When it comes to buying an old truck, it's a given you want to start with the best carcass, roller, or restored truck within your means. However, oftentimes what's in reach, of our pocketbook at least, isn't exactly something you'd be proud to be seen with. Besides the obvious patina, dents, and scratches, you will probably have your fair share of cancerous rust as well. That's what often scares folks away, but it shouldn't be like that anymore.
With the aftermarket the way it is today, there really isn't much you can't find for a classic truck, especially when it comes to sheetmetal. Just about any panel, fender, hood-basically anything you could want-can be ordered directly from a catalog. For that reason, fixing rusty holes and panels is as easy as anything else you want to do to your ride.
One of the biggest suppliers of classic truck parts is LMC Truck in Lenexa, Kansas. They can help you with all your restoration needs, including sheetmetal. In fact, if you're browsing through an LMC catalog you will probably find yourself asking the question: "What don't they make?" This is a good thing, because it means they have the products to keep your vintage tin intact and on the road.
The case on our hands is a Big-Window '58 Chevrolet Apache Fleetside. The truck is now 50 years old and showing it-but no worries, that isn't any reason to scare anyone off. It has rust and rot in all the expected places, and heavily at that, but for the most part it has all of its original equipment that isn't in too bad of shape-which means it's a perfect platform to start a project on. After browsing the LMC catalog, we zeroed in on a few patch panels, cab floors to be exact, that will bring the '58 Fleetside that much closer to being back on the road.
The first obvious step is...
The first obvious step is to completely remove all interior components. Thankfully, it's a spartan truck interior.
We also removed the transmission...
We also removed the transmission floor cover to take a look and see if rust and rot had made its way there as well. Luckily the floors were in decent shape around the access panel.
Like any typical Chevy from...
Like any typical Chevy from the '50s, this Fleetside Apache was no different when it came to rust in all the typical places. The typical places being the cab corners and, of course, the front corners, which include the toe boards and metal surrounding the lower door hinges. It's a good thing LMC has been in this business a long time and has nearly every type of patch panel available.
What you see isn't always...
What you see isn't always what you get. Although some of the metal seemed to be holding up fairly well, that wasn't the case. We used a screwdriver as a punch to test the integrity of the metal. Sure enough, after a few stabs around the surrounding area, the screwdriver went right through some of the seemingly OK areas.
Before we go any further,...
Before we go any further, let's take a look at the floor panels that LMC has sent us...
...In order to ensure a precise...
...In order to ensure a precise fit, LMC has made the panels driver- and passenger-side specific.