The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1952 Chevrolet 3100 Project

1/16/24 Over the last few days, I made a couple of repairs to the dashboard. Between the headlight and the gauge cluster, there was a 2” hole cut for a gauge. This was repaired by a previous owner by epoxying a plate behind the dash then filled with body filler. The repair failed as you could see a crack the size of the hole showing thru the finish. This was my first repair on the dash.

The second repair was to the radio opening. Going back to the fall of 2020, I purchased a nice original radio blank plate complete with the fasteners. To my dismay, really disappointment, it did not fit the opening. It was then that I discovered a previous owner butchered the dash to install another radio. This was repaired just like the gauge hole and failed in a similar manner. I had purchased a section of the dash from Mongo, a member of this forum, so I ready to make this repair.

Both repairs came out pretty good and I am happy with the results.

My next venture is repairing the firewall. This butchery was caused by a previous owner installing an unknown heater that wasn’t even close to fitting. I’m going to try to find a piece of a good firewall for this repair.

I was wondering if you were going to work your firewall while doing in the cowl. The dash is looking great!

Looks good the dash should come out good also just have to be careful on the top not curved as the sides for warpage.What type of heater are you putting in the truck.

Haven't made that decision yet. I would really like to put in a AC/Heat unit but may settle for a factory heater. Either way, I want to restore the firewall back to stock.

I have both in my 54 but rarely use the heat, I like the windows down, and never have I turned the AC on except to circulate.

Phak1, that metal work and welding looks great! 👍

Phil, nice job on the dash work.

It's a shame that someone butchered up the dash and firewall on your truck. On the good side, it gives you the opportunity to do some nice welding work.

1/20/24 I finally got my 18 gauge sheet metal and the bottom flange for the seat riser. Unfortunately, the sheet metal shop ordered galvanized instead of plate steel. I took it anyway because I wanted to complete reinstalling the seat riser. Yes, I know the dangers of welding galvanized steel. I original plan was going to butt weld the flange to the riser but decided to plug weld from the back side minimizing the fumes from the galvanized steel. I also ground the coating off where the plug weld was going to be. While welding, I opened my garage doors in 13° temperatures to ventilate the fumes. Overall, I am very happy with the results. Another issue, is the temperatures have been way to cold to apply any primer. It’s supposed to warm up to the low forty’s next week so I may have a chance to get my garage a bit warmer so I can prime all the exposed metal.

Looks good structurally, but you should treat that galvanizing before painting. Swabbing with with muriatic acid (be careful) and then neutralizing it with a water & baking soda solution should help the paint stick to it. It would be best to take the galvanizing off, but that's going to be tough to do. Check with your primer manufacturer for the best pretreatment.

1/23/24 In preparation of replacing the cab corners, I needed to remove the bed. Being a one man band, and only having a two bay garage, I needed to get creative. I bought a HF 2 ton engine hoist to assist me in this endeavor. I used four tie downs to attach it to the crane which enabled me to level the bed.

Once the bed was removed, I started on the drivers side, the worst of the two. I know that the inner cab corner is shot too so I also bought a replacement panel for this too. Once I got both the majority of the outer cab corner removed I spotted more rust on the flange of the floor, right behind one of the stiffening brackets necessitated removal of stiffener for access. Fortunately it was restricted to the flange so I cut back about 3/8” to good metal and replaced the piece. Once the substructure was stable and coated with rust treatment I welded in the inner and outer cab corner.

Now I needed to fit not only the inner cab corner, but the outer cab corner as well prior to welding the inner cab corner in. Surprisingly both the inner and outer cab corners fit fairly well. The inner was near perfect and the outer only needed a little reforming on the bottom. On the door side, the bottom stuck out about 3/8 of an inch from the inner cab corner flange so I needed a pie cut to close the gap. On the bottom where it gets plug welded to the inner cab corner, it just needed to be bent up to meet the inner cab corner flange. Much better than the cowl patch pieces.

Very happy with the results!

Looks good. Were those tape piece with numbers on them dimensions for the door gap? That's a good idea. I wish I had thought of that.

yes, it gave me the sizes and location for the tape measure.

1/31/24 I started replacing the passengers side cab corner. After looking at the corner planning out the cut lines, I discovered that this corner was previously dented in about 3/4” and just filled with Bondo along with the flange on the “B” pillar. The good news is the replacement corner will completely remove the damaged area. The “B” pillar flange was formed completely with Bondo. It needed to be pushed back into place in order to meet the cab corner.

The inner cab corner had a few rusted thru holes close to the bottom flange that needed to be replaced. Welding went fairly well as I made sure I had good steel where I made the cuts. Once I finished welding in the patch, I coated the area with rust treatment.

The outer cab corner lower flange to inner cab corner lower flange had a gap of about 1/4 of an inch. I needed to make a wedge cut on the back side which enabled me to close that gap. On the door side the top flange was out about 1/16 of an inch and the bottom had about a 3/8” gap. I cut off the flange and ground the interfering piece until I got the gap closed. I then re-welded the flange back on.

Welding went really well until it didn’t. After completing the welding and grinding it flush, I placed a light inside behind the patch seam to show any areas I might have missed. I successfully sealed a few of the holes but on one hole I zapped it and blew a bigger hole. I backed it up with a piece of copper and welded the hole closed, looked again with the light and of course there were more pin holes. Zapped it again and blew bigger hole. At this point I decided I was just chasing my tail so I cut out a 2”x 3” section and replaced it with good metal. I still blew a few holes but was able to successfully finish welding in the patch.

This completes the passenger side cab corner and I am pleased with the results.

I also located a patch panel for my passengers side firewall. A fellow Stovebolter, “KCMongo” from Mongo’s Garage has the patch piece at a reasonable price and sending it to me. Once installed, that will complete the metalwork on the cab.

2/08/24 Over the past week, while waiting for my last cab patch to arrive (firewall in the heater area), I have been cleaning up the areas that I previously welded in patches, so I can paint the floor, the underside of the cab and the frame that is accessible. With the bed removed, It also gave me access to the frame behind the cab so I’m using this opportunity to clean, apply rust treatment and paint to this area as well.

The floor, especially the underside, had some surface rust that needed to be treated. I spent several days with an angle die grinder with a pad and a wire wheel on a side grinder, removing as much rust as I could while laying on my creeper with ear plugs, a respirator and a face shield. I could only spend about 5-15 minutes at a clip before I needed to give my arms a break. While my arms were resting, I would spend time cleaning the frame and torque tube behind the cab. What a dreadful task, but one that I wanted to get done. Once clean, I applied rust treatment and some satin black.

During this process, I questioned myself several times, if I should have separated the cab from the frame. It certainly would have made access to these areas a whole allot easier. I envied those that did a frame off restoration starting with a sandblasted frame, better yet, sent it out to be blasted. I know, it was my choice, but with too many irons in the fire, I decided to I needed to go the quicker route.

I’m pleased with the results and ecstatic that this part is done!

That looks great, even more so considering the process that you endured to get it done.

Nice job and good timing for me my cab corners are on the shelf waiting to be put on.

Remind me not to challenge you to arm wrestling, Phil. You must be pretty ripped after all that arm work.

Looking good.

Lookin good!!!

Thanks all for following and your generous support! Kevin, the only thing that happened to my arms is they got really sore!

Well, maybe we should schedule that arm wrestling contest then.

2/17/24 The last piece of the puzzle (the firewall patch) finally came in. This is the last of the metal work on the cab. Yea!

I received a firewall patch from fellow ‘Bolter “KCMongo”. He is a great resource to get patch panels, cut from original trucks and shipped right to your door.

A previous owner butchered the firewall to install a non stock heater and it looks like he used a cold chisel to enlarge the holes. A couple of years back, I applied a patch over the carnage, attached with pop rivets temporarily hiding the previous sins of the past. This was done to improve the appearance after I rebuilt my engine, with the intent of restoring the firewall back to stock, when I addressed all of the rust issues with the cab.

To minimize the butt weld joint, I removed the section of firewall that was spot welded behind the upper cowl so my patch could go behind the cowl like the original firewall. It came out really good. If I apply a spot of Bondo over the butt welded seam, you would never know it was replaced.

Edit: Added the bondo and a bit of paint. Very happy with the results.

2/21/24: For the past week, I’ve been doing the bodywork on the panels I’ve replaced on the cab. I have them all in primer and they look real good. I had one high spot about 1-1/2” around, on the drivers side that I discovered when I was going to apply my final coat of Bondo. I tried to hammer and dolly it down with no results. I then thought about using the MIG torch. I figured if it shrinks the panels as you weld them in, it just might pull that high spot down. I tried one spot right in the middle, cooled it down with air and it pulled it down a bit but nowhere near enough. I tried another spot above then another below and that pulled it down more but not quite enough. Two more spots did the trick. Best part was the heat effected zone didn’t reach the bondo. I ground down the tacks, applied another coat of bondo and it was near perfect.

This will be is the last body work on the truck for a while. It’s too cold to apply any type of epoxy or 2k primer so I’ll have to wait until spring.

The different coloration in the primer I attribute to the cold temperatures of around 40°. I needed to protect the bare metal so it was better than nothing. This spring I’ll sand it all out prior to applying a new primer.

I’m really happy with the results.

Phil, your really getting good a this "Body Work" thing. I like all the progress you have made, it's really coming together. Have you thought about the final color?

Yes, I would like to do a dark blue, but I don’t like the factory blues from that era. I also don’t want any metallics or modern color/clear finish. I want a single coat that looks somewhat period correct. I’m leaning toward (don’t kill me) a furd color called Washington blue from the mid to late thirtys, but it’s not etched in stone.

I attached a picture of the color. I know it’s not a Stovebolt, but if you look you’ll see what looks like my truck in the background so it’s OK to post! I also plan to paint the rims red with the correct caps and beauty rings.

Not sure what color this is, but it is the truck that lives on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, used by the park service

Thought it might offer inspiration

Chuck

Alvin says you had to have red wheels in the 60's to be COOL. I was thinking of painting the wheels on the '59 red, the body is goin to be Gun Metal Grey. Thought it would be a nice contrast.

That looks very close to my trucks origional color . Mine was two tone from the factory and it was a light blue cab and hood with dark blue fenders and grill. The dark blue was called commercial blue.

I wanted to do a dark gray with a light gray top separated by a red stripe by my better half put the nix on it. My garage walls are painted that way as well as the old machine shop I worked at.

I do like gray!

That is the look I’m going for!

Sounds like Mr Goodwrench colors to me.

6/8/24 I’m finally in a position (money wise) to resolve my rim to disc brake interference issue. Originally, I wanted to go with 16”x6” rims and new 225-75R-16 wide whitewall tires, but found I couldn’t find any on either Diamond Back or Coker tires. Both offered original sized tires like 6.50x16 but I want something a little wider and taller. The only ones I could find were from a company that shaved rubber off of the sidewall and vulcanized new white rubber on the side, which I didnt really feel comfortable with. I decided to go with 15” rims since there were more tire sizes available and eventually buy 235-75R-15. I’ll use my existing tires in the meantime until the truck is painted. I dont want to put brand new costly wide white wall tires on my truck while Im still doing the body work.

Since the size of the wheel was now determined, now I needed a source. Past discussions with US wheel and Vintiques couldn't guarantee their rims would fit my new Disc brake setup. And suggested buying one rim to try at my expense, shipping and a restocking fee,that worked out to be about $150. So I called WheelSmith and spoke to Terry in their technical department about 15”x6”, 6 lug Artillery wheels. He said they could make them but also couldn’t determine 100% if they would fit. Then he offered pressing a center into a wheel without welding so I can try it on the truck. He could send it out on Monday (6/10), along with a return label. If it fits, he will have it welded and power coated along with three more rims. If it doesnt fit, I only have to pay the shipping cost which is about $80 both ways. If it fits, it will only cost me $40 more and if it doesn’t fit, I saved myself $310. $210 for the rim, $60 for powder coat and $40 for shipping

Im excited to receive the package and hopefully resolve my issue. The photo is the look Im going for but with the proper hub cap for a ‘52.

I , too was very happy with Wheelsmith and their customer service.

Good looking wheels and powder coating is very tough. We paint navy furniture with it. Should not be an epoxy powder because it will chalk from UV. Of course they probably already know that.

My wheels have been on for several years and still look like new. I'm sure they use the proper finish.

6/18/24 My test artillery rim from Wheel Smith arrived today so I was excited to see if it fit. When I picked up the box, I heard something rattling. The center that was pressed in but not welded, was now loose in the box. I called Terry at Wheel Smith, whom I have been dealing with and he said to tap it back in and set it where it clears the caliper, then send it back and they would keep the setback as is. My thought was if the center didn’t stay on the trip out, it probably wouldn’t make it on the way back. I measured the setback at 3-1/2”, which gave me about a 1/4” clearance around the caliper. I noticed that the shipping bill said it was shipped with a 3-1/4” setback. That would give me extra clearance so I decided to go with the 3-1/4” setback. I went ahead and ordered the rest of the rims, beauty rings and hub caps. Current assembly and shipping is about 3-4 weeks. I’m getting excited and thrilled that I’ll be getting her back on her feet soon.

That's a good looking wheel. Looks like a Budd wheel from the 1930s. '36 Graham.

7/29/24 Our custom made artillery style rims from Wheel Smith finally arrived, but not without the saga continuing . Ordered back in mid June, with the expected lead time three to four weeks, I had heard nothing at this point, so I called on Friday (7/19/24), to inquire there whereabouts. They had been shipped out complete with the hubcaps and beauty rings, on the tenth of July and were still not here.

Now to be fair, mother nature threw us a curveball, maybe a screwball and tossed a tornado our way. Fortunately, we had very little damage, but three miles south and one mile north got hit hard, knocking down one hundred foot pines and telephone poles like they were bowling pins. It blocked us in for four days while town, county and utility crews did their thing. Thank God for the blue collar men and women that came to our rescue as far away as West Virginia and Georgia, to restore life back to normal. Last week, they were our hero’s. We were without electricity for four days, internet/phone for three as well as cell service for one. And par for the course, the one day without cell service a storm came thru which left us with that helpless feeling not knowing how severe it would be. As I said before, we came thru it unscathed, with the help of a whole house generator, grocery shopping the morning of the storm and a 7.5k generator built into my daily driver.

That said, the wheels, hubcaps and trim rings, which were on the truck that Tuesday (day of the tornado) were delayed. Fair enough, I have to chalk that up to just bad luck. The issue I had, was according to the tracking, they rescheduled the expected delivery day to Friday (7/26/24), 8 days later. That following Monday (7/22/24), I looked up the local distribution center’s phone number only to get connected to a customer service rep that was clearly not from the US. After a lengthy conversation explaining the situation, having to repeat myself several times and asking him “can you say that again”, he finally said he couldn’t give me the local distribution centers number. Instead, he would arrange for them to call me back within the hour to arrange delivery. Following Murphy’s Law, that never happened and I was reluctant to call again as it took ten or so minutes just to get to that point. I decided to it wasn’t worth the hassle so I would just wait until the expected delivery on Friday. I hadn’t planned to start working on the truck until early August as I’m still finishing up projects around the house.

To my surprise the hub caps and beauty rings were delivered on Thursday but no rims. I eagerly awaited the arrival of the rims on Friday but they did not show. Tracking showed it was rescheduled for the following. Unfortunately the shipping company’s customer service does not have weekend hours so I couldn’t express my displeasure and would have to wait, yet again till Monday.

They were finally delivered today, (Monday 7/29/24). My wife said the look on my face was like a kid opening presents on Christmas day. I took the rims out to my garage and tried them on the truck just to make sure the issue was solved. They all fit perfectly with plenty of clearance for the disc caliper. Today I’m a happy camper!

Now to find a competent installer to get my tires on!

Nice looking wheel.

Phil, did you paint the wheels or have them powder coated ? They look amazing by the way...

I had Wheel Smith do the power coat. I agree, they did an amazing job.