Projects fixing a smashed 31 model A pickup cab.

before.....

 

I picked the cab up in the other direction and started to cut out the driver door rot. I had to fix a couple sections of inner panel and ground and wire wheeled the rust off. I put a coat of weld through primer on.

 

You are fixing a LOT of rust and bad spots and your final goal is to leave the original old paint?

 

yep...for now. we are fixing stuff to a point that, in the future it could be taken to the next level, with the least amount of "back tracking". Charlie is anxious to get it together.

 

Charlie dropped off his camera for me to get photos out of it. here is the truck when the Slacker first saw it.

 

this evening,

 

Quite a "Save" you are getting done.

 

Nice work! Lookin' great!

 

thanks guys! door finished.

 

Looks great! I’m really enjoying watching you guys save this one.

 

onto the cowl. the inner panel needed to be chiseled off and the metal underneath cleaned up.

 

I made a new one using 16 gage like the original and bent it like I have been doing the beads on the outer. it also needed to shrink the lower flange to follow the cowl. I coated the joining surfaces with weld through primer. when it dried I welded it in.

 

when I had bent the door patch I used a four foot piece for this whole side. I checked the angle of the bottom of the panel and the door edge . it is slightly off 90 degrees. I bent the ends and trimmed it to fit.

 

the piece needed to have a bow in the jamb edge. I shrunk it before I made the second bend. the panel also needed a bend 3 1/4" from the jamb on the bottom edge. I found this by holding a straight edge above the bead. I struck that edge in that spot. trimmed it to fit .

 

weld and finish grind

 

prime, paint, this side done

 

other side fixed exactly the same

 

inner and outer made, fitted, welded and finish ground.

 

pictures from Charlie. he has been working on the steering box, exhaust pedals and brake lines.

 

Your work looks fabulous ! To knock down the sheen on the paint add a little corn starch to the mix before it's sprayed, can be used in water or oil based paint.

 

I just found this thread tonight, took me a bit to get through the whole thing.
I have a truck similar to this one, but it's completely apart. I only thought it was rough. I bought it for a project.
I'm very impressed with your work, and now I have a blue print for putting it back together. Thanks for taking the time to document it all and post it all here!
Keep up the good work.

 

inner panel was bad on the drivers door. a friend had given Charlie the correct patch panel which I made fit.

 

then i patched the out side.

 

ready to sell garage doors...

 

with all the welding done I decided to cut the coupe seat down so it would fit under the wood on the back of the cab.
I pulled the hog rings out and peeled back the upholstery on the upper edge. I needed to remove one row of springs so I pried open the clips holding the springs to the frame, cut the vertical supports.

 

I cut the metal support rods using the bolt cutters. I removed the section of springs trimmed and welded the outer frame support in the shortened position.

 

I then straightened out the little clips that held the springs and rods on. shortened and bent the support rods and clipped it back together. the rods that slid into the aluminum channel I pinched tight like they had done originally on the piece I removed.