1959 short Fleetside Apache AKA "Henry"

[Kim57]

The doors are a pain.
Looks good.
Kim

[CMACDONALD1]

Yeah those doors are a pain and the passenger side is worse than the drivers side. Oh well its just time and I don't mind.

[CMACDONALD1]

Finally have the doors looking decent as far as the gaps are concerned. Next step is to take them back off and get the body work done inside and out.

[CMACDONALD1]

Not sure why my pictures showed up sideways but it gives you an idea of the gaps anyhow.

[Kim57]

Gaps look real good.
Kim

[CMACDONALD1]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Gaps look real good.
Kim

Thanks Kim!

[Advanced Design]

Really nice job on the gaps. Someone that doesn't do this type of work will never understand the time and attention it takes to make it right.

[CMACDONALD1]

Thanks AD! Patience goes a long way when you are working on this kind of stuff. It is really easy to talk yourself out of the details but its the details that really stand out when you are done. My intention with this truck is to make a really nice cruiser that I drive all the time. I would sure love to have the old truck back on the road soon.

[Coupeguy2001]

I have a couple friends with 58 and 59 trucks.
They look at my 57, and cant believe nobody did anything with my door gaps from original.

That brought us to a discussion of maybe the stamping dies were getting worn out for the last two years of task force production.
One friend had bought a couple doors from a 55 for parts, with some rust on the bottoms.
We three mounted the 55 doors on the 59 cab , and they lined up pretty well. much better than the original doors.

This led us to conclude that the stampings for the cabs were less stressful on the smaller pieces of metal that it took to make up a cab versus the larger piece of metal used to stamp a door, and fold the edges over when completing a door skin back then., since changing doors fixed the gaps.

One friend surmised that maybe the machines used to fold over the door front edge may have been damaged either in moving, or wear. Maybe, if new refabricated dies for the last two years was reversed engineered,( because the 55-56-57 years wore out the early dies) and when they made the new ones for 58 & 59 years, the heavy production schedules dictated rushing the dies, and the curves weren't measured and made correctly, causing a host of extremely bad door gaps in the 58 and 59.
This also suggests that some of the factories producing large numbers of doors near the assembly plants made new dies, and that factories that had a lower number of door units pushed through those factories may have produced all their doors on the original dies. This may account for doors that are close, but not within acceptable standards for today.


So to recap, there may have been a second set of stamping dies that were way off, and some factories just used worn dies, knowing that in 1960, they were going to throw away all the 55-59 dies anyway.

[RockinKees]

Nice work on the gaps!
It's looking real good!

[CMACDONALD1]

You may have a point there with the dies for sure. I'm not even sure these doors were originally on this cab so that may be a factor as well. I was originally going to put repop doors on but decided the original doors with a little work would be the way to go for this project. Gaps are all repaired now and time for body work. Getting a little closer every day.

[CMACDONALD1]

Originally Posted by RockinKees

Nice work on the gaps!
It's looking real good!

Thanks Kees!

[CMACDONALD1]

Did a few hours of body work today on the passenger door.

[Kim57]

Looks good.
Kim

[CMACDONALD1]

Well back from holidays and time to get back on this truck. I was able to get the doors in primer before we left. I feel it is always good to leave stuff in primer for a while before blocking so it has time to really cure and shrink a little. Sprayed some guide coat on and was able to get the doors hood and inner wheel tubs blocked.

[ChuckDriver]

Looks nice!

[CMACDONALD1]

Thanks ChuckDriver!

[Ratpin]

Nice work! Cant wait to see it finished. Keeping it red?

[CMACDONALD1]

Thanks ratpin! Yeah I'am going to paint it red. It's been sitting idle for a few weeks. I need to get working on it again here soon. Between summer holidays and getting kids settled back into school routine I have not been able to devote much time to the old truck.

[CMACDONALD1]

Geez its been a while but I really need to get some progress on this old truck! I have been playing with a couple other trucks but now its time to get going on this thing again.

[CMACDONALD1]

These are the trucks that have ate up most of my time lately. The 54 has been sold to a good home and the 86 I had to do a few little things to it but nothing major.

[Advanced Design]

Both good looking trucks! Your garage has a good look too. The gas pump and oil dispenser are nice accents.

[CMACDONALD1]

Thanks AD! I tried to make the garage look old when I built it a few years ago and Love anything gas station related.

[RockinKees]

Good to hear you're back on it!
And I'm with Doug, the garage looks like a Museum!
Nice!!

[CMACDONALD1]

Thanks Kees!