The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1947 Chevy 2-Ton COE 1st Series Restoration

The wood blocks I got in the kit were a hard wood. I don't know what type, but they weren't just a regular pine construction lumber. In my case, I think they'll last as long as I'll need them since I don't plan on parking it outside. They are under the cab, so they should be protected from any rain or other elements.

I suppose if you thought you would want something better, you could probably use some UHMW (ultra high moleculer weight) plastic. Usually you can buy it in various sizes and then you could cut it to the size you want with regular tools. This would probably outlast the truck and would have similar properties as the wood blocks.

This is kind of an expensive option, but just to show what I'm talking about:

High Density Polyethylene

Continuing assembly. Just pieces at a time, working through each thing one at a time.
I got the fender brackets mounted on each side. That was pretty straightforward.

I rounded up the parts to mount the radiator. I did a little minor painting on bolts and etc. I had new hoses also. It's not shown in the picture, but there is a short piece of hose to extend the filler neck. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing the filler neck was extended to allow antifreeze to be filled enough to fill the heater core. Otherwise, it would be about impossible to fill above the radiator top itself. I don't know how long the brass extender will stay bright like that, but it looks pretty nice now.

When I went to install the cab grab handles, I used original bolts. The problem is that I didn't clean up the threads after having them re-chromed. The bolt turned too hard and broke off before being tight enough to not wobble. This got me worried, thinking I may have really ruined the handle. Fortunately, I had lots of experience removing broken bolts while disassembling the truck in the first place. There was enough of the bolt sticking out to be able to weld a nut on to the end of it. Once it cooled a bit, I was able to get it removed. I think the combination of a nut welded on for grip and the heat helps in the removal process.

So, lesson learned on that one. I used a tap to clean out the holes and cleaned up the bolts with a die and wire brush. Once they were all clean, it went together nicely.

Does a hose run over the top of the engine to the filler neck on the firewall? How much higher than the radiator is the heater core?

Nice save on the handles! Great info for others to tuck away for future possible need.

The heater core is "probably" about the same place as a regular cab model ( I don't have anything to compare it to) . I drew a red mark around the area where the heater core is in one of the attached photos.

In another of the photos, I circled the upper engine radiator hose. On the back of the radiator is a port that is angled downward to connect into this hose. The extended filler neck connects directly to the top of the radiator. I'm hoping I'm explaining it well, but if not, I can post additional pictures of the connections.

You shouldn't need that extension, then. The heater core will fill fine if it isn't higher than the radiator.

Next was the dashboard. I stripped it down and removed the trim strips. I used a blaster and cleaned it up. To paint it, i used rattle cans of hammertone style paint. I like how it looks with the textured surface. I think the color is pretty close to what was original, but I didn't check super close, mainly I liked the color. Once it was dry, I did a bit of test fitting to make sure I understood how it would be installed. I also wanted to see it in comparison to the other trim pieces so I didn't get the installation order wrong. I'd hate to get a ways into the install with all the wiring in place, then have to remove it again because another piece of trim had to go underneath a corner or something.

But the heater _IS_ higher than the radiator. Also, without the extension, there is no way to put a cap on the radiator.
Since it's an OEM part, I'm going to use it.

OK. I didn't know it was factory installed that way. I thought it was something added on.

That finished dash looks great!

You’ve come a long way from yanking that truck out of your neighbor’s field. It’s inspirational to watch you get past the pain and frustration of setbacks and keep moving forward. Your truck is really looking great.

On the last 46 that I did I installed everything I possibly could into the dash before putting it into the cab. It worked great and minimized laying on my back which is tough for me to do. Nice work!

Thanks for the comments.

The next big step is the wiring. The old stuff was a mess, so I didn't even try to use anything other than switches and stuff. I bought a wiring harness that was for pickups since it had longer wires for the rear lights. I opened the package and laid out the wiring and read through the installation manual several times to get my mind wrapped around it. I had to remove the radiator to do the wiring in the engine bay. I put all the wiring I could into the split braid wiring loom stuff.

I wanted to use the original ignition switch, so I disassembled it and attached new wires to it. I did this to several of the other switches, like the headlight and heater switches. The ones I could open up, I cleaned up the interior and contacts so they'd be reliable. I removed the wiring from the harness for anything I didn't need. (I'm wondering if that was a good idea or not now.) Examples are a reverse switch and light, tachometer wire, electric choke, neutral safety switch, radio and dome light switch and power.

I temporarily wired in some boat trailer taillights for the rear end. Some of the stuff I couldn't do at the time are the front lights - headlights, driving lights and parking lights.

I used heavy zip ties and heat shrink to make the connections tidy and reliable.

As homer52 mentioned, I installed everthing I could in the dashboard before installation. I made note of which wires were in the harness in the cab that needed to connect to the dash components and where they connected. I padded the steering column and anything else that the dash might hit and then hung it from the roof with some wires. It was face down so i could access the back from above. This way i could keep the wires fairly short and not have to try to coil up a lot of excess wire.

It was a bit tight, but better than trying to do it in place. No one will ever see that again, but I know it was done as cleanly as I could. I was glad I was able to re-use several of the electrical switches.

Thanks for posting pics of behind the dash wiring. Nice to see how someone is organizing everything. This is very helpful for my project.

What Color/Brand Hammertone paint did you use on the dash?

Here is what I have used on 4 dash’s so far.

I used the same paint as homer52 posted above.
It was either the Brown or Dark Bronze color. I don't remember which one I used.

This is where we really start to see some progress. I attached the lower grille section and mounted the hood. I had a restoration shop do the body work and they did an excellent job of repairing the broken and kinked "teeth" of the grille.

Farm dog, I hope you can install) the grill bars in that position. I have made plans to install the grill bars before I install the grill. Dave

Farmdog, that's the shiniest COE truck I've ever seen in my life. General Motors could only dream of producing a truck with a paint job that nice in 1947!

Grille trim shouldn't be a problem. I can reach behind the bars still.

I used some rattle can bed liner in the underside of the fenders. It should help with rock chips I'm hoping.

I used some weatherstrip adhesive to glue the fender welting on. I had to do relief cuts to fit the curves and then cut holes for the bolts to go through. It took me a little while to figure out where the bolts go that hold the fender and the liner together and which holes were for actually mounting it to the truck. I like that there were larger clearance holes in the cab and brackets to clear the liner bolts. There won't be any metal-to-metal contact there.

Just the bare fenders look quite large by themselves and no headlights. I suppose they are a fair amount larger than a pickup.

There's always that fear that I won't get something assembled right or forget something. So far I've been able to figure out how it goes together. Kind of like a big puzzle. Sometimes I'm amazed I have all the little pieces needed, that they didn't get lost. I wasn't super diligent on keeping track of how it all came apart. I was able to keep all the parts together at least. I guess it's all part of the learning process.

On my next project...
(wife says no more)

On each side, the bolts that attach the steps to the support bracket were not in very good shape. Several were broken off and unusable. At first glance it looks like they're studs, but looking closer you can tell how they are actually installed. I used a punch to slightly bend the tabs down and slide the old bolt out. Once this was done, it appeared as if a carriage bolt might do the job just as well. I did a test fit and things were looking promising. I used the punch as a mini pry bar and bent the tabs back into place and that locked the bolt into position.

I repeated this for each broken bolt.

Then I was able to reinstall the steps.

Mark another "step" off the list.

Those bolts look a lot like the ones used to attach the running boards to the support brackets. Having some movement available for the bolts to align with the mating parts is really helpful/important.

Headlights were next on the list. I had to buy a few replacement parts for the brackets and things. I used pop-rivets to attach them to the housing. I tried several running light sockets and finally found a design that worked. You can see the roughness of the rust pitting under where the parking light fairing goes. Fortunately it'll get covered and won't be seen.

I got some LED orange lights for the parking lights. I like how they look. They're quite bright and I think it's pretty cool. You can't really tell they're not original from the outside other than how much brighter they are.