Ian's Tennessee Honey '64 Short Box Step-side - England

[MacQuigley]

I've the opposite problem with mine. It wouldn't go light! At the price they come in at these days I may buy another as a spare. I've a LOT of welding to be done!!! Can't risk not being able to weld.

Good work though Ian. This will be my guide when the time comes.

[Grizz1963]

Ian, I feel your pain.

I let Mickey next door use mine before, of course it came back broken, now he only gets that one when he asks.

We all have our rusty crosses to bear it seems.

Keep the faith mate.

[ibrown50]

While waiting for my new welding helmet to arrive I tweaked and clamped the inner rocker and clamped the rear pillar that I had sawn off to get access to fit the inner rocker.



Once my new helmet arrived I was back in business.



I've tacked the inner rocker/floor in place and welded the bottom of the rear pillar in place.



I've also welded the new bottom section of the front pillar in place although for now it's just tacked until I'm happy with the outer rocker.



This is currently held in place with three self tapping screws until I am happy with the door fit.

[mjh1965]

Looking good Ian . I believe you are going to my mates on the 21st to collect your door , are you going to try the replacement door on or use the one you have for now .

[Paul Y]

What did you go for as a Helmet Ian?

Mine is definitely capote so am looking for a replacement.

P.

[MacQuigley]

Looking good Ian. You should be finished just about the time Im ready to start.

[ibrown50]

As Martin has mentioned above I am collecting a door from his mates home on the 21st, this is the one kindly "donated" by Rian (thanks mate ) and then delivered to the north side of London by Martin to make it easier for me to collect (thanks also) it saves me about 80 miles of driving each way but more importantly it saves me crossing (or going around) London which is easily 2 hours each way.

I still have a 550 miles and about 10 hours of driving to do. Also while I'm that far down I'm calling at Langys Rod Shop to collect some stuff for Bill and me. Should be a Grand Day Out



I have trial fitted the old door, I hope the doors don't vary too much



The gap between the bottom of the door and the rocker should be ok with a bit of a tweak, Next job is to remove the outer rocker and drill the holes for the spot welds

[MacQuigley]

Looks good Ian. Wish I was that far along.

BTW Ive been onto Steve re getting some suspension parts in. Would it be easier if I get him to hold onto my patch panels and tie them in with the suspension parts?

[uber cool]

just read your comments re welding mask. That's so funny as mine packed up whilst welding the rocker panels on Mark's 63, I had to get a new one too. When im not using the mask I now leave it near a window to keep the battery charged up.

[ibrown50]

Rather than take a chance I decided to wait until I had collected my "new" door before welding the outer rocker in place.
So Saturday morning up at 05:00 and on the road at 05:30. I drove to Watford to Langy's rod shop to collect some rust repair panels and a (brand new) 67 rear bumper , then across to Welwyn Garden City to Martins friends (mums!) house to collect the door kindly given to be by Rian, then back home, arriving home at around 16:45 having covered just under 600 miles. The things we do for our trucks!



I genuinely love this hobby, it's full of generous, helpful people, always ready to lend a hand, give advice or simply offer support and encouragement. Rian is a great example of this, giving me his spare door, a pallet truck and one of his famous care packages (consisting of a T-shirt a baseball and bat) the door also came complete with a couple of repair panels and in true Rian style he refused any kind of payment. Thanks mate.





I managed to get the door hung this evening, about 20 minutes of fiddling and it's pretty near, a few tweaks and it will be spot on.



I mentioned on Martins thread the other day just how handy motorcycle lifts can be, for fitting a transmission, an axle and when fitting a door on your own they are the perfect tool. And apparently they're ok for lifting motorcycles too

[mjh1965]

Good news on getting the door . Dropping the parts at Dave's mums was not a problem . Dave is a good friend and always ready to help . You are right about the bike lift I use it more than my Trolly jack . Mind you I do still use mine to lift a bike as well .

[ibrown50]

I've not done an update for a while so here we go

The outer rocker is now fitted permanently, I drilled a bunch of 1/4" holes, and then marked the hole positions on the inner rocker so I could sand the minimum amount of the E-coat primer off to allow me to weld. Welds were dressed back with carbide burr as it leaves a little indentation which looks like a factory spot weld when painted.







The door has been on and off more times than I can count but it's necessary to constantly check the gaps. It was back on again so that I could fit the cab corner, you may remember a few posts back I pulled about a half inch of filler out of the passenger side corner. It was pretty much flattened, I had knocked it out as best I could but it still wasn't perfect. I have used the profile of the patch panel to get it better, but it still needs work





I also have this gap to fill where the rot was removed but the repair panel comes up short

[Palf70Step]

Patch work is looking good.

[uber cool]

Nice repair to the rocker and rear corner Ian

[62stepside longbox]

Metalwork looks good

[Grizz1963]

Very cool Ian.

Great progress, you must be very pleased so far.

Been chatting with Paul in Ada, OK today and getting step by step reports and his repairs made me realise, I have soooo much to learn still.

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

Patch work is looking good.

Originally Posted by uber cool

Nice repair to the rocker and rear corner Ian

Originally Posted by 62stepside longbox

Metalwork looks good

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Very cool Ian.

Great progress, you must be very pleased so far.

Been chatting with Paul in Ada, OK today and getting step by step reports and his repairs made me realise, I have soooo much to learn still.

Gentlemen, thank you for the positive comments, they are really appreciated


In between work and other commitments I have managed a little progress this week. I have finished welding the corner, unfortunatley my rust went beyond the repair panel, leaving me a gap to fill.



I folded up a repair section which after a bit of tweaking ended up fitting pretty well (if I do say so myself)





I got it (almost) tacked in place when I ran out of welding gas, I don't know why that should come as a surprise but it always does, I really should pay more attention to the gauge



But every cloud has a silver lining. I decided to use the spare time to tidy my garage and found this.



It's a Massey Fergusson (AGCO) tool box, a place I worked used to make them. It may come as no surprise but in the best Johnny Cash (One Piece at a Time) traditions these were at the top of everyones "take home" list. So much so that if we had to ship a batch of 100 we would make 125 just to make sure there was enough left over to ship

[MacQuigley]

Looking good Ian. Have you to do the other side as well?

[65sub]

It's a Massey Fergusson (AGCO) tool box, a place I worked used to make them. It may come as no surprise but in the best Johnny Cash (One Piece at a Time) traditions these were at the top of everyones "take home" list. So much so that if we had to ship a batch of 100 we would make 125 just to make sure there was enough left over to ship[/QUOTE]

That's funny

Also nice work on the patch panels Ian.

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by MacQuigley

Looking good Ian. Have you to do the other side as well?

Thanks Bill, yes I have the other side to do, it's nowhere near as bad but I'll probably end up changing just as much metal.

Originally Posted by 65sub

Also nice work on the patch panels Ian.

Thanks Dale a long way off your standard, but atleast your thread gives me something to aim for

Another quick update, I finished welding the patch into the cab (the weld still needs dressing properly but I've a bit of panel beating to do first to square up what still remains of the damage)



Another job on the cab floor I have made some progress on is filling some holes. There are about a dozen 9/16" holes in the cab floor next to the bolts for the seat runners, my guess is a PO has had bucket seats fitted.

Luckily having worked in a stamping shop and being an absolute magpie, I still have some slugs of various sizes.



They are ideal for this kind of job, just hold them in place with a magnet until tacked then



Now you see me



Now you don't

[Grizz1963]

Never ends does it.

Looking good though Ian.

I look forward to getting the little jobs done and out the way before tackling what will be a challenge on my body panels.

[ibrown50]

Well it’s been a while (over 3 months) since I updated my build thread. Progress has been slow and time limited and I wanted to have something to report before doing the update (just didn't think it would be this long ).

The rust in the floor turned out to be a whole lot worse than I imagined and although there weren’t actually that many holes, the steel around the holes was generaly so pitted it was easier to replace sections than try to repair holes.



So there's been lots of this



And this



And this



But now it looks like this

[ibrown50]

I have also repaired the passenger side fender; you may recall from earlier in my thread the P/O’s wonderful repair. (the snot welded patch staight on top of the rust )



He had actually welded it so badly that the area around the repair was very badly warped. I have a repair section but decided not to use it,



The fender strengthener was really badly pitted on the inside (although it actually looked great from the outside so that was going to have to be looked at too)





Still a bit of hammer and dolly work required but I don't think I'll avoid some filler

[65sub]

Nice work Ian. It's a good idea to replace all the pitted sheetmetal.

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by 65sub

Nice work Ian. It's a good idea to replace all the pitted sheetmetal.

Thanks Dale and you're absolutely right, some of the pitted steel was down to 20% of the original thickness

I've cut out the pitted and holed sections from the fender support and replaced them with new metal, it would have been quicker to replace the whole thing with a new one but a new one would take 2 or 3 weeks to arrive in the UK.






When the welding was done I had the fender and "new" door, kindly donated by Rian, (thanks mate ) media blasted. I used Rix Media and Soda blasting, it's a local company owned and ran by a local drag racer, petrol head, car enthusiast and all round good guy. He did a fantastic job, I would recommend him to anyone.



Once I got them back I coated the inside of the fender with stone guard. The fender still needs a lot of work but will straighten out OK.



The door has more holes than a beatles song (cryptic clue, answers on a postcard ). but is way more straight than the one that came with the truck and I have a repair section (courtesy of Ta2Don ) which will get rid of 95% of the holes.



I'm not having as much fun as Rian but Hey-Ho