Anyway, this deal is actually going to help both of us out. He's runs a salvage business and does a lot of wheeling and dealing with vintage motorcyles, musclecars, and other collectibles (he's really into Hudson Hornets)...but his yard truck is a '68 which has really been needing a cab and front clip. When I e-mailed him asking about the bed, we got to talking and he told me that the truck's owner has been after him to just buy the truck for the parts he'd need, but he didn't want to have to deal with the leftover parts. So we decided to split the asking price of the truck...and the truck itself. He's going to get the cab and front sheetmetal, and I get everything else: the rolling chassis, drivetrain (302/3-spd), box and topper. And to make it even better, he's going to deliver it to me for the price of the fuel.
I won't actually see it for a few weeks, since he's busy running around the country picking up and dropping off some vehicles, but we're shooting to have it here by around Labor Day or shortly thereafter.
Another good thing that might come out of this: he spends a LOT of time on the road, from coast to coast, picking up and dropping off collector cars, so if I can get him to join up here, we might have somebody on the forum as a possible source for transportation of trucks and/or parts. Just in the next few weeks he's making stops in South Dakota (both ends of the state), Idaho and Washington, and then when he gets back he has to make a run to Chicago and then Minnesota. It definitely sounds like he gets around!
So anyway....within 2-3 weeks I'm finally going to have a more useable box for my project truck. Unfortunately it DOES have the rear marker lights, so I'm not sure how/if I'll deal with that. I'm not really that much of a stickler to keeping things 100% original on this one....but I've got a '68 parts truck which could donate the panels to fill that in if need be. The new box does have a couple minor flaws, the biggest is a dent under the left taillight, but that's accessible from underneath, so considering the amount of work I was going to have to do to my present box, this one will be a piece of cake!
Now I don't feel so bad about missing out on that Highboy a couple weeks ago.
Of course, since all that stuff is under the skin, this will be the first thing on the exterior to confuse people.
