Thank you for the kind words everyone! With this build thread I want to keep it succinct and try to post only completed sub-projects. I love reading through build threads but sometimes they drag on for pages (and years!) before a stage is complete, which makes them hard to piece together or wait for results. With that in mind, here's my first update!
When I bought the truck, it was running fine (enough) and my wife and I had quite a few projects around the house we needed to complete, so the first thing I did with the truck was put it to work! No time to rest for this old truck, she did enough of that sitting in the front yard of the previous owner's house (two owners ago, really).
In addition to using the truck as it was intended, I've also been trying to have some fun with it and drive it to work when I can. As you can see, the kids LOVE the truck, which makes it even more enjoyable.
After putting a couple hundred miles on the truck (I bought this thing to drive!) I realized it was in desperate need of a tuneup, so that was my first order of business, as I will highlight in the next post.