Old Truck Escapade

Truck Diaries: 11/14/09 8:14 Pm

I had my first tow for my truck today. One too many leaks in the air system and the air system wouldn’t build up enough pressure. It left me stranded in the driveway at Strouts Welding. It wouldn’t build up pressure and air was leaking from under the transmission. I had it towed to Dysart’s Service. Nothing like a $300 tow bill to make your day and too cap off the taking it to the shop episode. Until next time, stay tuned to the next episode.

Recap of the Taking it to the shop episode:

Posted on the discussion forum for the ATHS -11/11/2009 6:02:18 PM

The floor in my cab is rusted out and the cab mount doesn’t have any metal to support the cab. Two to three people at the shop have told me that whole floor and it’s supports or lack of supports on the driver’s side need to be replaced. The supports for the floor in the rear of the cab have to be built from scratch and I do have an air valve that needs to be removed. I’ve got a few more welders to talk to before I make a decision about the repair. I may wait until next spring after I bank up some money over the winter. I’m even considering buying a welder and a torch and the steel tubing and doing it myself next year. I’m not looking to have my truck returned to factory condition or be a turn key hot rodder, just trying to fix the major problems first. There are some things that I can do myself and sometimes I also need to ask for help. I don’t know if there are many members up here in my part of Maine. I guess I picked the wrong time of the year to have this part of my truck fixed. Thanks for the help and the advice, the adventure continues . .

Earlier Posting on the forum Posted 11/11/2009 6:58:37 AM

I’m currently working on my first restoration project and am running into difficulties with a shop not wanting to do the work. Is this a common practice with most machine or body shops? I live in rural Maine, north of Bangor and took my truck to a local machine/fabrication/welding shop. They told me to clean out the interior and bring it back to the shop. It took me a few weeks but I got it done on weekends. They have a retired body guy who lives across the street who was going to do the work. I brought the truck back after removing 35 years of carpet, dust and rust and the old guy said it would take a month’s worth of work to replace the floor and the cab mount(That’s about 4-5 grand, ouch!) The funny thing is that is he is going to Florida for a month in a few days and the owner of the shop isn’t sure if welders can do the work. It makes me wonder if the shops can pick and choose their work and aren’t affected by the so called dismal economy? I also called another shop and the guy seems more interested in hunting rather than fixing my truck. I guess it must be nice to pick and choose your work and not have to go to a steady job to pay your bills. I believe in supporting local businesses but this is ridiculous. Luckily, I’m still searching for a welder to do the work. Any one else have any bad experiences from taking their trucks to shops regardless of the state?

This entry was posted on November 14, 2009 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.