Hey, its my truck!

[brit 50]

Look, the first picture of my truck on the forum. I know its small as its only my avitar but its an achevement for me to be able to upload a picture! us ol' timers aint used to this new fangled technowlogy stuff.
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Teen Younger

 

[vwnate1]

Your Truck Pic

Nice ! .

I see you have a right hand sidemount spare ~ is this truck a right hand drive too ? not many of those left .

I've seen a few trucks that had dual side mount spares , good for work trucks tho' not on mine..

 

[brit 50]

Sadly the side mount is a non factory item, has no scalop in the rear wing so it sits too high, its a lefty too, from north dakota, but none of this makes it bad in my eyes. I might modify the rear wing and alter the mount to a more conventional set up, that wing was very badly hammered and I thought it was not possible to rescue it but after a few days with a torch, wet rag and dolly its looking pretty good, cant believe how thick the sheet metal is on these ol' trucks. Just goes to show looks can be decieving, everyone said the rear wing was shot and now are amazed that its usable!
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First-Generation Ford Taurus History

 

[coilover]

Since it's pretty obvious you can work metal here is something I've seen done on these old trucks (usually crudely) but could look nice. They cut the area the spare tire will fit in and flip it over so it's concave. then weld it back in. Careful measuring would be essential because when flipped over any slanted cut would overlap on on end and have a gap on the other. Of course the easiest would be to get the under bed spare mount. Your right on the workability of the metal on these old trucks, much thicker and softer than newer stuff so unless its completely rusted away--it's fixable. The two toughest fixes we have are where the truck has been driven with a broken link on snow chains (hundreds of knots), or where someone has tried to fix it themselves (ALWAYS stretched metal). As far as rust where the runningboard bolts on, breaks around the flange holes, brace rod ears torn off, beads cracked, tears in metal, no problem. Modern truck owners can only wish to be so lucky.

 

[brit 50]

Yup. I used to be a panel beater when I had my own body shop so I know my way round a hammer, believe me when I say my truck has tested these skills! lots of dents and splits all over. No rust though! rear wing was real bad though, when I bought her I originally expected to replace that wing it was that bad, but with a little determination and a lot of shrinking and hammering its going to be good to go.

Ive seen an article about the cut and flip thing you talk about and I may attempt it if I can remember where I saw it!
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TEEN VID

 

[vwnate1]

Another Panel beater eh ? you're _so_ lucky ! .

I find body work impossible .

I think the good fellas over on The Stovebolt Page have the spare tire well cut and flip article in the archives , if you're experianced (I see you are) this is a do-able job , takes a bit of time but is well worth the effort .

I had a buddy who owned a body shop and all the time these guys would walk in off the street and say " hire me ! I'm an expert ! " so he'd point to an old dented 1956 VW Beetle fender and say ' fix that and we'll see...'

_EVERY_ single one of those boobs said " no way ! we just toss those out , they're not worth fixing ! "

Good help is -SO- hard to find these days

 

[brit 50]

Don't want to go on about the subject but over here the way things have gone is to eliminate any panel bashing, just replace the ofending part, insurance rates have gone through the roof and a simple dent on a door has become an expensive swap job. Cant understand it myself, the other downside is that it is becoming a dying art, new bodyworkers are just not capable of straightening anything. God help anyone with a vintage motor in 20 years time who has a fender bender!!! Now I know the meaning of the phrase "Black art"
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Growing marijuana