The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Aftermarket Metal and my dashboard 1947 1-ton dually - Newbie in Philly

Good evening bolters,

I've found my truck and I'm probably nuts because she's a rust bucket out of a field in Pennsylvania. I've also found a body man willing to work with me on my restoration. I"m not looking or could i afford to build a trailer queen but I do want to rebuild the truck to look really nice. I plan on doing the frame and mechanical myself, but will pull the cab and nose off and leave with the body man. My questions: many of the linked websites offer fender and door skins. do any of you have experience with the fit finish and metal grade of these products? or should I put the effort into my existing doors and fenders? how hard would it be to find a pair of fenders and doors out of the desert and what would you expect to pay for such metal if available?

Is my dashboard welded to the cab or can it be unbolted and restored on my workbench ? are there sheetmetal assembly manuals for my truck? Any suggested reading?

Many thanks on your responses and having a look at my post.

Joe in Pennsylvania
Newbie: Amtrakjoe

Joe - folks need to know if it's a 41-46 style [47 1st series or Deco style] or a 48-54 style [47 2nd or Advance Design] .... there's an assembly manual at most vendors for the AD series, I've never seen one for the Deco series

if you have the skills/patience or can afford to hire it done, it's always best to work with original metal, but if things are too rough 2nd choice is find some good used, just takes looking and waiting, the Parts Wanted forum here can work .... repro patch panels will take some amount of fitting, but are usually reasonable quality and workable .... not sure on your year if the dash is bolted in, a lot of series they're welded in, too much work unless you really need to replace it

Bill

Bill,

Thanks for the reply. It's a 1947 AD. I'll look at some of the websites for those assembly manuals. Maybe they can tell me more about my dashboard ? We have a big car show in Pennsylvania called "Carlisle". I plan on attending this spring and getting a feel for the vendors and products.

Have a great night. Thanks again.

Joe

Hey Joe,
With an unlimited budget and a guru at repairing AD bodies, anything can be repaired. I have a 52 5 window and have replaced the dash, front cowel, lower outer cowls, inner cowls, inner-to-outer cowls, rocker panels, floorboard, toeboard, and cab corners. I have also cut out and fabricated most of the curved beltline from lock pillar to lock pillar at the back of cab. The fenders, doors, and bed are rusted through in many spots. While I enjoy working on these trucks, I am a complete idiot for not hauling this truck to the scrap yard and waited until I found a better candidate for restoration. Having said that, I can't wait until I get this truck restored to original, 1952 condition.

I probably should take this to the scrapyard too but I just really like the truck ! I think I may have found a source for a pair of fenders at least. I need to get my cab off the frame to truly assess what I need. I figure I can save my money on the mechanical side reworking the engine, clutch and transmission. I'll leave the body to the experts.

By the way. Is your dashboard part of the cab or something I could unbolt?

Are you near your truck?

Have you looked under (and at the upper/outer edges of) the dash to see how the dash is attached? This might give you a general idea about how the cab/dash are attached.

I think you will find that there are a few dozen spot welds holding the dash to the cab.

Maybe someone who has done this will post their experiences and describe the difficulties, if any, they encountered?

Thanks Tim. No, my truck is two hours away under a blue tarp. A few dozen spot welds tells me I will restore it in place. I could just remove all the "jewelry" and restore that on my bench. I really need to find a manual or guide on assembly for the truck. I'll hit the links section of Stovebolt and see what's out there.

There are four bolts at ends of dash under dash. There are many spotwelds where dash meets front cowl and hinge pillars along the sides. I first drilled out spotwelds through the dash (but not through the cowl) from the inside. I use a 5/16" drill bit and stoppped before going through the cowl. I have used a spotweld removal bit, but I found that a regular 5/16" is quicker and leaves a smaller hole to be filled in later. Then I seperated the the lip of the dash from the lip of the cowl to allow cutting the dash in half, top-to-bottom without damaging cowl. Cutting dash in two makes it easier to seperate the dash from the hinge pillars. Installing the dash was not too difficult. Welding the dash to the hinge pillars was the only challenge. I would recommend taking measurements of the windshield openings, as the cowl moves around a bit once the old dash is removed. I used a tig welder to weld it all back together. Looks like new!

Wow, I'll bet it looks like new. I must be honest, your disassembly procedure is out of my league. I'll sand it and spray it in place. Thanks for the info. - Joe

Even if your not a sheet metal person and body work person, you might suprize yourself. It is not to difficult to do somethings and as far as welding a MIG system works just fine on the thin sheet metal, drilling spot welds is tedious. The factory assembly manuals give measurements that are very helpful.