Ha Moneypit; You been working hard on your 53, very nice truck. But you think you have a money pit, let me tell you a story about a good friend's 51 5 window. He just got it on the road first of this year. It was an 8 year project. We counted I believe 12 to15 frames on his property at one time. He had doors lined up, fenders lined up, cabs scattered & the frames, LOL. He was buying $200 & $300 trucks all he could find, just because one had a perfect running board, or a perfect door or something else he needed. He built this truck all in his small garage with no major tools & it is 100% factory specs & no bondo or welds any were. & if factory didn't drill a hole for something, he would not drill a hole for it. With all his accessories, I could not talk him into spot lights because factory didn't have holes for them. It was funny, this truck was ready for show last winter. I mean perfect with all his accessories hanging on it. Except the motor was still on the stand, looking like a new factory correct motor. Not in the truck. that truck has every accessory you could ever imagine GM might put on a truck. He had 6 truck radios restored & lined up on the shelf. I know he had 4 or more swamp coolers before he found the one he was satisfied with. You are wanting the stainless strips along your fenders, he had 6 sets. I was his eBay buyer. He was paying 8, 12, & $1,900 for his sets, plus 1/2 sets & a few nos pieces here & there. But he finely ended up with a perfect set that needed nothing but to be installed. He is not a putter guy I was hot on ebay. By the time he ended up with a perfect 14 piece set for his truck, he had a total of 6 sets, maybe minus a spear or something. There was the only place he drilled holes, in the fenders for those stainless pieces. He wanted them bad. He has accessories under his hood you would not think existed. But he also went a little over board with a few aftermarket chromem stuff also. LOL. I will need to add some photos to my album for you to see, remind me in a couple days if I don't have them on site before then.
