[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Tribulations:

I'm real happy with the bed. It's just the first stage coat, though inside of the bed is done. The underside looks great as well. Eleven hours into it we didn’t even start the side moldings. We’re convinced they'll be easy.

I’m going to have the tailgate hinges, trunnions & spare tire carrier ceramic coated black. It will break up the Ochre some, though this will have the deluxe paint job.

We finished the dry run on the body, including the inner fenders. One of them is NOS, and it confirmed what the old one already knew, GM missed the fixed nut on the RH fender pocket. They sunk a sheet metal bolt next to it, so some welding is in order. The other fender is original and slapped on easily.

Finished the lower tailgate molding and tail bezels. We brought up the lower molding a pinch. Factory calls for the holes just .66" “TRP” (TRP?) above the bottom. We ran with 8/10" instead. As difficult as the bezels might seem, they’re not. A pickle to insert the clips into the bezel though. The bezels fit on the body like a glove. Between that and the tabs on the bezel you can see where to drill.

Trials:

I purchased a LH upper tailgate molding years ago. It has a small scratch, so I found another that came with the RH side as well, or so said the package. Some SOB put a LH piece in a RH NOS package, so I have three LH pieces and no RH pieces.....Ha ha ha ha.

And finally he missed on the tailgate handle molding. It's not quite even with the handle opening, and it's not level either. So yeah, it's a do-over, he's not happy either. I take some blame, I could have easily slowed things down, triple check. So we know what not to do. He says two hours to weld and refinish. I think he’s being generous, and I'm paying him for it. Go figure the handle is off on my C-20 as well, from factory.