'55 International Metal/Body/Paint Work

[flashed]

One of your posts above you say you are not very good at painting but I completely Disagree with you on that as it looks great to me .I cant wait to see this beauty finished ,what craftsmanship you have put into this truck .I wish I had your talents .

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by flashed

One of your posts above you say you are not very good at painting but I completely Disagree with you on that as it looks great to me .I cant wait to see this beauty finished ,what craftsmanship you have put into this truck .I wish I had your talents .

Thanks flashed! But go back and look at that first pic of the wet sanding pics, it really shows how bad the surface of the paint was before sanding and buffing. There's a big difference between being able to spray paint and being able to cut and buff!
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[plainred65]

Great progress, really enjoy reading about your in depth tips. I did collision at one point, but never got into this type of detail. Thanks for the lessons. Fantastic!

[chevyrestoguy]

John, I'm speechless. It looks amazing!!

[72BlckButy]

Amazing work and attention to detail.

[cAlvis165]

Wow! You've done a beautiful job on this truck. Thanks for taking the time to explain all your steps and capture them with pictures.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by plainred65

Great progress, really enjoy reading about your in depth tips. I did collision at one point, but never got into this type of detail. Thanks for the lessons. Fantastic!

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

John, I'm speechless. It looks amazing!!

Originally Posted by 72BlckButy

Amazing work and attention to detail.

Originally Posted by cAlvis165

Wow! You've done a beautiful job on this truck. Thanks for taking the time to explain all your steps and capture them with pictures.

Thanks dudes! I appreciate yall following the progress and commenting!


To finish the cab I undercoated it and stuck the dash back in before the owner brought the frame over. We mounted the cab and he hauled it back to a shop at his friends place.




I masked the top of the dash and shot gloss clear over it, then wetsanded and buffed it before installing the dash panel with new stainless screws. I also installed the glove box and radio delete plate. The delete plate was originally held in with spring loaded clips and I was able to find new clips and paint them to match.








With the doors painted I bought new stainless hardware to bolt up the door components.








Sound deadener was applied to the inside of the door skin and the bolt on panel.

[theastronaut]

Before sending the cab home I mixed up a batch of cavity wax and soaked the cab corners and front kick panel pockets a couple times to seal the metal and seams from the inside out.

I used a gallon of mineral spirits, two pounds of paraffin wax, and a quart of thin sewing machine oil. I grated the wax so it would dissolve faster.










I tested this stuff on a piece of bare metal and it held up pretty good out in the weather so it should do great in a cavity.



Water beading up on the treated side.





To apply it I used a cheap $10 buck weed sprayer which had a decent wide/fan pattern, and soaked each area a couple times until I felt like I had completely coated the inner panels. I kept a bucket under the drains since it was running out the bottom.

[theastronaut]

Didn't realize it had been so long since I updated this thread. Photobucket it uploading (well, supposed to be...) about 175 pictures of metalwork on the bed. I'll start posting them once they're up.


Here's a few straight from facebook until photobucket finishes the import.

[duallyjams]

oooooooh that's ruff

[flashed]

Cant wait to see more impressive improvements .

[67ChevyRedneck]

I NEVER noticed your location before... your right down the road from me!

The cab and clip came out incredible!

[plainred65]

Glad to see you're back at it, looks like that bed led a hard life. Any idea of the history of the truck?

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

oooooooh that's ruff

Not the best of shape, that's for sure. I call it job security.

Originally Posted by flashed

Cant wait to see more impressive improvements .

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

I NEVER noticed your location before... your right down the road from me!

The cab and clip came out incredible!

Not far away at all, and thanks!

Originally Posted by plainred65

Glad to see you're back at it, looks like that bed led a hard life. Any idea of the history of the truck?

They used it on their farm, I do know they hauled gravel in it at times.

[theastronaut]

So here's how it looked when it was delivered to me. It originally had a steel floor that was spot welded in. They had welded another floor on top of that one. When they started the restoration they cut the old floors out, leaving the flange from the original floor and the welds from the new floor. They also cut through the bed sides, leaving huge gashes. Rust had eaten through a few spots around the flange area. You can also see just how much the fenderwells were bulged out above the bed floor flange- it's had a very hard life!

[theastronaut]

The first thing I started on was separating the old bed floor flange from the bed sides by drilling the spot welds. Also had to grind down the old welds from the replacement bed floor. The left rear corner was just about the only spot that I didn't have to completely cut out and remake, more on that later. The rust that was under the flange was sandblasted.






Easier to see the old bed floor flange, and the welds and edges of the replacement floor here. It's an 8' bed so there was 16 feet of this to fix. This was the easiest spot, the rest had to be completely cut out and replaced.









Cleaned up the body line on the outside of the panel.

[theastronaut]

The top rail of the left bedside was badly kinked. I had to cut the area out and use a porta-power to straighten it.






Damage cut out to relieve the tension.







I over-straightened the rail, knowing the metal has "memory" and spring back some once I removed pressure from the porta-power.

[duallyjams]

You got skills but you already know that.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

You got skills but you already know that.

Thanks James!



Here's more of the deconstruction. I drilled out the spot welds and removed the rear cross brace, then welded 1"x1" tubing with turnbuckles welded in the middle to adjust the width.









Drilled out the welds and removed the front header panel. I didn't have to do anything to the bottom, the rust had separated it already!







It has a side mount spare tire and the reinforcing plate had rusted through.

[theastronaut]

The lower edges of the fenderwells were trashed so I cut them out and made new pieces to weld in. On the driver side, I cut the whole fenderwell out since it needed alot of straightening and welding a whole new piece in wouldn't be that much more welding.






Cut a new piece of metal and bent the bottom edge 90 degrees like the original.




Clamped it in place then scribed the cut line. I like to scribe the line instead of using a marker since the scribe is more accurate.




Trimmed and fitted, ready for welding.






Welds ground down inside and out.

[theastronaut]

The other side wasn't as bad so I just replaced the bottom.






Same process- new piece cut, edge scribed, trimmed and fitted.












There were alot of dents in the fenderwells too so I straightened those out.








After straightening.

[cayoterun]

Great work!!!

Are you a body man, or metal worker by trade? Maybe a tech. school teacher?

Cayoterun

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by cayoterun

Great work!!!

Are you a body man, or metal worker by trade? Maybe a tech. school teacher?

Cayoterun

Thanks cayoterun, I went to Greenville Tech and took Autobody Repair my first year and Street Rod Fab my second. I work and my dad's shop, working on the International on my own, and other jobs he takes in as well. I'm currently helping them with an underhood restoration of a '70 El Camino SS 396/325hp. We have it torn down, the firewall and frame repainted, and are starting to detail and reassemble everything.

[theastronaut]

Both rear corners were mangled and the welded in nuts for the tailgate hinges were rusted and cross threaded.





Blasted and straightened, and new stainless nuts welded in place.




Inside channel blasted and sprayed with weld-thru primer, ready to weld back in.








Welded in and welds ground down.

[theastronaut]

Right side corner repair.