A while ago I had all of the parts blasted on my 54. After blasting took place it was determined based on the condition of the fenders that is would be less expensive to purchase after market fenders than try to do the body work on the old ones. The body shop guy I am working with has now told me the same thing with the bed sides. I have some pics of my bed sides attached but the main problem is the previous owner put on a cover that required snaps which where drilled in through the round part of the bed rail every 5". Towards the bottom of the bed side the previous owner also put holes and screws through there about every 4 inches to hold the bed wood in place. Additionally the stake pockets need work and re-welding after many years of wear and tear. So my question or advice that I need is that our host sells the bed sides for the 54 but it clearly says in the description: "Designed stamped on inside of bedsides is different than original." Does anyone know how much they differ from the original? In the picture they look flat which would never work for it to ook even similar to the original. When I called Classic no one was able to tell me so I told them I would turn to the forum for help. I am hopeful someone has experience with Classic's bed sides or perhaps knows another resource for bedsides that would match the original and would be paint ready. My goal with my truck is to make it look stock so for me something that is the original stamp design or really close is what I would want. I just feel like I am stuck at this point and I don't want to put out quite a bit of money without knowing how good of a match the ones they have will be. Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.
Steve, If you buy new bed bed components my advice would be to buy them from Mar-K. They manufacture the parts themselves and they make them in Oklahoma City USA. Mar-K is well known for a quality product. http://www.mar-k.com/index.aspx Hang on to and re-sell those original bed parts. They are not beyond repair, it's just not cost effective for a body shop to spend the labor hours on them. An industrious fella can restore them and bring them back to life again. Hope that helps! John
As far as I know.... NO ONE has ever reproduced the 1954 & 1955.1 bed sides that have the original ornate embossing on the bed sides. There are a lot of re-pop bed sides around but all of them are flat. Mar K's info. on 54/55.1 bed sides is here.... {The page indicates that the sides are flat & cost $380 each + shipping}. We have a good selection of nice used original 54/55 bed sides with the original embossing but, shipping is tough on them. .
Deadzone - you are right The sides sold by Mar K are flat and do not have the raised sections that I am looking for. I am not opposed to going with used originals. Shipping is one thing to consider but I would have to pay for shipping regardless of where I get them from. My bigger concern is will I end up with something that needs as much work as the ones I already have? Are there any that are "paint ready"? I see that LMC sells some and they don't indicate they are flat, but I am assuming Classic, Mar K, and LMC all get these from the same manufacturer and just resell them.
Steve, Have you asked the body shop to hard quote repairing your existing bed sides? Might be more cost effective than for you when all the dust settles. The holes can be repair welded by a competent body guy and installing new stake pockets is not that big of a deal. John
Good luck finding 60 year old used bed sides that are "paint ready". I can tell you that our used bed sides sure don't have holes drilled in them every 4" or stake pockets that are rotted out. Our Used bed sides typically require sandblasting & minor repairs before painting. We could possibly work around the shipping problem as I am in the L.A. area several times a year & most of the time it is right over the hill from you in the SFV. PM us for more info.
Possible solution is the 42nd Annual Automotive Swap Meet HOSTED BY: VCCA Central Arizona Region Mar 21 through Mar 22, 2015 LOCATION: 6000 West Olive Avenue, Glendale, AZ USA Glendale Community College, 59th Ave. north of Olive Ave., Glendale, AZ. . I may be going to this again.
I sent you a PM Deadzone. Thanks as well to the rest of you for the good suggestions. I know Pamona is also an option but I find that to be so hit and miss and it seems to be more miss than hit.....
If Charles is driving out to the VCCA meet in Phoenix next month.... maybe we can get him to haul the bed sides back to Simi Valley with him then. I will PM you with pictures of the bed sides Steve...
I remember when we used to go to the Newhall/Saugus area to race around on dirt bikes & target shoot our rifles in Bouquet Canyon. Probably get thrown in jail if you do that around there now days
I have to agree with Charles Charles is right - there are too many signs and people to do that here now.
From what little is visible in your pictures, those bedsides look pretty good to me. The welding to fill those tiny holes on the rolled part of the bedside would take very little time, and zero filler if done right. The lower ones are harder to see but, don't look bad either to me. I would be amazed if you find any originals that are sandblast, paint, and install. I wish DZ would post his pics here for us all, I'm always curious about what you dry western guys have availiable.
If my body man didn't want to fix those bed sides , I'd get a new body man . I hope I'll remember the swap meet in Glendale as it's not far from me .
Time is money... chances are they are just being honest with Steve by not running up the labor hours. But now that they know he wants to keep the truck's original bed side design they should be able to give him a quote for fixing them. If they can't fix them, I'd be nervous about their abilities.
So this is what is going on with the body shop guy.... He says he can fix the bed sides. He just indicated that for what I could buy them for online it would be less expensive to go that route. I mentioned that I thought the ones online all were flat and did not have the raised sections like I want. It was left that I would see if I could find reproduction sides online that I could buy because that would be more cost effective. I started by calling Classic to see if there sides were raised but they were not able to answer the question so I told them I would turn to you guys here in the forum because I knew if anyone would know what my options are, you guys would Admittedly my body guy does give me some concern. I went with him because while I was getting one of my other cars fixed from a minor bump in a parking lot I saw that he had a restored Dodge in his shop around the same age as my 54. He seemed well versed in restoration and said he had restored the Dodge. In fact he now has another old car there right now he is also restoring. When we agreed to have him help with the project he brought a tow truck up to my house and took all of the large body parts to the shop. Things moved pretty quick initially but he said to begin he needed a $3500 check essentially as a deposit or retainer if you will to work off of. Knowing that the cost to sandblast all parts and the frame and do powder coating was $1700 alone I was agreeable to writing the check. The sandblasting has happened and the frame and many other parts have been powder coated and are sitting in my garage calling my name everyday to start reassembly. Also after the sand blasting of the body parts it was determined that purchasing after market fenders would be more cost effective due to the now visible condition of the old fenders. The only one we are repairing is the driver's rear because it has the spare tire indentation. I immediately went out and bought all of those parts along with parts to repair the cab where the front fenders attach as well as the lower rear cab corners which was another good sum of money. He gave me the impression that we really needed those quickly to keep moving along. I dropped all of the needed parts off at his shop. That was probably 9 months ago or so. I called him just before the holidays to see where we were at because I had not heard from him in a long time. He said he would get a hold of me after Jan 8 because he had been very busy with a lot of other projects and he was now getting to the point where he could talk about the progress on my truck. Jan 20 he did finally get a hold of me and asked that I come down to the shop just to see where we are at. When I got there, nothing has changed. Other than parts that were blasted some time ago are starting to see rust again. I was just told that it looks like I now need bed sides. We talked about him giving me a ballpark estimate to fix the cab where the front fenders attach. Although I provided him with all of the parts for that fix 9 months ago. One of the reasons I went to him was because he more or less told me that the truck would not be priority but as such he would be more reasonable on the labor cost per hour because he would only have his guys work on it when they were slow. However every time we start to talk about the cost to repair anything he essentially quotes his hourly shop rate....the same rate he charges when he does work for insurance companies. Needless to say I am worried but I feel like I am in a corner because he has a lot of the parts including all of the new body parts I have purchased. He has still around $2000 of my money from the initial $3500 I gave him. Most importantly if I do take everything and leave and manage to get the $ back, is the new shop I go to going to be any better? I knew this would be my biggest challenge with the restoration. I can take apart and put back together most anything but I think body work is an art and unfortunately one I do not have the time to learn at the moment. Any suggestions???? Sorry for the long post. This is just something that I have been trying to figure out how to resolve to get the restoration back on track.
Steve, Tell the dude your money has just as must value as the guy spending 40 grand and you need your truck asap. I had Steve from the Rod Shop replace some items on my truck , ie; weather stripping on both doors, hinges, a window and the wiring for my LED switching, he had the truck back to me long before we all thought it would take. Also, I just had my Kubota 7100HST worked on and the guys at Diamond A in Oxnard got in there and had it ready 1 day sooner than they had first quoted me. You have to bite the bullet and let them know. I've had guys keep my truck 8 f'n weeks not touching it and that is bull the quote was the same as everyone else that came into the place, it was just that I was so damn easy going at first. You might PM, Evan and Russ to get some pointers on dealing with the shop. Hope you get them to kick it into gear real soon, Charles
1. Surprises crop up all the time. Even the body man on the 53 thought those bedsides were good.....until he stripped them. New was cheaper. I just replaced trunk pans in a 67 Chevelle. We knew there was a rotten place with some fiberglass over it.....the whole damn trunk ws junk and I couldn't tell till I was cutting with my plasma cutter. 2. I NEVER take front money for labor....too easy to get lazy when the $ is gone. I will take parts $$ up front, but back it all up with recipts. What to do now? You would hope that you can negotiate to at least get the work done that has been paid for, then either continue on or part ways. The problem is that if there is bad blood, the work may not be up to par. A timeline needs to be set and adheared to, negotiate penalties if not met. If you don't get a good feeling that a positive outcome will happen, get your stuff and go, just write off the rest of the $. Find another shop that friends reccommend. Ask around. Start out a new shop with a timeline agreement. Back up progress with pictures texted as they happen. Agree when payments will happen. (weekly, Monthly, when $2000 is met, whatever.) Require evidence of progress before billing is paid. Look at timesheets. Have a written contract with exactly what will be done, to be added to with both parties agreement. Unfortunately this happens all the time. I have had many customers who have been hosed by shops. They are so far upside down in the cars that they have to finish or just part it out and walk away. Be aware, though, that production body shops have to push old cars to the back burner so the working man gets his primary transportation back quick. Oldies are fill in work. The 53 spent 1.5 years in the body shop, 3 year build time....I was painting my murals also during the resto so I wasn't always working on it either. Good luck.
Oops ~ Steve ; Telling a body man " work on it when you're slow , means " I never care if i see this pile of crap again " . Got get your truck and find an HONEST body shop , I know one on Gardena , he's working on my C/10 right now .
