More tire shop drama.
I called them a few days ago and asked for the tire manager. He was so busy that practically kicked me off the phone and kept telling me to "bring in the truck" before I could even tell him what I wanted.
I was trying to ask how much it would cost to remove the old bad wheels and tires and have them mount the ones I bought from Madkidd007 (easy enough to tell over the phone since this is like a tire rotation). One of those rear inner wheels did not seem to want to budge, and my equipment for such applications is limited. So I figured it would take someone better equipped to handle this job.
He said that he did not know how much it would cost, and I was promptly transferred to the brake department (which I did not want to be), then while waiting on hold, the wheels started turning. (The ones in my head, not on the truck). The tire manager had kept lauding their "free brake inspection", so I hung up, loaded the recently-bought one-piece rims/tires on the truck and drove it to the tire shop.
When I arrived there, I promptly signed the truck up for the FBI (free brake inspection) knowing that they would have to remove all the wheels off the truck and remount them for free. So I told them to mount the newly-bought ones instead of the split-ring ones.
This FBI turned into a huge odyssey. As I guessed, one of the inner rear wheels was FROZEN onto the truck, and they had to "sledgehammer" it to break it loose. No matter because ALL of those junky split-rims are going to the dump.
And of course EVERYTHING was wrong with these old brakes, as always is whenever I buy a used vehicle. The tire shop has been trying to find parts for the brake overhaul for the past two days. When I called them this morning for an update, I was asked by the brake manager to not call them, they would instead call me.
When I made this call I was trying to tell them that only Centric makes the rear brake drums for this type of truck (thanks Madkidd007 for this information), and I had found out where to order some.
I drove my motorcycle to their shop this afternoon (this is technically NOT a phone call) and saw that they had finally installed the recently-bought rims on there, but I did not engage the brake manager.
As I was typing this, they called me to advise that they had found all of the brake parts, save one, but that they had a good lead on it. This is going to be an expensive brake overhaul, but I do not compromise on brakes, since this is the most dangerous thing to fail on a vehicle. Sheee!
More updates to follow...