Stolen Bedside

[Papaloo]

Looking back over the past three years, my 1971 k10 has really been quite the trial. I purchased it with a rebuilt engine, that turned out to be repainted and it died 30miles later, on my way home from buying it. When I pulled the engine, I found the cab was mostly held together with pop rivets and bondo and while cleaning that bondo off, I had a wire get past my safety glasses and pierce my eye, you may remember the pictures of that. I purchased a 1972 C10 that I decided was too nice to scavenge parts for the k10, so I bought another k10 cab after my eye had healed a few months and I could work again. After loading the new cab, the seller asked me to help him move a few things and when I did, I blew out my back putting me out of commision for a few more months. After that healed, my grandfather told me that his dying wish was that I restore his beloved 1985 Harley Sportster. I spent the next 9 months working on that and had nearly finished when hurricane Irene came through. You may remember me posting about that:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=521410

After the flood, I had a couple of people that had begun to annoy me and my neighbor by bothering us to try and buy my trucks. Of course,they didn't realize that just because what the trucks were worth to me was more than what they were worth to them, they thought I was stupid or crazy.

Anyways, I finally overcame the sense of depression that I had been feeling whenever I thought about the trucks after the storm and started to work on them. I ordered all of the patch panels I needed from GMCPauls (Thank you! The shopping experience was easy, and the shipping was amazingly quick!). I then decided I would reassemble the bed that I had disassembled for paint/bodywork and ease of access to the frame. I attached the floor the frame, then the bed front, the left bedside, then... Wait, the right bedside was missing. I walked a half mile down the creek, digging through every pile of debris thinking it must have been washed away. After I got home, I realized I had taken a picture of the truck after the storm. I pulled it up. There were both bedsides carefully stacked next to the truck. Then I remembered that after the storm I had carefully stacked both bedsides on the frame rails, then stacked the front fenders and other miscellaneous body parts perpendicular to the bedsides so everything would be neat.

My wife thought that perhaps one of the scrappers that us and our neighbors have had to chase off multiple times after the storm may have taken it, but I realized that was unlikely. Scrappers are people of opportunity. They would have grabbed the easier to handle front fenders that were on top. They would not have dug down to the rust free 8ft bedside then carefully stacked things back up off the ground. Nope, it seems that my bedside was stolen by another 67-72 owner, probably one that lives near me and possibly even someone from this site. Someone who probably even morally justified their theft by reasoning that they were saving that nice bedside from someone who was just going to let it rust into nothingness. I hope that if that person does belong to this forum that they see and realize what a selfish dick they are. I hope they were attacked by an angry swarm of wasps. I know every other part of the truck has had numerous nests.