The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Progress Pics of the 54 Project

Thought I would share some pics of the recent progress on the 54. The re-assembly process takes alot more time than the tear down.
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=8309838&uid=2902753

Looks awesome. Thanks for sharing. If I can ask, what was your installer's technique for the windshield? What lube did you use? Did you use the rope method? I'm curious because I fought with mine quite a bit, and I would like to know if you learned any good tricks. Installing a windshield on a perfectly painted truck like yours is probably a different animal that on a patina'd truck like mine. I imagine having the hood off helped a lot too. Thanks again for sharing--looks great!

H54, looking great....

54,
Progress looks great.......Love the color
Dan

Houston, that totally changes my mind about silver. The truck looks awesome!

Great to see you on the home stretch...sure you feel the same!

Ditto! I'm liking that gunmetal silver a lot too.

Houston, we don't have a problem

Cool bed mat... where did you get that?

Thanks for the feedback.

The bed mat was found at Northern Tool for about $40.00. Great deal. It is even stamped "Made in the USA".

Man, what a find on that bed mat... now I don't have to do anything with mine, just throw that puppy in there and I'm good to go... you just saved me a couple hundred $

The truck looks great, the bed mat is cool too. Can you head up a bolt or old drill bit and melt holes into the mat instead of using a grinder? That way the holes are the perfect round shape.

The mat width does not cover the entire width of the bed. There is about 3/4 of an inch on each side. The outside diameter of the eyebolts causes a slight interference with the mat which a quick nip of the grinder can solve. The mat is about 3/8" thick so trying to melt through it would take some time. If there is any fraying around the edges I can take them down with a flick of the tourch.

Greg - about the glass installation. The installer had a spray bottle of dish soap and water which was liberally sprayed where needed. The back glass was installed by first positioning the seal on the lip of the window opening with the ends meeting at the bottom middle. The excess seal length was then trimmed off. The glass was set in the bottom right corner and then coaxed into place using a glass bone (plastic stick purchased with the glass from LMC). This took some patience but it went in pretty well but then he knew what he was doing. I had a hard time just getting the seal to stay on the lip. Turned out that is a two person effort. Once the glass was installed, the lock strip was started using an installation tool specific to that purpose. I had some anxious moments as I watched him do this step knowing that one slip of that tool would gouge my new paint but he used plenty of lube and there were no slip ups.

The front glass installation was a bit different. The first step is to figure out how the seal fits on the glass. The assembly manual is a bit weak in this area. The seal has one edge that is configured different that the other three sides. That edge goes on the bottom edge of the glass. The seal is not glued onto the glass as the manual says to do. The installer suggested not doing that as it will create a royal mess. The glass was then installed in the opening with a rope laid in the groove as has been discussed in other threads. The rope is about 3/16" thick. Any smaller and you run the risk of tearing the seal. The one used by the installer looked like sash cord.

The bottom right corner was pushed into place and then with one person pushing gently from the outside he pulled the rope. This did not fully seat the glass at first so some coaxing with the glass bone was needed. Patience is again needed as the seal is not to be forced into place. That will crack your glass. Let the seal accomodate itself to its new home. He used a small hook at one point to help pull the glass in from the inside but he was hesitant to do that for fear of ripping the seal. After about twenty minutes of letting the seal and glass adjust to the opening some more gently slaps on the outside of the glass seated it all the way.

The installer then pulled back the outside lip with a glass bone and ran a bead of black silicone sealer around the top and sides of the glass. Trying to get the sealer into the bottom lip would be problematic and he considered it un-necessary.

Hiring an installer was the best decision for me in this case. I have done practically everything else on the truck up to that point so asking for a little help was a bit disappointing but well worth the results.

I will try to video the installation of the corner glass when I get him back out to do that.

Awesome job Houston. Looks great.

Looks great, Houston. I did what you did and had a professional installer put my glass in our 53. Best money I spent on her. I felt bad at first also, but watching them work and not scratching or breaking anything was well worth it.

Great looking truck, Houston. Looking forward to seeing more pics as you go along.

Now thats a great lookin 54.Done up just the way I like them.