The parts (cab/bed/motor/rad mounts, fenders bolt kits etc) I ordered from CLASSIC PARTS came in on friday. Everything looks good so far....but the UPS fees where a bit brutal! $80.00 on a $200.00 order more to come.....
UPS ripoff My first experience with cross border parcel delivery was similar and I now decline to order anything that has only that option for delivery. If you are not too far from the border you can have the courier hold it for pickup at a convenient northern US town. The holding charge is much less than the exorbitant courier charges. They call it brokerage, but car parts are duty free. If you know someone in the US willing to serve as a parcel drop that is a good option too. Most of the parts I needed I purchased during a period of two months when I spent weeks at a time in upstate NY. I timed things so that I could ship to the hotel and then carry them back as baggage. I used to think USPS was a good option, but then I had a $160 underwater camera housing disappear between Houston and Calgary.
Ok, so as I mentioned earlier in the post, we have three trucks to pick from. We decided to use the 1950 as build project. Today we where finaly able to tow the old girl back to our shop..... After looking over which one of the three trucks to use we made a decision that this one had the best overall cab/box/chassis and would serve as the best starting point. Whatever parts that are missing on this one will come from the other two spares. As you can see the cab has the expected front and rear cab corner issues but otherwise has a really solid floor, box and a nice clean complete chassis. We'll start off with doing the rust repair on the cab and I'll update our ongoing progress with picture as we go....
Whats with the running boards? Looking at the first picture it looks like somebody welded some diamond plate on top.Probably to cover some rust holes.Fertilizer has eaten a lot of farm trucks.Looks like this one is on the road to recovery Good luck with your project.If you need help don't be afraid to ask. There is a wealth of knowledge on this forum. Sonny
Thanks Sonny, yeah it was a neat feeling hauling it back to the shop and looking back in the rear view mirror at the truck as it was sitting on the back of the flat bed thinking "we just saved this one and it will soon have a new life again after sitting for 20+ yrs instead of it eventualy being crushed some day...!) Your are right about the running boards..there's only a couple very small holes visible from the underside. Thankfully the diamond plate was only spot welded around the edge so we should be able to remove the plating fairly easily and repair the holes.