47-55.1 Long Time Coming......

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

I don't really have any fab skills. but I can learn. Wish me luck.

We learn to walk by falling down. Fabrication is no different. Every mistake teaches something, and I’m still learning every day.

[gsinon]

I brought the front fenders to work and today I was able to get them in the booth for a few coats of Evercoat Optex polyester primer. I will let these cure and shrink up until next week some time and then start blocking them.

[gsinon]

No pictures for this update. Just mild levels of frustration.

Time to move on to the hood. Before body work I need to apply some 3M flexible foam that will go between the inner brace and skin. What was once there has all dried out and fallen away over the years. The hood skin now moves considerably near the cowl. So doing filler work would be futile. I have has a new in the package tube of 3M 8463 for this purpose. On saturday I went out to the shop with the intention of applying the foam. Only to first realize how out of date it is. Ugh. I did put it in the applicator gun to see if it would still work, and nothing. One side of the two part is no good now, so only the black side comes out. Thankfully Amazon has it in stock and another $48 down the drain. This new tube should be arriving tomorrow, a couple days late due to the big snow storm we just had here in the northeast.

Not being able to do that I removed the front inner fenders to block them. Its been so long since I have worked on them I forgot that I only stripped them to bare metal and sprayed epoxy, I had never done the filler work where I did some fabrication around the new suspension. So I have now spent roughly ten hours doing just that. One is complete and the other about 70% there. Hoping to finash them both by weeks end, or over this coming weekend so Monday I can bring them to work and get them, sprayed with the Evercoat poly.

Things are moving, just feels like its taking forever. I have now topped 900 hours in this project. Officially I am at 907.5, but who's counting...... I am still on track to be painting by summer, and thats all that matters.

[Hey Dude]

I truely believe the "Patina" look originated from quality body men who knew very well how much labor is involved to make a true show vehicle. I can think of three cars I've done that the only difference between them and a typical paint job was an actual "add" of 200 hours of block sanding, then spraying black & cutting/buffing for the purpose of checking for slight waves, then block sanding again before the actual color was applied. Those of us who know how to block sand properly have a really hard time going back to "good enough for a driver"..... I feel your pain

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by Hey Dude

I truely believe the "Patina" look originated from quality body men who knew very well how much labor is involved to make a true show vehicle. I can think of three cars I've done that the only difference between them and a typical paint job was an actual "add" of 200 hours of block sanding, then spraying black & cutting/buffing for the purpose of checking for slight waves, then block sanding again before the actual color was applied. Those of us who know how to block sand properly have a really hard time going back to "good enough for a driver"..... I feel your pain

My dad drilled in me that good enough was never good enough, and at the same time, perfect is a myth.

I'm not building this for anyone elses satisfaction then mine. Love it or hate it when I'm done doesn't even enter my brain. Everything I am doing is what and how I want it. If others like it, then great. If not, then thats ok too.

I really do love the build process. Although at this point I can't wait for it to be in color and move on to things like wiring, interior and finally driving.

[nvrdone]

Lovin the work you have done on the truck.
2 Questions: did you shorten the stake pockets to match the bottom of the bed where the roll pan mounts?
Also, can you list the instagram contact for the tail light mounts.
Thanks.

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

Lovin the work you have done on the truck.
2 Questions: did you shorten the stake pockets to match the bottom of the bed where the roll pan mounts?
Also, can you list the instagram contact for the tail light mounts.
Thanks.

For the rear stake mounts, I marked then with a radius using a roll of tape from te outside edge to the bottom and ran a marker to make the curve. With that I just trimmed off the excess and then bent some metal to fill in the now exposed gap, and to continue to the bottom edge of the rear bed sill. Hope that makes sense.

The guys IG account is @Fenderbends. He makes nice stuff! I'm glad you like them. Its a funny thing, I justr happened to stumble upon a post where he had some he made on a truck all painted. It wasn't even a post saying that he produced them to sell, but I inquired asking if he would make another set and he gladly took care of me and made more.

[nvrdone]

Thanks much for the info and all the great ideas. I have no where the experience that you do but I'm lucky that I belong to a great club with a lot of talented guys. If I mess something up they will help me fix it.

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

Thanks much for the info and all the great ideas. I have no where the experience that you do but I'm lucky that I belong to a great club with a lot of talented guys. If I mess something up they will help me fix it.

Having a great group of like-minded guys is so helpful.

Locally we have a group ofter referred to as The Wednesday Night Guys. Definitely not a car club, but rather a group of guys that get together every Wednesday of the year unless it falls on Christmas. It has gotten smaller, but at one time upwards of 30 guys would show up. Sadly many have aged out or passed away. They have been doing this since the mid 70's! There is now roughly a dozen of us, and 8 that host. So it rotates through the 8 and then starts over again. We meet at our respective shops/garage or businesses. Its a wonderful thing and I look forward to it every week.

At 57, I'm the youngest by nearly a decade. These guys are all the local hot rod heroes that I grew up around with my dad.

Just a great group of ball busting car guys. Just don't call it a "car club" as that might piss one of them off. No rules, just show up and have fun.

[gsinon]

I spent 11 hours last weekend doing bodywork on my hood. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here it is waiting to go to the booth for poly prime. Just when I thought I was done I flipped it over to mask the underside so I don't get a ton of overspray on the bottom. Thats when I realized that the roughly 1.25" wide flat on the edge of the hood that rolls inward at the fender looked like crap and will toltally be seen with the hood open. So another couple hpurs fixing that and its all now done.




I ended up with the day off today due to some snow which gave me some unexpected shop time. I should have spent it doing final body work on the inner fender, but in all honesty I just wasn't into it. So instead I did some much needed clean up and then moved to some of the inetrior things that still needed to be addressed.

I have this pocket on the passenger cowl side that I decided to make a filler panel to use for mounting something. Not sure what yet, but I know this will end up being useful. I may end up putting the Bim modules in here for the efi and shifter if the wiring reaches. This also might be a good place for bus bars fr the wiring. Again, this is up in the air.


First I made a cardboard template... Then I transferred that to some metal I had on hand. In the end I didn't make it with the top and bottom cross pieces like the template. I don't see the need, also I left the top and bottom open to be able to run wires through it for the power windows and whatever made need to go up through the top.









I then fitted the passenger-side kick panel I have.





After I was done on that side I went over to the driver side. I now have the Holley Terminator X computer and harness to run my EFI. I had to figure out where to mount that in relation to the Painless wiring harness and the module for the Dakota Digital RTX gauges. This is what I came up with.



Technically, the ecu is upside down, but I mounted it this way so I can easily see the lights on the bottom edge to verify everything is working properly, or not.









I'm very happy with how thiings are working out here. There is so much to cram into a small area that it can make it hard to fit. I will use some rubber isolators in between the ecu and the metal body for vibration. Not sure how much it will help, but its worth a shot.


.

[8man]

Good planning and great work.

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by 8man

Good planning and great work.

Thank you. Having been around the hot rod world for what seems like my entire life, I found one thing to be true. The best time is spent planning for the end. Meaning things like taking the time to plan how the wiring modules and wire fuse block will mount. Spending this time prior to painting will make assembly far easier, with mostly no issues to deal with, and ultimately make for a better build overall. Time well spent.


Its been a few weeks now since I got the body work done on the hood as well as the newly made filler panel that goes between the rolled pan and bumper. I would love to have sprayed these a bit ago, but when loading the hood in my truck to bring to school I had to stop dead in my tracks. Seems the hood is too wide for my Toyota Tacoma bed! I knew I had the hood at school before so I figured this was how I did it. Once my memory kicked in I remembered that I had borrowed a friends 2500 GMC and slid it in his bed. Once I remember that all I had to do was ask to borrow his truck, but here is the tricky part...he was having some heart troubles and was in the hospital. While we talked every day the last thing I was going to to was ask to use his truck.

In any case, he is out and fine now. So he came over and helped me load the hood and we swapped trucks for the day so I could bring the hood to school.


Here it is today in three coats of Evercoat Optex poly primer.














Everything was looking good and I was feeling like progress was being made in a major way.....until I noticed the cracks! I'm shocked I had not seen them before at any time when I stripped the hood to bare metal, or sprayed the epoxy, or block sanded every inch of it as well as the filler work. How could I have missed them? Your guess is as good as mine. But here I am with two identical cracks on each front corner edge of the hood. Is this normal for these hoods, given that it's an original 51 hood?

So one step forward and two back. Now I will flip the hood over, grind down the areas, and weld the cracks, body filler, and reprise. All in only a few hours, but it sucks to go backwards no matter what.










And for the record, I am now at 926.3 hours in this project!


.

[Jason 56]

Can definitely relate to the one step forward and two back. In the end it will all be worth it. It’s what makes an excellent build stand out from a good build. I never kept track of my hours. I know it was a lot! You’re making great progress.

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by Jason 56

Can definitely relate to the one step forward and two back. In the end it will all be worth it. It’s what makes an excellent build stand out from a good build. I never kept track of my hours. I know it was a lot! You’re making great progress.

All of these projects have small steps forward and big steps back it seems, just par for the course as I have learned.


Because I do a fair amount of side work on hot rods for people I needed a good way to track my time that was better than using a pen and pad. I found this app called "Hours Tracker". With this, I can create a job, name it, give it an hourly rate. Then punch in and out to the minute. Give each time stamp a comment on what was done during that time period. I can also export it to an email that creates a bill for a customer.






Here is the job for my truck, I call Area51 with all time stamps so far. Now I obviously am not charging myself, but if I were paying someone to build this truck this is what it would co$t.






And here is an actual time stamp from last week. This shows punch in and out, hourly rate, and the note for what I did during that time.

[e015475]

Here is the job for my truck, I call Area51 with all time stamps so far. Now I obviously am not charging myself, but if I were paying someone to build this truck this is what it would co$t.

So you have almost 1000 hours in it? Any predictions on what the hours will be at completion?

I didn't keep any records, but I sat down a while ago and went through my build thread and estimated what I had in hard costs in my truck (then put the spreadsheet somewhere where my wife can't find it)

I did sub out some of the paint work and all the upholstery, so there was some paid labor in there.

I concluded that I'd be lucky to get the cash I'd spent back if I sold it and I'd basically donate my labor. I figure I have about 1500-2000 hours in it, but I'm not near as far down the paint/fab learning curve as you are. But I enjoyed every minute of it and it kept me out of the bars at night.

Nice work - and I do very much appreciate you documenting the nitty-gritty details

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by e015475

Here is the job for my truck, I call Area51 with all time stamps so far. Now I obviously am not charging myself, but if I were paying someone to build this truck this is what it would co$t.

So you have almost 1000 hours in it? Any predictions on what the hours will be at completion?

I didn't keep any records, but I sat down a while ago and went through my build thread and estimated what I had in hard costs in my truck (then put the spreadsheet somewhere where my wife can't find it)

I did sub out some of the paint work and all the upholstery, so there was some paid labor in there.

I concluded that I'd be lucky to get the cash I'd spent back if I sold it and I'd basically donate my labor. I figure I have about 1500-2000 hours in it, but I'm not near as far down the paint/fab learning curve as you are. But I enjoyed every minute of it and it kept me out of the bars at night.

Nice work - and I do very much appreciate you documenting the nitty-gritty details

Thanks for the comments. My time out in the shop fooling around on this is like one giant therapy session. I'm looking forward to finishing this one, but I do enjoy it.

I built a blue Ford Maverick that I showed for a few years 2018-2020 and had a little over 2000 hours in that. I won't post up pictures here, but if you Google my name, Glenn Sinon, you will very easily find them.

When I sold the Maverick, I was able to recoup the money I spent on parts and then some more. Basically, I built the car for far less than minimum wage. But I look at the fun I had building it, the three magazine features, car shows, TV show (interviewed on MY Classic Car with Dennis Gage), friends made, and so on. I'm ok with where I ended up.

I figure this truck will be in the 1500 range. I know I'll have at least 40 hours doing the final block sanding, painting it myself and between masking and spraying and all that is easily 25 hours, wet sanding and buffing will be roughly 60 hours. Wiring the entire truck is another 40+, plumbing fuel and brake lines, Assembling the truck, and so on. Man, just typing that out is exhausting.

Basically the only thing I farm out is the upholstery. My guy is ready for me, can't wait to see that come together. My hope and plan is that about a year from now the truck is running and driving and ready for the streets.

[gsinon]

So today is my 57th birthday, and as such, I spent only a couple of hours in the shop working on buttoning up a couple of things I had already started.


To go back to a previous post about finding ways to mount everything under the dash that needs to be put somewhere. I have these two modules from Dakota Digital. Once is for the gear selector interface that wires between the transmission and the gauges that will show what gear it is in, much as a new car does. The other one wires between the Holley Term X and the Dakota Digital module for the gauges I showed previously.




So I started thinking about all the dead space above the steering column support bracket I am using and thought that might be a good place for some things.




I had used some poster board material and made a quick mock-up of what I wanted, then transferred it to some sheet metal I have and made this.





I drilled out the mounting holes for the modules as well as two larger holes that will eventually get grommets installed and use them as a pass through for the wiring. Here are the two modules bolted in place.






I drilled mounting holes in the column support and tapped them to accept 1/4-20 screws. Here, the bracket is mounted.







And finally, here is the entire thing bolted in place inside the cab. I admit that at first glance it might seem odd to have them facing down, but my thought is that I need to have easy access to them at any point I need to be able to see them. If they were mounted on the top the only way to see them is if the gauges were removed, or with a mirror.

This also leaves the top of the bracket open for mounting something else if I see a need.






I hope you’re all enjoying this build thread. I’ve noticed it’s mostly the same four or five people commenting, which is totally fine—I’m not posting this to feed my ego. I’m really just trying to get a sense of whether the thread is useful or interesting to anyone beyond myself.

I also hope I’m not getting too far into the weeds with all the detailed photos and explanations. I was fortunate to grow up with a dad who taught me a lot, along with several mentors and friends I deeply respect who also shared their knowledge with me.

As I’ve said before, my main goal in this thread is to share ideas or techniques that might help others. Even if it’s just a small tip or a different way of doing something, it's worthwhile. And if people are here simply to enjoy following along with a build like this, I’m happy to provide that, too.

Have a great day,

Glenn

[Getter-Done]

Nice work

And Happy Birthday.

[caseyjones]

As someone working on one of these trucks I can say this is a very useful thread. I’ve referenced the chassis photos a few times and learned a few tricks for lining up front body panels. I’ve had to replace a bunch of rust and will soon be priming and painting so the info on those topics is useful too. Keep up the thread and the great work!

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by Getter-Done

Nice work

And Happy Birthday.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by caseyjones

As someone working on one of these trucks I can say this is a very useful thread. I’ve referenced the chassis photos a few times and learned a few tricks for lining up front body panels. I’ve had to replace a bunch of rust and will soon be priming and painting so the info on those topics is useful too. Keep up the thread and the great work!

Glad you have found the thread to be helpful, that is the point after all.

For any part of your priming/painting questions, please feel free to reach out. I am very knowledgeable on PPG products specifically, but processes are very important and not brand specific.

[nvrdone]

What started out to be a simple refresh on my '49 has now lead to many upgrades. So far I've followed your lead on rounding the bed stakes. The rear fenders are now at a friend's shop having some dents & cracks reworked. Also, we are installing tubs in the bed, but not your usual style. We are taking a pair of rear fenders and cutting them so they fit between the bed sides & the frame rails.
So right now, I'd like to know where you positioned your gas filler in the left fender. Some dimensions would really help. Thanks much.

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

What started out to be a simple refresh on my '49 has now lead to many upgrades. So far I've followed your lead on rounding the bed stakes. The rear fenders are now at a friend's shop having some dents & cracks reworked. Also, we are installing tubs in the bed, but not your usual style. We are taking a pair of rear fenders and cutting them so they fit between the bed sides & the frame rails.
So right now, I'd like to know where you positioned your gas filler in the left fender. Some dimensions would really help. Thanks much.

These projects do have a way of snowballing, don't they?

On my fuel filler, I made a template of the shape of it and moved it around in the area I knew it needed to be until I landed on a spot that fit well. I let that dictate the exact location.

Tonight I will go out and take some measurements and pictures of exactly where I put mine if that helps you. Stay tuned....

[gsinon]

Originally Posted by nvrdone

What started out to be a simple refresh on my '49 has now lead to many upgrades. So far I've followed your lead on rounding the bed stakes. The rear fenders are now at a friend's shop having some dents & cracks reworked. Also, we are installing tubs in the bed, but not your usual style. We are taking a pair of rear fenders and cutting them so they fit between the bed sides & the frame rails.
So right now, I'd like to know where you positioned your gas filler in the left fender. Some dimensions would really help. Thanks much.

Apologies for it taking so long for me to get you these measurements. I have had a crazy week, and today was the first time I have had to get out in the shop.

I hope these measurements and pictures are helpful. If you need any more specific measurements, please let me know.




The leading edge of the gas filler opening is 5-3/8" from the fender edge



Using the center line of the 3/4" tape, it is exactly 3" from the closest slotted fender bolt hole. You can also see that the tape runs right next to that indentation in the fender.






Using those measurements will get you to here for the filler tube/hose to get to the tank.





On another topic, I thought I would share a useful tip for reinstalling body panels after paint.

For years now, I have been drilling 1/8" alignment holes in a spot that is not very conspicuous. In the past I would use 1/8" drill pits to align the part while bolting things down. But not too long ago someone shared this tip, so I thought I would show you.

I bought this Mini Pick & Hook Set on sale at Harbor Freight. Made by Pittsburgh.




One already comes with a nice pointed tip, while the others are bent in some way.



So I cut the tips off of the other three...



And I used my bench grinder to sharpen the ends to a point.

Now I have a set of four with a handle to install and remove with ease.



And here in use....

[nvrdone]

Glen: I can so relate to your feeling on your truck. They are great therapy, but can get frustrating.
I've had mine since 1972. Lots of road trips, towing ski boats, camping with my kids, hauling landscaping material for 3 homes. etc. But when I retired 3 years ago, it was due for some much needed love. The plan is to get it into good enough shape so my wife and I can take some road trips. I also got involved in a large car club here and these guys have been a great help. The best thing is if I run into a problem, some one is allways available to help out.

[Hey Dude]

I hear ya, and happy belated birthday ( oh to be 57 again ). I also farm out the upholstery, and some of the internals of the automatic transmissions and the cam bearings and valve guides of my engines. Everything else I do on my own. I think minimum wage is a good goal.. allthough if I had to count my "thinking time"... I might be less than half of minimum wage...