Projects 41 Ford pickup finally got it home and pictures pictures

Can you insert a copper rod through the pin holes, then bend the pin bosses back around the copper. After welding you should be able to pull the copper out and clean up holes. Well it's an idea to consider anyway.... you might have to reshape the the bosses over a hinge pin and then insert the copper.....

 

That's a good idea, Sam. As I removed the old weld" repair", it was obvious that the hinge wasn't attached to the inner structure at all. I'm thinking about how much of the door I'm going to have to open up to do an effective repair.

 

I decided the cab structure and floor was more important at this point. I did a "mickey mouse " patch up to see if the opening needed to be altered. By the time I get the cab patched, maybe I'll stumble onto a better door.

 

Saturday I removed the lower hinge support from the A pillar. This piece is also the prime connection from the A pillar to the floor pan.
above is the back side of the hinge support and the you can see the 3 tapped holes . This sits inside the A pillar and the hinge is on the outside with 3 oval head machine screws holding it all together. This piece is available reproduction, however mine didn't fit. After a bunch of measuring I decided the flange in the top pic was about 1/4 in. too far below the tapped holes. I remove 1/4 in. and you can see the seam in the bottom pic.
The hole in the flange aligns with the hole in the floor pan and is for the A pillar cab mount bolt and the flange gets welded to the floor eventually.
this is the factory piece I removed.
In the 2 pix above you can see the remnants of the original A pillar and below is a repair piece. The sharpie line is about the cut line . I don't have one of these patches for the right side A pillar... so far I can't find one.

 

Where did you get that patch and what do they call it?

 

Howells Model A parts in Texas is where I got this one over a year ago, however they they have been out of stock all of '21. https://fordor.com/category.cfm?startrow=1&action=prev&dept=3246ford&cat=1938-1947 Ford Truck Cab Parts&sort=title
It's called a "hinge support repair " or something like that. Use the link above.

 

I got the drivers side anchored today. Tacked in but not finish welded.
I did a couple of plug welds and some extra short beads before spraying weld thru primer.
piece bolted in and door alignment checked.
this side is done for now. I'm going to do the same work to the right side next.

 

Since you have both, do you think it could be cut down and used in a coupe? is the hinge bolt spacing the same? My coupe is a bit weak in that area, I know there are big differences stock (not doing a correct resto) but this looks like it may solve some of my problems as my exterior cowl is not all that bad.

I just looked and they have three pairs in stock (on their eBay page and online does not say out of stock) so order now!

 

I apologize for taking so long to respond, but I had to go look at a car to remember how they are done. I don't know exactly what you need to repair, however, I'll assume it deals with the lower hinge pocket.
I wouldn't try to use a piece like I need for my truck; too different from the car. Since the outer skin is wrapped around the the A pillar , it seems the spot welds could be drilled and replaced with minimum disturbance to the outer skin. Also, it may be possible to remove damage to the inner support and reweld from the inside. I replaced part of the outer skin on my coupe lower cowl but the hinge pocket was ok. I hope this helps.

 

I was trying to correct the door opening width at the bottom hinge. It was moderately successful. That is ... it didn't get worse.

 

That's some backyard enginuity there Joel! I love seeing creative solutions to problems...even if not all of them work as well as intended. How about putting a port-o-power in the door opening to open it up a bit (based on your set-up, I think that's what you're looking for).

 

I had already moved the A pillar back (earlier post) and I was trying to get the opening a bit smaller if I could. I'll post a pic of the door hung later,but I think I'm in the range of normal hinge adjustment. Thanks for following the build.
The color above and below the hinge shows the lack of steel in the original A pillar. I'm betting that if the door will fit the opening based on the new inner hinge support, I will be able to repair the A pillars .We'll see.

 

Test fit before the hinge support was tacked in.
After the support is welded to the floor with the A pillar cab bolt in and tight. The bolt also goes thru the hinge support. The fit is not too bad.

 

Now I'm working on the next step in repairing the A pillars.
New piece is clamped in place for transfer of hinge bolt hole location which is a PITA because of small access available.
I'd have a pick of the tool I used for the transfer, but with my hand in there you couldn't see anything.
Crappy focus, however the hinge is in place. I have to jack up on the upper part of the cab ( in relation to the floor) to compensate for the sag when I cut the bottom of the A loose. I'll use the door to hold the pillar in place for tacking.
I'll be moving the cab outside to hang the door. It's been raining for about 3 days and it's supposed to let up later today.

 

That's a difficult area to repair Joel...you're rocking it!

 

Looks good Joel! I will be going to the A pillars next week. Not looking forward to it....

 

Thanks, Sam. The A pillar construction on a truck is much different than a car, but I couldn't even guess which might be less work. One thought I had is that ,on a car, removing the outer skin first could be helpful and the spot welds are on the inside and covered by the kick panels when finished.
Things seem to be going ok right now; this is definitely my last project.

 

I finally got the repair into position, however, in the process I ended up with too much gap . I'll add a support behind the seam and weld all 3 pieces together.
I managed to hold the gap.

 

Small update. Pics are of the pillar piece welded and partially ground weld. I think that was Thursday. I have plug welds to do yet, but I haven't been able to get out there to do it. Nothing serious.. typical BS.

 

Small updates are still steps moving forward. Looking good.

 

Joel, Do you like that weld through primer? Is that SEM Copperweld? I have their grey stuff and it seems fine if a bit stinky when welding on it (I'm certainly no expert welder) just wondered about the copper as it gets mixed reviews on Amazon.

 

Yes ,I do like it. I've been using .023 wire and I thought it might start better than the grey stuff. I think it does and it doesn't seem to hurt penetration or tack welding. JMO

 

I'm back; there is more story than progress. To make it short, I went to the passenger side to repeat the attachment I did on the drivers side A pillar. After some trial fitting and head scratching, I cut the hinge support loose from the floor; I couldn't " get there from here ". I finally determined the A piller was twisted and the hinge bracket needed to move 1/8 in. maybe more.
I cut the tubing loose, so, I had to put the 'ol bumper jack back in service.
I just transferred one hinge screw hole ( only one to fix if it's off).

This piece was a weld up copy of the piece from the other side. It is a little off, but I think fixable. More later.

 

Dang.... That's some head scratching stuff Joel! We have just started on the cowl section of my 39. Both of us have looked at it a bunch and walked away for awhile to see if it will fix itself

 

I've been cleaning up the yard ( leaves) and re-organizing in the garage also. I have had to study possible fixes on a hit and miss basis.... what about this and could that be off or how do I straighten / realign those two pieces?
I have been using the doors to check the lower hinge position is correct, however, I have been considering removing the door skins so that the inner structure for the door can be repaired where the lower hinge mounts. Opportunities.

 

I have nearly finished "adjusting" the weld up piece .
Adding a lip to help locate to the original A pillar.
lip welded and some relief cuts to correct the outside curve. The cowl skin is spot welded to the curved side of the A pillar.
test fit.
The 90 deg flange is back on and mostly welded.
2 thumbnails of the edge and back side of the piece. I'll try to get it attached to the pillar and the floorpan next. Maybe tomorrow. I need to hang the door one more time before I can tack to the floor.

 

Nice fab work Joel!

 

Thanks,Sam. It helps that most of it will be hidden, but I'll still dress up the welds a little.

 

Nicely done!

When I get asked how/what it takes to build a car/hotrod, my answer is that it takes the ability to concentrate on and build one small piece at a time. Eventually, it becomes a car (or truck). This is exactly what I mean.

 

That's a good way to describe it; the only thing I would add is that the older you get' the more concentration it takes.