Well, finally got my 2nd cab home. Boy, if there isn't a story in this all in itself....
Long read ahead:
I have a 2.5 car garage in suburbia. Having the deuce parked out in my driveway is bad enough for my neighborhood, but they've been pretty good to me thus far. No issues.
But working on it, cutting, welding......that might stir some of the old folks that live around here. AND, i've welded. But I am not a welder. So doing this project all on my own was just not going to happen. So back before the bed was removed from the truck, I started shopping around for someone to do the job. My first local go-to guy said "no thanks." Next best guy I could think of locally was kicking off a side business building headers and intakes for various cars. He was quite busy, so I didn't want to push my crazy plans onto his already full schedule.
A friend works a retail counter. Sees a lot of people come through in a day. He mentioned a guy, the son of a custom fab business owner, that might do it on the side for a cash job. We took the truck over to him, and Phase one was chopping the bed.
He looked at it.
(talking to himself out loud) Me, another guy.....a weekend.....idk....
Looks at me, "$2200 and we can do that for ya."
I about choked on my own tongue. Sorry, I can buy a nice welder and do it myself for that much! Yeesh.
I posted on the book of Face. A friend from WAY back answers my post and says, "bring it on up. I'll take care of ya."
Seems easy, right? No. See, this guy does fantastic....no, SUPERB work as a welder/fabricator. In fact, I wouldn't want anyone but him to do the job. But, like my response to him...."I've seen your work. I can't afford you." He laughed. "Bring it up, and I'll take care of you bud."
I make him decide on a price. He quoted $500 to $800 depending on time involved. DEAL.
So, now to find a truck and trailer to get the bed up to him.
I know, I know. Why not just drive the deuce up?? Long story. Just know that at that point in time, it wasn't an option. SO, have to find a trailer. My go to for that had recently moved across state lines, and it wasn't registered in his current state yet. That, and it had sat for quite some time before that, so he wasn't going to trust it behaving under someone else's care. Understandable.
After about 3 months of searching, my welder buddy messages me and says, "did you find a trailer yet? If not I could ask my cousin. He lives down by you and comes up here all the time. Figure out a price with him and he can just haul it up here."
Wasted three months and you could have just opened with that?? So, I call. We set a date. The date comes. It's snowing like a monster out there. He calls and throws in the towel. "I would have to have my daughter with. If it were just me, I'd do it, but i'm not taking my daughter out in this."
Very understandable. I wouldn't either.
So, call welder friend and he is bummed too, but understands. Then he says, "well, i've got a 16' deck over trailer. I guess I could just come get it and haul it home."
Really.
Let me redact......you could have opened with THAT.
So, he came down, loaded up very easily. I fed him and his co-pilot. I handed him $300. I said, "take this to get started and for your fuel. Let me know when you need more, or when the job is done and we can settle up." Handshake, and he's off.
I messaged after about 2 weeks. He had some work come into the shop, and was very apologetic. Hadn't even started on it. I tell him not to worry, because I was not concerned in the least bit.
After about a month, he messages and says that it's done and when do I want to come pick it up?
I make the arrangements, and go pick it up. I said ok, so what do I owe you?
"Well, what did you give me to begin with?"
"I handed you $300 to get the ball rolling."
"Give me another $300 and we will call it good."
That job was done. The plan from there, was for me to collect a cab, hardtop, and doors and get them to his house. Once fall came around again, I would drive the deuce to him and he would convert it into a 4 door. About a month, to 2 months ago I got the cab and hardtop and doors and delivered them. He said how excited he was to get this project rolling.
Then, on August 1st, he died. 42 years old. He was on his riding lawn mower and was stung by bees multiple times. The coroner told his dad that even if he had an epi-pen it wouldn't have mattered.....it happened so fast.
And just like that. A dear friend, and one of the most talented fabricators I know.........was gone. This one was hard. Our families were close.
There was to be a visitation on the next Friday. So, i changed all my plans around and went to my hometown to say good bye to a friend. While there, I reached out to his wife to make sure she didn't need anything. She mentioned getting my stuff because there was going to be a lot of other people collecting their stuff and she wanted to make sure I got my stuff before someone else tried to make off with it. So, I made plans to get it loaded up and out of there that weekend since I was there.
Dumped the cab and stuff in my yard, and decided that I would do the job myself. As I said, I'm no welder, but I can weld. Hell or high water, I will complete this job. Maybe not as good as my friend would have, but him and I were both excited to see this project through, and that is what I will do.
My oldest is 13 now. Soon to be 14. I told him what all we needed to take off the 2nd cab, and he did. He had the whole thing stripped in 3 days. I haven't seen him this dedicated to.....anything, really. I asked him if he liked it. He said yes. I asked him why he was so eager to help. He said, "I know how much Jeff meant to you, and how much you both wanted this done. I'll do whatever I can to help make it happen."
I've never been so proud of anything in my life.
