The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Archived Journals 1940 Chev 1/2 ton “Franken/Restomod”

Hello all;

Thanks for checking in and following along.

Continuing with the disassembly, I have a pile of parts to sandblast and prep for epoxy. Today’s post focuses on the front splash guards. The originals were mangled pretty badly, that and with the mods to fit the V8 it seemed easier to make some new ones. These were made by Dean, the “Guru” but had a couple of things needing to be done to be completed. I wanted to punch some lovers and also wanted to install some 3/16” round bar around the suspension openings so you don’t cut your hand up if you are reaching through.
The main pictures are of the lay out of the louvres and the punching them. I thought the spacing was 1-1/2” but it was shorter. The jig uses the edge of the previous louver to locate for the next, so I just followed my centre line and punched as many as I could. I wound up with 13 louvres on each panel, I kinda like how that worked out... The original louvers were wider, I think 6” while these are 3” wide but this is the only jig available so it will do just fine.

To finish up the panels I went over them and filled some holes no longer needed and smoothed out some edges, etc... the last picture is of the round bar welded into place and partially sanded out. The round bar does 2 things, it gives me a good piece to weld the sheet metal to and minimize the risk of warpage from heat. I still controlled the heat by quenching with air after an inch on weld or so. The 2nd thing was that it give the panel a bit more rigidity as well. The engine bay side will be gloss black and the wheel side will be the truck box liner, the product we use a lot of is called “Raptor”.

Stay safe,
Steve