Like many people, I prefer to have good ol' original tin on my trucks. Recently, though, after seeing the cost of even decent OG sheetmetal rising faster than the price of gas, I also noticed a wide variety of excellent-quality replacement sheetmetal available on the market. Rumors of ill-fitting parts made from paper-thin material aside, the stuff I was seeing could easily pass for N.O.S.-heavy-gauge steel, matching contours/shapes, and most importantly, near-perfect fit. Forget original tin-I'm sinning with replacements.
The replacement sheetmetal came from Goodmark Industries-rear fenders, running boards, and upper splash aprons. On the '53, these parts were beyond used and abused. Repairing them would have meant untold hours of welding up tears in everything from mounting tabs to corners to places where tears shouldn't have been in the first place. As a result, the panels were very fatigued, making repair that much more difficult-not impossible, just time consuming, which as we all know translates to mucho dinero! I'm sure someone out there in truck land will be more than happy to take the weary parts off my hands. Knowing what I now know about early replacement sheetmetal, I was more than comfortable unbolting and bolting them on, leaving the added effort of minor bodywork (mainly pre-paint prep) to the individuals who'll be painting the truck in the near future (JBC Customs).
With the Goodmark parts passing the visual test, it was up to me to verify the fit test for all of you to see. After the bed was completed and snugly secured to the chassis all straight-like (the fenders were hung on temporarily at the time for photo purposes), I was able to remove the remaining old parts and begin installing the new. Fortunately, this turned out to be one of the easier jobs, requiring less than a half day's effort to install, adjust, and walk away smiling. This time, though, it helped that I was fully prepared with all the various "associated" parts. I had acquired a stainless clutch-head fastener kit, welting, and support rods for the fenders, carriage bolts, and rubber seals for the running boards from Brothers. On top of that, I also had all the right tools, namely the clutch-head drivers.
You'll notice that all the sheetmetal is shown installed with the "shipping primer"-I would not recommend running parts in this finish for any length of time, as it's not sufficient to seal the metal. After final fitting, the fenders, boards, and aprons were removed in order to be properly prepped for paint. You'll only create more work for yourself-or worse, your body/paint man-if you try for the instant suede look. Just don't do it!
