[Johns 66]

Today ....well was in a word...FRUSTRATING.

Seems like 2 steps forward 15 back....but I do understand I am working on something that is 51 yrs old.

It seems like today is all bad.....so we will try again tomorrow.

Randy had a friend who does transmission work come over last night in an attempt the diagnose why the truck wouldn't run and simply falls flat on her face....they determined that it appears that the transmission supply place sent the wrong stall convertor....they timed it several different times, raise the timing, retarded the timing and she still wouldn't run like she should.....so they are going to call the supply house and see what they sent or supposed to have sent and go from there.....either way the tranny has got to come back out....ugh

So since I couldn't drive around I decided to go ahead and take the bed off, get all the wood out and start preparing to get the wood cut and fit in the bed...I am going to use Ash since it is a light color and the truck is white....I may go with a slight gray stain...more of a weathered look since I will have polished stainless strips. My Mar K order came in for new side molding, new bed strips and bolt kit.

So we got the bed off and of course the wood bolts were an extreme pain to get out....we ended up cutting more than would unbolt....just time consuming......this is where things started to go down hill. I understand that this is an old bed and thus will not look brand new but I found several places that are going to need some attention that I cannot give it....The supports on the drivers side seems to have broken away so that will have to be fixed. I got the majority f the bed sanded down....The L piece on the passenger side that bolts the wood to the floor is not in good condition...the holes are pretty much trash and so that will have to be fixed as well.

THEN I looked at the frame....Disgusted was and is what I am.....You will see in the pics where the frame is rusted through....luckily it is at the end where the bumper braces bolt through...The frame is pitted really bad near the rear end...of course all this is on the top of the frame and couldn't be seen until the bed came off.....The frame section near the rear will have to be fixed...You will also see in the pictures that the rear cross member is jacked up as well....not sure how this happened..but again it was on the top side and really hard to see from the bottom.