Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena
Ambitious plan, but I’ll enjoy watching the effort.
Based on my experience I’d say that the, “...while-we’re-in-there-we-may-as-well...” will get you.
This of course depends on how thorough a job your’re going to do? Are you REALLY going to repair all the rust? That can easily take all 8 weeks by itself. If the bed has that bad of cancer then the door bottoms, rockers, cab corners, lower hinge pockets and interior steps probably do too. Clearly it has rust in the roof gutters and you will find that cutting it out only reveals more rust in the interior perimeter roof panels. Also dont forget to check the headlight “brow” areas.
If you had a lot of experience with Task Force trucks, had a full time helper, a full shop of tools and 8 full time weeks to do it you MIGHT “complete” it - however you define that - on a less rusty truck. Not trying to discourage you but you are biting off a huge chink with that timetable. Best of luck!
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Thanks for the input Dan! You're 100% correct, I even cheated a bit and gave myself a head start before posting but the "while-we’re-in-here" effect is already altering my goals.
As of today (writing 3 week in future) most of the bodywork on the bed has been done and it looks good (in my opinion) so I don't want to rush and half-ass the rest of the truck, which like you predicted has some nasty areas.
Unfortunately I do have a pretty hard deadline so I might end up leaving some of the front to focus on things likes brakes and what's required to pass safety. The goal is to drive and enjoy the truck this summer (small window here in Canada so we have to make the most of it!) and then if I choose to stay here for work/my PhD I'll pick it up next winter and invest a bit more time and money into it.
It definitely won't be in the same ballpark as your '55 but I'll try my best to make some progress in the right direction! The videos also help force me to work on it in addition to my own research/writing.
Thanks again! It's a great community/resource here, I'm sure I'll have some questions move forward