Quote:
Originally Posted by markeb01
I agree with your comments. The tail lights will definitely be more visible in modern traffic when mounted higher. And the diamond plate bumper looks great on a restored truck like yours. There have been a few times I wished I had kept mine and powder coated it black. I love that tailgate logo. I still have the same original on mine, but it sure isn’t in nearly the same condition. Mine is very nice, but yours looks like new by comparison. Although I’ve been a hot rodder my whole life, I do enjoy restored versions of these trucks as well.
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Thanks very much markeb01.
My truck had a really poor homemade bumper (which was all bent) when I bought it. When I did some photo research on these trucks and saw this style bumper I went nuts!!! I had to have one, took me awhile to track one down only $50 though! Only trouble was, when I got around to mounting it (after it was all stripped, primed & repainted) near the end of my build to my horror, I found out it was originally made for a short bed truck! There was a 6" gap from the fenders to the bumper in the wrap around area. I always thought the long bed truck made up the extra length in front of the fenders in the running board area. Did not realize there was an extra 6" behind the fenders too! So I had to cut out the original diamond plate wrap around sections as well as the side extensions and make up new diamond plate wrap around pieces as well as extend the side pieces to fit the fenders properly. I will have to post the photos of that little project some time should anyone else need to do the same? I must admit, it was great welding practice for me however and since I went back to the same original fabricators weld seam for the wrap around portions you would never know it was made for a short bed in the first place. Oh, since this was actually a Chevy before I started the build and the tailgate was shot anyway, I picked up a reproduction tailgate from Mar K. Really nice gate actually, it was a tad tapered wide (from top to bottom) in the fit so I had to grind down the bottom edges where the hinge pivots go to make it fit but otherwise a nice well made gate. The hardest part was masking off the logo to paint it, I could have used a white decal but really wanted it painted so a few hours masking did the trick.