I just aquired an old 1946 Chevrolet 1 1/2 ton truck that I fell in love with at first site.
She's not much to look at, since she's been sitting in a cow pasture since 1976, but she's all there and rock solid.. i'm a sucker for cool old trucks that have potential. I took the fact that the tires are still inflated as a good omen.
Soon as I figure out how to get the doors open, i'll pull her back to home base and get to wrenchin' on her.. which brings me to my very first question:
Any suggestions on how to get doors open when the latches are apparently rusted solid??
The drivers side window had been on the wrong end of an apparent BB gun shootout, so I popped a chunk of the glass out big enough to fit my arm in, and with a bit of persuation was able to roll the window down. The lever on the outside of the door turns, but has no effect so I was hoping i'd have better luck with the handle on the inside.. but no luck.
The outside handle on the passenger side is locked up tighter than a drum, and so is the handle on the inside I discovered after climbing in the cab thru the drivers side window (no easy task to do, I might add being 6'2 and 225lbs.. altho climbing IN was WAY EASIER than climbing back out!)
So I sprayed the heck out of the doors with WD40.. in the crack between the cab body and the door.. down the inside of the windows.. the hinges. I figured i'd let it soak a few days and on my next visit hope for the best.
If that dosen't work, I guess I figured i'd climb back into the truck and try to remove the door "skin" to see if (hopefully) it will reveal the inner workings of the latch assembly.. they used some pretty funky screws in '46, but I think i've got a set of 'tamper bits' that have the right type head for them.
Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated, and i'll take a few pics to post in the next day or so.
