Why?

[mr48chev]

A lot of stuff did disappear when scrap prices were really high. Even more parts donors got crushed than AD and TF trucks around here.

Maybe it is a western US thing but PO hacked trucks are almost the norm around here. I bought one 30 something years ago where they had taken a saw to an otherwise perfect grill to cut a hole big enough to get the cam through when they had to do a cam change rather than remove the grill. One of my student had (and probably still has) a 53 Chevy pickup that one of his uncles had put a 390 Ford in and torched a big notch out of the frame rail to clear the oil filter rather than buy a remote filter kit. I went out to look at a pair of fenders in the late 80's that a customer said he wanted to sell when he saw my 48 at in front of the parts house I was working part time at. Someone had taken a hammer and chisel and cut the grill out rather than jack the truck up to unbolt it from the bottom. Fenders had been perfect before they were hacked too.