The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Assault on cab has begun.

I've nicknamed my cab Mount Everest... it really is that messed up. Today it was time to get serious... starting on the passenger side. Great therapy! Still have a positive attitude!

TODAY'S PROGRESS Run the slideshow or click the upper left image and then the NEXT button. Comments are not displayed in Slideshow mode.

WHAT I'M STARTING WITH Same routine.

Woody:
You are doing what I was doing three weeks ago. That looks like lead instead of Solder.
Keep the pics coming the work looks good.

I may be wrong but technically I believe it's solder, an alloy of lead and tin... or at least that's what we used to call it 35 years ago when I did this kind of stuff for a living. Back then I believe the two most common alloys of "body solder" available were 60/40 and 70/30 and I believe we used the 60/40. We even referred to body files as "solder flow files".

But it's been a long time and we weren't sticklers for technical accuracy so I could be completely wrong and if so I stand corrected.

Regardless I'm having a lot of fun and experiencing a lot of déjà vu.

lookin good Wood-You're an inspiration..

I know how it feels to have an endless amount of welding etc in site. I keep saying eventually I'll run out of things to weld...but I don't see the light yet..

Last week I put 1/3 of the floor in my 55, 2nd series..no fancy welding required there..this week? Inner cab corners and that section of the door jam that the door weather seal would rest against. Delicate work-knowing that if I get to wild the door may not line up..I tack 3/4 inch wide stips in-grind-then lead to form the corner radius and smooth out..

Anyway-enough about me..I'll be checking your progress..

Keith

hey woody i swear we are living parallel lives. i just went through
the same stuff on my 46 different but the same locations cowl sides
i had rot around the wind shield both door bottoms and across the back of the cab. im done with that now and i plan to apply the
high build primer and paint the chassis this weekend. then im going to have someone else shoot the color. philip

Woody, job wise we are almost at the same junction. I suspect you will finish way ahead of me though. I just can't do some of the body work and I don't have those tools.....You can see my cowlings here

http://s140.photobucket.com/albums/...pecial_track=album_paginate_top_view_all

The cowls may be on the second page.

You are doing a fabulous job Woody. You and Denny are making me stay at it!! LOL

EDIT: I fixed the link so it would open.

Thanks guys, but I'd hold those kudos until this thing is buttoned up and going down the road in one straight piece

Woody, I realized the link I left in my post above didn't work. Sorry about that .....so I went back and fixed it. Now you can see those cowlings I mentioned on mine.....ugh!

Thanks Alvin, I meant to PM you yesterday but I got sidetracked.

I'm looking now and your cab floors look just like mine with the flat plate repairs in the same places... uncanny. OMG... the drivers seat!

That's one heck of a project you've got going there. I couldn't imagine facing that much sheetmetal, you guys with Burbs are a breed apart.

Woddy your doin one heck of a job!...man it will be nice!

Yepper, I don't envy either one of you old dudes, but on the other hand I do envy both of ya! I think we all started on these projects about the same time. I don't have anywhere near the work ahead of me that you guys have but it looks like your gonna have all the face lifting and cosmetics finished long before me.
She will be nice Woody when ya got her all finished up. And Alvin, I gotta agree with the Wood's man, thar sure is a bunch of sheet metal to deal with on one of them thar enclosed trucks. I have a buddy that is doing a '48 Willis with Ford ranger running gear and I thought he had a lot of body to work with but it dunt compare to an early Burb.

I was taking a look through your album Alvin, I was focused in on your out door sandblasting work. Man you must be a glutton for punishment! I got about the same setup you do, maybe a little smaller air supply but bout the same pressure pot and all. I just did a rear fender, inside only, about 2-3 hours. And the under bed spare carrier, bout 2-3 hours. And a couple of wheels, bout 2-3 hours. And I went through three guns and am having to rebuild the last one after it’s 2-3 hour session. None of my guns hold up more than a few hours before the trigger or stop setup is eaten through. Eats through the rubber end stoppers on the one, and the rubber hose inside the other type and it eat right through the 3/4” ball valve that I tried after about an hour.
I don’t know how you could get a whole frame done with one of these, that had to take you weeks.
By the way, in your album, who’s Luther??
Woody, you gonna have to do anything around the window openings? How does that Propane work for the lead, or is that Mapp gas? I was using my Victor Oxy/Cetylene with a no.1 tip and a nice soft flame for a little leading I had to do on a stressed area that needed to be welded up on the toe of the rear fender. You know, where the running boards bolt up, they always get torn up around there. I just picked up some 30/70 “body solder” from Eastwood on the last order to “lead” the areas that might see some stress or flexing. That works real nice, using tallow. I have a bottle of liquid acid I used for etching gutter joints for soldering that I used when I was a tin knocker, I use that before I tin and that really gives me a great bond, not saying that the lead is penetrating the steel but if you ever had to weld it you would actually have to grind into the metal surface a few mills to get the lead completely cleared off. I don’t care what the body men of to day say, Bondo/Rage sticks great also but there is no way that it bonds to the surface on the molecular level like a well done lead filler. I could back bend this surface and the lead won’t separate from the surface, try that with plastic filler.
Well, good luck, I wish I had the acres between the next door and me like you guys have. Both sides of me are the type that sue every and anybody at the drop of a hat. It’s even hard to spray with a rattle can, I have to make sure the wind isn’t blowing in either direction or they would accuse me of over spraying their grass. That’s my biggest challenge right now.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny,

My cab is pretty much stipped down to nothing and I can see one small spot in the lower left corner of the WS opening that will need some attention but without the WS out, it's hard to tell exactly what I'm facing but it doesn't look bad from what I can see. It sure would be nice to catch a break on that part... rebuilding that part without the proper forming tools could be a challenge.

The propane torch worked well to melt out the solder but I think you'd need an oxy/acelelene setup to apply it... you need more control than you get with the wide flame of a propane torch plus you don't have to hold the thing upright all the time.

Not sure what you're using for flux but I can highly recommend Ruby Fluid... just heat the metal so the RF bubbles when you swab it on (We used to use a small piece of rag wrapped in a 1/16 steel welding rod handle) and your tinning will be fast and complete... that's one of the best things I've discovered for tinning anything not electrical.

Tallow? Back in the day we used a shop towel sitting in a cut down gallon thinner can soaked in motor oil to lube our paddles... time (and health consciousness) marches on I guess.

As for your experience with blasting, I bought a $100 Clark 90 pound syphon feed blaster from Tractor Supply and it's paid for itself many times over. I'm sure it doesn't cut as quickly as a professional setup but I'm VERY pleased with the way it works and can see no need for me to buy a pressurized blaster. It's never clogged and I've done everything from doors to bolts with no warping or other problems. Syphon blasters also require much less volume of air to operate making it ideal for the casual user. My 60-gallon Kobalt handles blasting at 90 psi... no constant running.

Other benefits of a syphon blaster include not having to wear special protective clothing. I wear a respirator, light leather gloves, jeans and a t-shirt along with a full hood which I bought at Tractor Supply. I bought a cheap sheet of clear plastic glazing (Home Depot) and make my own lenses for the hood. You can also clear any blockage by simply holding your finger over the nozzle and pulling the trigger. This back-flushes the feed tube.

I blasted my (California origin) under-bed spare tire carried in I know less than 30 minutes and as for reliability I've not had to do any maintenence on my Clark... Highy Recommened by the Czechman

Tks bud, when I saw that pot I thought it was a pressuer pot. I bought a 110lb PPot from HF last year and it has been nothing but trouble as far as I'm concerned. It broadcasts grit in about a fifty or sixty foot circle around the source, the feed hose plugs up about every fifteen or twenty minutes and I have to take it off and clear it of packed up sand and I go thru guns faster than I do nozzles.
I wasn't kidding about the frame, it would take me a couple of weeks and probably a couple of dozen guns to get my frame blasted and it taint hardly rusty, it still has the original black paint on much of it when I wipe the Iowa mud off.
I think if I ever get down to the bare frame I'll take it up to the dude that does the blasting in the morning, pay him his $250 and pick it up in the afternoon.
I had big plans on tilting the cab up on its nose and just touching up the bottom side with the PPot, every thing above is fine and all I think I have to do is chem. strip the paint and sand some. Now I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have the blaster do the bottom at his place, it would only take him a few minutes to do it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Hey guys, I think we are finally getting to the core, and truth of this thing called sand blasting.
Denny, I use a 20 gal. tank from Tractor Supply. I change the nozzles fairly frequently but haven't had the other problems yet.

My chassis was corroded BAD. It took me 4 hours a day for 5 days to get it like I wanted it. That was last summer in 102 degree heat.
I just used my last sand while blasting the front cowl and THAT IS IT FOR SAND BLASTING. The chassis is done, around the windshield and the right side is almost finished but I came in the house and told my little short wife that I was through. I then drove down to a momument place and they want $100 and hour to do the bottom of the body and the rest of the top.....THEN I drove accross the street to a place where I found out a car club member does media (PLASTIC)blasting for $50. SO, I am putting the body on the trailer this week and letting him finish it. The plastic won't cut the rust very well BUT it will get some of it and underneath is mostly wood which is well preserved from the salt on the roads back where it came from. He can "dust" it and it will be fine, I think. Since I have new floor pans and new cowling pieces there is not much left underneath since I took out the cross pieces bolted to the plywood.

I also have a gavity/siphon feed blaster that I purchased from Eastwood over 5 years ago that I have NOT ever used. I think what the guy can't get with the plastic I will finish it with the siphon feed. That should not take long. I think I just cannot keep my air dry enough and that is what clogs up the valve on the bottom of the pressurized tank I have. I tie the handle open on it and don't worrry about wearing out the little rubber shut off tip.
So, considering the cost of the pressurized tank ($225) and the cost of sand (and going to get it, I figure I would have been a long way ahead of the game to have just taken it somewhere and had them do it.....that way I could be alot farther along on the project. Besides, all the smaller stuff I can do in the blasting cabinet.
The club guy also said he would do my doors "at a discount" if I would bring them two at a time. They are in good shape.
I just wanted it done right, like Denny, and figure why not do it myself.....well, if I was 10 years younger it would be different. So, far me guys this is the last round up. I will have my blasting done elsewhere.....
FOR SALE: one practically new presurized blasting outfit!!:)

You might want to be careful using that acid flux. It may interfere with the paint sticking.

Acid etches were used on production lines for many decades and I don't recall ever seeing paint bubbling from those seams. The acid only etches the metal to allow the solder to bond to it.

Unless you leave open pockets of flux residue there will be no problem and the nature of working with body solder (in that the solder creates a molecular bond with the steel) makes the possibility of voids or pockets nil... unless the work is very sloppy.

A good scrubbing and rinse with water clears the acid off the surface. If you have voids or pockets in the metal work then you need to do a little more metal work before you get the lead out. Body solder just like plastic filler should only be used to level a surface. Any welding or hammer and dolly work should bring it up to it's original shape within a few mils before the filler is used. The main advantage of the lead is like Woody mentioned, that it is bonded on a molecular level with the base metal and in a highly stressed area it won't crack out like plastic will.
Granted a lap seam like the cowl panel that Woody is replacing can be a source of trouble but if you got acid in there then you can get water in there to neutralize it also and a heat lamp over night should dry it out.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

woody,
It looks like you have got some after market metal for the floor. Can you tell me where and if you are going to weld in over the floor and firewall that you have or will you cut out all rusted areas?
thanks
[email protected]

I'll be cutting out all of the damaged areas and replacing it with solid metal. I couldn't imagine the mess it would be to just scab good metal over rust... but I guess it's all what you want when your done.