About this time I started getting tired of the all black front end. I pulled the Plymouth grille bar, painted the GMC letters white and reinstalled.
Rust started blistering through the rockers and door bottoms.
So I picked up a pair of NOS rockers off eBay, and since I don’t weld, I checked out a couple of places to perform the repairs. The first place does mostly high end Packard restorations, and really didn’t want to be bothered. They gave me a quote of over $3,000 which effectively sent me packing to look elsewhere.
A local paint store highly recommended a nearby body shop, claiming they were in the same league as the Packard place, but much more reasonably priced. It was also claimed they specialized in street rods and did impeccable work. I asked around and checked with the Better Business Bureau. Finding nothing negative, I agreed to have them do the work.
They installed the new rockers. From under the truck the inner rockers looked completely trashed. They welded patches on the lower door corners, slathered Bondo a quarter inch thick, and ground away the lower rear corner of both doors.
They also added dozens of dings, dents, and scratches all over the truck. Here’s a shot of a few typical injuries:
The doors were pulled, and reinstalled so badly misaligned I had difficulty getting them to latch. Primer was sprayed all over my interior, including the upholstery, gauges, and black lacquer dash. Any legal action requires giving the shop a chance to correct the problems, and since I wasn’t about to let them touch my truck again I just ate the damages. I was so depressed over the amount of money I spent to have my truck trashed, I walked away for a couple of months and seriously considered selling it. Finally enough time passed I started missing the driving experience. I dove into the repairs which took weeks to correct.
About this time I was ready to make more changes so I repainted the grille and front bumper white:
Once the winter was over, I was ready for a wheel change as well. The Weld Wheels were pulled and replaced with a pair of mid 1960’s Dragmaster 15x6 Torque Thrust replica 5 spokes. I also grabbed a pair of 1950’s Buick 15x6 rims for the rear, and changed the overall look with nothing more than a wheel change.
I replaced the rear wheels with 15x7 American Racing TTO’s, and a new pair of Firestone 255/70-15 tires. I briefly tried running white lettered tires, but soured on it quickly:
