounts, radiator, etc, but it’s nice the truck is home.

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2024 by Pullstart
Photos

[ri702bill 10,681]

Well done so far, Kevin. That smile on your mug in the first photo says it all.....

 

[SylvanLakeWH 29,919]

[Achto 30,228]

[ebinmaine 75,919]

 

 

Lookin forward to it!!

 

[The Freightliner Guy 1,363]

those rear tires look like theyd fit a horse lol

[Pullstart 68,543]

1 hour ago, The Freightliner Guy said:

those rear tires look like theyd fit a horse lol

they were from the racecar junk yard to roll it home