The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop A Rock and a Hard Place

I have a very rusty 52' AD from Cinncinatti. Have disaasembled the bed w/ running boards. Hauled them dowm to Randy Clark's Hotrods and Stuff in Escondido, Calif. He told me that if I am low on common sense and flush in cash then his was the place to go. They can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. They also have an excellent reputation and have had there work in the likes of Hot Rodder mag for many years running. It was considerate of him to inform me that that one of the fenders (using it as an example for the other pieces I had brought) would run $800 to bead-blast, primer and repair - just to start. He said get a repro for $400 and save yourself a ton of money. He said, in fact, buy repro sheet metal for everything but the cab. It isn't worth trying to redo the old. ("And you'll never get all the rust out of the seams"!) Well dang, I've waited a long time to have this truck. Trashing the all the sheet metal is just wrong. It takes some of its soul away. But I'm not made of money either. And at $100/hour for shop time, holding on to the old parts just because they are original is pretty scary. I even have another pair of running boards that I thought were in really descent shape. One small dent to be worked would run $300+. Is there an alternative? Can the sheet metal, including the cab be dip-stripped? I've heard there are places that do this. The bead-blasting in itself is a $5,000-$7,000 start.(Before the bodywork). I live in Southern California, and would sure welcome the advise and direction of fellow Stovebolters. And, oh yes, this is a down-to-the-frame-rails restoration.

If its to far gone, you might consider looking around for another truck. It will probably be cheaper in the long run. You could sell the parts that are good on ebay and just junk the rest. At least now you know what to look for. Or, look around for another parts truck and put the two together. Cecil.......

Or you could look for another shop. What is it that you want to do to this truck? Are just restoring it or are you street rodding it? Just asking.

If you cant do it yourself go buy a finished truck. It sounds like you ran into a very honest guy at that shop. Todays most regular repair shops are in the 75-95 hour range and thats not calif which is way more. Today if you drop a nice truck off to a body shop its costs about 8-12 grand for a streetrod show paint job. Maybe more if it needs a ton of body work.
I myself just bought 2 repop rear fenders for the same reason. 10 hours a fender to fix does not make it even at 45 bucks and hour. Repop was cheaper and they really did look pretty good. Think i would look to buy a nice built truck. Pay the guy to look at it for you.

Redi-Strip is the chemical de-rusting place, tho I doubt you'll find one in enviro-conscious CA, but sounds like you'd end up w/ a bunch of unrepairable lacework after a dunk, and they're not real cheap either

#1 look around and find a restoreable California truck of the same year and model, which will be relatively rust free, and which would cost you less than restoring 2 of those Cinncinatti fenders at Randy's

#2 figure out the reality of restoration so you have an understanding of the difference between buying a good replacement part and building your own replacement part by spending twice as much cleaning and patching a totally trashed old one, which when done will not be the original fender

#3 learn to do the work yourself, as you sound like this may be a "labor of love" and time isn't the important part - then your truck will have real soul

#4 if you really have to have that truck, can't do it yourself, and you have more dollars than sense, find a place that has reasonable rates and isn't so impressed w/ themselves that they don't want to do actual body work - and make sure you have 30,000 in the bank w/ a good line of credit - restoration of a "very rusty" truck will not be cheap, nor will you ever get "good value for your money"

Bill

A rock and a hard place. Well put. There is an out for this situation that gets far too little press and that is the combination of dipping and spray welding to rebuild those lacy panels to pre-rusty configuration.
Have often thought that most any dipper could add to his bottom line by getting in the spray welding service too.
One of our Zero Rust dealers in the Seattle area has built a nice business doing spray welding. any of you guys across north America have any experience with this technology? Absolutely great for bringing back old unobtanium panels in my estimation......

When you say "very rusty" do you mean coated in surface rust, or do you have rust that goes all the way thru (or close to it)?

If you're light on cash, and heavy on passion.. start with a truck that has just surface rust (no serious rot or holes) and do most of the sanding and filler work yourself.

I was told the same thing when I took my truck to several bodyshops. Looked pretty good overall but fender flanges were all rotten.I suggest you try it yourself one fender at a time. What's the worst that can happen? If you destroy it then just buy the repop one. I managed to restore all 4 fenders myself and spent approx. 30-60 hrs. on each of them. This was cost prohobitive to let anyone else do but it's supposed to be a hobby. My box sides were repairable but by then I'd had enough and bought new ones. If you don't have the patience and skill to do it yourself don't bother. Why spend 2 years with a bleeding wallet when you can buy one that's already done and ready for immediate enjoyment? There's plenty of them out there. Do it yourself and you will have great satisfaction and a new appreciation for the time spent on bodywork. Good work isn't cheap and cheap work isn't good definitely rings true.Just my 2 cents..

Curt

Being in California, you are close to Arizona and Mother Trucker's rust free Arizona junk yard of AD trucks. If you don't mind traveling you can get a whole pile of original parts for that rusty truck for less than the cost of repops, and the shop will only have to fit up those parts.

Hey guys,
I appreciate the well, uh, go get another truck. But this was kinda a family gift in part with my brother-in-law traveling everywhere chasing down all those "creampuff" leads for a 52' with three on the tree. It was the only one that ran. Problem was; it must have been muddy because he didn't look, really look underneath! So I'm stuck with it or it me. But jee wiz, there's nothing like bangin down the roads whinin out at 45 with your elbow stickin out and people yellin "nice truck"! If they only knew?
One reply intrigued me though. About the dipping and spray welding. I haven't Goggled it yet, but what is spray welding? And has anyone heard of it down my way. Heck, I'll drive the whole thing to Washington on a flatbed if it means saving the original parts at an affordable cost. I'm all ears. And thanks for the replys.

Give me a call tomorrow at 800-725-4960 and I'll hook you up with the guy in WA for the spray welding. He may have someone in CA already set up.
Anyway it's a welding system that melts a number of types of metals from wire form and forces it toward the sustrate where it bonds and hardens to form a new surface that then can be formed and worked with and finished just like the normal steel piece. Excellent for replacing totally missing areas or filling in the basic lace doily arrangement and after all the dipping and spray welding your total steel inventory is nice and clean and not rusty as opposed to hand tool prep.
Bruce Palmer
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I understand why they charge so much. It takes a lot of time to finish a dented fender, even one that isn't rusted. Take their advice and get some after-market body parts or the rust will come back. I finally got a fiberglass fender for my 62 and I'm considering more. I wish that I had done so long ago. It would have saved me time and money in the long run. I bought from Chevyduty. Their metal fender sucked but the fiberglass one is much nicer.