Hello all,
Last time, I said I'd try to do a post every other day or so... so much for the best laid plans of mice and men.
Anyhow, a great deal of progress has been made. I got the major issues pretty well worked out of the grill, but it still needs a little tweaking a few smaller dents worked out. While using a jaw shrinker to try and get the profile right on the lower bar, cracks began developing along the edge of a particularly rust-thinned section, necessitating a patch. The patch is done, and the only thing I have left to do with that section of the grill is to go back to the shrinker and finish what I started.
However, I've set that aside for now so that I can move onto bigger issues. My tie rods came in and I got them installed (I had a great deal of trouble trying to get the clamps tight enough to keep the sleeves from rotating, and they'll need a little work before I actually take the thing out on the road, but that will be a while), so I was able to push the truck over to the sheetmetal lab. I have since commenced work on the driver's door. Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that the door had been crunched and then heavily bondoed over (a layer over the entire lower half of the door up to 1/4" thick in places) at some point in its life, and then smacked into
again. I scraped off some of the bondo to see how far up the door the damage went, and then used a small sledge hammer to get the door back to approximately it's original shape (got it to close for the first time since I've owned the truck
). I then made a new outer skin with a power hammer and a plastic 55-gallon drum (laid on its side and used as a bending die). I just finished bending up the flanges around the edges today, and hope to start welding tomorrow. I trimmed away the old skin (got it close with a cutoff wheel and then trimmed the last little bit with a pair of aviation snips), but left a couple of tabs in place for clecos that will help hold the skin in place when I go to weld it. The plan is to put down enough tacks to hold the panel in place, and then remove the clecos and trim away the tabs.
I brought the engine block, connecting rods, and flywheel into the machine shop towards the end of last week, and they're now done, so I'm planning on picking them up tomorrow.
Well, that's all for now, but here's some pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/avkuSZpM7Buq4HSXA
