My old work truck

[78 Chevyrado]

Started working again...  I didn't even hunt for a job, the job came and found me.  Well this time I'm fixing up houses for bank forclosures and also investment properties.  Just freshen them up and get them ready to sell.   Some aren't bad, some make surprised people live that way...  and some haven't had owners for 5+ years= stinky as uhhh....

Here's some pics of what I do and my truck helping me do it.  I get comments from each and every person i work with.  Why would you use that truck for this?  its too pretty.  I tell em, its a 3/4 ton HD truck, until now i had no justification for dricing it other than pleasure.   I drive it daily now, its my tool bin / junk pile / office. 

Onto the pics.







My first project for the new boss...  he threw me in and i got no help whatsoever.  He wanted to see what I could do on my own.  So this is my first repair job for him.  he hired me and pays me well, so I musta done good.      The white boards are new, basically I had to add two legs and all the railings to this porch.  got done in about 2 hours, all by myself. 



I impressed the other guys 2 days ago, I came back from home depot with 10ft sheetrock panels  and 3/4" OSB stacked about 12 inches above the bedrails, and 12 80 lb bags of concrete mix and the truck only dropped about 1.5 inches.  they couldn't believe it wasn't dragging like all their 1/2 tons would...lol  the tires looked low though, they needed more air...

[78 Chevyrado]

Went to see grandaddy today.  He's so excited I'm using his truck, (and quite a few of HIS tools)  to go do what he used to do, General contracting..  If it needs work, we do it, period.  wood, metal, glass, elecrical, a/c, plumbing, roofing, all of it.  so he looked like he teared up a bit I was following him and he thought it was cool I'm using his old  truck to do it.  I said, It's a truck, wait a 3/4 ton truck, yeah, I'll use it to work.  if it gets hurt, I'll have it fixed. 

[zieg85]

Kenny, outstanding use of your truck and doing it in style.  Yes, I agree a truck is made to do work, the same will happen when I finish the white 85 C20 that is currently undergoing a facelift.  I will not haul a load of gravel or take scrap in but building materials and the occasional engine isn't going to hurt anything as long as it is done with care...

[78 Chevyrado]

Kenny, outstanding use of your truck and doing it in style.  Yes, I agree a truck is made to do work, the same will happen when I finish the white 85 C20 that is currently undergoing a facelift.  I will not haul a load of gravel or take scrap in but building materials and the occasional engine isn't going to hurt anything as long as it is done with care...

Yeah i wont haul gravel or scrap n such....   and everybody knows dont get near my truck with ur toolbelt on....  lol

[bake74]

      I agree, trucks should be used.  If you are careful, and everybody else it will stay nice, just like a truck should be.

[thirsty]

Glad to hear that you are back to work. It sounds like you are enjoying what you are doing. That's great. The truck looks great on a job site! I have every intention of using mine for the same thing (if I can ever get it finished).

I do basically the same thing that you do except without the boss to pay me and give me the work. One of the best things I did was get an enclosed trailer to haul tools and whatnot around. Most of the time I do not need it but it sure is nice to have when I do. I also have a small 6'X8' open trailer with sides and a removable gate for debris and such. Then I play the cap game on my work truck. Always taking it off or on depending on what I am doing. Murphy's law...if it's on I will want an open bed with a ladder rack and if it's off I will want it on. I wish it was aluminum not fiberglass just for that reason.

Good luck with your new endeavor  and keep us posted on how you are doing.

[fitz]

It's great to see an old work truck with some class.
As others have said, that's what they were made for.

[Blazin]

Yup, nobody can accuse me of not working my trucks! You name it any of mine over the years have hauled it. Scrap included!
When I did carpentry / handy man work I had a mini van ( Chevy Lumina ) with roof rack for ladders. Used that most of the time. Dry lockable storage for tools. Used one of my trucks when I needed to haul big loads of materials, demo etc.

[78 Chevyrado]

Yup, nobody can accuse me of not working my trucks! You name it any of mine over the years have hauled it. Scrap included!
When I did carpentry / handy man work I had a mini van ( Chevy Lumina ) with roof rack for ladders. Used that most of the time. Dry lockable storage for tools. Used one of my trucks when I needed to haul big loads of materials, demo etc.

Been think8ng....   i dont wanna use my c20 forever for work.  Next project might be another c20 with a utility bed on it.  I like those way better than vans, cuz everything is on the outside.  If i do get another c20, itll be srw and utility bodythat still has 4x8 room in the middle.  Im looking now kinda here or there.  Id like it to be a 77 to 78. But i wouldnt fix it up like my truck, just get it one color and reliable.  I didgood enough im getting $21 an hour and working 70hr weeks, so it may happen soon.  I love skills.  Haha!

Love the new boss.  Hes awesome.  As long as i get things done were good. I dont screw around anyway, so im safe.  Hes even cool when i slip up from time to time.  Its afun environment towork in.  And its a different house evey weekor two.  I love this stuff.

[zieg85]

Find the truck you want with a decent 8 foot bed and I'd swap you even for the utility bed I have in the classified section.

[78 Chevyrado]

I almost bought a 78 C20 long bed the other day.  Great body (as in rust free)  but a little beat up.  Ran like a top.  For $950.  I went to the bank to get the cash and when I got back somebody else was driving it away...  dang.   Guess I ought to keep about $3k in cash around the house just in case....

I have to add though....  one funny note.   I saw that same truck 2 days later stranded on the side of the road...   Maybe it didnt run like a top afterall...lol

[78 Chevyrado]

Man I had a scary as heck moment last week.  I was parked beside the dumpster, and I went to throw a broken door in the dumpster.  Well right when I threw it the wind kicked up and the door hit my drivers big window and then the wind went the other way and put it right back in the dumpster.  I was freaking out badly...   But it didn't do ANY damage whatsoever.   Talk about lucking out big time...  Good Lord!

Here's some pics from jobsites so far.
I saw this at an apartment I was remodeling last week.  looks like a 77 4x4.


some of my junk on the job



We had a bit of excitement saturday.  Drove 80 miles to ball ground, ga to put up tyvek and set all the windows in a 2 story house.   Well, we were on the roof, and the boss was up a 30" ladder from there.  I was holding the bottom of the ladder for him.   Well it started slowly sliding towards the edge, and I only had 3.5' before I slid off too, well I'll tell ya, I've never seen a fat man come down a ladder so fast but so gently in my whole life...  I was nervous on that one.   If I'm holding your ladder, I'll never let go for anything, but I was worried about that one.   Thought me and him and a 40" ladder was going down.  turned out all good though, he even bought us all BBQ for lunch after that.    after that happened he was like, okay lunchtime!   HAHAHA!

[78 Chevyrado]

Old truck made it through some excitement yesterday in Adairsville, GA.  Went out there to work on a house, and an hour after I got there we got hit by 2 tornados.

The house we were working on, my truck, and mr browns car are all that didnt get a scratch on it.  Tornado tore up everything on all sides of that house.

here's some videos I made.  There's some cursing in the videos, but i had just been through 2 tornados, and the only reason i didnt get sucked up in it was i went in the house to cut a board.

The sirens didnt come on, they failed.   That was hella scary.  before the second tornado came, i was unloading everything out of the truck for survival cuz i truly believed the truck wasnt going to be there to get supplies out of.  Actually screw the truck, i didnt know if the house or me was gonna be there.  We got hit by they said 85MPH winds, and 8 to 10 tornados hit all at once where i was working was about 3/8 mile from the epicenter.  Got dang lucky. 

That tornado took my skilsaw off the front porch and sucked it into oblivion..  its gone forever...  but the tiny plastic torpedo level i had right next to it didnt move an inch.  that has always fascinated me... 

5 mins after the first tornado came through
Part One
http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t195/wes2880/?action=view&current=VID_20130130_112809_zps9f635d4f.mp4

Part two

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t195/wes2880/?action=view&current=VID_20130130_112907_zps514f38cf.mp4


about 20 mins after the first, waiting on the second to arrive
part three

http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t195/wes2880/?action=view&current=VID_20130130_114607_zps216cf90f.mp4

about an hour after the first one hit
part four
http://s160.photobucket.com/albums/t195/wes2880/?action=view&current=VID_20130130_124730_zps088d90d1.mp4
all the cars in the later vids are people parking where they could to walk to their homes...  they couldnt drive to them. 
Power lines down, water spraying 50ft in the air in places, and hella gas leaks.  no smoking.

so many lost people wandering around and firemen everywhere doing door to door checks... 

Once it all calmed down, it took 3 hours for it to get to where I could drive out.  had to cross several flooded creeks about 2 feet deep to get out.  people in cars and not trucks were in trouble.  On the freeway the tornado had grabbed n flipped like 12 cars a 2 tractor trailers...  so the freeway was closed for hours.   I had to take pig trails way out of the way just to get out.  I was 110 miles from home.  but  however far i was from home...  these people were home.  that was heck.

I told Mr Brown when I was loading up the rest of my tools into the truck to go home.  number one I'm glad Im here to give a crap about tools, number two I'm glad I still have something to load them into.

No lie, the truck and mr browns car didnt get even a scratch...  thats crazy...  but the wind blew in a bunch of the windows in our house and ripped off a good part of the roof...  but us and our stuff didnt get touched.  i dunno what toi say  but LUCKY SOB!

[78 Chevyrado]

Got to add...  they said today, the 5 tornados became one massive one...  1200ft wide at the bas, with 160mph winds, 185mph peak..

Thats quite enough.

Why did my new skilsaw get suck off into oblivion, but the crappy plastic torpedo level made it?   they were literally 3" apart...

Thats what fascinates me about tornadoes...

[78 Chevyrado]

Past that....   Thought I'd check in...  last week I put in 1847 miles in a 6 day work week.   buying gas sucks no end...

God wierd follows me...  the house I' at now was a recent suicide...  i don't like it.  i gotta fix all the cut out stuff the splat was on...  gross and depressing...

On the upside, I tore down an old shed and it had a dead opossum under it, so in the junkpile for the trashman to pickup i left the opossum on top with 2 pieces of siding covering it..  when he saw it he flipped out, real bad...  that was the point tho...  and the guy 2 houses down screams at his pressure washer...  what the...  i mean screameing at top possible volume...  it scared me a couple of times i thought someone was jumping me...  nah just the guy two houses over screaming at his machine...lol