Chris,
As you work on the truck, the other fun thing you can do is call Darley's service line (available from their web site). I have a '65 Darley Tanker (on a GMC chassis) and it was great to call them, speak to a Darley family member and have him pull the actual file on my truck and pump and then photocopy everything and send it to me. They will have your truck's complete factory records, too. Probably even a photocopy of the service manual for your pump (they did for mine and it was built in 1945!). It was really nice to deal with such a large, old company that's still family owned and run.
I agree with Mike and the Hillbilly on the wheels and tires in that trying to find used wheels is the better route. The tires will run you more than $2,000 if you go recaps on the drives, new on the steers and more if you go new all the way around, so try to save some cash on the wheels. They will be expensive if you go new.
Good luck on your fenders. Mine were rusty, too. The rest of the truck was pristine. but the fenders... And it seemed that all the possible donor trucks I tried to get fenders from between the East Coast and Kansas City ALL had rusty fenders, too. Sortta seemed like GM used the same lot of crappy steel for all those big truck fenders during those years. Weird.
So welcome aboard -- it's great to have another Darley truck in the Stovebolt Fire House!
Regards,
John
