lookin good!! you can polish the horn/light switch with mothers aluminum polish. whet sand up to 1000 or so, then polish. it'll look like chrome
Thanks! I have some of that Mothers already as I use it on my daily truck when I detail it from time to time
Made a plate today to attach the fan to the radiator. We got a 12v generator and fan not for the truck so some custom connections are being made. Plan is to bolt the fan to the plate which has 4 holes tapped. The plate will then be welded to the pulley. Also started to strip the fan blade of paint to give it a different more clean look in the end
Also the Grill is getting a ton of work in the next week. Body work was expect but did not really notice how uneven the surface was until this... wow. Made sure to use a block to really get this as level as I could. A grill is such a defining factor of a vehicle and when done right it brings so much character in a fitting way to the vehicle. Details! Details! Details!
Lastly got some primer on this piece as I’m tired of seeing the steering box rebuilt and pieces ready but not assemble ready. So I’m getting to it and hoping I can clean this out of my shop and into the truck.
Also, what kind of clearance are you giving between your fan and radiator???? Very important as we just got the radiator re-cored and would hate to mess that up. Inch? 1.5? 2? .5???
clearance would be the same as any motor, an inch or so. thats a cast iron pulley, you plan to weld on that?
Cleaning up and painting some of the generator to get it closer to install since I need measurements for the fan
And the fan is done! Except for polishing the exposed bits. I was going to wait for the paint to dry before I did that.
Still working on a bunch of this but when I was trying to find out where to mount the radiator I noticed this and took a picture. So close yet so far away from the final result. All the pieces don’t line up at all... but that’s for another day
Thinking I want the engine cover pieces to come apart so if I wanted to keep the look of the last picture then I could in the long run
Going to look into some other types of body filler methods and see if that does anything since I feel like I’m wasting more than anything. There are all these small pits in the metal from rust and I don’t want to grind the metal down but rather full the holes. Here’s the method of coverage I’m using and then the surface after it gets sanded I don’t know but I do feel like it’s quite inefficient for the job this is. It would be different if it were dents but it’s not, it’s put holes
You need to treat it for rust before you do anything. Nothing is going to stick to rust pits until you clean them out. Then check out the specs.on Feather Fill or Slick Sand. There are some 2K primers available. Be sure its DTM (Direct To Metal)
typically all those small rust pits will eventually burn thru the paint and appear as small blisters. Not what you want to see. Rust needs to be removed first.
While this isn’t really truck related I’m practicing my painting some, long time before I paint my truck but practice is never bad A friend of mine had really messed up a quarter panel and got a new one, wants me to paint it since I’m not going to charge him a lot. It’s just practice for me and he’s buying paint. Matching colors right now. But hey, that’s not too bad. I painted my daily a year ago so this is fun. The green were rails to the bed of my dad’s truck. I’ll show you that when it’s done
Contrary to what a lot of you thought I should do I’ve continued to work on this fender and hoping it holds up in the long run. It’s a big piece that has dents all over so it’s been complicated trying to keep the shapes with the curves. It’s coming along though. Only a few more areas
Here’s the rundown for my plans coming up so you all have an idea. First off the truck needs painted this fall if I expect to drive it late spring. With that being said I have to crack down on the body of this thing but not get sloppy with it. I have a good amount left but also with the cab done it feels way less of a burden. I have about 3 weeks until fall semester school starts and I would love to have the other fender done and the step up pieces. Also I have a hard time focusing on body work for long periods so I’ll probably get some other things done in the interior. For example, tonight I started to rebuild the seat. Many springs were broke as well as rods and other things Here’s some rows of springs I got to as well as a new structural rim piece that gives it its shape I need a whole bunch of clips to finish this build but they should be in the mail so yay!!! I’ll be so happy to have this piece done as it’s laid around for the longest time Next I’ve prepped a running board with paint remover even though I doubt it will do much as that paint is rock solid stuff Here’s the fender loosely put on just to get it up and out of the way. I’ll take it off to pint the underside in the wheel well when the other one is done The drivers side step up is the last piece to not receive any rust repair of any kind. Still as it was when I got to it
Also since I talked about the seat I’m genuinely thinking about keeping the old seat base to give this truck an element that reminds me of where it’s come. It’s solid wood with that old look to it. I’ll clean it up and paint it new probably. What do you all think? Keep or cut out a new one?? Also some interior pics. Hopefully in a month from now the whole floor will be in place
your truck is starting to take shape nicely. about the seat, i believe that wood base was a steel part from ford, i am not a 36 expert, but thats my guess. use what ya got i suppose, it worked before. now the spring, that wire around the edge is called perimeter wire. its spring steel and can not be welded like you have done, it will crack at the welds, and welding takes the heat treat out of it so its not a spring anymore. i just did one recently and bought a 10' piece of perimeter wire from an auto upholstery shop near by. its cheap and will make your seat last a while. keep going, falls comin !
Thanks! The perimeter wire I bought from Menards and is steel. I wasn’t planning on welding the actual springs so I’m glad you said something! I’ll look into an upholstery shop nearby and see if I can’t find some of the stuff I need. Thank you again!
Looking good!!!!! As for the seat, if it is still functional, it is one less thing for you to do. Mike
As for today I cleaned up welds on the other fender and finished the work on the seat. The seat is completely sturdy and quite nice in my opinion. Here’s some photos of the fender welds after I cleaned them and the seat. Hopefully we’ll get around to putting the burlap on soon, have it but just need to make something up to put it on. Here’s the fender
Didn’t get much time today before having to head out to work but I wrapped some of the seat to protect the fabric and started tracing patterns in the fabric
Got started on the passenger fender today. A lot of cleaning and assessing damage. I scraped the tar out of the bottom as well as cleaned the top. Got the headlight bulb off the fender which I was unable to do with the other. I’m pleased with the top and I can say I feel guilty about the other fender but there’s nothing I can do at this point. You guys proved me right. I’ll coat the underside with rust treatment next and probably primer the top to get a feel for all the imperfections. Also, the long debate of whether this truck was red or green has been solved... it was definitely green! Painted on the inner headlight bulb was a hunter green. Paint went, primer, then green, then red. Also got a lot of stuff going for the interior flooring.
The Jalopy Journal
