Wanted to know if anyone knew of a good body shop, or special body repair person, in southwest Pennsylvania. My '96 Ram had been accumulating rust (front fenders, rockers, a door), but last summer my neighbor's garage burned down & the heat blistered the paint & melted all of the plastic parts on the driver's side of the truck. Trying to get all fixed but keep running into shops that either won't touch rust repair or fire damage, or just don't want to even be bothered looking at it.

I know, I'm crazy....but have owned truck since new & replaced engine a few years ago....plus has "Ramside" bed. Thanks fellow Dodge fans!

 

What about the Auto Services section of Craigslist? I'm getting my truck's rust treated by a guy on Craigslist (and getting it undercoated too). The guy works in a shop but does side work as well. Wonder if that's an option in your area.

 

Thanks JGG, that's a good idea. I found someone on CL & am in discussions to see what he can do.......

 

Hell no, you're not... 2nd Gen's are totally worth keep'n.

 

Glad to be of some help. Hope that turns out well for you.

 

It's been over a year since my last update in this post, and not much progress. The person I found to work on my truck had it for a year and did nothing. He was a bit far away so I couldn't check on him easily, and he seemed to be hit with one hard luck story after another. Tried to give him the benefit of a doubt because I do know people who always seem to have problems. And during that time my mom was sick so I was busy dealing with that. I finally made a road trip & checked out my truck....sitting under a tree with an old engine block sitting in the bed, he had taken off some parts & did some probing to check the extent of the rust on the fenders. He was out of town & told me later that he was now working out of state. I came back a week later with my brother-in-law & took the truck home. It looks like his auto repair side business is done, at least for now, so at least he won't be ripping off anyone else in the near future. Now working on getting back the money I gave him.......

Found a couple of other guys who do body repair "on the side", but both have not panned out. So right now I have a garage doing some various mech work while I work out body repair options. My brother-in-law knows someone who does some body work, so we're working to see if he can replace the rockers & fenders & at least shoot some primer over them when the mech work is done. Then once I get the "R" title & get the truck back on the road, I can get a real body shop to repaint the body.