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

[Chevy Apache]

That tin worm gets every we're don't know what I'm gonna find when I start mine.
Great progress

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by Chevy Apache

That tin worm gets every we're don't know what I'm gonna find when I start mine.
Great progress

Thanks Pete, you're absolutely right, here are a couple of unexpected ones, I couldn't find anyone who did repops and my local breakers didn't have any either

This bracket bolts to the top of the fender and actually looked great until I hit it with a wire brush,



nothing else for it, I had to make one.



The tin worm in the L bracket that holds the fender seal was a little easier to spot



had to make one of these too

Thing is they're not flat, but luckily for me the one part that hadn't completely disintergrated was the shaped part, which gave me something to use as a pattern.



Came out Ok in the end

[Chevy Apache]

I had the same with my rear fenders along the bottom edges,
I did fix them but there is some filler in them so didn't strip them all the way back until I rebuild the old girl fab work looks good i am sure I will be doing
Some of that lol

[65sub]

Nice job fabricating those parts Ian. Probably fit better than repops and cost you less

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by 65sub

Nice job fabricating those parts Ian. Probably fit better than repops and cost you less

Thanks Dale

Before I refit the fender I'll have to fit fresh seals. The original seals are stapled in place. I discovered that the factory staples have exactly the same pitch as T50 staples that you would use for upholstery DIT and the like. I don't have a staple gun man enough to punch through steel, but I had a cunning plan

I glued the new rubber seals to the steel mounting plates with a contact adhesive (I would not recomend this as it reacts with the paint ) Luckily it's hidden under the seal

Then using the original staple holes ran a 1/16" drill through the new rubber seal.



After that it was a simple job to push some new staples throught both steel and rubber and clench them over with a paralell punch.





Before and after

[ibrown50]

I could find a match for the original clips to mount the fender seal here in the UK so I used these "fir tree" clips.



Because they're a paralell clip you have to enlarge the holes on the seal bracket to the same size as the ones in the fender support (from 5/16" to 3/8")

They're a tight fit so you'll need a mallet to tap them in



And they're plastic so no rust issues

[ibrown50]

A quick progress update, (well probably about 4 updates back to back )

I have now finished the passenger side floor repairs so while painting the fender seal bracket I gave it a quick coat of body colour.



I trial fitted the fender which still fits well, before beginning the door repairs.



First job on the door was the rear corner, the blasting revealed a couple of holes but the door seams were good so I only removed the rusted area preserving as much of the original door (and door profile) as possible.

[ibrown50]

The front skin needed a small repair too





The front corner proved to be a little worse, with the rust extending into the hinge area and beyond the area covered by the repair panel.





I had a full door bottom but decided to only use a small section as the rest of the door bottom is in good shape.

[ibrown50]

I made the upper section which turned out ok.








The front skin needed a small repair too

[ibrown50]

The next job was the speaker hole, Don had given Rian a section from one of his old doors to use as a repair panel luckily for me (thank you gentlemen) the panel came with the door.



I have to say getting it lined up was just about the most “fiddly” job I’ve ever done





It’s still not finished but this is what it looks like at the moment,

[uk54]

Ian, I have to admire your skills and problem solving solutions when parts just are'nt available off the shelf

[Grizz1963]

Just taking my rear brakes apart. First time on the truck in a while.

That is a massive amount of time and progress Ian.

Well done.

I still have a hole to correct on my drivers door, and suspect I will find as much rust and damage to repair. I know my rear bed panel has up to 10mm of filler......

Really good to speak with you yesterday as well.

[Ta2Don]

Great work mate! Glad I could be a contributor even in a roundabout way...

[Chevy Apache]

Looking good Ian lots of progress dreading what I will find when I pull mine apart got some holes in the same places

[MacQuigley]

Nice work Ian. Your getting there.

Beginning to wish id done what your doing rather than take the easy way and reksin and whole bottoms. May have needed less filling and sanding!!!

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by uk54

Ian, I have to admire your skills and problem solving solutions when parts just are'nt available off the shelf

Thanks Michael, I still need to check out your new truck was planning a ride over with Paul sometime soon

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Just taking my rear brakes apart. First time on the truck in a while.

That is a massive amount of time and progress Ian.

Well done.

I still have a hole to correct on my drivers door, and suspect I will find as much rust and damage to repair. I know my rear bed panel has up to 10mm of filler......

Really good to speak with you yesterday as well.

Thanks Rian

Originally Posted by Ta2Don

Great work mate! Glad I could be a contributor even in a roundabout way...

Thanks Don and I've still got the section of door skin to fit too, stay tuned.........

Originally Posted by Chevy Apache

Looking good Ian lots of progress dreading what I will find when I pull mine apart got some holes in the same places

Thanks Pete, hopefully you won't find as much as I have, you would not believe some of the "repairs" I have found

Originally Posted by MacQuigley

Nice work Ian. Your getting there.

Beginning to wish id done what your doing rather than take the easy way and reksin and whole bottoms. May have needed less filling and sanding!!!

Thanks Bill, I still have a fair bit of filling and sanding to look forward too, I've tried all different sorts of filler and tools but it's hard work no matter what you do

[mjh1965]

Nice job on the doors Ian . The floor looks great . You'll have it back on the road soon at this rate .

[ibrown50]

The following post is definitely the most pictures for the least amount of time spent on a job I have posted so far

I am still doing repairs to the passenger door, one of the little jobs that needed doing was to replace the captive nuts that hold the inner door panel in place. A common fault on our trucks, some of the screws had rusted in place and had to be drilled out to remove the panel.



Now your probably thinking 1/4" x 20 unc captive nuts.... no big deal, well in Europe they are a lot less easily available than you may think, we're all metric over here .....(I blame the French it's all their fault )

This whole job took 20 minutes start to finish and was done with stuff I had lying around so cost $0.00.

I started with a piece of 1" x 1/4" flat stock marked at 3/8" and centre punched,



Drilled out to 0.2"



I then ground a step on each side (using a 24 grit disc) leaving a 3/8 raised section down the centre



and then cut it into 3/8 "strips"

[ibrown50]

these were then tapped to 1/4" x 20





I was originally going to spot weld these in place but decided JB Weld would do the job



A little dab on each end and "presto"





So 20 minutes later another job ticked of the list

[MacQuigley]

Got any Spares?

[Modges'66]

Very clever work!
a few of mine had twisted out on disassembly, but I only needed to run a tap through them & epoxy them back into place.
Ingenuity at its finest!

[Grizz1963]

Thanks for sharing Ian.

I had a few of mine self destruct, despite my most gentle effort

Will most certainly remember this post when I get to this point.

[ibrown50]

Originally Posted by MacQuigley

Got any Spares?

Not at the minute but I'm sure to be making some more how many do you need ?

Originally Posted by Modges'66

Very clever work!
a few of mine had twisted out on disassembly, but I only needed to run a tap through them & epoxy them back into place.
Ingenuity at its finest!

Thank you, living in England ingenuity often = $ saved

Originally Posted by Grizz1963

Thanks for sharing Ian.

I had a few of mine self destruct, despite my most gentle effort

Will most certainly remember this post when I get to this point.

Thanks Rian


Today I had a couple of hours of truck time, so decided to tackle something that’s been on my “to do” list for a while. It was one of those jobs that you know is just going to end up bigger than it looks. The truck had a few bubbles on the top of the passenger side B pillar, which turned out to be holes



Which turned out to be a bit of a “tin worm” infestation. Nothing else for it keep cutiing until you find good metal





I folded the inner piece first which was tacked




and then finish welded.

Welding under the gutter was tricky, I after ginding the weld to blend it into the gutter I found a couple of holes, access wearing my welding helmet was arkward so I ended finishing the welds using the position the torch, close your eyes, pull the trigger method. Please don't mix up the steps as I did once, you'll find position the torch, pull the trigger (forget to) close your eyes, will leave you blind for a good 10 minutes

[ibrown50]

Did the same for the outer piece, I include a few “spot weld” holes so that the finished repair will match,



I got it to here ………….and then ran out of gas

[65sub]

Looking good Ian. I love how a paint bubble ends up being a 2 inch hole by the time you find something to weld to