Danny Boy is BAACK! w/ '55 Big Window

[ChuckDriver]

Awesome work Dan, I like it!

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Rude Dude

Dan, I was just curious the samll holes in door panel two are for arm rest what is the third one for?

DOH! You noticed, huh. Yeah the PO put some kind of later model armrests that use a third hole. I threw them out.

I originally told myself doing these door panels was just a quickie spray with the same primer as the outside. Then I saw the Sage green that is nearly the same color as the primer but it's gloss. One thing led to another and I went to two tone, then the accent, etc. That third hole needs to be welded shut, no question. Time being, I'll cover the third hole with SOMETHING! Maybe one of those stupid bullet hole stickers!! Lol.
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[Rude Dude]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

DOH! You noticed, huh. Yeah the PO put some kind of later model armrests that use a third hole. I threw them out.

I originally told myself doing these door panels was just a quickie spray with the same primer as the outside. Then I saw the Sage green that is nearly the same color as the primer but it's gloss. One thing led to another and I went to two tone, then the accent, etc. That third hole needs to be welded shut, no question. Time being, I'll cover the third hole with SOMETHING! Maybe one of those stupid bullet hole stickers!! Lol.
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How about a small V8 emblem, seen them at wall mart auto accessories isle chrome plastic around $3.00 they come with double sided tape and you could easly take them off when you paint. They look like the Chevy Truck V8 emblems

[Rude Dude]

Dan Autozone and Walmart carry them here is a pic from autozone

[OrrieG]

Chrome paint looks nice, I have been using it on the inside of my tail and parking light housings and I have not been able to keep it from running or spreading even. Maybe I just got a bad can. You are giving me an idea about mine...

[hb32]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

Henry Morales Auto Electric
6909 Figueroa St.
Los Angeles‎ CA‎ 90042

A friend turned me on to him. I also checked online reviews-all were positive. Hole in the wall sized shop in a tough neighborhood but he made ALL my electrical problems go away for $200. Hard to argue with that! PS Nice guy too.

P.P.S. Post your results if you use him, ok?
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Not in the same vicinity to use him but the best $200 you can spend on these trucks is a new harness. This is my second 55 that I have rewired. Very easy and straight forward, plus you get the benefit of new wiring.

[Dan in Pasadena]

No question all new wiring would have been better than repairs on an original harness. Fortunately mine looked as though it had largely been swapped out through the years. At least all the long wiring to the head & tail lights. Henry swapped a number of others and I specifically told him to change out anything that was cracking or questionable, so I'm happy with where mine is now.
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[Dan in Pasadena]

Orrie, So far I've had real good luck with my chrome paint. It doesn't REALLY look like chrome but I do think it cleans up some things nicely. If you're painting inside light fixtures it's going to run unless you put it on in many extra light coats because they're concave. The bottom of the "hole" is farther away from the spray tip than the perimeter!
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[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Rude Dude

Dan Autozone and Walmart carry them here is a pic from autozone

A V8 emblem INSIDE the cab?....Ok, that's thinking outside the box. I'll have to go see the size of those things and consider them. For $3 I don't have much to lose! Of course, I could always strip the door panels back down and fix them right! Nah, what fun would that be? Lol.
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[Rude Dude]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

A V8 emblem INSIDE the cab?....Ok, that's thinking outside the box. I'll have to go see the size of those things and consider them. For $3 I don't have much to lose! Of course, I could always strip the door panels back down and fix them right! Nah, what fun would that be? Lol.
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Dan walmart is cheaper than autozone

[LDO]

oooooh that V8 emblem just above the arm rest? That would look sweet IMO....

I'm a big fan of the side emblems on the exterior of the cabs. I think they look cool. Even though the holes on my door were filled, I plan to install them when I do the final body work.

member Coupeguy2001's truck comes to mind. His truck has the emblems on it and it looks great!

[hb32]

Originally Posted by Dan in Pasadena

No question all new wiring would have been better than repairs on an original harness. Fortunately mine looked as though it had largely been swapped out through the years. At least all the long wiring to the head & tail lights. Henry swapped a number of others and I specifically told him to change out anything that was cracking or questionable, so I'm happy with where mine is now.
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Was not meant as a criticism and more for those in a similar situation. $200 was a bargain at todays shop rate. Also have been following your updates and will steal a few ideas for my resto.

[Dan in Pasadena]

hb32, We're good. Even if you HAD meant it as a critique I'd be fine with it; cause I agree! I got a bit burned by my own stupidity when I had my '46 rewired and didn't nail down a price in advance-dumb. It ate up my then pretty limited budget resulting in my doing very little to that truck for quite awhile. When someone came along and offered me good money for it I let it go. Kinda regret that buy it worked out cause a '55 big window is my dream truck. I just didn't want to make the same mistake twice!
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[hsdropout]

Those door panels look cool............better than original which was rather bland.
Did you get your light switch removed? Can I ask how?
I am still struggling with that darn thing..........'bout ready to break it!
Funny how I can get hung up on little things like that........duh.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Actually no I didn't but your timing is excellent. I was thinking about it on the long-ass commute into work this morning and it struck me what a friggin MORON I am! I have the new one in a box, why not take it out and study it and that will show me how to get the old one out, duh!

Thanks for the compliment. I went back and touched up where I'd messedi t up a bit pulling the masking off too soon and while at it I decided the inset dark green needs to be held back from the edge of the panel or it looks kinda weird with the light green/dark green edge showing at the "chrome" bullet points. It looks better (to me) withthe light green wrapping around the edge of the panel about 1/2". I'll post an update later.

[hb32]

If you are talking about the head light switch, pull to park light position, there is a button on the backside very top of the assy opposite to where the wires plug in, push it and pull the knob all the way out. Then turn the nut attaching the switch assy to the dash. May take a bit of fiddling to get it out.

[Daze57]

dats the way it comes out alright !

[LDO]

Yeah it takes a little wiggling as that release button has a sweet spot.

Once you figure it out, its a piece of cake.
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[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by hb32

If you are talking about the head light switch, pull to park light position, there is a button on the backside very top of the assy opposite to where the wires plug in, push it and pull the knob all the way out. Then turn the nut attaching the switch assy to the dash. May take a bit of fiddling to get it out.

Thank you VERY much. I'll still practice with the new switch so I can see what I'm doing for when I haveto do it blind behind the dash. This REALLY helps me a lot!

[hsdropout]

Yes, thank you very very much, I was wondering what that little (hard to see) button was for........knew there had to be a trick involved somehow.
Cab will finally be completely gutted now.
Not sure if that is a good thing or not.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Bit by bit Gentlemen, bit by bit.

Nothing too exciting to others:
Painted cab roof (no pic, boring anyway).
Touching up around engine compartment and inner fenders.

I got carried away (natch!) and took the hood off to sand the interior and paint. No pic yet, still more touching up to do.

Took the cruddy, nasty hood hinges off and spent an hour (so far) on the wire wheel cleaning 55 years of crud and rust off, then painted Rustoleum semi gloss black. Spring in chrome paint. Not sure I'll leave that but I was noodling around
Hood Hinge - BEFORE (Yuck)

Hood Hinge - AFTER

Painted the glove box door. Not too exciting but, "bit-by-bit"



Of course that happened because I got distracted from priming the exterior and went to the interior, then distracted back to the outside again
I guess it doesn't matter since it's my toy to play with any way I want.

Feel free to comment. I don't have a picture of it but painted the hood interior gloss black only because I already had it. Shoulda been smei gloss but I think the gloss will "die down" after awhile exposed to the heat. At least I'm telling myself that.

[FFredo]

Looking good Dan, Those little details will make the diff. I cant wait till I get to the paint stage. Heck I still dont know what color I'm picking, so you got me beat there.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Nah, I still don't know what color I'm doing either! I just went with a two tone green in the interior because I used green primer on the exterior. And I only used that because everybody uses light or dark gray or red oxide. It was a spur of the moment decision and to anyone else thinking of using it; it works fine but it doesn't cover nearly as well as the others so plan on using a lot more of it.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Updating this old thread just to complete the story on the instrument cluster refurb I did last year. I've been doing NOTHING on the truck for months and finally got back to it this weekend.

Here's a couple follow up shots from today to show I did get the cluster installed:


Others of the glove box - cheap cardboard liner but at least its new and fits. And of course the door with new bump stops.



After about 5 months sitting, the truck started right up and idled smoothly...well, NOT smoothly...it's got a rumpety-rump cam, despite the FRIGGIN RATS nest I found on the intake manifold!

[Kim57]

Looks good. You need to keep at it.
Kim