rust!

i looked at a 71 chevrolet truck today(stepside). anyways the truck looks pretty solid, except the paint is bubbled up all around the rain gutters(not technical term) i have no way of knowing how extensive the damage is but it does look like there was some filler used. does anybody have any tips or advice on how hard this would be to fix, and anything else i should look for on the truck.

to answer your first question, the ease or difficulty depends on how skilled you are, to me its easy, but thats me.

Those trucks have a few major spots to look out for, kickpanels, directly above the wheelwells and the spot you specified. I have a '72 K-5 so I know the bad spots pretty well.

HK

the common areas for vehicles to rust looked pretty solid on this truck. the rocker panels and cab corners looked great, the fenders looked pretty good too. only a few rust spots evidents on the entire truck, only thing im worried about is filler. the guy said the truck was painted about four years ago, would spots that weren't fixed properly show up by now?

If the spots wern't repaired correctly they would have shown up alot sooner than now. If your concerned about it being full of filler and not really that nice and straight just walk around it gently tapping your fingers on the sheetmetal and listen for solid spots. All cars and trucks will have some filler, but if there are bubbles and cracks you will have to redo the filler if there are cracks and if there are bubbles moisture got caught under or in the filler and you will likely have alot of rust. Filler when applied properly can last longer that you probably will.

HK

ok sounds good, i guess the spots i saw were the only major ones. i was only wondering because in some spots the truck looked almost too perfect. guess im just being paranoid. its probably gonna need a new tailgate tho, theres a hole right through it at the bottom.

Another trick is to take a small magnet. A kids letter they stick on thr fridge will do. If the filler is too deep, it won't stick. If that was the truck for me, I don't think that would detere me.

another question, are the rear fenders(stepside) easily removable on this truck. the reason i ask is because on the driver side it has one of those spare tire racks on it. id like to get rid of that.

I do beleive they are just bolted on, to take them off just remove the tires and wheels and unbolt them. Should be 10-12 bolts, don't remember exactly how many.

HK

HK, you are a knowledgeable little imp, ain't cha. Right again <img src="graemlins/evil.gif" border="0" alt="[evil]" />