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

Thanks everybody for the kind words!

Well that was the plan.. altho it probably won't be till spring. The 2 ton box is just shot.. every time I drive it around the property it leaves little piles of wood from the floor.. like a very large bread crumb trail.

Once I get the 1/2 ton done i'll focus on pulling the bed off the 2 ton (have sawsall, will travel) i'd been waiting till the colder months, because around here it's easy to get rid of a big pile of firewood when it's cold!

If the brush on paintjob holds up on the 1/2 ton thru the winter, i'd planned on painting the 2 ton the same color, but the wife saw a '46 on the web that was bright yellow with black fenders, and is convinced thats the color I should go.

She says it'll make it look like a bumblebee.. I was thinkin' it would make it look more like a taxi cab.. but I guess if she still has her heart set on it by the time painting time rolls around, thats what color it'll be. Once the spring time paintjob is on it, i'll put on the new (new to the truck, anyway) dump bed.

Got the bed painted and the AD tailgate put on and painted today! I took a picture, but the sun is blinding it out, and since the paint is still tacky, I don't wanna turn the truck around.

The back end is pointed west, so i'll wait a few hours and try snapping another picture.

So, then I suppose you'll use John Deere yellow???
Seriously, tho--if that's too gaudy for ya, you could always go with Caterpillar yellow, or even Mpls Moline prairie gold. That would tone her down a bit.
When you get the box torn off would be a good time to paint the frame, too. On one of my Internationals, I just wire brushed it, then brushed on some XO Rust primer, followed by some XO rust Satin Black (True Value's equivalent of Rustoleum). Looks great!

Actually, the wife picked up the second can of JD Green on her way home last night and saw the JD Yellow and that got her fired up about the yellow again.

I'll probably have to pressure wash the frame first, then let it dry out, and then hit it with a wire brush. 59 years of pasture muck kicked up all over it.. and while i'm at it, i'm sure i'll do the rear axl, too.

I'm a die hard Red tractor man.. so it may seem a little funny I used J.D. Green.. but the truth is that the J.D. Green just happened to be the closest in color to what I wanted without having to have it custom mixed.

Fumblin,

Nothing wrong with Red or Green.

Maybe you should do a Red/Black combo, although I'm a little bit partial.

One things for certain, a truck as big as your 2-Ton couldn't be missed, if it were yellow.

a friend here has a 66 pu that's Cat yellow and it looks real good, not too bright - would look pretty business like w/ black fenders

Bill

Ok.. here's the back shots with the AD tailgate installed.

Rear shot 1
Rear shot 2
A front shot with the bed painted

Now i've just got to go down to the hardware store and buy some chain and a couple bed hooks to hold the tailgate up (i've got a tap&die handle in there at the moment)

I'm up in the air if I should paint the CHEVROLET letters across the back of the tailgate black, or just leave it all green.

Fumblin46 - I like it, looks good.

No sense in spending big money on paint, since yer actually gonna use it as a truck and ding it back up.

I look foward to the next update.

A pal of mine who has always been messing with an old car or motorcycle since I've known him... has shown me a few low buck tricks to sprucing up the visual aesthetic on a driver vehicle.

Silver spray paint for the bumper, if you prep it and shine it right, it looks nice. Cheaper than chrome... he did his front and rear bumpers on a '68 ford fairlane he usta have in silver paint, they looked really nice.

Also, for the small touch up places, silver model paint for chrome. They also have these 'pens' that have model paint in them, you can get them at hobby stores. If/when it comes off, you can just 'touch it up' again.

I also saw a different car at a show, a '66 fairlane - instead of chroming the bumpers again, they put that black and gray 'hammered finish' paint on the bumpers. Turned out very nice.

good luck...

-W

I'm kinda like Inky about painting the 2 ton to match. They looked like a pretty matched pair before the paint LOL. But seriously it does look great. There was an old guy around here that had 4 or 5 AD's. He drove them for years and years, dad used to work on them some when he worked in the garage with my grandad back in the 60's. He was still driving one in the late 90's and the point of this rambling is he painted them all with a brush, multiple times. The brush strokes were showing but the old trucks were really well perserved. I need to go check about those old trucks!The one he was driving last prob had at least 30 coats on it.Still looked good from a 10 feet. Keep it up and keep it working.

Rob

When I was a kid I tried to silver spraypaint (a.k.a. Mexican Chrome) a bike frame and it looked fantastic...

.. right up untill I tried to ride the bike for a few hours.. then it turned to kind of a lead color.

So i'd spruce it up every other day or so.. till finally I must have had about 50 coats on it.. you could dimple it with your thumbnail!

Not only did it LOOK like a lead bike frame, but it looked as soft as a lead frame, too!

I'm going to keep my eye out for a lower chrome grill cheap (yea, I know.. keep dreaming!) but i'll probably just end up taking this one to somebody to have it media blasted and rechromed.

Fumblin.

Great Job on the truck. Boy that tailgate almost looks like it was made for the truck..

But then again, I guess it was.

i paint the chevrolet on the tailgate black i think it would good make it stand out really good since those trucks didn't say chevrolet on the tailgate (if i remember right) make it look more like a one of a kind then it already is
Nate

Just wanted to let you know that we\'ve got Fumblin\'s "twins" in the gallery finally!

Peg

Fumblin; You'll have to send Peg an updated photo with that snazzy new paint job!!

Fumblin, gotta love all that. All that shines is not diamonds, some bolters, like me, are not overly endowed with lots of spare spendin cash, so I love to scout junkyards for parts, and my local farm supply store (for paint), and don't forget Dollar General.... resto44----

I put my 2x4 wood sides on today, panted the CHEVROLET on the tailgate black, and rummaged some chain for the tailgate. I'll probably have to break down and go to the hardware store and look for sutable hooks, tho.

I've got a second original taillight i'm gunna put on the passenger side rear.. just have to rig a bracket.

I'm really impressed with what a little brush on paint can do. I'll say it again, it looks AWESOME!

Here she is, rear view, with the new wood sides!

[img]http://www.oldtruckstuff.com/mytrucks/rear_wood_on.gif[/img]

Looks just a little different than it did just a month ago when it rolled off the flatbed..

[img]http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/images/anderson_frank_1946a.jpg[/img]

I've found that WalMart colormatch silver wheel paint stays nice and shiney and is hard as nails.

How much have you spent so far on fix'n everything up?

Well to get it running I needed the usual.. battery cables, spark plugs, spark plug wires, cap, rotor, condenser, points and coil.. probably have $100 wrapped up in that stuff.

Then I needed a radiator fan, a generator, heater and a gas tank. I rummaged the fan, heater, and generator from an AD parts truck, and I had a spare '46 gas tank laying around to put in.

Torque tube parts to re-attach the driveshaft to the tranny were provided by a fellow bolter (Dakota) who happened to have them laying around.

The master cylinder was locked up in the "in" position.. after looking around for replacement options, I just took it out, tore it apart, cleaned it all up, replaced a spring, and she works as good as new.. so no money there.

I used a total of 3 quarts of paint.. 1 can of black and 2 cans of JD Green at $8.99 a can, so on the paint i've got $27 invested.

The actual bed wood is stuff I had laying around, but I spent another $27 on new nuts, bolts, and washers to put it all in.

The wood I used for the bed sides, 6 96" 2x4's were a total of $15.93 at Home Depot.. the 1x1's I used to go into the stake pockets as well as the chunks of 4x4's I used under the bed were both from lumber I had in the woodpile.

Chain for the bed is also rummaged freebees.. altho i'll still have to buy better hooks.

The AD tailgate was rummaged from the same parts truck I got the fan and generator from, so that was free.. I paid my brother in law $30 to cut the tailgate and weld it back together.. Deco truck beds are a little more narrow than AD beds.

So the breakdown is...

Engine & Driveline:...........$100
Bolts & Wood:.................$43
Paint:........................$27
Tailgate Mod Labor............$30
----------------------------------
--------------TOTAL (so far) $200

I still have to rewire the headlights, wire it for turn signals, replace both headlight bulbs, replace the windshield glass, and paint the inside of the cab. I'll be replacing all the brakelines before she sees a public road.

I also have to figure out what i'm going to do with the lower grill.. probably be a strip and paint.

So by the time it's all said and done, I expect i'll have another $200+ in it.

Wow! Beautiful.

It looks so sweet I'd like to go kiss it on the nose AND pat the fenders....

Sabrina

very very nice. I like the stake bed sides. The ad tail gate looks good with the letters painted black.

-W

Fumblin,

Lots has been said about your project. When I see your work it gives me a feeling inside that I probably won't be able to put down in words. My old truck sits in the driveway and I plan and scheme. Everything must be perfect..chromed, dialed in, blueprinted, but there it sits. You found your little truck, hauled it home, hit the forum and the wrenches. You are driving yours and having fun....mine sits in the driveway. Please, shoot me, I'm not having fun!


Stuart.

It's all what you want out of it, man.. don't settle for less than what YOU want out of YOUR truck.. the wait will be well worth the reward.

I love old trucks, but i'm far too practical a man to have one i'm afraid to drive.. and that's exactly what i'd be if I did a full on frame off resto of an old truck.. the full resto route is one best left to the guys and gals with far more money and patience than I.