The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Completed Journals 1951 Chevy COE Car Hauler on a P30 Chassis

The following weekend everything seemed to have cured out nicely. It wasn't ready to wet sand, but I was planning on doing that once everything was assembled just in case something got damaged and needed to be touched up.

I started on the passenger side because that's how they came out of the booth, and I decided to assemble all of that side before starting the driver side. That way I could correct any miss steps I made in sequencing so I wouldn't make them on the other side.

Earlier I had ordered some rubber cording to go between the cab and the fender. I chose to use rubber instead of the cloth that the factory used thinking it would hold up better and I'm not too worried about points for originality. I used 3/16" bulb cording and I like that size. It doesn't distract from other things, but you can see that it's there.

From there I started putting the steps for the front cab together. I had wished I would have kept the parts for the passenger side separate from the driver's side, but I hung them in the booth all in one big group and with-it being months since I took them apart and prepped them for paint it took a while to sort them out. I'm glad I had lots of pictures of them before I took them a part. Once I had the passenger side together, I went ahead and did the driver's side while it was fresh in my head how they went together.

When the steps were on and bolted up the back steps were just a matter of putting them in place and dropping a pin in the hinge. I'm still using a 3/4" metal stake as a temporary pin until I get some stainless rod for the permanent ones.

With the passenger side together, it was on to the driver side. After having the other side as a learning curve and the front steps already together that went quick.

Now with space opened up in the booth time for more painting.