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EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.
Wow. Looking good, man.

Just imagine that truck all painted up nice and pretty, with the same logo all freshly painted on both doors.

Then drive it over for your grandpa to see.

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trouser chili
Mar 27, 2002

Unnngggggghhhhh
The picture doesn't show them in enough detail, but drat if those bearings don't look almost new.

WT Wally
Feb 19, 2004

I would think there would be some sentimental value in restoring this one, though. If it were my family name on the side, I'd think I would want to restore it back in its original livery.

BigFuzzyJesus
Dec 4, 2007
Now with more Jesus
This project is amazing, I love the simplicity of old trucks, you are making me sufficiently jealous, keep up the good work!

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Yay, question time.

The new drums I bought for the rear are starting to lightly rust already. Needless to say, I rather dislike rust right now. Would Por-15 or Rustoleum High Heat hold up? I'm assuming this would work, but any recommendations would be great.

SimulatedWoodgrain
Oct 6, 2006
try brake caliper paint
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/caliper.html

probably overkill but it seems to hold up pretty good.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.

WT Wally posted:

I would think there would be some sentimental value in restoring this one, though. If it were my family name on the side, I'd think I would want to restore it back in its original livery.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. Save the survivor door because it's just too badass to paint over, get another one to live on the truck, and paint it just like it was new 56 years ago.

That paint should work just fine. Caliper paint, engine paint, grill paint, all will do the job.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

EvilDonald posted:

Yeah, I was thinking the same. Save the survivor door because it's just too badass to paint over, get another one to live on the truck, and paint it just like it was new 56 years ago.

That paint should work just fine. Caliper paint, engine paint, grill paint, all will do the job.

The door is safely tucked away in my garage, its not going back on the truck. The door from the pictures I posted earlier is the door I'm replacing it with. I've already looked into getting the door art repainted on both sides, and even found the guy that did some of the original dairy painting :) .

edit: Just a thought, can anyone with some photoshop skills slap on a new paint job? I mentioned the truck to someone, and they didn't think it would look good as a solid color. I'm trying to prove them wrong.

Mooecow fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jun 25, 2009

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

If you loosen the hinge bolts on the driver's door and lift it up to align the body line, does the rest of the door gap line up, aside from your new cowl piece? Or is there no adjustment at all on the door hinges? If not, I'd suggest shimming. It looks to me like your new piece should be put on to fit the door, once the door is fit into the old frame. It also looks like the door will fit the old frame right if you just lift it at the bottom hinge.

Or am I telling you stuff you already know?

PainBreak
Jun 9, 2001
As someone with a bit of experience freeing up locked engines, if you haven't already done so, I'd recommend giving the pistons a bit of a tap a couple of times a day while you have the PB Blaster (or any other kind of oil) sitting on top. This will speed up the penetration of the oil.

This project looks great! I have a 47/53 Chevy (47 frame, 53 cab) that is currently just sitting, waiting for a day when I have the time to take on a project like this.

Cthulhu Homeslice
Jun 20, 2007

This is a great thread. Good progress so far... Keep it up man.

Gotta love those smooth running inline engines.

I have plans in the back of my head to put together an early pickup as a daily driver. You know, once the Alpine is on the road.

Upgrayedd
Apr 25, 2004
When this baby hits 88mph, you're gonna see some serious shit
I have always loved trucks from that decade. Seeing your progress and after being highly frustrated and mostly broke from troubleshooting the uselessly complex FI/Turbo system on my Conquest I am seriously thinking about trading it for a barn-find truck like yours. Its stupidly simple and looks the tits.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

I went through and cleaned up the rest of the inner fenders and painted them with Por-15 and Rustoleum. Since my patches on them replaced a few areas with bolt holes, I will have to drill some new holes when I go to mount them to the fenders. Other than that, I am happy with how they came out.

Before:


After:


I also cleaned up and painted all four brake drums. Once the fenders are back on the truck, they won't be visible, but just knowing they are rusting was enough to get me to paint them. One rattle can of Rustoleum high heat later and they look as good as new.



Next up were the rear brakes. All I had to do was install the new parking brake cable and install the new return springs. The parking brake cable was easy, once I figured out why it was impossible to replicate how the old one was mounted. Once again, a shoddy repair caused much confusion. After that, I tried to install the return springs. I figured I could just use a pair of vice grips on them like I had with the old ones. I am pretty sure if God and Zeus teamed up they wouldn't be able to extend the spring enough to mount it on the post. One quick trip to NAPA later and I had a fancy new tool.



All you need to do is hook one side to the spring and another to the backing plate. It did the job, just, but was still a major pain.



Next came remounting the front axle. I replaced the bushings on the rear of the leaf springs since they were worn down to almost nothing. Straight axle + worn bushings = slithering more than a drunk snake on the fourth of July.




After the axle was back on I had to grease the wheel bearings. I am pretty sure that when they greased the bearings, they just piled the grease on top of the old grease. I was able to pull handfuls of disgusting bearing grease out of the hubs.

On the plus side, at least the wheel bearings look to be in good shape.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Today I decided to test hang the front fenders. Considering how much was replaced on the cab, I expected the fenders to be horribly off. Luckily, however, they seem to fit alright.

The bolt holes in the rear of the fenders lined up pretty well to the cowl panel. It was a bit of a struggle to get 1/2" bolts through all the holes though. I think when I mount the fenders for the last time, I will use as many 1/2" bolts as I can, then use 7/16" for the rest.

The drivers side has the worst of the fitment issues. That fender is the junkyard fender, and had only 2 of the five bolt holes that attach to the cowl remaining. The other 3 and a 1.5' of the attaching lip was completely missing. I fabbed up and welded on a new strip. It is ugly as all hell, but I think it should work.

Here are a few overviews of the front on: (The jack stands are set lower than the truck would normally sit, so it looks a little weird)







Drivers side:


In that pic I havne't drilled the new attaching holes yet. When I just tried to push it into place, the gap closed up somewhat, but there was more of a gap than what fender welt can hide. I am going to try to fix that tomorrow.

And now the drivers side. Again, I didn't have any 7/16" bolts to use, but the gap closed up by hand pretty well.

Jethro
Jun 1, 2000

I was raised on the dairy, Bitch!

Mooecow posted:

Here are a few overviews of the front on: (The jack stands are set lower than the truck would normally sit, so it looks a little weird)




Only if by "a little weird" do you mean "awesomely slammed". You should totally lower that baby while you're working on it. Or just get some 10" wheels.

wombat74
Sep 30, 2005

Corporate Fat Cat

Jethro posted:

Only if by "a little weird" do you mean "awesomely slammed". You should totally lower that baby while you're working on it. Or just get some 10" wheels.

With that avatar and title combo... you're not related to the OP are you?

Rubiks Pubes
Dec 5, 2003

I wanted to be a neo deconstructivist, but Mom wouldn't let me.
A buddy of mine has a similar truck that he found out in a field. The whole thing is the pinkish red/copper color your fender is. He put a carb'd 350 in using a front clip from an older z28. Then he built a new frame from the cab back and put the truck on airbags. It's all patina appearance wise other than new headlights and LED stock style tails. It's got some Boyd Coddington billets on it. He did a lot of it rat rod style, his gear shifter is made out of two wrenches welded together. I'll try to dig up some pics of it.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.
No, don't lower it. Keep it stock height, it's cooler that way. Everyone lowers poo poo, not many keep stuff stock anymore.

But it's looking good. You're making me want to start on my old truck, I wish I had a place to tear the engine apart. Unsheltered backyards aren't ideal for such things.

sharkytm
Oct 9, 2003

Ba

By

Sharkytm doot doo do doot do doo


Fallen Rib

Rubiks Pubes posted:

airbags... LED taillights... Boyd Coddington billets ... rat rod style

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.


Sorry, I couldn't help myself.



BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH. Boyd and "rat".

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Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

This here is a really neat thread. I'm particularly liking that you're pretty inexperienced, but still able to do a lot. It makes me feel encouraged to start a project of my own in the next year or two, regardless of my own experience level. And, this is a great old truck to work on, it's going to look fantastic when its done.

When you take your grandpa for a ride in it, all the time effort and money will have been worth it.

Rubiks Pubes
Dec 5, 2003

I wanted to be a neo deconstructivist, but Mom wouldn't let me.

sharkytm posted:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.


Sorry, I couldn't help myself.



BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH. Boyd and "rat".

I guess the formal definition for what you'd call his truck is "farm rod." I thought it would be somewhat relevant to the thread since there have been quite a few people telling him to slam it, and my friend's truck is identical. I agree that Boyd is a dick but his company made some nice looking billets.

Megillah Gorilla
Sep 22, 2003

If only all of life's problems could be solved by smoking a professor of ancient evil texts.



Bread Liar

Mooecow posted:


Did you get a new badge, or have you been idly polishing the old one?

"Soon, baby. Daddy's gonna make it all better."

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Gorilla Salad posted:

Did you get a new badge, or have you been idly polishing the old one?

"Soon, baby. Daddy's gonna make it all better."

Believe it or not, I haven't touched the badge since I got the truck.

Although a few variations of that have been muttered while working on it.


Anyway, update time.

After test fitting the fenders, I decided to test fit the hood. When I got the truck, the hinges were not attached, so I had no idea how fell it should fit. With just setting it on the fenders without the hinges, I got it to line up pretty well, albeit with a bit larger panel gap then I would like. I think once I attach the fender to firewall braces again, that gap should close up a bit.



After I installed the hinges, I ran into a huge problem. Whenever I closed the hood, the rear of the hood would sit up about 1" off the cowl. After I disconnected the hood springs, the problem went away. According to the folks over at Stovebolt, worn hinges causes that. My uncles parts truck hood does the same thing, so new hinges are on the long shopping list.

While working on the hood I realized I hadn't looked into where my hood ornament came from. I knew it wasn't correct for the truck, but I had no idea beyond that. After looking at hundreds of different ones, I think I found it. I am pretty sure it came off a 53' or 54' Oldsmobile. I bet LobsterboyX will be along shortly to correct me if I am wrong.





As much as I would like to save it, it seems that re chroming it would be way too much money. :(

Next I went through and started cleaning the running boards. With all the old paint on them, it appeared that only one of them had any rust through. I was quite wrong. They both have a few rust holes. I plan on cutting a section from my uncles parts trucks running board to use as a patch panel. That is, of course, assuming those running boards are rusted to hell as well.



Then it was back to the cab. I am going to skip the boring details about messing with the inner-to-outer cowl and inner cowl because, well, they are boring. Imagine spending hours making tiny cuts, banging on stuff with a mallet, and making more cuts.

Heres the final results:





And now onto the floor. I decided to lap weld the new floor/toeboard sections to the remaining toeboard. Considering my welding skills, a butt weld probably wouldn't have been able to take the stress.

First I marked out where the new section reached and out cut out as much of the old metal as I could. I left between a 3/4" to 1" area to lap weld with. That is probably too much, but I can always trim it later.

Now you see it:


Now you don't:


I did the same thing to the other side and then screwed the patches to the old. Self tapping screws made quick work of that.



I stood one them and they barely moved! For the first time in years, the truck has a floor. I still have to work on where the pans meet the seat riser, though. The metal there is really weak and it supports a lot of weight.

In related news, it seems that I might be able to have the old bumper straightened back into shape. Considering it weighs about 40 lbs. and is made of nice and thick steel, I would rather like to keep it. :)

As for lowering it vs. not lowering it. Why lower it? I dare say it will be quite fun towering over people in their little cars.

Slung Blade
Jul 11, 2002

IN STEEL WE TRUST

It's looking great, keep it up.

As for the hood ornament, you have to keep it. If nothing else, clean it with a wire wheel, and then polish the gently caress out of it with some really fine grit sandpaper and clear coat it. Then in a few years when you have some more money, get it chromed properly.

Hazlen
May 5, 2007
[img]https://forumimages.somethingawful.com/images/newbie.gif[/img]

Just chiming in to say this is the exact truck my girlfriend wants to restore and I will be showing her this thread. good work mate! :)

bennyfactor
Nov 21, 2008

Mooecow posted:

While working on the hood I realized I hadn't looked into where my hood ornament came from. I knew it wasn't correct for the truck, but I had no idea beyond that. After looking at hundreds of different ones, I think I found it. I am pretty sure it came off a 53' or 54' Oldsmobile. I bet LobsterboyX will be along shortly to correct me if I am wrong.

It's a '53/'54 olds all right. There's one fairly cheap on eBay that looks like it would be a bit easier to polish and clearcoat than yours.

Because, you know, you have to keep the ornament on that truck. It's beautiful, like this thread.

JonReremy
Jun 9, 2009

Stiffly penetrating a new era of "bizarro" porn genre
Glad to see you replaced the hardware on those brakes. You may want to put some grease on the backing plate to keep them from squeaking. Project looks like it's going great.

LobsterboyX
Jun 27, 2003
I want to eat my chicken.
definitely 53 olds...

the old 54 gmc that my shop restored had a weird hood rocket thing too.

you are kicking rear end on this truck, its so great to see the progress.

Dividend Special
Jul 24, 2007

by Fistgrrl
Why did you remove the artwork on the doors?

I HATE CARS
May 10, 2009

by Ozmaugh

Dividend Special posted:

Why did you remove the artwork on the doors?

Read the thread. That was his spare door.


Also, still loving this project. You're making bloody good progress.

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.

Mooecow posted:

As for lowering it vs. not lowering it. Why lower it? I dare say it will be quite fun towering over people in their little cars.

:hfive:

Great work so far. I'd clean up that hood ornament and either polish it or hit it with some modeler's chrome paint. It's just too badass to throw out.

Tagus
Jul 10, 2007

Drive... just drive.

Leperflesh posted:

This here is a really neat thread. I'm particularly liking that you're pretty inexperienced, but still able to do a lot. It makes me feel encouraged to start a project of my own in the next year or two, regardless of my own experience level. And, this is a great old truck to work on, it's going to look fantastic when its done.

I agree completely with this. Everyone keeps telling me that if I'm not a real mechanic then I shouldn't even bother cracking open an engine. Awesome truck, awesome project, and inspiration to boot.

Simkin
May 18, 2007

"He says he's going to be number one!"
Before you take any sort of abrasives to the hood ornament, you could try out the tinfoil trick. Wad up a ball of tinfoil (or aluminum, I don't think it matters), and then just rub the rust spots.

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

This week has been tedious and yet fulfilling at the same time. I have started to position and weld in the patch panels for the last time.

In order to do this, I have to remove one panel at a time, remove the primer where I will be welding, spray on zinc primer (to act as a weld thru primer), and paint/protect all the areas that will now be inaccessible. For the most part it has been going well, but extremely slowly.

So far I have welded in both inner cab corners and both rocker panels. After I welded in the rockers, I gave them a stress test and the welds held. :) My brother and I both stood on just the rocker. Since my welding skills still leave much to be desired, I am going to have to dress those welds as best I can. I forgot to take some pictures of all this, so I will take some and post them later.

On another happy note, my front bumper has been repaired! Before the bumper was bent far enough back that it was almost touching the front fender. What they hit and how fast they were going to bend it I have no idea. If I was told they hit a brick wall at 50mph I just might believe them.

This picture somewhat shows the extent of the problem.


And now the freshly repaired bumper:


With the help of a big torch to get it red hot and a HUGE press it was squished back into shape. He tried just getting it red hot then hitting it with a sledge hammer, but that didn't work. Not a surprise exactly, considering that the bumper weighs 47 lbs. I wonder how bad that will screw up my weight balance? :eek:

Sasquatch!
Nov 18, 2000


This is my favorite part of this thread:

Mooecow posted:

Every male relative I can think of has said "I'll restore it!" and promptly gotten nowhere, so, hell i'll give it a shot.
If that's not inspiration I don't know what is. Keep it up! :)

CNJ05
Jun 1, 2005
I noticed in that "before" picture of the bumper that you have Armstrong tires, which stopped being manufactured about 20 years ago when they got bought out by Pirelli. Frankly, I'm surprised they still hold air and that the sidewall didn't bubble when you filled them up again!

Also, I really admire the progress you've made and that you haven't given up or lost interest. Congrats on making it thus far -- hope things continue going well for you! :)

Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

CNJ05 posted:

I noticed in that "before" picture of the bumper that you have Armstrong tires, which stopped being manufactured about 20 years ago when they got bought out by Pirelli. Frankly, I'm surprised they still hold air and that the sidewall didn't bubble when you filled them up again!

When the truck was pulled out, 3 of the wheels were still fully inflated. Only the passenger front needed some air, but it was only partially deflated. The sidewalls on all of them are cracking like crazy, so I am surprised as well that they haven't failed yet.





Hmmmm, maybe it's just me, but something seems to be missing. :confused:

For the front patch panels, I couldn't remove just one at a time. They all connect/overlap each other in some way. Before being removed, all the holes were marked so I wouldn't have to reline everything back up when they were reinstalled.

I then Por-15ed the back of the door pillar and removed the black primer from the areas on all the patches that I would need to weld to.

Next came reassembly. I put the drivers outer cowl back on and plug welded it into place. I then went to weld in the floor and promptly got irritated. Welding the new toe board section to the old was a major pain. The old area is thinner then the new, so it was hard to avoid burning through the old and yet getting good penetration on the new. This and 85 degree heat in the direct sun made this part miserable. I ended up taking a break every few minutes just to avoid getting burned out. For the most part the floor is now in, however. The welds look awful, but they seem to be holding just fine. :)

Next up, the inner to outer cowl. Since I was going to plug weld it in, I wanted as little a gap between the two as possible. I may have gone a bit over the top with the C clamps, what do you think?





And now after I welded it into place.



You'll notice the top has a ton more welds than the rest. The first couple of welds I did on the top gave way much too easily, so I just went nuts and added a bunch more to make sure that wouldn't happen again. I pulled like hell on it afterward and it didn't budge.

Here is how that side looks from the inside.



I ran out of welding wire today and won't have anymore till Wednesday. I now have to work on Mon and Tues anyway, so no time is lost. So progress on the beast is going to slow down a little bit.

Mooecow fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Jul 13, 2009

EvilDonald
Aug 30, 2002

I'm the urban spaceman, baby.
:dance:

This thread makes me happy.

Sponge!
Dec 22, 2004

SPORK!

Mooecow posted:






Hmmmm, maybe it's just me, but something seems to be missing. :confused:


Holy Jeebus gently caress! More holes than cheese comes to mind. I salute you for your efforts, and do truly enjoy watching the progress.

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Mooecow
Aug 2, 2005

Armed with a fresh 2lb. spool of welding wire I attacked the cab yet again.

When I went to install the drivers side inner cowl I ran into a problem. No matter what I did, I could not get an arc of the door pillar. After hours and readjusting the grounding clamp and cleaning the ground area, I removed the cowl and wire wheeled the hell out of the door pillar. It seems that the first time I cleaned the pillar I only removed the top layer of rust, thus preventing me from getting a good arc off of it. After plenty of wire wheeling and house size clouds of rust I was able to reliably arc of the pillar.



For the most part, installing the passenger outer, inner to outer, and inner cowl was just a repeat of the drivers side. I re wire wheeled the door pillar just in case. I barely removed any rust so I think that step was unnecessary. Better safe then sorry I guess.

After all the cowls were in I started welding in the passenger floor pan. It seems that the existing metal is a bit thicker on the passenger side. The number of times I burned through dropped significantly. I have welded most of it in, but still have a bit to go. 85+ degree weather with high humidity in my welding getup = misery. I had a fan blowing right now me, but that could only make it bearable for so long.



And now how the passenger side looks with its cowl welded in place.

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