Well, It's been a while since I posted an update, so I figured I would fill in some of the things we have been working in lately, and clean up some things from previous posts.
As for the salvage yard exhaust manifold, it turned out to be cracked also. I had been thinking about attempting brazing them, when my brother suggested I have a friend of ours weld them. He gave it an honest effort, but they both came back worse than when we started. I am going to again try to braze them. What do I have to loose?
I also determined that our missing brake fluid was indeed going in the hydrovac. I could not find any source for a repair kit, but I eventually found a company in Chivago that rebuilds them. On Saturdat Kevin and I drove down to Chicago and dropped it off. I hope to hear back from this week. Wr also today following Paul1956's advice took the hood, left front fender and grill to a shop in Franklin Wisconsin to have them stripped. I know almost wish I had done that to the right fender, but it is now in pretty good shape. A lot of books and tight spots that hold rust.
With those items out of the way, I have been blocking out some of the repaired areas. I also have been working on the doors more. The rear body line on the left door was not good enough. The back side is supposed to be square. This thing had a bulge to the rear in the area of the outward rounded body line. N I could get the gaps all good, but there was an area that was too tight about a foot long. This was a section of the door that I did not work on when I replaced the skin . I came to the conclusion that ti was just made wrong. The thing fit like wooden shoes when we got it. It probably never fit all that well when built. I ground the pinch weld back and reeled and ground the round edge. I should have done it days ago.
Kevin has been busy with school, but has been working as much as he can. He has made great progress with the frame and dump bed frame. We are not going to go crazy with it, but there were old brackets left from the original bed as well as some heavy rust scale on the dump frame. He has it about all ground down and ready for some rust reformylator and paint. I want to paint the cowl and windshield opening before we paint the frame. He also painted the engine and lettered the valve cover. I will say finding the correct yellow paint was a chore. I also now understand why people spray them at the store. I picked up 2 cans that were so far away from the cap color that I figured someone made a mistake. I do find that Rust-Oleum has the truest and closest match. I will stick with them.
That should do it for now. I will include a few photos.
