Got the rear compartment door hung. Now all doors are hung and fitted. The drip rail will cover the top of the hinge.

 

Temporally fitted the window felt. The glass fit real good.

 

Just about all the trim pieces have been fit and drilled for installation after block sanding. We fit the bed railing. We thought it was stainless at first but it turns out its steel and the chrome is shot so it will need to be re-chromed. Here is my dilema .... at one time the truck was backed into something so the end of the rails are slightly bent inward. Do I fix it or as my body man says it gives the truck some character. What do you guys think .... Bobby, Moe, Panelman ... everyone else??

 

That bend is bad. It has destorted the shape of the metal. If it were me, I'd repair the handrail end. Character or not, you're spending a lot of time restoring the truck, so, in my opinion, do it right.

 

The interior will be the original color: Black The rear wall had diamond plate kick panels where the rear facing patrolmen's feet would hit. These panels were painted black too. My body man says not to paint them as it will dress up the drab all black interior. What do you guys think? I am leaning towards not painting them but then it would not be the original way.

 

Panel Man

I leaning towards repairing it. I showed it to the metal shop and they said they could fix it no problem. They will have to measure it exactly so the pre-drilled body hole lines up correctly.

 

I think repairing the handrails would look the best. Are both sides bent the same? if so maybe they did it on purpose because they were getting stuff hung up on them. Even if that were the case and you wanted them angled in you should have them cut and welded, mandrel bent, etc so that the rail flowed smooth without distortion.

As far as the panels go, I say leave them unpainted. Yes, it won't be entirely original but it will give it that extra "pop" at parades, shows, etc. If you do start getting flack about it it would be fairly easy to pull the panels and spray them.

The truck is looking realy, really great. I'm glad you were able to make so much progress
Bobby

 

Bobby, I think the truck was backed into something as the rails are bent exactly the same. I am a little concerned that the welding shop won't be able to get the exact dimentions between the 2 rail supports to line everything up with the body mounting hole. I am always pleased with their work so it will probably work out fine. As far as the kick panels, I agree with you and will leave them unpainted. Nobody will know its not the original way. Thanks again for all your positive comments. Next week the whole truck will be shot with primer and then the fun begins ... blocking!!

 

I'm going to throw my 2c in on the handrails and say they appear to me to be bent like that on purpose. Especially if both sides are the same. If the truck backed into something, or if something hit it, hard enough to bend them that bad, there would've been some pretty good body damage on the rear panel where they mount. It would have done more than just bend the end down, with just the right amount of clearance to the body. Just a little too coincidental, to me. If you have some other old photos to give reference to it, it would be worth a look. I'd want to know for sure before "fixing" anything. OTOH, if there was a lot of other, matching damage back there, then my whole theory can be tossed out the window. ;-)

 

I am with Merc I think they were bent that way on purpose and should be left alone. Great work on the truck!

 

I also agree, it may of had to do with hoses not getting traped under them or something along those lines. PS , its comin olong awsome.

 

Thanks for your input guys. Good points! I was going through pics of my truck in the day and found this one of it being back into the station. As you can see the rail is not bent.

 

I not one to stay quite... I don't think that they were done by accident like that, to close to the body and I would have thought if it was backed into something I would expect body damage if it was backed that hard to bend those like that and also see some flattening of the bottom part of the pipe. It may have been a after thought. These didn't have hoses on them, did they? I think I would leave them the way they are... Are they going to be painted?

 

If both sides are bent the same then I would bet that they did it on purpose for some reason. Maybe the hoses, blankets, tarps, or whatever they hauled around kept getting hung up on it.
Maybe they were bent by the fire department that purchased the truck from the Fire Patrol for some unknown reason. I do agree that if they backed into something on accident that it would have caused body damage around the mount.

Bobby

 

I would say it appears they were bent on purpose also but I would have your metal guy fix them back to original. My first thought is when you show pictures of your truck from back in the day it might stick out to the observant viewer. My second thought is you say they need to re-chromed so I feel the bend or kink in the back of the pipe might not turn out looking good when it's shiny. I hear little defects or dings, debts stick out when you have the fresh chrome, of course I never have had anything chromed yet so I don't have personal experience.