Old Shell, New Again

Dad had an old truck shell from his '79 courier that had been sitting in his backyard for over 6 1/2 years. He meant to take it to the dump, but never got around to it. A few weeks ago he told me to brake it up and get rid of it. Then we used it for our tomato greenhouse. I told him that I wanted to cut it and make it fit on my truck. He thought that it was a bad idea and that it would not look good. He kind of told me not to mess with it. Well, he went to California this last week with Mom, Mark, Linda and Jackson, so he was not around to stop me. I told Jennifer my plan to cut it and she agreed with Dad, saying that I couldn't fix it and make it look good. I wanted to try and if it got messed up, it was junk anyway.

I started by taking it apart at the rear where I planned to cut it. It had around 150 screws holding all the trim and windows on. I was careful not to brake any of the rubber molding. It was old and brittle.

Seth was right there helping me the whole time. He held my tools and handed me things. He handed me screws one at a time and kind of slowed the process, but I like him, so I let him stay. He is helpful. He knows the difference between a screwdriver and a hammer.

The top is tin. I measured, scribed a line and pulled out Dad's tin snips. It made for a neat and clean edge. It did not have to be so perfect. The rear door and a piece of molding sandwiches the end of the tin anyway. I then used a hack saw to cut the support and trim pieces on the sides. I took careful notice of how it was put together before I took it apart. Not all the support and trim pieces reached all the way to the end of the shell. I cut them accordingly.

The length that I needed to fit my truck fell right in the middle of the tinted rear side windows. I wanted to cut them, but it would not have turned out. I took them out all together. I planned to buy some Plexiglass, but did not want to spend any money on this project. Instead I used two pieces of the scrap from the top to fill in the gaps on each side. I started to get excited as I reassembled it and saw that it was coming together beautifully.

Here you see the side rear window missing and the tin in its place.

I got it all put back together and everything looked good. I didn't know what to do with this extra stuff, so it got tossed in the garbage. Have you ever put something back together and had an extra piece and did not know where it should have gone?

Now all that it needs is a center high mounted brake light, which I will rig up, and a BYU sticker in the rear window. This project was fun, free and will be quite useful. The best part is that Dad, Mom and Jennifer said it could not be done. Well, if I could stick my tongue out at you on the blog, I would. :)-