[mr48chev]

I resemble several of those remarks.

At 74 years old I have slowed down a lot from when I was 30 and often put in 16 hour days working on my truck in the summer when I had time off from Teaching.

My hands don't work that great on small detail items any more and that can slow things down,

I'd say that one thing that happens is that life sometimes gets in a way. Getting the truck project done on a tight schedule may not have the level of importance that getting your car or truck ready to go to a go to event did 40 years ago.

In 1973 I was living in McGregor Texas and the NSRA street Rod Natonals were in Tulsa 411 miles away. I had bought my 48 early in 1973 and was driving it to work every day. I decided that there was no possible way that my T bucket would be ready in time so I started in on the 48 and in a little over 3 months took it from a rather beat up dump runner with a hand brushed paint job to a pretty decent looking painted and upholstered mild custom pickup. I worked swing shift at a Ryder truck shop at that time and would get up in the morning work on the 48 at home for about four hours and then drive it to work and maybe work on it a bit when I got home at 11:30 at night. I spent most of my days off working on it or chasing parts for it. I bought a 61 Chev car rear axle from one coworker for 10.00 and a set of 15/7 Z28 Ralley wheels from another minus one hubcap for 25.00. Total investment when I drove it to Tulsa painted and upholstered (seat only) was under 600 dollars. That included buyng a whole truck load of parts including running boards and a couple of fenders from a guy in Waco for what amounts to pocket change.

A lot of the time was spent block sanding the body for hours and hours on end.

Now there is no way I could manage to put that many hours of a day in on working on anything without being totally exhausted.

I have just about every part to put the truck together but don't have any of those can't send back because they sat too long before I discovered they weren't that good parts.

My big issue right now is no shop to work in and I have to do everything outside. The weather is really nice right now an I think I'll get my door situation figured out today and decide which ones I am going to use.

I'd say metal has taken a jump in price by the number of guys looking for junk cars right now. Last year it was hard to give a hulk away and now they are advertising for them on FB and Craigslist again and offering money so scrap prices must be up.