Today was a good day. I didn't throw stuff or hurt myself. A simple clean up, that's it. Doing away with dumb PO work like the Ugly rear bumper and the 80's Boat Trailer taillights. Install a new gas tank. Removing the seat and replacing the ripped up rigor mortis stiff vinyl seat cover. Just a clean up. I'm not trying to rebuild the truck right now but that looks like where it's headed. Well, she's a fighting me. I'm mourning my cage nuts....it looks like just about all of them are history. Those that remain have become one with the truck. Seat removal..... One bolt comes out. The other 3 or 4 if you count a little brace, were stuck and then broken.. I wound up grinding one off....drilling through one.....drilling the spot welds and grinding another. All this was done from below. The brace that was not hooked to the seat....I just ground the head off. It' was impossible to get to it from the bottom with out removing the cab. and then...I'll still have to hole saw through the brace to get access to the spot welds. All this just to remove the stinking seat. I had to use a hole saw to get to the driver front seat bolt as it was inside a floor brace. I'll have to go back and drill out the spotwelds to remove that one. I'll have to revisit all of them before I install the yet to be upholstered seat. The PO not only screwed the jute and carpet down...he glued it. So I had to wire wheel all that dang jute up. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr All of this was after some clean up ...it was mess. I got some rust I have to fix as well. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Since my prime is down..tomorrow I'll go back and get the few little pieces of jute that I missed. I see just a few fuzzy spots. Oh... I had planned to remove the center transmission cover. All the cage nuts are rusted on that as well and my 2 part floor is now a one part floor.. I started under the truck with the drill and grinder... but wait a minute... There's no need to go down that rabbit trail right now....enough is enough. I'm not planning to pull that cover any time soon....so it can stay. After many wire wheel sessions and shop vac time....I spray some red oxide on the floor. While that's drying I turn may attention to the rear of the truck to prepare for the new taillights. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr Here we go again.... It should have been a simple matter of removing those bolts. Nope. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr With the head ground off the remains stay put. There has to be a captive nut or something holding the cut off bolt in place. It has a nut on the other side of the stake and it does turn but it will not come out. After the tail gate hinge was removed you can see a fracture here. It's rusty in this area and the rear cross member was damaged when my 10 year old daughter drove our Jeep into the back of the truck. She's 19 now and still cant drive worth a..... Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr The drivers side was also fractured under the tailgate hinge. The rear crossmember....whats not rusted is crushed. The bottoms of my stake pockets are rusted out or fractured. there's also the bolt issue. I've got to let this stew for a while. I still have plenty to do. All these bed parts are reproduced. If I repair or replace the rear stakes and crossmember....I might as well do the wood....might as well pull the fenders and running boards....This was really more than I want to get into right now. I did get this bumper off though. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr This all started with installing a new gas tank. Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr If this doesn't work out I can always work on my late model. 20638843_10210061010938680_7763083619531741752_n by Travis Brown, on Flickr
How’s that saying go? A simple one hour task is but a single broken bolt away from an epic multi day thrash. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Seems to be about normal to me. This is why we have the arsenal of tools we do..and hopefully a whole lot of patience. Good luck, it's all part of the process.
Golly, this sound totally normal to me. I wouldn't expect anything different. This must be your First go around and not have any friends that have ever worked on cars/trucks more than 10 years old. Welcome to Our Normal. The Wizzard
If it was easy, everyone could do it. There is no such thing as "easy" when your dealing with old trucks. On some rare occasions, some stuff isn't as hard as some other stuff. Gene
It's more than most people think. This kind of work would cost a fortune professionally done. My brother made this comment about "Barrett Jackson". It's like eating an elephant. I'm at a cross roads. How far do I go? Yesterday I was all ready to blow the truck apart, remove the bed, running boards and fenders. Do all the prep and put a sure enough paint job on it in the 1950 Sea Island green that the truck had in 1950... I'm not really ready for that right now. All I wanted to do is clean up the truck and put a rattle can primer job to get it one color and enjoy the beater. I know that the in the end, there may be false economy and labor in double or triple work. A lot of that work would simply be re done later. The labor may be more intensive working around stuff and under stuff rather than just disassembly and putting it back together.... Like I said, I'm at a cross roads. Here is what I'm thinking this morning.... Untitled by Travis Brown, on Flickr This is just a rough scribble but I think you can get the idea. Rather than replacing the whole stake, form sheet metal patches for both sides, cut out the problem, weld in new metal. I'll still have to remove the fenders and running boards to do the fronts of the stake.
Part of the reason i moved from the north to the dry West... Disassembly is a breeze. Keep working at it, you'll get it.
Most of this is my fault. The truck sat for about 10 years outside. Now I have the proper storage and work space. When I first started back in May I was really shocked in how bad the truck had deteriorated. I was so disgusted in myself I had to give it a break and accept it's not in the same shape it was 20 years ago. Now I'm up for it. She still runs good though.....that came back OK.
A torch is your friend. Heat those nuts up, let em cool, spray a little penetrating oil on and zip em out
In case anybody is thinking I have the 1950 year wrong, look close, really close. The truck is a 1950 with 51-52 front parts. That's another thing.....I would really like to find a 50 front end. Then again I kind of like it like it is. I'ts part of it's history as the front was replaced decades ago after a wreck. This was before there was any after market support.....probably the 70s.....maybe before. Someone really like the old truck to do the work that was done. The bottoms of the front fenders are hand formed and torch welded. It's a very impressive repair.
Thanks... I'll try that for the transmission cover. No-go on the stakes. The heads of the the bolts are cut off. They spin free. I can turn them with my thumb and fore finger but they will not come out. A nut or something loose inside the pocket is holding them.
I went through this like 10 years ago. I think there is some kind of reinforcement on the stake area where the tailgate hinged bolt to. Plan on recreating that. They're almost always stress cracked. I just ended up saying to hell with it and sent a bolt straight through to a nut on the other side instead of trying to cage nut. My seat only had one functional bolt. Someone else tried getting the other 3 out and made a mess. I'll fix that one some day
All of us who have been at this for a while have been though the same thing and feel the pain. One thing I would suggest for now is don't too deep into it unless you decide to go ahead and do the 100% rebuild. Do it in small stages, drive it a bit and do another stage. Decide what absolutely has to be fixed now and fix that and go from there.
Cage nuts become rusted solid and then break free of the cage, thus becoming free turning. I find many times it is easier to just tighten them until the bolt breaks and then drill out.
"cheap & easy" is a common thought for most of us - you finally are trying to give something the attention that has sitting so very long waiting for the right time - if you are going to do it, bite the bullet and do it right now - otherwise you will later regret having to do it all over again later - is the rush to cobble it together now all that important - there never is enough time - you need to make the time - progress may be slow but, at least you will be making progress
Mr. GreenMonster 48, Please get your seat fixed. Even a 10MPH slide into the ditch could hurt you bad with a loose seat. I'm not one to get on the safety soap box but I think you really need to fix this. If I didn't care, I would not post this.
"I went through this like 10 years ago. I think there is some kind of reinforcement on the stake area where the tailgate hinged bolt to. Plan on recreating that. They're almost always stress cracked." They are reproduced, I used them in mine and bought cage nuts from McMaster-Carr. Trying to find info about that area was difficult.
The Jalopy Journal
