Maybe some progress will be made with this sucker soon.
I've posted pics of this on here before, but that was like 4 years ago. The only thing that's been done to the truck since then really is that the brutal Texas sun has lightened the truck up some by eating up more paint.
Some more-or-less current pics of the truck...
So, the truck's story...
This is a one-owner truck. The truck is still technically my dad's, but since I love the thing so much, he refuses to get rid of it. The truck is a Centurion conversion special ordered and purchased brand new by my dad. He took delivery in August of '88 with 12 miles on the odometer. Today the truck has 80,xxx miles. Unfortunately, it looks more like 180,000 miles. It's a pig of a 454. It originally had a TH400 tranny, but after the third one started to go bad, my dad had a 5-speed installed.
The truck is pretty mechanically sound, but the Texas sun has been hard on it. The dash pad is trashed as is most of the paint. The roof is nearly completely without paint and the hood isn't far behind. When I was in high school, I used to wash and wax and keep the truck looking stellar. To thank me my dad would sometimes fill up a tank and let me take it cruising on the weekends. Back then the truck was only 6 and 7 years old, so it was an attention-getter. Once I went off to school and got my own life, I didn't have time for it and it and my dad's bad back wouldn't allow him to spend the time on it that it needed, so the elements have taken their toll.
My dad is pretty upset that the truck has gone downhill so much and last week told me to start looking around at bodyshops and get some estimates for a new paint job. At the very least the truck will end up solid black. The boomerang TV antenna will be eliminated, the airhorns moved under the hood, opera lights on the b- and c-pillars removed and running boards trashed. We both agree that we would really like a 2-tone done with the same color blue on top as I have on my '91, like this...
We'll see if we can pull that off. In the process, the truck needs new door and window seals. I would love to do the one piece side windows and flush mount rear window, but I doubt that will fit into the budget.
The interior is burgundy right now, but I want to change over to gray. I have a pair of '98 Suburban bucket front seats and console for it and would also like to find a '95-'98 60-40 bench for the rear. Beyond that, I have no big plans for the interior. I just want to make it clean and comfortable.
I have dialed back my real goals for the truck in the last few years, but I would like a nice drop for it and maybe some 19.5s. There's a square crew cab dually here locally that has a very low static drop with some 19.5s. It looks
real good and since they're 19.5s, it can still tow and haul without killing the tires.
We picked up a new travel trailer last week. Right now, our '98 Suburban is the vehicle earmarked to tow it, but I feel that a trailer the size we got is pushing the limits of the Suburban's abilities. We towed the trailer home with the dually. The truck felt good with the trailer behind it and it looked good with it there too.
I would feel so much more comfortable with the trailer behind the dually than the Suburban, but there is just so much that needs to be done to the dually to make it comfortable for cross-country runs. I don't have that kind of money right now, so my dad and I have to convince the big CFO (my mom) that it's a worthy cause.
So anyhow, that's the introduction to my truck for those unfamiliar with me or it. Hopefully in the coming months I'll have some worthy updates to show.
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