I hope to begin body and paint in the near future on my 66. At present, the spare is mounted on the left fender. Thinking about the option of changing the fender and not having the tire mounted there. I like the clean look without it there but I also like the style of having the spare on the side. Any opinions? Thanks.
It depends a lot on what you want to do with the truck. If it's a stock restoration, a side mounted spare provides interesting detail, especially with white walls and original style hub caps or wheel covers. If it's a working truck, they are practical and keep the bed space free. Even when these trucks were new, very few wanted the side mount spare. Non-enthusiast owners and fleet operators probably accounted for most. For everyone else, the cutout fender was enough to avoid buying the truck in favor of finding one with a normal fender. And it was usually easy to spot a truck that previously had the side spare, because the plain fender was frequently a different color. There are always exceptions, including the hot rod version shown here: http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=363509 I wouldn't want the side spare fender on my own truck, particularly since it is locally driven and I don't even carry a spare. My truck almost never goes farther than 15 miles from home, so I rely on a can of inflata-spare in the glovebox.
