Do you prefer to see a straight body on an old pickup or do you look at the dents and dings in the body knowing this thing has some stories to tell? See, I'm at a bit of a crossroad in the body and paint of my 56 Chevy. The dents in the body would take a weekend to repair, but do I want to? This truck is 56 years old!!!! It's earned those dents. I'm going to be giving the paint a distressed finish using a paint that's close to the factory blue color, so it'll looks pretty close to how it should look if mother nature had done the work. The only reason I'm even painting it is because the red oxide primer turned pink over the past 25 years of sitting outside. And I won't drive a pink truck. Here are a couple pictures of the dents
My kid has been driving his 59 chevy truck like that for a few years. I think it's because he's to damn lazy to do the bodywork on it. I fixed my 57 sort of, I took out the big dents and fixed the rust, then brushed some rustoleum over it. Not the look you're after. I would say either leave it alone, or do as much bodywork as you want and prime the whole truck.
Fix the dents. You said yourself it's only a weekend project. What's another weekend out of your life? If you just paint it you will cuss yourself everytime you look at the truck. Your eyes will go right to those dents. Maybe buy some beer and hint to a few buddys you have some free beer or pizza.
Depends on the build. Ive an off topic 'unibody pickup' that a daily -everey metal panel is dented; some panels dents in 3 or 4 places - I bought the car as a shell; all the dents n handpainting - half completed round the passenger side since a 1 litre can proberley only goes so far - the body is the only 'oas riginal and as I got it' part -everything else has been upgraded, replumbed, etc etc... To get at some of the 'outerpanel dents' Im going to really need cuttin the beds side panels - the bed is very good; not dented or rusted, so Im just going to leave the 'outer' body all dented n handpainted; theres many a clean n straight one out there!!...
Personally I like straight shiny cars and trucks, but if you wanna drive it primered at least fix the dents. And on a weird side note ... I'm also over on the 67-72 chevytrucks board and there was a very old thread someone dug up and one of the posts was from you. It got me to wondering what the heck you were up to these days. This was just last night. Nice to see you are still kicking =)
Fix it, Tman, Squirrel, and Kirk will do the body work, Model T1 will paint it for $100 I won't be there at all.
i dont mind a few dents now and then. i also like a straight body...either way i will not be helping you. no offense. we will just say that it is to far away.
Did I say I'd paint it? I must have been holding way too many beers. Besides, ain't nuthin wrong with an Easter Egg paint job around Easter time
I guess it all depends on what you had rather have and be seen in. Either you want to drive an old beat up truck or you want a nice truck. What ever you choose will reflect your personality. My ex said the same thing about mens shoes. She said either you wear shined shoes to look clean or you wear dirty sneakers and look like a bum...
Mother nature may have given it the patina but I dont think mother nature did the dents. I vote Fix the dents.
Where you going to be at, I'll park next to you! If it were me, i would fix the dents as best as you can. If you were closer to me I would help you and you could help me. Then we could get stupid drunk and put more dents in it
Good lord. Are nasty dents now even considered 'patina'? Get a paintless dent repair guy to come over and take'm out if nothing else.