55 make over

[NWA58]

Wow… I actually thought the truck looked pretty nice before you cut into it, but it was a hot mess for sure. I made the decision to build rather than buy for that very reason. You just never know what they painted over to make it good enough to sell. Your customer will have a much improved ride when done.

[nvrsatisfied]

Originally Posted by NWA58

Wow… I actually thought the truck looked pretty nice before you cut into it, but it was a hot mess for sure. I made the decision to build rather than buy for that very reason. You just never know what they painted over to make it good enough to sell. Your customer will have a much improved ride when done.

bingo! bad builds like this drive people away from having a shop do them and people lose trust in other builders. i got taken by a stereo shop when i was 16yrs old. i was proud of my money being spent, then as i got into that trade i learned real fast i got took. fast forward 28yrs later and every since then i try my best to build right for folks. with all the builds we do here, we take a ton of pictures and put on a flash drive and give to the customer when its done. this way they can know everything there is about their build, we also have an open door policy for them to come in anytime and check out the work.

[nvrsatisfied]

day 16/17.. got the back of the cab sanded down to metal and found some dents and of course all they did was load them up with filler. got most of the driver side cab corner smoothed in and pretty much done just need to work the inner part of the jamb. started on the passenger side cab corner and its story is like the driver side but it had a lot more good ol Arizona sand in it to drop off here in Oklahoma. went and cleaned all the rust off of best i could. welded it in full and put some rust preventive on it.

[daveshilling]

Originally Posted by nvrsatisfied

day 16/17.. got the back of the cab sanded down to metal and found some dents and of course all they did was load them up with filler. got most of the driver side cab corner smoothed in and pretty much done just need to work the inner part of the jamb. started on the passenger side cab corner and its story is like the driver side but it had a lot more good ol Arizona sand in it to drop off here in Oklahoma. went and cleaned all the rust off of best i could. welded it in full and put some rust preventive on it.

lovely work!

[nvrsatisfied]

Originally Posted by daveshilling

lovely work!

thank ya. i should finish out the passenger tomorrow and start setting the new doors on and get them ready to cut up since they rounded off the upper corners.

[dsraven]

good to see you doing a good job where the previous shop did a quick job.
my first truck, as a teenager, I would see the cool guy driving around our small town. it was a 63 GMC long box fleetside, in primer in spots because the guy was driving it while fixing it up. I finally connected with the guy and he sold me the truck. rebuilt this and redone that, ready for paint. well, the first oil change after a week of driving was very thick oil and it smoked thereafter. the rebuild was just a paint job apparently. the bodywork was simply steel wool or fiberglass filler where the holes used to be. it was good though, in that it allowed me to learn how to torch weld sheet metal and do some customizing of my own. yep, I overpaid for the truck, but it kept me out of trouble while I rebuilt everything. those rear fenders remind me of the bodywork the dude did on my 63.

[dsraven]

post up pics of those doors when you get to it. curious to see if that cab and door combo is any better than some of the ones I have had the priviledge of working with. same cab, 6 different original doors, they all fit (or don't fit) differently.