truck wrecked today : (

[EAST SIDE LOW LIFE]

Your attitude is right on .... this sucks big time but as you said if you were not there .... Larry ???? I trust the repairs will go smooth and your insurance will cooperate. It's good that no was injured. Thank God.

esll.

[stepside454]

thanks everyone. adjuster looked at it today, looks like about 7K in damage. My body guy will present an estimate tomorrow, shouldnt be a problem.
a bumper may have saved it from some of the damage, cept because its also lowered, my bumper would be lower than alot of other bumpers anyway.
BTW Larry is my friend and club per whos truck ran into mine.

[stepside454]

dropped the truck off today at the body shop. Scott,(the owner of the shop) assures me that itll look better than before when its done in about a month. Ill be happy if it looks as good, better is a bonus LOL.

[Slonaker]

Great news!

Slonaker

[82c10]

i would pocket the 7k and get another truck and switch all your stuff over to it

[stepside454]

Why would I do that? it can be fixed much easier than buying another truck. Its an original big block & air truck, numbers matching. its very fixable. to find a decent mid 70s short bed step side Id have to spend 5-10K, than switch all my stuff over, than spend another 4-8K in paint & custom work. this way MY truck is done in a month, to buy another truck, id spend a month looking for a decent victim, spend the rest of the summer gutting my truck & transferring parts, than take it in for paint & custom work. John

[boatpuller]

that's cool.good news

[stepside454]

the pics dont show all the damage. theres almost 3K in parts alone...thats not including his 15% mark up, BTW he is waving the mark up.
the bed has to come off & be completly taken apart, including the wood floor & all the stainless, also the fender welting, in order to cut out the damaged stake pockets & weld new in, redo the custom filled bed rails, re paint & reassemble. Also roll pan & custom smooth tailgate with the candy apple over silver stripes.
while the bed is off, the back of the cab has to be repaired & do a blend.
The front bumper, valance, grill, all the chrome, radiator support, AC condensor, radiator, grill supports, center support hood, all have to be replaced & repaintd, including the stripes on the hood. Oh yeah & repair & repaint the inner fender wells.
Also, the front end well need to be realigned & tail pipes well need to be replaced. Actually, it ended up being closer to 10K in damages including labor

[stepside454]

its been longer than Id hoped & was originally told, but Im finally seeing progress.
The bed is off & completly disaasembled, all the wood & stainless is out of it, the rear fenders off. they still need to cut the old stake pockets out & weld the new ones on, the new roll pan is finished & ready to be put on. than they can finish redoing the custom work on the bed rails, & get the bed ready for paint & reassmbly.
the front clip parts , radiator support, grill braces, inner fender wells etc. have all been repaired or replaced & are all pained & reinstalled. we did some repair on the fiewall while it was apart,
the back of the cab has been repaired & is ready for paint. ive got the new (used) grill that I bought from a fellow board member all reapinted & detailed ready to go back in.

Should have it back in 3-4 weeks finally, than Ill probably have another couple weeks worth of stuff to do. Detailing, the exhaust needs to be replaced( all bent up from wreck), etc. John

[abebummy26]

That sux man. I know the intersection you are talking about, that would be a beech there. I went to Washington High School I just graduated I saw a complete step bed that vintange at my junkyard but its not where it was the last time I was there so it might have gotten crushed.

[stepside454]

Its finally nearly ready for paint. about all thats left is to finish the stake pockets(big mess) & install rear cross sill & roll pan. after that its ready for paint & put it all back together. Hopefully be back in a couple weeks now. John

[stepside454]

well , its been over a month since my last post, over 3 monthes since I dropped it off, & its finally home. pics soon.
It looks pretty good, Im very disappointed in lack of detail, I spent 6 hours today cleaning up overspray, & im far from done. just lack of caring about the customer apparently. They did a good job the first time. I wont be sending friends there, thats for sure. John

[killthewabbit]

Dang, sorry to hear it dude. Glad you got it home, though.