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REAR DOOR HINGES PICS CON'T

REAR DOORS

Continued working on stuff that is not stock....cutting the rear doors down and addressing the mechanism. Unfortunately, I apparently was so focused that I didn't take that many pics.

Like all the rest of the body, the lower portions of the rear doors were very rusty. They had been patched by a previous owner but the work was really questionable. So I cut off the entire lower portion of both doors. I then used my english wheel to form the outer lower skin panels from flat sheet but I had to make a few wood bucks to fab the lower inner panels and I had to make them in multiple pieces due to the complexity. I will still need to do some further welding around the perimeter of the door edges but I will do that when I do the door gaps.

I then cut off the upper portion above the body band to match the side panels on the tub. In order to keep the bead on the inner panel I had to do some splicing/sectioning to keep it looking correct. I then again made a wood buck to hammer-form the upper caps for the doors to close them out.

While I was working this area, I searched online and found a stainless trailer license plate bracket and light that looked appropriate for the truck. So I fabbed some threaded steel bungs to weld into the outer LH door skin. I took a pic the other day to show what it looks like since I did not document this effort. (Now I gotta find a '49 tag instead of a '52 tag at some point)

REAR DOORS PICS

REAR DOORS PICS CON'T

REAR DOOR MECHANISM

My plan was to try and use as much of the stock mechanism as I possibly could. For the LH door I figured that I could use the lower latch and remove the upper portion (since there would eventually not be a roof for the upper latch to engage). I mounted the lower catch on the lower door threshold. I bought a rubber stop to mount to lower portion of the door to keep the door from over-rotating and clanging between the catch and door sill.

For the RH door I really couldn't find a way to use the stock door latch so I had to come up with a different mechanism. I created a lower U-bolt that mounted to the RH lower door that would protrude thru a hole I cut in the lower bed lip and engage a small bear claw latch that mounts under the bed. The latch was attached to a slotted bracket so I can dial in the fore/aft location and adjust the door gaps. I framed the cutout in the tub with a piece of stainless sheet that I had laying around.

Under the bed I used a shoulder bolt attached to a threaded bung welded into the rear substructure to create a mount for a pivot arm with a lever so that the clawlatch could be operated by reaching under the bumper (much like some of the hood latches on other vehicles). I'm not really happy with the handle of the latch so I will rework that eventually.

Once I had both door secured along the bottom, I had to figure out a way to secure the upper half of the doors. Since there wasn't anything to latch to for the upper half I decided to just tie the two doors together at the top. I want to prevent flexing and rattling due to air load and buffeting while driving at highway speeds. I wanted something simple that might look fairly stock for the era of truck so I settled on fabbing a gun bolt type of latch.

So I procured some steel DOM tubing and some solid stainless round stock that slip-fit inside of the tubing and built a sliding gun latch with a black plastic knob as a handle and mounted it sunk approx halfway into the door inner surface. The latch is spring-loaded to remain closed/locked. To open the doors you simply slide the gun latch open (and rotate it to hold it in the open position) and then reach under the rear bumper and pop the bear claw latch to open the RH door. Once the RH door is open then the stock (but relocated) lever on the RH door can be popped to open the RH door.

It works surprisingly well. Now the mechanism will just need some clean-up (welding, grinding, polishing) prior to plating or powdercoating.

REAR DOOR MECHANISM

absolutely good engineering...you da man. great work around to solve the problem.

TOP REMOVAL

It is finally time to remove the top on this panel truck and begin the transformation to a fleetside truck. I decided to only remove the section of roof that is over the bed of the truck since there was substructure over the cab that needed to be retained for body rigidity.

To make this a one-man job, I used some small ratchet straps to loosely strap it to my pole barn metal roof trusses. I then used a combo of cut-off wheels and reciprocating saws to cut the roof about 95% around the trim line (leaving a small section at each corner). I then applied some tension on the ratchet straps to keep from pinching while cutting and cut the remaining bits. Then I ratcheted the roof up to clear and simply rolled the body out from under the separated roof. Viola.

TOP REMOVAL PICS

REAR BED CAPS

Once the top was removed the open bed sides at the front and rear needed to be capped. The front area will be done when the 5 window cab is constructed but the rear caps could be done now.

I constructed another wood buck to hammer form the top caps just like I did the side caps. Once the caps were fabbed then they were welded to the outer skin (just like the side caps).

Then the inside panel pattern was created by laying painters tape across the void and cutting the tape out with a razor blade. Once the pattern was transferred to sheet then a little knee bending tweaked it to fit.

The panel was then plug welded to the rib flange that I installed during the side cap installation and the perimeter was butt welded and welds ground flat and smooth as possible.

The plan is to retain the wood floor in the bed and to use a modified spray in bedliner for the sides and such. I have been considering Raptor liner that has been thinner/reduced down so it has a light texture....a texture something like 120 grit sandpaper. I have seen some Youtube vids where some guys have did it with good results.

REAR BED CAPS PICS

Any thoughts about mimicking the lower panels using your bead roller?

Yeah, I thought about doing something with the beadroller in that area but being a newbie on that tool I decided against it. I didn't like the wide area above the stock bead rolling on the bed so I settled on putting some wood strips that match the bed....I posted a preview of what I ended up doing to break up the area. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad.

Looks good. Gives a bump rail effect.

LH INNER BED PANEL

On the LH inner bed side there was a rusty area around where the rear fenderwells attached to them. This area probably had debris and moisture retained in the area for some time until it finally rusted thru.

Luckily the RH side was in good shape so I used it to make a pattern for bead rolling a replacement section. Once the panel had been fabbed and bead rolled then I used the panel to mark the cut lines to remove the rusted area. After a few retrims and trips in and out with the panel then I temp fastened the repair panel to the flange of the rear inner wheelwell with some clekos.

Then I tacked around the perimeter and then went back and butt welded the entire edge. I also plug welded the inner fenderwell to the replaced area.

LH INNER BED PANEL PICS

FIREWALL

The firewall was in pretty good shape but I wanted to close some of the penetrations. I'll just redrill anything that I need later. The previous owner had also tried to rework and deepen the firewall recess but this area didn't look too good to me so I planned to replace it.

I used painters tape to make patterns for the larger irregular shaped holes and just measured the round holes and fabbed a few patch panels and welded them in via tack then butt weld perimeter.

I then cutout the old recessed area started making a replacement panel. I had purchased a leather shotbag and a set of nylon hammers so I used that to rough shape the new recess panel. Once I had the basic shape then I used the english wheel to roll out and smooth the panel into the contour I needed. I then trimmed, fit and welded the panel into the firewall.

FIREWALL PICS

FLOORPANS

The floorpans had been patched by someone previously with aftermarket panels but there were large gaps all over the place so that needed to be addressed. I considered using aftermarket panels but since I don't plan on using the stock brake system and will go with a firewall mounted unit I settled on making my own. The floor portion was fair on it but the toeboards would need to be replaced.

I removed the RH toeboard first and fabbed a new panel with beads rolled into it to stiffen the panel. I then welded it into place and then did the same thing on the RH side (removing the main brake and parking brake holes.

FLOORPAN PICS

TRANS TUNNEL

With the left and right floor pan complete then next was the trans tunnel. The truck will have a 700R4 trans and I wanted plenty of room for it to fit.. especially since I didn't have anything rigged to mock it up at this stage. I also built a cover plate for the battery access panel and welded it into place. I will use a drop down battery box instead.

The first thing I did was fab a flat panel base to fit within the stock floor recess with a step around the edge. Next I fabbed the lower portion of the tunnel with the english wheel and welded it to the base.

Then I temp attached the tunnel onto the floorpan with clekos and used painters tape to pattern the upper portion of the tunnel to fit with the firewall. Once I plug welded the tunnel to the floor, I then fabbed the upper portion and welded it into place which left a few areas in the corner. So I made some tape patterns of those areas and closed them out as well.

TRANS TUNNEL PICS

TRANS TUNNEL PIC

DASH

Someone had hacked a larger hole in the dash where the radio normally mounted. Since I am going to go with a hidden stereo system then I just patched the open hole.

Some may notice in the lower portion of the center of the dash, I added a small ledge under the lower lip. This area had some rust holes so I cut it out and added this ledge so I could mount A/C controls. I found aftermarket A/C controls in a plastic bracket that mounts under a dash that I could remove the controls and mount directly in this area.

The aftermarket controls have some modern looking knobs (spun aluminum) that I dislike so when I get around to final install then I will try and make some black knobs that match the Choke and Throttle knobs on a stock dash. I might have to invest in a 3D printer if I'm not too broke that late in the program.

UPPER COWL

Moving back into replacing stock sheet metal, the next job was to deal with the upper cowl. I purchased an aftermarket cowl assembly but settled on just cutting out the bad area and patching these areas instead of replacing the entire cowl.

While I had the upper cowl cutout, I went ahead and treated the surface rust behind the dash as well and painting it white. I wanted it white so I can see all the wiring and such under the dash when I go to install it. The older I get the more light and contrast I need when working. Hopefully the bright white will help me a little down the road.

I also welded some new weld nuts for the side mirror brackets on the inner bracing while it was accessible.

UPPER COWL PICS

UPPER COWL PICS CON'T

Love the idea of white behind the dash! Now if you could figure out how to make the dash swivel up so we don’t have to lie on our backs! LOL

Been following your thread, nice work!

Lol. It might be easier to make my torso rotate 360 degrees instead.

Moving right along!

Yeah.... just catching up to the past two years of work so it seems like I'm knocking it out. I have about another month of posts to bring it up-to-date then it will be in real-time and a little slower progress. I usually do most of my work during the winter and other things interfere in the summer. I'm still trying to finish up my winter work right now. Parts I ordered in January were supposed to be here mid-March and I'm still waiting on some of them so I have been slowed by supply chain issues.

A-PILLARS

The A-pillars were also very rusty and needed repaired. Luckily the rust was confined to the outer skin in this area so replacement aftermarket panels were available. The LH A-pillar required a whole new skin whereas the RH was only required a small portion at the bottom.

ROOF PANEL

I ordered replacement panels for basically a whole rear cab for a window truck that I planned to adapt to the panel truck body. The first step would be the roof panel. So I removed the outer skin for the roof.

The replacement roof panel had been damaged by the shipper with some substantial dents. I was able to hammer and dolly the damaged roof panel back into shape the best I could before attempting to install it. If I remember correctly, I also had to modify the middle roof stiffener that was still on the truck (runs from side to side in approximately midway on the door.) The panel truck roof-line was taller than what was on the truck so I removed the tall stiffener, modified the end trims on the stiffener and lowered it to better match the new roof contour. I also treated the rust on the roof substructure before final installation of the roof panel.

At this time I just attached the roof panel to the cab with sheet metal screws and used some wood board I had laying around to support the back portion where the window panel will eventually be installed. I will also note that I do not plan to install drip rails so that “should” simplify the effort.

ROOF PANEL PICS

ROOF PANEL PICS CON'T

REAR WINDOW PANEL & BED PARTITION

Once the roof panel was temp installed then I had to figure out getting the rear window panel integrated as well as the bed partition (or truck cab rear panel). The first part I installed was the small bow-frame/stiffener that goes between the upper and lower panels in this area. I had to figure out how to clip this part into the existing structure. I did so with some custom sheet metal clips I fabbed.

Next was the upper and lower main rear panels. In order to get both to fit properly (since they were somewhat trapped), they had to be split into two parts, a LH and RH part, and welded back together after installation. The upper window panel remained basically stock (except for the small area near the cab) but the lower panel needed to be trimmed and modded extensively.

On the lower panel, in addition to splitting the panel, I added a flange on both sides (LH & RH) to plug weld it to the inside of the cab. I also added a flange on the bottom that will eventually connect to the new floor panel in the cab.

REAR WINDOW PANEL & BED PARTITION PICS

REAR WINDOW PANEL & BED PARTITION PICS CON'T

Coming along nicely.

FLOOR & INNER PANELS

Since the panel truck had a wood bed that extended to the seat support and the new rear cab was going to extend into that wood bed, the wood bed was trimmed to clear the new cab.

There are also two body mounts (1 LH and 1 RH) that went thru this area that needed to be reworked and retained. After removing the wood bed and the associated angle brackets on the wood bed, it made a perfect place for running a 1” x 2”, 1/8 wall rectangular tubing from side to side to house the new body mounts. This was welded in place after the body mount holes were located and drilled.

The lower panel also has 3 stiffeners/supports that mount between the mid-band support and cab floor. Since the new floor is a different elevation than the stock truck the supports had to be shortened. All 3 stiffeners/supports were cut approximately mid-span and shortened to fit. I also added 3 weldnuts under each to accommodate some wood strips I plan to mount on the bed side of the panel. I will show them later in the build.

The last portion of this effort was to install the inner window panel. Like the exterior panel, this panel had to be split to fit as well. Once it was fit, the panel was drilled for plug welds, weld-thru primer was sprayed and the inner panel was sealed and welded in place.