The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Re: What did you get done on your 'Bolt today?

I started scraping the underlayment off the RS front fender so I can do the metal working and prep for paint.
Though this underlayment preserved the metal really well, it's a bear to remove.
What IS that stuff anyway?
Jerry

Tar.
"Back in the day", if you wanted to spend some extra $ when you bought a new car or truck you could get it "undercoated". I always wondered why anyone spent that money as most folks knew they would be trading it in in 4 or 5 years or less and even salted roads in the Northeast wouldn't eat the metal that fast.
However what you are referring to could be some kind of bedliner someone has used which would be a real headache to remove.

Underneath that coating is the original fender paint.
If the original owner paid extra for it, I'm thankful for it's preservation of the metal.
Actually Jim, I was considering truck bedliner after I finish... or primer.
What do others use?
Jerry

Removed axles, springs, and spindles. Rear springs and axle to "axle and spring" shop for a little TLC. Ordered new front springs from SD Truck Springs (both for $302 shipped), new shackles, king pins, and 3.55 rear end gears from Patricks. Will order front disc brake kit soon...still researching.

Got her named: Sancha

If you've ever listened to Sublime's song Santeria, you'll know the history. If not, and you have no inclination to listen to it, I'll provide a recap: In the song, they sing of a girlfriend who's cheating. In Spanish slang, she's with a sancho. So being that sancho = other man, I figured the wife would appreciate me acknowledging that I had a Sancha (other woman)

She (the truck, not the wife!!) may be heavy, but she's mine! LOL

Also got the speedo removed and cleaned up. Once I get a picture posted of it, I'll put a link in here for it.

Took my 56 Chevy 1/2 ton stepside off the blocks last night and drove it for the first time, since buying it from a lady over a year ago, getting the engine unstuck, brakes redone, and the engine started. Brakes worked great, but the carb needs a little work yet. A great feeling to have it finally running on the road.

Jerry,
I used Herculiner on all fenders, inner-fenders and any sheetmetal that faced the road. but not on the frame.

Well I took off the dash from my 36 wrecker to get to the windshield regulator, boy that was fun. but all it took was 6 bolts and it was off. Now I am waiting for the tongue for the regulator to show up and I will re-install everything and then change out the rubber on the windshield and I should be water tight for another 75 years!

Well, it's not mine, but my son let's me work on his (1946 3/4 ton). Re-assembled front springs (all new shackles, bushings, bolts), checked initial fit on new king pins.

Tomorrow, clean up u-bolts, get additional king pin shims, assemble front axle and spring assembly and install.

Next up, install top steering bearing, finish installation of propellor shafts. Re-install generator and starter (rebuilt by My father a couple of weeks ago).

If you have ObsChevy, Chevsofthe40s, FillingStation and other stock, it should have gone up recently :-).

We are in a preserve mode and get mechanically sound at this point (and have fun driving it for a while) until we are in the position to start the restore (huge step between the two).

[IMG

Yet another long journey begins--This past August I innocently began removing a small dent near the headlight bucket on the RF fender on my 51. An hour later that dent was smoothed and I noticed another dent, and another....

Off the fender came, and I began stripping off the 'skim' coat of bondo, which was 1/4" thick in places. After arriving at bare metal, I got all the dents out and sprayed the fender inside and out with Dupont Nason 2K Epoxy primer.

I reinstalled the fender so I can drive the 51 again--30 degrees is too cold in the mornings for a motorcycle ride to work.

It took me almost 5 years to build the shop the 51 is sitting in, I hope to get the body shaped up in slightly less time.

Good looking work Carl.

Looks good. I have been working all summer on my shop. Just finished the perimeter drain and down spout drain. I'll be putting in the drain rock asap. The slap is done, and walls are ready to go up next. I put radiant floor heating in and a small bathroom since I had the water service there anyhow.

I have neglected my 48 while doing this, but the last thing I was doing was taking off the bondo on the back of the cab. I think mine was at least 1/2" in places. They made no attempt to pull the dents, just mudded it up.

you know the saying,"measure twice, cut once"
Well.....I measured a whole bunch, eyeballed it til I couldn't see straight, then threw caution to the wind and drilled 5 holes in the hood of the Firetruck to install an oem hood ornament without the benefit of instructions....hood ornament has studs so 4 holes were 1/2" in Diameter......it worked out ok!

@Racecarl and Super55:

And here I thought my fenders were the only ones wrapped in bondo. I will admit that the person that did it made them look good. Nice smooth curves and line, but like you both mentioned, 1/4" thick in places. I'll be buying a hammer and dolly set from HF once I get them down to metal. If they come out half as good as yours did Carl, I'll be happy.

Put in electric wipers and new fuel tank sending unit in my 52

I got my fuel lines, brake lines, and power steering lines all
finalized. Splurged on the mastercool hydraulic flaring tool and made the push connect fittings to match the engine, and the saganaw o-ring fittings to match the fuel lines and pump. Now to get coolant hoses fit, finish the wiring, and fire it up. Pics in my bucket. http://s960.photobucket.com/albums/ae90/scrambler45/

Finished assembly on 235 engine - lifters, push rods, and rockers.

Disassembled '73 Camaro axle with 3.73 posi gears. Cleaned up the gears, pulled axles, brake shoes, and backing plate. Next gotta pull bearing, and clean up housing and axles. Going to clean axle housing and coat with black POR15. Thinking of going with the eventual body color on the cover - gotta think about that some more.

Took me two weeks to do what I wanted, but I finally got the diamond plate removed from my 66's bed. Found that both fender wells are going to need to be replaced...and looks like a lot of work for the side strips that are connected to the side walls and the front of the bed. I will end up buying all of the material for the bed and just switch it out with the new parts. Try to get pictures of how bad the bed looks once I figure out where to put diamond plate so the kids don't get hurt....

I had to do a roadside replacement of the electric fuel pump in the burb today. I wasn't particularly pleased about having to do it. But I'm glad it happened where it did. We were just entering town and rolled into a parking lot out of traffic. A lot better there than out in the boonies next week on the Lone Star Loop 1000 mile run.

Got my new steering mast bearing in and wheel on.
Took a bunch of pictures but the micro sd card in my phone keeps crashing so I lost em all.

Also got the horn shell almost completely stripped and ready for paint.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8054/8084444462_2ab7f92af0_z.jpg

I put my '59 passenger fender on the bench and I'm gaining some metal-working experience as I go... so far so good.
So far, I'm liking my Harbor Freight body panel repair set.
Jerry

Take pics Jerry as you go for us dummies.

I was able to take the diamond plate out of my 66. I assume my great grandfather had put it in there back in the late 60s early 70s because he used the truck as a work truck and didn't want the hassle of keeping up with the wooden bed. I hope he isn't rolling over in his grave after seeing me cut and chop this diamond plate out. Anyways, I used a 4 1/2" angle grinder with metal cutting discs. Took me the better part of a day to get it all down. I still have one piece to remove, but need to buy one more disc to finish the job. Here are some pics of what I did. I messed quite a few things up, but most of the things that are damaged needed to be replaced because of rust as you can see in some of the pics. I think the lower braces are going to be able to be saved. I will need new wood and new strips. Hope I didn't mess up more than what I should have by removing this. Thanks for all the advice so far. Here are the pics. http://s1050.photobucket.com/albums/s407/Boomerchevy66/Bed%20remodel/

I had all 4 tires trued and balanced. WOW what a difference. It will now run 60 mph without shaking me out of the cab.

It's amazing what having straight rims and balanced and trued tires will do!

Finally getting back to work on the old gal. Welded in drivers side cab corner today and test fit door hinges. Nearly have drivers side below windshield done. About one more day and it will be on to passenger side of cab

Front axle and rebuilt springs installed in the 46 3/4 ton along with new kingpins. Pic's to come.

Today I swapped tires on a 3 piece lock ring wheel on my C30. Two pry bars, a mallet, and some Murphy's oil soap & water. Looks much nicer now without a steer tire on the back. Wheel/tire/tube/flap weighed 90 pounds.

Got one wheel off, tire pulled and wheel painted. Only 5 more to go! Those lock rings were really on there. Nothing a 10 pound sledge can't take care of.

i finally got my fuse block built for the engine and all finished up. I crimped and soldered all of the terminals and changed the routing considerably. I probably have 5 or 6 hours just in the harness. Getting closer to getting her started. Got my adapter fittings for my transmission cooler lines, and bent, flared, and routed my cooler lines.
http://s960.photobucket.com/albums/ae90/scrambler45/

Got a few coats of primer shot and sanded on the horn shell, still a couple more to go before paint. Also got a set of Guide fog lamps installed and wired up.

Satisfied with the front passenger fender, I took a deep breath and put the '59 driver side fender with the crunched-in eyebrow on my bench and fashioned a wedge shaped "under-yonder" tool out of a 2x2. The soft wood worked well against the soft metal. After banging the dent out, I tapped out the high spots with a metal-working body hammer from my HF set, then hand filed, sanded and shot primer to seal it. No filler used... victory!
I can't believe how long I fretted over those front fender issues and how easy it was to actually repair them.
My confidence builds like a bon-fire when I overcome the demons of my project. I still feel dad's presence with me and I'm imagining his proud smile.
Jerry

Way to to Jerry!

Checked all fluids, opened the heater hoses and backed it out of the garage and warmed her up. I pulled her back in and measured for the hood light I took off a 92 Dodge van. I'll need to find hardware to hide the wire running off the light.

Well I didn't get it done today but here is my progress report. Everything behind the dash is done. Wipers, AC and heater, instruments and steering column. Wiring under the hood and front end is in so I put in the battery and fuses and turned it over and checked the circuits. NO SMOKE!! Whew!
The AC and heater hoses and components are in under the hood.
Need to get it running soon. Can't wait!!!

set the cab back down onto the pallet and heated/scraped off undercoating. Nice to see bright metal instead of surface rust.

Mike

Media blasted engine parts. Got 216 back from machine shop and cleaned it up real well. Got about 10 lbs of rust scale and crud out of water passages. Cam to crank oil passages half plugged with dirt. All cleaned up now and ready for paint and assembly.

Finally found some radiator hoses that would work. Then I installed my ecm, and used hp tuners to remove the security, and all of the stuff I removed in the harness. I used the scan tool to test the fuel pump and check my fuel system for leaks, and shot some pictures of the transmission lines I built.

http://s960.photobucket.com/albums/ae90/scrambler45/

i got my license plate repainted and man does it look good !!

Took apart the windshield frame from my '36 wrecker. Took 6 hours to free it up to take it apart and now i am just waiting for the new sash seal to finish that up and put it back on. Sent the drums and shoes to get cut and re-shoed,ordered all the front wheel bearings and seals, It should be back on the ground this week if everything goes well.

Typical to my project. I drove her to church yesterday and when I closed the driver's door after returning home I heard that old pop sound everyone remembers if they ever drove one of these truck. In my old Bolt the door needed adjusting and would rub and make that popping sound when the front vertical edge of the door rubbed against the lower cowl.
Had I done the smart thing (never been accused of that) I would have spent some time investigating the cause of the pop sound. I loosened the screws on the hinges to make the adjustment then went to the passenger's door to check the clearances there. When I opened it I heard a pop. That caused me to investigate what was going on there. I had installed interior light door switches and the switch had worn some paint off the door. I rubbed a little cup grease at that spot and the popping sound stopped.
Mystery solved but I now have to readjust the driver's door.
Ain't it fun?