Technical Yeah, Its got a Hemi/41 shop truck

Things that make you go SHIT! My next day powder coater is moving. His new landlord jacked his rent from $600 to $1600 and the dude cant abide. But he did manage to get a few pieces out the door for me Friday.
Drop brake pedal bracket and stop light switch and the battery cage for under the seat.

I would have normally done these in a semi flat black but gloss is all he had not packed up and moved so glow it is!
Also did the lower radiator pan I have been working on. Now permanently mounted with the horns and I went ahead and ran the ground lead while I was at it since I had some cloth covered black wire lying around. the ground is run through large insulated eyes attached via the AC condenser bolts.

This pic is sideways but it is the ground bus in the engine bay that everything up front grounds to. There is another on the back frame rail for the tail lights, one under the seat and one under the dash.

 

In an earlier post I asked about welding the bed corners, the consensus was yes sooooo

melted both sides in

and seem sealed.

I also plug welded a 3/4" L channel on the bottom edge of the front panel as it was really oil canny. Now it is stiff and silent. I tis also seem sealed and with that I think all of the welding on the bed is done. Time for body work.

 

Done welding (I hope) on the cab. So I textured the floor and firewall with rock guard and shot it with black epoxy primer.

The floors turned out tight! They will still get sound deadener and rugs but this is a nice foundation to build on.
I also shot the underside of the cowl while I was at it.

and ended my weekend by starting the body work on the rear fenders. Mainly the area around the tail lights I welded in and the new gas filler I added. It didn't require much filler. Next up will be polyester primer on the fenders and cab and a lot of block sanding.

 

As I prepare to paint this truck in pieces I got around to mounting the front fenders on stands this weekend.
The rear fenders were easy to mount to plywood as they are flat where they mount to the bed. The fronts though are not flat so I had to get creative and bought these

They are plastic toilet wedges/shims and i got a bag full of them for $14 on line. Drilled them out and stacked them to properly space the fenders. Then i cut them off with a cutoff wheel so they wouldn't interfere with block sanding.

The front fenders are a bit longer than my 4' plywood so I made a couple of quick extenders out of some scrap angle and a few washers.

Two more fenders ready for body work and paint.

I can't tell you how easy working on the rears has been with these stands. Next up I borrowed a couple more stands from @Pist-n-Broke Saturday and I think I have an idea to mount my doors to them. It would allow for 360 rotation so I can get to the bottoms and they should work great for paint as well. That only leaves the tailgate and hood to mount to something portable and I will have the whole truck on mobile painting rigs. They will will be cut and polished on the rigs prior to assembly.

 

Those plastic shims look like they would be handy to have around for many uses, howzabout a linky.
By the way BB, does the HOA know you are doing body work and paint in the hood?

 

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Sioux-C...MIocGh1Imz7wIVmB6tBh2U1QCLEAQYASABEgKI4_D_BwE
There's the link. I plan to keep the paint job on the down low. I should be able to pull it off. Maybe buy my next door neighbor a night at a nice hotel as a late christmas gift and paint it whilst she is away.

 

This showed up today from Classic Instruments. I sent the, my 41 merc glove box clock and had them match it to their nostalgia gauges.

As you can see it came with a tee shirt and chamoe. The diet coke and Crown was owner provided.
The clock is now electronic rather then wind up and back lighted to match the instrument panel. It was not that expensive considering the excellent workmanship that went into creating this unique addition to the truck.

 

That’s just perfect!

 

Swap meet score Saturday morning here in the 'couve.
Chrome 40 PU door hinges with chrome hardware! The chrome gods were smiling on me!
Now, time to get back to body work. The roadster took a bit more time than I thought but I needed to have one ready for summer.

 

Wow! Those hinges are sweet. Great score!

 

Nice!!

 

Very Nice!!

 

Well you saved a couple days of buffing them now that you have chrome ones.

 

Thanks gents! I was out the door at the swap meet and walking back to my truck when i spied those on a table on a side street. I hate leaving a swap meet empty handed. Full pocketed though is not so bad.

 

Have I mentioned how much I hate body and paint? I do not want to know how many hours are in these fenders between welding up all the cracks, custom tail lights, cool ass gas filler, lower fender extension RR, fender lip repair, dent removal, sand blasting, rhino liner, body filler, sanding, body filler, sanding, sanding, sanding., etc.
Finally I think they are ready for that ultra build polyester primer...oh and then more sanding!

The LR was in pretty nice shape other than the lower front replacement panel (46 fender), you can see the work the RR took. It had been outside a lot and had a ton of rust pock marks that I painstakingly filled. The high build may have handled it but now I don't need to worry. The fronts required a lot of pock filling as well, t e d i o u s work.

The LF fender was the worse of the lot, thus I saved it for last. That looks like a lot of filler but it is paper thin, I just need these fenders to be straight under the gloss black paint I'll be laying down. I swear that fender had been worked over with a ball peen hammer at some point in it's life. It has more hours in total than probably the other three combined. I tried to find a replacement but 40/41 truck front fenders I found are pretty rare. Oh well, ready for primer!

 

Wish you were close by. You could get some more practice on the lumps in mine.
I’m dreading them.

 

80 years of abuse takes it's toll on fenders especially trucks! I have a working theory that most of the FTF crowd just couldn't find a decent set to install.

 

Billy love your truck and the work you're putting into it. I had a buddy bring a 41' back from Michigan on behalf of his friend, and while it was the color of rust, it was completely straight. Unfortunately, it was also crazy thin due to the rust. I was amazed that it had held together on it's trip back here.

 

Thanks! They built them out of a lot more steel in those days (men and vehicles) but time does funny shit to both concerned.

 

I feel your pain. One of my fronts was badly pocked and pin holed, but the shape was good (held up to light it looked like the milky way.) I gave up counting after welding the 300th tiny pin hole.

Good work man.

 

Prior to sand blasting and rhino lining I put an awful lot of wire in these fenders. Not as bad as you had it as most of my pocks hadnt made it through the thick 'enry steel. Looked like a teenagers face.
It just takes a ton of patience. I have to continue telling myself that if I rush this part, or only do a half ass job, it will be a serious pain to repair later. Here is a close up of all of the little fills on the LF fender, looks like a constellation photo from Hubble.

I had to be home for a contractor yesterday so I spent the day in bed, truck bed that is. It is new steel but all those spot welds!

I did the top of the rails and the inside and outside of the stake beds and the mid brace.

Today I will tackle the front bed rail spot welds. As far as the underneath of the side rails is concerned, if anyone looks under there I'll kick 'em in the ass while they're bent over! Beside that ultra build should cover them pretty well.

 

Breaker, breaker, calling all truckers! This here's the Bandit.
How do I remove these door hinges? The ones on the cab were easy using that Eastwood chisel screw remover. I was bummed not to find screw heads here.



I bought some cool, old chrome hinges at a local swap fest. I think I know the answer but before I drill and grind the heads off I figure I had better ask. And better question, how do I reinstall them? There is not much room in the doors for my hands. Thought about nut zerts inserted in the hinges themselves.

Stripped the one door so far, it is close to perfect. I put a little rustmort on the bottom inside lip just as a precaution since there was bit of brown under the primer down there.

The plan is to paint the inside the doors gloss black at the same time I shoot the outside. I will upholster the areas inside the recesses with a special touch on the bottom section I have been planning.

 

Your hard work is obvious..looking good.
I can't help on the hinge..other then what you've already came up with.
I'm sure you don't want to cut the inside door panel to access, and then re-install, weld/grind/finish/prime/paint..I wouldn't either.
Good luck.

 

I’m gonna have to go back and read all these pages. Like what I see

 

Is the hinge thick enough to tap?

 

That's a great suggestion...are there interior panels covering the full inner panel...if so a good sized round hole would give access for a countersunk bolt/nut solution in lieu of original rivets it seems which were no doubt installed prior to the skin install...

Threading the Chromed hinge would be an option as mentioned how are the Chrome ones now? What size are the holes?

Perhaps a low profile 3 nut cage can be fit to the hinge with enough clearance to fit through the hinge slot in the door...

 

STOGY, as built in '40/'41 there was no interior "fabric/cardboard door panel" only the metal "skin".
I believe BB will be installing some sort of fabric covering for at least a portion of it though.

 

It is definately thick enough but the heads might get a bit large. I could always do SS screws and turn the head down if they are too big.

The chrome hinges are pretty nice for being used. Too nice to weld on. I might be able to sink nut zerts in them. I like the idea of threading them.

Yes, the doors will get an upholstered panel but it won't go all the way to the jamb, it will fit inside the reveal on the upper half the door. I like the idea of threading the hinges, easy to install too after painting.

 

Ford not only riveted door hinges on but there may be a couple of very serious spot welds holding those hinges to the door frame as well.

 

I would consider painting the inside of the doors white so you could see in there.
I wouldn't worry about any overspray from painting the body.
Also consider painting under dash white before start anything else... helps greatly with visibility.
Wish I had done the above on all my projects but nobody suggested it!!
Here's your chance.
Good luck with the hinges... I've fought several wars with them... and I lost every one!!