The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1953 half ton project *

So I picked up a 1953 half ton pickup a week ago off craigslist in the Denver area. Paid $3200 for it and was able to drive it back to Fort Collins with no problems other than soft brakes. Body is not too bad except for the flat black paint job with the frankenstein stenciled logos. And it needs new tires.

Up front, it's going to be a quick and dirty driver project...un-ratrod-rockabilly the truck with fresh paint, upholstery and new biasply tires. Get the brakes and steering up to snuff as well.

So far, I've spent a couple evenings block sanding multiple layers of stenciled Frankenstein logos and green flames. There are alot of mils of rattle can paint on this poor truck. Luckily, the flat black primer sands off quickly to reveal very good condition Omaha Orange original paint - perfect for respraying on!

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Welcome to the Bolt. Lots of folks here to help out in any situation.
At least you can DRIVE it. They're more fun that way. I've always had to drag them home and nurse them back to health over a period of years!!
Oh, a fellow bolter here has an album of "door art". Take a good picture of it and send it to Czechman. You'll see him around here somewhere.
Keep us posted with pics and progress and let us know what we can do to help.

Hi Mark, Welcome...Your new 'toy' looks pretty good. I had a look at your Flickr pics and there doesn't seem to be too many 'horrors'...apart from Frankenstein!
I've also got a soft spot for 'VW splitties' trouble is,I can't afford one any more.
Prices for good ones over here are through the roof!
Keep us up to date with plenty of
Jock

Your '53 looks to be in really nice shape. I'm envious. Mine isn't original like yours. I look forward to seeing some pictures after you get it like you want it. I suspect it will be an eye-popper.
Looks like a good price, too.
Congratulations,
Jason

So i'm about done sanding and getting ready to do filler work. Here comes dumb newbie question number 1:

On the rear fenders, top of the wheel well, there are two rivets attaching an underside fender brace. It looks like it is factory correct. Do I filler these so they are hidden?...every image i can find doesn't show these two rivets, so i am assuming so, but just want to make sure.

thanks in advance - mark

2 more bfore pics:
rusty floor

suicide knob

and some in progress sanding pics (very exciting stuff here)...

green flames on red flames

rusty roof

cheating on the bed removal

coming along

looks kinda good

yes sir, your coming right along. Got to love the sucide knob...or should we say the elbow buster Looking good and your getting it done before cold weather sets in!!

The engine:

Well it looks like the seller was misinformed when he said it had a 216 engine...best i can tell, the original engine was replaced with a 235, which is fine with me...

thanks to stovebolt & inliners website for helping me identify it..4 corner screw valve cover, 3836848 GM23 on the head indicates a 1956 235. 3769716 on the block indicates a '58 to '62 235.

It has dual exhaust, which i'm guessing is not original, but cool none the less...

well I keep unbolting stuff, so my quick and dirty project is slowly becoming a proper respray.

Found some rust under the primer but only where PO must have started sanding down to bare metal (luckily only half the hood) - everrything else is sprayed over old original paint and is unrusty - proof that primer doesn't rust proof very good...

However, the primer job does appear to be high quality paint and not rattle can - plenty of blue filler (evercoat metal glaze) in the small dings and dents...but pink bondo in the bigger dents...

also resprayed the wheels on a whim...slowly getting rid of the monster green paint...

quick repainted wheels red because i couldn't stand the green
found plenty of rust under primer

bits and pieces (and a bus bumper)

Marklaken: Your looking good. It appears your problems are not that bad and I can just see the shiny new paint now. What color is the truck going to be?.. or have you said already. Keep at it. Its coming along nicely.

It will be creamy yellow. I saw a creamy yellow AD pickup a few years ago and decided I wanted one like that. Plus the light color will help hide minor imperfections and will help keep the cab cooler in the summer. It'll be shiny in no time!

I'm kind of leaning towards red wheels with wide white walls...I've always liked the soft yellow with red wheel look on hot rods. But there's not gonna really be anything hotrod to back up the look with this truck...just gonna be a slow bucky truck

Finished basic bumping and filler work through September. Got epoxy primer sprayed yesterday.
epoxy primer

had a little issue with bleed thru that I haven't experienced before...hope all is well and I plan to go forward as quick and dirty has always been the name of the game for this truck - guess time will tell...

bleed thru on the roof

bleed thru on the fender

Bought a new rear tailgate and front bed panel.

Also ordered up a front disc brake kit from CPP that uses existing 6 lug wheels, tacoma discs, fresh hoses, and came with free roller bearings - $425 shipped for the whole setup sounded as cheap as revamping my existing antiquated drum brakes.

still aiming to get topcoat before it gets too cold this fall...

Looks as though you are making good progress. Keep us updated and let us know how the brake system works once your on the road.

sprayed ppg shopline epoxy primer grey to solve the bleed thru issue.
grey primer

Note the wavy running board...They are banged up on teh sides but otherwise really solid - I attempted some bumping/bending/slapping and then filler, but I had a hard time straightening the sides of the running boards - thick metal - any tricks to straightening these?
grey primer 2

And curious if anyone can verify that my suspension is stock or not and if it looks saggy or normal...

front suspension

rear suspension

woohoo paint is done!

Nice weekend weather and a lot of busting hump. It is my best paint job to date - a ford mustang color - "springtime yellow" - TCP global acrylic urethane - i'll post some pictures after lunch...

A week of well deserved rest than off to colorsanding, assembly, new rubber, power brakes with front discs and fresh tires...

Some quick pictures:painted truck 1

painted truck 2

Not too bad - some runs at the fuel filler neck and a couple small sags at the cowl
the worst of my runs

And I sprayed plenty of paint on there to give me a solid couple mils worth of color sanding/buffing - the part of the job that i trully dread...i hate color sanding

Got the backside of the hood and the firewall sprayed last weekend (11/7/09).

removed the dry tarry rustproofing that was under portions of the cab, collected stainless steel screws for various reasembly from Ace Hardware, and installed hood cowl seal last week (11/9-13/09).

Got the hood back on the truck this past Saturday, but it's not properly adjusted (11/14/09).

And I also got started on the front disc conversion on this past Saturday - CPP says an afternoon, but I am guessing it will take me more like 12-16 hours (my work includes upgrading to roller bearings and upgrading tie-rod ends - and it's my first time disassemblying and reassemblying a chevy truck front end).

The kit so far assembles well, although the instructions leave a bit to be desired - for example, they don't really label left and right caliper plates and you have to guess which plate goes on each side - they have an angle built into the plate, so they are side specific. From my research (0.5 hour of looking at truck magazines for pictures), I gathered that the plates angle inwards toward the center of the truck (a simple label/sticker would have been really nice). I hope I'm right or add an hour for disassembly and plate swap. Also, they don't give torque values for the nuts, so I guess I gotta do some more research on that...

Ball end removal on my steering arm is the most challenging part of the work - all my tricks have failed on these press parts - spent over an hour with no results...tonight I will try drilling and heat in conjunction with 5 lb sledge and small punch. Hope I don't smash my fingers and i wish I had a vice for this work.

also noted that steering repairs need to be made to the steer box, as well - I can wiggle the arm coming out of the steering box pretty good...but that's for another day...

Mark...You seem to be making great progress,I've been following it on your Flickr page.
I also had some 'issues' with caliper mounts on my MII front spindles.
It seems this is also the case on the upgrade for original axles too.
As you say,a simple label/sticker would avoid such problems....
Good luck with the rest of your build.