1951 chevy truck For my 13 year old son

[bmbrzmn101]

I would like to share with you a few picture of my 13 year old sons truck project we are working on together. His plans are to get it driving within two years for high school by robbing some parts from my 67 el camino. I will post his ideas for it later. For now here are the pics.
Enjoy looking, Chris.


How we found it

Getting it home and a tired kid.



Getting it unloaded and some pics of him working on it.










And now for some early birthday goodness from No limit Engineering and ridetech for him. Arrived this morning, I'm excited I bet he will be too.







Now for the 2 of us to find some time to work on it!

Enjoy, Chris

[howehot]

Cool project. My 13 year old daughter wants the same truck as her daily driver when the time comes. It's great to see the youngster having interest and keeping the hobby alive.

[DC-69]

that's really kewl ......... Great that your son is interested at an early age ...... and that his Dad is helping him out. will be a awesome project I am sure.

DC

[E.rodz]

Nice I love father son projects! just make sure he is earning some money and respect for the time that it takes to make this happen. I know how hard a 13 year old attention span can be and it really gets to be to much to handle and finding the fine line of teaching him and not burning him out of spending to much time and not enough progress can really be tough on a kid and yourself! you have embarked on a great project and I hope you guys the best!

[Bonehead]

Really awesome! Had a 51 when I was younger and miss that truck. Even better as a father/son project. Good luck!

[bmbrzmn101]

Thanks guys. He was very happy when he got in from school and got to see everything. We are both very busy and each have some crazy hours. Me working weekend nights and building a street rod for a friend on the side. Him going to the gym at 530 in the morning 2-3 days a week year round, school, and off season football practice rt now. He has just added a girlfriend to the mix and he still tries to keep in touch with friends and cousins thru his xbox. So we are lucky to get an hour or so together each week to work on it. I prefer him to work on when he wants to rather than me forcing him. Works out better for the both of us.

Here are a couple of pix of him working on deburring the block for his build.




His plans are for a lower stance with a somewhat aggressive look to it. Will be painted satin black while he is in school and then we will see about what color from there. But he likes Black and gunmetal gray together. The frame, motor/trans, and drivetrain will be gunmetal. Interior possibly red. As of now he has stolen 2 of my 283's to make a single good engine from and worked a deal with a friend for a 2004r trans(to be rebuilt). We talked about 2 weeks ago and he would like to put the Holley Terminator system on it. I insisted on 4 wheel disc brakes, he nudged for Wilwoods and I believe we will be going with D52's in front and D154's in rear on a 12 bolt chevy rear spinning 3.73's.
We are still undecided on which bed we will be using. His stock bed is for the most part trashed, so we have looked at later model step side beds to modernize the look but we have not committed to that look yet. His plan is after it is built and he gets used to it's characteristics he would like to take it to Ft worth Goodguys and autox it at least once to see if he enjoys that as much as he enjoyed watching it last spring.

He has set back Christmas and birthday money to buy parts and swapped out his labor for money to get parts. So he has got some skin in the game on this one. I just want him to enjoy spending some time with me building and hopefully learning something that he can enjoy doing the rest of his life. And I enjoy the time we spend together, it will make for great memories for him one day.

Hopefully the complete floor pan I ordered in December from Brothers will be in in the next couple of weeks and we can begin some of the reassembly. I will post progress pics as we go.

He did rub it in today that he got ridetech coilovers before I did. So I think I will get dibs on driving it first. HAHA!!!

And speaking of Ft Worth GG, he is something here was proud of. He got to meet Bret and get his signature, on a 1969 Camaro snap tight model he had just assembled at the model building event. Then we went and watched some more autox, Bret had just made a pass and Chad announced about an autograph session so off he went. He loves that 48 hour Camaro, but was sickened by the crunched fender that occurred there. Bret thank you for signing this kids model, he treasures that car.



Chris

[MSTSFabbed]

That's awesome man! I hope to be able to build something with my son one day.

I'll be following along for sure. Im minorly obsessed with these trucks...

[bmbrzmn101]

My wife and I have always liked this style of truck, I even drove a friends 50 model a few times in college and liked it. Nick loves it but wishes at times it was a 55-57 his favorite style. But this is what we found. We bought 2 at the same time. This 5 window and a 3 window. He wanted the 5 window to build which was fine with me, 5's are more valuable to people but he just liked the looks. I told him I will pay for the majority of it with you earning the right to those parts with his labor and time and when we are done enjoy it because he will have earned it. But that is still a long way away right now. The three window may become a ratrod project later on mated to my 57 tbird chassis. I am calling that idea the B*stardBird. The wife just rolls her eyes. Lol.

[RobNoLimit]

Cool father/son build. Keep us posted.

[bmbrzmn101]

Thanks Rob, BTW Great looking product when we unboxed and inspected everything. Can't wait to get time to begin putting it together.

Chris

[Danny72]

This is awesome. I know the feeling of father/son bonding cause I'm doing the same with my Dad building my car. And theres no better way to bond than building building a bad ass car or truck with with your Dad or son. Totally gonna watch this build.

[bmbrzmn101]

Thought I would upload some pix of the suspension mock ups and tacking it into place. Be gentle on my welds. I know some are booger welds but I am learning as I go. I remember some of the things my Dad taught me about welding but still learning. Lol.

Chris

Before:


After:

[bmbrzmn101]

And a few from welding the boxing plates. Botttom of the frame.









Enjoy, Chris

[bmbrzmn101]

It has been quite awhile since I updated this because I haven't been able to devote any time to it. My father in law died last summer and the last 6 months I have been trying to deal with his estate and my jobs, and trying to have some family time. I am exhausted to say the least. A quick note and proud dad moment in all this. My son is 14 and a freshman on the Jr High football team. After his regular season was over he and some of the other freshmen were invited to play up on the high school team. This team went all the way to state championships but lost the championship game. But what a ride he had! Memories for a lifetime. Here are a couple of pics of him and his sister(a senior this year), and one one of me and him.



His parts truck in the snow looking like a Christmas card :


Now on to what little I have gotten done in the last week, just some basics of finishing the welds and beginning to set placements for the rest of the parts. I am not welding in the upper shock mount bar until I get the fuel tank in next week to test placement between the frame rails and clearances. Still need to notch the frame for the rack and pinion so that can be mounted. Then finish rebuilding the rearend and getting the axles plugged and redrilled for 5x4 3/4 bolt holes and studs. It's not much going on right now but getting back in the swing of things.

Enjoy, Chris

[Bonehead]

Sorry to hear of your loss. Life lessons for that young man though. Projects, like life, don't happen all at once. Looks like you've made a little progress!

[wiedemab]

My first real project was a '52 3100 that Dad bought for me when I was 15. I hope you guys finish yours in less time than it took us! I was over 30 before finishing it............... We got distracted on a few other projects and I went to college, got married, had kids................

This thread brings back memories... I'll keep an eye on the progress. Keep up the good work.

Here is what I started with....



This is what we ended up with....

[Justin@EntropyRad]

love this thread!

[nebdrummer]

Looks like you got a great start! I'm soooooooo badly wanting to build one of these trucks that turn corners. I just about have my street truck/straight line runner done. I look forward to seeing more progress!! Good luck!

[HPIcustoms]

Awesome. Good to see he's starting young, more kids these days need to get into cars/ trucks at an early age. Sure lights a fire under me to get a move on with my '47 Ford F100 truck.

[bmbrzmn101]

Thanks for the replys everyone, Brandon and Drummer, great looking trucks and an inspiration to continue. Brandon I see your truck started about like my sons , Lol! I hope to get time in the next two weeks to get more work done because the kid is having knee surgery in 2 weeks. He won't be fit to throw a wrench at for a few weeks after that.

Chris