The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk '46 1/2 ton update.. brush on tractor paint!

Well it's been several weeks since I swapped the '67 i'd been using for farm chores for the '46 1/2 ton.. leaving me without a pickup for general "around the 33 acres" work.

With the engine purrin' like a kitten, and the drive shaft re-connected thanks to parts from Dakota, all that was left to do before she was ready to do in the yard work was to put some wood in the bed.. since there wasn't so much as a toothpick sized piece of wood in there when I got it.

Well since detailed instructions for how to put the bed wood in a '46 are slim to none on the web, and since hell will freeze over before I pay $300 for a 8 or 9 boards, I rummaged some old barn wood, a couple 4x4's and $27 worth of galvinised nuts, bolts, and washers from the local hardware store, and got to work.

Took about 3 hours from start to finish.. would have gone quicker had I done it before.. but hey, thats how you learn, right?

Finished up about 5pm, loaded the truck up with fence posts, insulators, and wire and headed out to the west side of the property and extended the cows grazing area by about an acre. Would have worked longer, but it gets dark about 6, and I still haven't re-wired the headlights!

The back of that truck sure sits alot higher with the bed wood in it!

So, what did you use for brakes???

The brake pedal, of course!

do we get to see pics?

-W

The pair


My \'46

It's supposed to be decent weather this week, so i'm going to slap a farm paintjob on it.. I was sort of in the air till I stumbled across this picture in the gallery..

[img]http://www.oldtruckstuff.com/toon46.gif[/img]

So green with black fenders it it's going to be!

Fumblin,

That's sure a pair of good looking trucks.

By the way, I saw a couple of 46 windshield frames out on E-Bay today. One looks to need a little bit of repair. Might be a good buy. the other appears to be in real good shape, but the price reflects it.

There's also a real pretty green/black 41-46 truck listed out there, if you want to see the real combo, rather than just the drawing you found.

Do we get to see the pictures after the paint-job?

There is a 2 ton truck with no box down the road I can get for $150.. i'm just going to buy that and get the windshield frame.. I can use the left front fender off it to replace the dented one on my 2 ton.

nice, looks like you have a lot of land with no one close to you,how nice it is.

like the check in the chat room, keeps one from logging in and find out someone in there that I may owe money to

I don't s'pose you got lucky enough to find your mirrors on that 2-ton did you?

Did you rebuild the master cylinder in it, or did you find a new single or dual master?

That's a great truck. Why paint it? It looks great just like it is!

fumblin46 - I meant... do we get to see pics of the bed that you built?

-W

Well the bed isn't anything spectacular.. but here are two shots:

Bed Pic 1
Bed Pic 2

I pulled down a 100 year old chicken house this summer, and the wood I used for the bed was wood used for the side boards on that 100 year old chicken house.

It's solid enough for a 200lbs guy and a 240lbs guy to hop up and down in the back at the same time (my brother and I tested it) but this comming summer i'll probably replace them again with new boards.

For the blocks that go between the frame and the bed, I ended up using 2 1/2 inch long chunks of pressure treated 4x4's and that worked out quite nicely.

Did it all with the bed still sagging on the frame.. once I worked out how to "jack up" each side of the bed to put the wood in on the sides, it went pretty smoothly.

I've still got my ear to the ground for an "option 210" mirror and arm.. and i'm contemplating mirror ideas for the 1/2 ton.

I'm not really feeling the "mirror arm attached to the top door hinge" look.. but i'm not real high on the "clip ons" either.

Brother in law just called to say he got the AD tailgate cut to size, so i'll set that on the back and see how that looks tonight.

I just did a rebuild on the old MC with pretty much a clean up and a new gasket deal and spring.

The wood is solid, but it's old.. I wouldn't expect it to last more than a couple years.. not to mention that since I used what I had laying around, the board widths probably aren't ideal. Eventually i'd like to get boards that are pressure treated and wider.. then once installed coat them with that spray on rhino-liner stuff.

But the boards i've got in there now are sufficient for my immediate needs.

Good job on the bed.

Thx. for the pics.

-W

Here's an update..

I bought two quarts of tractor paint today.. 1 quart of black, 1 quart of J.D. Green.

I wasn't sure how much i'd need, but was reasonably sure that 1 quart outta be enough to paint the fenders.. and I was right.. ended up using just under half a quart.

Tomorrow, i'll hit the cab, truck bed sides, and hood with the J.D. Green

Fresh black fenders
Shot of rear

Previous owners have painted this thing several different colors over the years.. at least 2 of those times was with a brush.. so I thought i'd continue the fine tradition!

So far, it's shaping up to be a pretty decent $16 paintjob!

Fumblin,

Those fenders look good. Anxious to see what it looks like tomorrow...

1 quart got the cab done in one coat.. going to need more paint to do touchup to the cab, and do the bed.

Cab J.D. Green

Man, that looks great! I would swear that was doctored in Photoshop if I didn't trust ya!

Fumblin,

It just keeps getting better...

Well, the truth is, it's one of those 10 foot paintjobs.. looks great from 10 feet away!

When you get right up to it you can see the surface imperfections.. had I done a full down to the metal sand job, the close up inspection would have been nicer.

All I did for surface prep was go over it with a paint scraper, then a wire brush, then sandpaper.

All the paint is applied by brush.. but you sure don't see brushstrokes in it like you'd expect.. in fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a brush stroke.

The paint i'm using is Tallmans AG Specialty Coatings Heavy Duty Industrial Enamel, it's $8 for a quart, and $21 a gallon at the local farm store.

Gloss Black (94634) for the fenders
J.D. Green (64514) for the cab and the bed

Time will tell how long it lasts and how it'll hold up.

Here\'s a link to their website.

Nothing wrong with a 10-foot paint job.

I would imagine, truth be known, there are alot of the trucks in the gallery, that while they may not be painted with a brush, they would be considered a 10-foot paint job at best.

I know of at least 3 of them... Cause they're all sitting in my garage.

Its looking great mate, Looks like you are having some fun.

All the best
Bob

What color are the wheel going to be, John Deere yellow?

I've pretty much decided to leave the wheels black, and put stock Chevrolet hubcaps on it.

I'd like to put wide whitewall tires on it, but #1 they're freakin' expensive and #2 they're probably a pain to keep clean.. especially considering i'll be using the truck as a daily driver up and down gravel county roads.

My plan is to cobble together some wood bed rails out of 2x4's and stain that a nice honey yellow color.. that'll look pretty good.

I think the stock hub caps would look awesome. The wheels would also look good JD green with the stock hub caps.

My son likes what you've done so far with his old truck. My Dad swore it would never see a road under it's own power. I think it's pretty cool! Reminds me of my Dad's brush-painted black CJ-3B I used to drive as a kid, when I wasn't out destroying other vehicles!

It's still got lots of things to do to it before it sees real road usage.. couple of wheel studs are sheered off and need to be replaced, needs brake lights brake switch and turnsignals, i'll probably end up converting it to 12V.. the headlights need to be replaced and rewired.

The bottom portion of the grill either needs to be stripped and re-chromed, or replaced.. and what started off as a small rot hole on the passenger side running board is now more like a football sized hole that includes the lower portion of the fender.. if you look closley at the most recent pic, you can see daylight shining thru to the left of the passenger side front tire. I'll at the very least have to graft a new chunk of running board on there, or better yet, just find an old full length running board and replace it.

Windshield glass is shot, as is the frame.. I have a line on a parts 2 ton truck for $150, but the glass is shot in that, too.. so i'll have to get new glass cut, and have to get new rubber.

The exhaust pipe on it made it to just about under the seat.. right now it's just got an old Toyota muffler stuffed on there.. so i'll have to cut that pipe back, and put new pipe on.. old Toyota muffler seems to work well, tho.

That big square hole in the dash is going to be were I install an LCD touch screen with GPS and stereo capability.. and I need to find a better seat.. right now it's just got an old bench seat laying in there.

So theres lots of little nickle and dime things it needs before she's ready to actually drive anywhere other than around the property.. but she runs like a sewing machine, and the AD heater I put in works great.

Eventually, i'd like to replace the rear end and tranny with something a bit more modern and a little more condusive to driving faster than 45MPH.. but that probably won't happen untill at least spring, and I suspect i'll be having that done by somebody a little more handy with a torch and welder than myself.

I love this old truck.

Fumblin,

I've got a complete stock exhaust system, sitting here in the side yard. Yours, if you want it.

I vote for black wheels, with chrome trim rings, and stock hub caps.

The modified AD tailgate is finished!

I had my brother in law take the ends off each side and cut it down, then put the ends back on so it would fit.. since the '46 tailgate opening is a little more narrow than the '47 second thru whenever 50's tailgate opening.

He put it together yesterday, but just tack welded it in a few spots so I could see if it would fit.. I confirmed it's fit last night, and he welded it up solid and sent it back to me.

I'm all set to paint the bed tomorrow (got another quart of JD Green) and i'll be putting the AD gate on.. so sometime tomorrow i'll be posting a new and improved "butt shot".

Well if you come up to visit the Postmaster this thanksgiving, you can drop it off when you pick up your crank hole cover!

hi Fumblin46 good job, have a couple up this way that could use a quick paint job...what is the measurements of that old tail gate, have one out in the parts bin, have no idea what year chev its off put to small for my 50's, let me know. mike j

Hey, Fumblin--That truck looks GREAT!!! Nothing wrong with a 10 ft. paint job! You gotta love that John Deere green!!

Looks real good! I should have done just that. Looks real sharp!

Looks great... amazing what a brush on paint job can look like!

Are you gonna paint the 2 ton to match?

You've really made some amazing progress! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Well, Mr. Buster - I've got your page ready for tomorrow (I think). With all this excitment, your '46 deserves to be up there for the weekend!

BTW, your mailbox is full. Had a few ?? for ya.

Peg