Well said Jon! I concur with your "solution". Mine happens to be a Ram 1500.

 

Right On! my thoughts exactly.

 

I have a gravel driveway and live on a dirt road. My first drive make the truck dirty and no one will ever see it clean. Oh well.

 

Nothing like having a "work truck" as it takes away the stress of getting the prized truck wet dirty and scratched. A second truck to do the work is the way to go just MHO.

 

bump to the top! A lot of good poinions here. Will write mine later when I have more time.

 

Know how you feel. I want mine to be a driver so I am planning to stop before I get it to the "don't touch me" condition. Flat black paint, treated wood bed floor, spray on coating on the bed sides, etc. I will probably change my mind a couple of dozen times before the first test drive so will let you know then.

Gil

 

When I sold my last '49, my wife was less (PISSED) than happy. She loves the Bonus Built iron. I had several '67 Mustang Fastbacks and all the while, everytime she saw a 48-50, it was an elbow in my ribs......

Early this year with times being hard, I had no hobby vehicle. My friend Darrel discovered this during a visit and rangled enough Frankenstein parts together to simulate a '49 F1. We did some horse trading and I now have one.

I'm a good wrench with a lot of muscle car miles under my belt. I do all of my own fabrication and engine building.

TRUCK BLUES - is not having one. I have a great friend. A really great friend.

 

Here's my opinion on this important matter:

When I was shopping for someone to paint my truck, I told them it won't be a show truck, I am going to use it. I am also a cheap skate, or thrifty, depending on your position and I was looking ofr the cheapest body work and paint job.

When I got my truck back after a year in the shop, it was beautiful! And then I saw some flaws in the paint and things I would have done differently. And of course I was careful with it. and then I had to wash it it! In all the years I had my truck: bought it in 1977, I never washed it! The first thing I did after I bought it from my grandpa was to wash out the cab with the hose, to clear out years of farm dirt, hay seeds, straw, dirt and dust which blew everywhere when I opened the cowl vent. Maybe I washed the windshield once in a while to wash off bird dirt. But now I had to wash the whole truck! And I was carefule not to drive it in the rain as I didn;t want to get it dirty. With Old Betsy before the only problem with rain was that the windshield leaked and road water flew up from the holes in the floor board!

So I wish I had 2 trucks: a nice shny one and an old rusty one. I missed my old truck!

I began using the truck for yard work: hauling brush to the dump, mulch, top soil, used truck parts to the Carlisle Truck Show, but I was careful. I would put down an old carpet and plywood on teh bed, tarps over the sides and foam rubber where something might scratch the paint.

Once in awhile I touch up nicks and scratches, but I don;t care if kids use the top of the fender to climb in the bed. I used to climb on the top of the cab and hood to put nets on soccer goals, but I don;t do that anymore. The ruck does stay in the garage while our 2 cars sit outside. I have taken her to 3 shows so I guess you could say I have a working show truck.

Someday I would like to have a '53-'56 F-350 with a dump bed that I don;t care how it looks to use as a "work" truck, but if it needs painted...

 

You need ones like I got this summer, the 53 M350 & 56 F350.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...160143&width=2
https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...163018&width=2

 

I say put a scratch in it to knock the "NEW" off it right away. It's only the first one that hurts, after that it's a piece of cake.

 

Are they both flat bed dumps? The blue '56 is really nice! How is the '53? Does it run, etc...

 

They`re both dumps, the 53/Flat Head V8 runs fine, I`ll convert it to 12 V and the 56/272 runs, drives totally awesome.
I`m very happy with both though it took a while before they came up for sale.
All the ones in my signature run, the 12 or so non runner parts trucks aren`t listed there.