Page Last Updated 05 June 2005
My son helps me now and then so I gave him the honors of being in the first picture of the frame on wheels. Of course he needed his props! ;) At last, the frame is finally back on wheels! This is indeed a major milestone!
To break the monotony (like there IS any!) I move around to other things that need doing anyway. Here the original horn was being prepped for the black high temp (high gloss) engine paint it recieved shortly after. The next shot is the final coat of cast iron paint used to restore the original look on the steering column. I maintain that primer and paint on everything is a must. Especially after seeing what 50 years has done to the bare parts. This cast iron paint looks exactly as if nothing was done at all to a new part.
This is another example of what I found when I started taking this truck apart. The bell housing cover is toast! Apparently water sat in it (with other various and sundry items) for many years and rotted it out. I will have to find another cover worthy of this project. The engine is now ready to be torn down and rebuilt. This picture is so I know what it looks like when it's back together! ;)
I needed an excuse to buy an engine stand and it's proven very useful. Here the oil pan is removed and I am preparing to remove the guts. After carefully laying out each part to ensure I know what goes where, I shot this one. I then numbered each part with its exact location so all rods, lifters, etc go in the exact hole they came out of.
Yet another example of what the blast cabinet can do. Again, I made sure to assemble in the correct order after cleaning. The polished parts get cleaned with steel wool then everything is blown (with compressed air) to ensure no sand or steel wool particles are present. Biggest danger with sand blasting mechanical parts is the threat of sand getting into the moving parts on assembly. A very thorough job of cleaning is essential.
These shots are after the stainless steel brake lines have been installed and tested, the shocks are installed, and other small details are complete. The shocks were a bit hard to find because stock shocks are not long enough to mount once the leaf spring strips and the re-arching is done. I wanted the shocks to have a decent amount of movement in both directions afterwards. These are new Monroe gas shocks (blue) that were stripped and repainted black. The brake lines were installed with mounting clips that have rubber inserts to keep the lines from chafing against metal (something GM forgot to do in 1950.)
Last shot I will bore you with of the completed frame. With the frame in plastic and the cab sitting on the cart, I can move on to other things.
These are misc parts in various stages of restoration. All parts associated with this truck are sandblasted and primed with high grade etchant primer for preservation.
This is one of my peeve issues. I took all parts to a professional dry stripper and went out of my way to tell them many times that I would pay extra to have the job done right. After keeping my parts for two weeks, I get back what you see of the darker color. This is NOT a before I took it to the strippers picture... it's the after!! What you see of the ligher, brighter color (in each picture) is what I personally did with my cheap Sears siphon sandblaster. Moral of the story: Spread out a tarp to catch the sand, hook up your $35.00 siphon blaster and do the job yourself. You can do it in the same amount of time (a few weeks) and do THIS much better!! Let's not talk about the $650 I gave them for the priveledge of me getting to do it over!
That's all the film in that roll.. it's April 17, 2000 and I am only a little bit farther than what you see here. The sheetmetal sandblasting is completed (with exception of the cab - next) and I have primed all the bare metal. The engine is still at the engine shop getting the babbit re-poured, and my next major hurdle is the cab sandblasting and priming. Stay tuned for more rolls of film as they are developed!
This is how I sandblasted all the sheet metal. Was pretty efficient really. I was able to re-collect and re-use most of the sand. The finished results are amazing.
More shots of the finished product. It was a lot of work taking about 4 hours per piece (at 60 psi with a siphon blaster) but was worth every minute!
An invaluable tool... the Cab Cart! My dad made this for me and it took a lot of the misery out of moving it around. If you do this very often, you need one of these! It even has a hitch and can be easily moved with a lawn tractor. There is a pedestal on the flat cart that even has holes for the actual cab mountings. This custom made cart is a perfect fit for AD Cabs.
A shot of the already dry stripped cab. Not very clean and by the time I am through, the cab will shine like the rest of the sheet metal. The next shot is of the repaired top door hinges on each side. They usually have broken springs but thanks to reproduction spring and pin kits, we can rebuild them. For the perfect fit, use an 11/32 bit to drill out the hinge and a letter R bit to drill the hinge frame.
Sheet metal after priming with SW 980 etching primer filler to protect the metal until I can get around to repairing each piece. Every single piece of sheet metal on this truck has a dent or a ding or a hole in it somewhere that isn't supposed to be there. Lots to do!
