Cosmo,
I agree with Bill and the guys -- Your truck is unique (just like everyone else's ....
Sorry, couldn't resist that one
) and it has wonderful patina. People who pass by your truck just don't get it, anyway. It's not about bling and speed and chrome doo dads. It's about the feel of old technology, about the stories the cracked naugahyde tells, about the worn, familiar feeling of a cab that talks to you like your favorite pair of boots. Something you just don't get from a frame off.
I am rapidly finishing up on the frame off of my '49 Big Bolt and I have to admit that, as cool as it is to have a frame off truck, somewhere along the line I have lost the truck's personality. I guess it will develop a new one in time, but still ... I have lost something intangible. I still have it, though, on the '49 1-ton. That truck's first owner told us to "Never restore that truck." and by golly, the man knew what he was talking about. You know what he's talking about, too.
Granted, for a variety of perfectly legitimate reasons, some trucks need restoration (Billy Marlow's, for example -- you couldn't have just slapped a battery in that thing and driven to Winchester -- it NEEDED a resurrection)
Your truck has a marvelous personality (probably 50 percent Cosmo and 50 percent its own distinct, history-produced sense of who it is). I agree -- don't mess with it. Repair as you go, fix what needs fixin' and enjoy as is.
Anyone who comes up to you at a show to ask, "That truck would look good with a paint job," ... well, they just don't get it and probably never will. The loss is theirs.
In my opinion, you have one of the coolest trucks on the 'Bolt because of it's patina and use. That truck is living the dream.
Keep on trucking, Brother!
Brother John
