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

Love these stories. You like typing more.than i.do.

With the paint on the back of the cab and the bed it was time to re-install the cab on the frame. As you could see in the pictures I went ahead and painted the rest of the exterior of the bed because it was ready, but the cabs were still ruff. I needed to replace both corners on the front cab, weld plugs into the old gas spout holes and plug weld all the old holes from mirror and anything else. Thier was also some minor dents here and there to take out plus addressing the seam where I married the cabs together.

I also cut some plates out of 12 ga sheet metal to fill all the areas in the floor of the front cab that had the removeable access panels to make it flat. I bolted these down because I intended to carpet the floors in both cabs and if I need to get to anything under the floor, I could get to it by tilting the cab or a lot of it, I could reach with just swinging the steps out. The floor in the upper cab I replaced flat when I was building the sub frame for that cab.

I was trying to get all the sheet metal and body work done so I could prime it one last time before paint and I wanted to paint the interior with the exterior.

wow!!!! that will be one bad asss ride !!!!

Your vision is coming together nicely. Great work!

After completing the body work on the cab, I tried getting color on it but by this time winter had set in and the shop was too cold to paint. I tried spraying but it cured out so poorly I decided to hold off until spring. I have heaters for the shop but with still working full time I don't like spending the money to heat it to 60 degrees for just the weekend and I have plenty of other things to keep me busy until it warms up.
So, I started sorting out the rest of the miscellaneous sheet metal to prep for paint.

I decided to start with the fenders. They have a rubber mat that covers the back half that was all cracked and missing chucks out of it. I tried finding replacement rubber for it but had no luck. New parts that are exclusive to COE's are hard to come by there was such a limited run. My next option was to try to make some from scratch. After several failed attempts to make some and looking online at what others had done hoping for inspiration it was clear this wasn't a unique problem. The predominate solution was to fill the 10, 3/4" holes that held the mats on and paint it. I had decided that since I had to plug weld the holes where the turn singles sat on the top of the fenders since I was doing something different with them anyway, so I started welding and grinding them smooth. My though on the turn singles was to French them in below the headlights. You can see the location in the last picture I posted today.

It's nice to have separate areas in the shop for body work, the main area with the bridge crane for fabrication and a spray booth with a good down draft system in it to paint and not have to spend too much time prepping an area to paint in every time I want to paint a piece. Plus, with the booth smaller than the fab area heating isn't as much of an issue.

My plan was to get as many pices ready for paint while I was waiting for warmer weather and then start painting color.

Now on to the next piece of this giant puzzle.

Is the second cab up high going to be a sleeper or is it for passengers?

It is for passengers. It will have a bench seat in it so it will seat three people.

The view will be great!

You'd have to be pretty short to sleep across an AD cab.

Even without painting color I had my winter dance card full just prepping pieces. Some days I would go out to the shop and look at the pile of pieces needing to get cleaned up and prepped for paint and just couldn't motivated myself to start sanding on those days. I needed to build something.

One of the things bouncing around in my head was skinning the steps. I still wasn't sure how I wanted to cap them, but I knew I was going to cover the risers with sheet metal. I also had to box in where the latches were going that would keep them from opening while driving. When I built the doors for the back deck, I ordered some latches that are like the ones that come on the toolboxes I planned on ordering for under the deck so they would match. In stead of just ordering the two for the doors I got four so I would have two for the steps and they would all be keyed the same.

The next time that the "I don't want to sand today" hit me I built access ladders to get into the doors on the deck. The openings are narrow enough that it's hard to crawl through and my jumping in them days have long passed. I built one for each side, so they were handy when needed. I used 1" tube steel for the ladders and welded a 1/8" plate to the top with a hook in it that would set over the 2"X 6" tube steel that formed the permitter of the back deck. That would keep it from sliding out on you and the bed would still operate inside it. Then I needed somewhere to stow them. I looked at securing them to the deck but wherever I put them they seemed to be in the way. Then I thought about hanging them on the inside of the walls on the back, but I was afraid that they would interfere with the deck when you raised it. So, with the deck all the way up I held the ladders up on the inside of the doors to see if they cleared the deck. As long as the hooks on the ladders where up and high on the doors, because the deck didn't go that high, I had plenty of clearance. So, I made some hooks for the back of the doors that would force the ladder flat against the door and hold them secure when bouncing down the road. Plus, they were always convenient to get to there. Enough putting it off, time to get back to sanding and prepping. At least the pile is getting smaller. COCOE

Next up was the hood. It had a small crease across the crown of it that looked like it ran into the hopper on a combine back when it was a farm truck. After sanding it to bare metal I worked it out with hammers and dollies until it was ready for a little filler. More sanding and into the booth for priming.

Next up the steps. These had the same rubber mats like the fenders had but I didn't have the option of just painting them. I decided I could kick that can down the road until I had to decide how I was going to cap those and the back steps. First, I had to take them all apart. They are in 5 pieces counting the tops. Most of the bolts were badly rusted and I was going to replace them all when I reassemble them. So, after fighting with a couple, I just got my big breaker bar and twisted the rest off. That made for short work of taking them apart. I saved the rubber top pieces because they are backed with a 16 ga. plate and I was thinking I may want to try to re-cover them. Then I started sanding and sanding and more sanding. There are a lot of surfaces on these and it's almost all hand work. But finally, all the pieces were ready for primer.

By this time, I was ready to build something again. I had been thinking how to do the taillights and I needed somewhere for the license plate and back up camera. If I attached them to the frame, they would be too far under the deck to be able to see them clearly. If I hooked them to the deck, I had to come up with a way the electrical would roll out and retrack with the deck and it all wouldn't get crushed by the deck coming down. What I came up with is a parallel bar system that welded to the frame on one end and hung from the C-channels on the deck on the other end. When the deck slid back and down it would slide along the channel staying plumb and become a post under the ramp when the end of the ramp landed on the ground. There is a post under each C-channel, and they are tied together and cross braced. Over that I built a tube steel frame and covered it with a piece of 1/8" plate. Then I cut out where the taillights were going (I had ordered the lights earlier knowing I needed to see how they would fit and mount). The recesses for these are deep enough so they flush out with the face of the plate. In the middle of the plate, I took 1/2" tube steel and created a Chevy Bow Tie logo that the license plate would fit in, and I could mount the backup camera above or get a license plate ring with a camera in it. Then into the booth for priming and back to prepping more parts for me.

By this time spring was just around the corner but I still couldn't rely on 50-degree temps at night, so I wasn't comfortable with painting final color yet, but I had a lot of hidden parts I intended to clean up and paint. All of the inner fenders and cowlings from under the hood along with the radiator out of the doner motorhome that I planned on using. I didn't feel the little original one from the COE that was fine for an inline 6 would work for a big block. All I had to do was figure out how to fit it under the hood and not interfere with the tilting cab or the steering and brake linkage.

After I had these pieces all cleaned up and sanded, I hung them up and sprayed them with raddle cans and let them dry for however long it would take in the cool night air.

Over the winter I had picked up the wood car decking for the back deck. It was left over from a project I was working on. I ran a DA sander over it and picked out the best pieces. Then I cut and fit them into place.

I forgot to add this earlier but on one of my "I don't want to sand days" I had installed 1/2" steel plates at the front corners and at the mid points along the side of the rear deck. Also, I installed the 1/4" steel plate a crossed the back end of the deck that would land on the ground when it was tilted. I drilled a 2" hole an inch and a half in from the outside edge of these to be able to hook the straps that hold the car in place to when hauling. I looked at recessing slide tracks into the deck but after checking out what the towing companies were using this was the favored method. I bring this up now because I had to cut and fit the wood decking around these.

After I had it all fitted like I wanted, I numbered all the pieces and pulled them out on the first sunny day and laid them out on sawhorses in the driveway upside down and sprayed them with a black full body stain. As soon as they were dry enough to roll over, I sprayed the sides and the tops with an extra heavy coat of the stain to seal them well. By Dark they had dried pretty well but since it was supposed to be sunny the next day also, I covered them with painters' plastic to keep the dew off and left them in the driveway overnight. First thing the next morning as soon as the sun was hitting them, I uncovered them. By about 1:00 they were dry enough to handle without screwing them up, so I brought them into the shop and laid them in where they went. I bolted them in the following weekend.

I'm having trouble adding photos so I will post the ones for this post next.

Now on to the radiator. COCOE

Pictures From Last Post.

this truck just blowes my mind, love it !!!

The radiator had some challenges. First, I had to make sure it didn't interfere with the steering or the brake linkage. Then it had to fit under the hood without getting crushed when the cab tilted forward. I also had to fit it in between the pivot for the tilt that is tight to where the grill will set and as tall as it is, it is going to have to hang below the front clip to fit under the hood. One thing I had going for me was since it came off that frame (the motorhome) the original mounts and width of the radiator fit the frame rails perfectly. I hooked it up to the bridge crane so I could let it hang and adjust it to where it would fit without having to wrestle it. It weighs about 80 lb.'s and is very clumber sum. It was too tall to fit under the hood if it sat on the top of the frame rails in the original position but by working it back and forth between the frame rails I could set the mounts on the bottom flanges of the frame rails, and it would clear the hood, set in front of the clip and behind the cab pivot, not interfere with the steering or brake linkage and if it was braced to set plum still give me almost 3" clearance with the cab fully tilted. That is sufficient room for routing the upper hose and mounting fans and a shroud. It sticks above the original cowling a little, but I can live with that.

I have to say the way it fit was more luck than good planning.

After I was sure it, all worked, I drilled the frame rails and put rubber spacers under the mounts and bolted it up. Then I took some 1" tube steel and made some braces that bolt into the original holes on the radiator and back to the frame rails to hold it plum and secure.

By now the outside temperatures have stayed above 50 for over a week and looks to continue, so I'm going to cut this short and start painting.

With warmer weather and a booth full of pieces hanging from hooks and setting on anything I could find that would allow me to get primer on them, it was time to start painting again.

First, I had to sort out what order I wanted to paint in. I decided to sort by color and where they went. The logical way was to start from the bottom and work my way up just like in the order I was painting the rest of the truck, and they will go on.

I also had to finish painting the cab inside and out that I paused on last fall when it got too cold.

The vast majority of pieces were along the bottom, and they all get painted black. I started with the fenders because they go on first and then build out from there. Next was the steps and that pretty well limited what I could spray this first go around.

I will let these cure out for a week and install them next weekend and if I have time paint the next batch.

I had time left that weekend so I also got the first color on the cab so I wouldn't have to paint next to the finished pieces.

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.

The next group of pieces was the grill, ladders and the taillight/license plate piece. I had put off prepping the grill knowing it was going to be a lot of hand sanding and after the steps I needed a break from that. I was lucky it was in really good condition as it only had one small ding in it and that was a painless repair.

I had been trying to decide what color I wanted to do the grill. I spent several evenings online looking at options. I didn't want to spend the money on sending it out to be chromed but I did want it to contrast with the other pieces around it. The fenders where black and I planned on the hood being gun metal gray. I got it all primed and decided to wait and make that decision latter. I went ahead and painted the taillight piece and the ladders.

While those were curing, I decided to paint the last color on the top of the upper cab, the silver. When I was spraying, between coats I held up some test panels of the other colors (black and gun metal gray) that I had sprayed earlier and liked the way they contrasted. So, I figured what the heck I have paint in the gun and if I don't like it, I can always change it. I went ahead and sprayed the grill silver.

What do you think, should I leave it or change it?

Looks good to me. . You tire me out just reading what you get done but don't stop. We are all anxious to see the finished product.

I cannot stop staring at that double stacked cab. That is a thing of beauty.

Will the passengers in the upper deck get their own set of dash gauges to look at?

That's confidential information, especially the speedometer. Maybe a video screen so they can play DVDs. Gotta keep customers entertained.

Sorry Otto, no gauges up top. I cut the dash in about half and rolled it forward. My plan is to pad it and cover it so no one will smack their head on it.

Klhansen, I can nether confirm or deny the DVD at this time. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I was trying to get a new post out tonight but I put a long day in the shop today. I will try tomorrow. Thanks all for following. COCOE

Is that going to be the truck's name? Cocoe?

No, I haven't come up with a name yet. It varies from day to day depending how thing go.😁 The COCOE stands for cab over cab over engine. I just made it up to us as my avatar name.

After posting the last chapter in this seemingly endless novel I went back through my equally endless seeming file of pictures and saw somethings that I did early on that I think deserve a mention. One was mounting the fuel tank. The original motorhome had two tanks one 80 gal. that went across the rear of the coach and a 30 gal. that sat about midship on the passenger side. With being a roll back the large tank was out but even with just the little tank I should have at a minimum a range of about 300 miles, and I felt that would be sufficient. My plan was to reinstall it pretty much where it was originally at but all the supports for it went away when I was cutting the coach apart. But when I was building the rear deck, I laid out where it was going to set and welded some predrilled pieces of tube steel between the frame rails and the 2 X 6 perimeter of the deck. When done with all the welding in that area and before I installed the wood above it, I rolled it under the bed and raised it into place with the bridge crane and bolted it up. I had ordered a locking gas door for the side of the truck that was actually for a Jeep CJ, and it fit right over the fill spout and worked well.

Another thing was moving the steering box. Originally it sat about half in and half out of the front of the left fender and I didn't think that was a good look. So, after taking some measurements I figured I could cut the mount lose from the frame and move it back about 6" weld it back on and it would clear the fender. Then I just needed to shorten the Pitmen Arm and get the geometry for the steering linkage to work, and it would all be good. After Santa brought me a nice new chrome steering column for Christmas, I hooked everything up and it all work as I had hoped. As a bonus the angles were right, so it didn't bind when the cab tilted.

The last thing for this post was the master cylinder. I was going to use the original one off the motorhome and it needed to line up with the brake pedal box. I built a bracket off the frame out of angle iron and bolted it in. Again, the rotation of the cab tilting wasn't enough to affect it. When it tilts the brake pedal go's down but not far enough to bind or start compressing the master cylinder. Once the master cylinder was in place and confirmed it would work, I ran new lines to tie it all together and added an extension to the rear axal that I moved back.

And by the way I did get some more painting done. The hood is ready to install and some dash pieces.

Ever since I finished painting the steps, I've been working on what I wanted to put on the treads. The original's had steel plates backed rubber and I knew that I wouldn't be able to duplicate that. After spending some time looking at other options, I decided on polished diamond plate. I started calling around checking prices on it and I was starting to re-think my choice and maybe look for other less expensive ideas.

Then one day when I was wasting time on the computer looking at Craigslist and not playing solitaire, I saw an add for diamond plate just what I needed and at a very good price. It was left over from someone else's project. I contacted the gentleman and was there with cash before someone else could snag it.

I got it home and started fitting it on the steps but didn't like how it kind of rattled and was very noisy when you stepped on them. I know we put rubber silencers under equipment at work all the time so I thought I would give it a try. I had a little rubber stripping left over from the fender cording that I put under one of the pieces to see if that helped before ordering more and if it took the vibration out and quitted it down. It worked great. So, I ordered enough self-sticking 1/16" by 2" rubber striping to line the tops of all the framework for the steps and screwed the diamond plate over it with self-drilling screws.

It was a good weekend. I felt like I was making progress.

You get my vote. I.like it

wow!!!!!!

Looks great! Good choice,

After I got all the steps covered it was time to start finishing the rear deck area.

When I built the walls around the rear deck, I used 1 1/2" X 2" tube steel at the transition points to hold the flat bar at the top from twisting and for any added strength needed. I keep these at a maximum spacing of 4' on center. From their my carpentry background kicked in and I added 1" X 1" tube steel at 16" on centers flush with the exterior face of the 2" X 6" deck perimeter tube steel and the 1/4" X 2" flat bar that forms the top of the sidewalls. I know I went over this earlier when I was sheeting the exterior, but this is why I used 1" tube steel in the intermediate areas. I wanted a clean look on the inside too and not interfere with the hoist. I used 3/8" marine grade AC plywood cut to fit with no joints between the 2" tube steel. Before I secured it in place, I primed it on all surfaces to seal it with a primer that was compatible with the paint on the truck because I want to carry the exterior colors around the inside of the deck too. I made some test panels to ensure that it worked before I did this. I haven't got to finishing the paint here yet but it on the list.

Here are some pictures of it all fitted before I screwed it into place.

You have good vision and skills to match! Looking good!

Thanks for the continued support following and the encouraging word. It's appreciated.

With the rear deck area all secured in place I shot it with one more coat of primer to balance out the substrate. At this point I was up ageist the cooler weather again so color may have to wait till spring, but I have lots of other thing I can stay busy with.

I had ordered under deck toolboxes while I was working on the rear deck, and they showed one Saturday while I was in the shop. My wife came out and told me I needed to come out and sign for them. I was kind of puzzled by this thinking she could have just done it but when I saw the boxes I understood. Two of them were fine but the third one looked like it had been dragged behind the truck to my house and I live a long way from town.

The UPS driver was kind enough to wait for me to reject it and apologized for how it arrived saying it happened before he got it. It wasn't something that I needed right then, and it wasn't going to hold me up on other things, so I sent it back and they replaced it in about two weeks. In the meantime, I installed one to see how t looked and it fit just like I had wanted.

From there, there was no more putting it off, it was time to start tackling the pile of doors. This may take a few posts, I have some big ideas for them.

Who did you get the toolboxes from and what brand/model are they?

I was looking for a toolbox to go under the back of my 3/4 ton flatbed a couple of years ago and gave up after finding only stupidly expen$ive options.

Hi Biil,

I used Buyers that I bought off Amazon. Your right they aren't cheap, but the quality is very good other than the one that was beat up, but they replaced it right away with no question asked. I thought about fabing them myself but when I added up all the parts and materials plus the time it would have taken, mostly the time I decided to just buy them. I'm glad I did.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

Aw, the doors. I'm going to take this from the beginning.

When I looked at and bought the COE I was very pleased with the condition of the of the whole cab in general. The windows had bullet holes in them, and the corners were rusted out, but the doors seemed to fit well, didn't sag too much and the latches and window regulators work all though a bit sticky. So, I kind of put those out of my mind as something to deal with latter.

Then came the upper cab. The glass was all cracked, the bottoms of the doors were rusted out and none of the latches worked. But for what I paid for it I was lucky they swung and actually fit pretty well. Needing to rebuild the bottoms, helped to inspire me to increase the length of them to blend in with the steps.

After I had the cabs welded together and before I started working on the steps, I decided then that I wanted the trim molding from under the windows to continue back level instead of running up and tying in with the upper cab like on my original rendering. So, I went ahead and ran it back first to ease into the more challenging parts. Next, I had to extend the door jambs and the rocker panels along with the cab corners. This gave me something to build out the new door bottoms to.

I left the doors on the truck while I was rebuilding them so I could check clearance as I went. I started with the inside and bent that and the sides out of one piece and when I got that to all fit properly, I skinned it and hemmed all the edges to hold the gaps straight.

Once I had them both all fitting like I wanted and welded up I pulled them off and removed the windows and hardware and started cleaning them up to get primer on them.

When I was working on fitting the doors, opening and closing them I became a were of what a pain in the rear it was reaching up to the handle on the back cab and it made me start thinking how and if I could move the outside lever handle down, so it was on the same level as the front one.

Taking a break at work and found this thread. I read some of it, and looked at all of the progress pics. Cool project! I can't wait to see more progress on this beast!

I have an idea...
Maybe those "shaved" door handles would work for the upper doors? Unlock and open them from the lower cab.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aul-9663