A couple of years ago my “big old wife” and I took the ‘50 to a car show out in the
country. It was the “Gears & Ears” car show that was the one that everybody tries to make
it to. It takes place right before the county fairs begin out here in farm country. For the
entrance fee you get a door prize, (ours was a big can of PB Blaster, $5.50) a nice “Gears
& Ears” Tee-shirt, all the canned soda you can drink for the day, and all the corn dripping
with butter you can eat.
One of the guys that had just joined the Stovebolt and had read some the short stories that
I often post, contacted me and wanted to drive out from the city to meet us and look over
the truck. Ya see, he had just become the recipient of a basket case ‘52 to keep him busy
during his retirement. Enter Pete52. Since then Pete and I have become good friends even
though he lives half way cross the state we still try to get together for a burger and a beer
once in a while.
Last week after I got the front fenders back from the painter Pete volunteered to drive out
and give me a hand hanging them. Since I’d already tried to fit one up my self I knew that
this was going to be a two man job if I wanted to keep any paint on the edges. So Pete
drove out Friday morning and spent the day with me doing battle with the front end of
Big Red. And man was I glad he came out to help. By the end of the day we had the two
front fenders and the grill hung in place, all the paint was still intact and not a skinned
knuckle to be had. If you‘ve ever been thru that exercise then you know what a grand
accomplishment that can be.
And here it is after the last screw was tightened down last night. She wouldn’t look to bad
if it weren’t for that raunchy looking pealing red hood and cab. She still taint no prize
winner but good enough for a trip into town to pick up seed corn.
I know a lot of people have had problems installing the grills in their AD and I was no
exception. After we had hung the fenders we had to shoe-horn the assembled grill into the
opening. Loosening the bolts that we had already put in the front of the fenders and lower
baffle allowed us to spread the bottom of the opening enough to get the grill in place. The
biggest problem seemed to be the vertical end flanges on the inner skirt. We would get
the assemble in between the fender flanges and it would push back the inner skirt, we
would push the inner skirt back in place and it would pop out of the fender flanges. In the
end we use a soft jawed bar clamp to pull the three flanges in to alignment at the top.
Once we got a bolt in the top we moved to the bottom but the jaws were to shallow to
pull the bottom together, with the help of Pete’s big mitts a 2x4 we were able to coax the
three layers to line up for bolting.
After Pete took off and we’d had our Friday night pizza I was going to finish bolting and
adjusting it all so I could go joy riding Saturday. Well that didn’t happen, and it’s
Monday morning now.
The Parking Lights! Before you attach the top bar and mount the grill mount the parking
lights and check to see if the bezel is gonna clear. They’re a real tight fit if you do it after
it’s assembled, They can be laid down sideways and they will go in between the bars but
it’s a tight fit. Then they can be tilted into the holes from the backside. These housings
can’t be tilt in from the front with the upper bar in place. Also if installing the lights with
the upper bar in place you may have a problem with the screw tab hanging up on the end
flange preventing you from tilting them forward. Before you scratch up your fresh paint
job putting in and taking out, the housings, check to make sure you have the cut tab
facing outboard. This is the only distinction between a left and right housing.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138654694/large This was an original stock 1950 grill with the original parking light housings and the
original glass and bezels. This is one of the straightest grills that I’ve seen since I’ve been
messing with the AD trucks and this is my sixth year at it. There was no rust on this grill
and it was not smashed in like so many that you see. The only straightening required was
to the little tabs where the J-nuts and clutch head screws hold the ends of the bars
together. The bezels would not clear at the top outer corner and the end frame flange kept
it from falling in place. So my point is, that this is probably a pretty common problem
area on these grills, don‘t leave it till last.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138660436 http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138660460 I spent more time getting the parking lights in than we did getting the grill to fit in it‘s
opening.
Friday night turned out to be a bad night to tackle this anyway because we worked on it
all day, I was in the third day of a bad cold, I’d only had three hours of sleep the night
before and I was still all doped up on Tylenol Cold medicine. I finally threw in the towel
at midnight and vowed to I attacked it again in the morning. Things went a little better on
Saturday and I got the bumper and pan on, headlights installed, wiring hooked up and
checked out and found the proper wire loom clips. In the evening I went to put the two
bolts into the wheel opening brace and they were WAY off. Push pry as much as I could
and finally made the decision that they had to come out and be straightened to fit. Fast
forward to Sunday night and both braces back in, fender welts in and the last screw was
drawn up. And here’s what we ended up with.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138713127 \http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138713139
Even got a pretty good seam width on the fender that I straightened.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/138722209 Next step, strippin’ the hood, think I‘ll finish out the month on that project.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
