There's always one.

Our first official day of working on the truck consisted of jacking it up and seeing if the tires would inflate.  I was a little skeptical at first because each tire was a good 3-4 inches sunk into the dirt.  But to my surprise, the tires were filling.....until we get to the last one - the front passenger-side tire.  It was losing air as fast as it was going in.  There was no way it was going to stay inflated.  There's always one.

Next, we moved onto removing the camper shell.  There were only 4 bolts holding the camper shell to the bed of the truck and thankfully those came off without a hitch.  But that thing was heavy as hell!  And i'm not much help in the upper body strength department but my boyfriend is and we eventually got it pulled off.  And it looks so much better without it!

Our second day of working consisted of removing the bench seat. This thing was so ratty. And since mice had obviously gotten into it (remember the dead mouse I found?!) there was mouse poop everywhere! And it smelled really bad. Just like the camper, there were only 4 bolts holding the bench to the floor of the cab. Simple right?  Wrong.  One bolt head was completly stripped! And being that it's super old and a little rusted it would not budge for nothing. What finally got it was taking a flathead screwdriver and a mallet to it to try and get some space between the bolt head and the bottom. Then we could get a better grip with the vice scrips and unscrew it. There's always ONE!!

At this point there wasn't much left to really do until we moved the truck into the garage (the ultimate goal) so we decided to take off something small and unimportant - the front bumper guard. Again, only being held on by 4 bolts. 

Side note: I wish my 2006 Scion tC was this simple to work on; rust and age aside. I mean, this truck has no computer systems, and there's so much space unde the hood!  But more on that later. 

Back to the bumper guard. So 4 bolts and one has to give us problems. Of course. And it's one that's UNDER the truck. But with lots of man power (thanks boyfriend) we got it loose. 

There's. always. One. 

Until next time...

My first blog post.....ever

This is my dad.

 This is his 1960 Chevrolet Apache.



Passed down from my Nonni Joe (mom's dad), to my dad, and now to me.  Through this blog I will document the restoration process starting from dismantleing all the way to the very end.  I know it doesn't look too great right now;

it's been sitting in that exact spot for 24+ years sinking into the dirt, collecting leaves and various animals and insects (yes animals. I found a mouse carcass when cleaning out the cab, and yes, I screamed.  EW!), but it will look perfect one day.  That I know for sure.


This truck and I have a long, long journey ahead of us. It will be frustrating at times; I will want to quit and give up probably most of the time. But I won't. I will do it. I will do it for my Nonni Joe, for my Dad, and for me. Because in the end (in several years no doubt), it will be totally worth it.

Until next time...