46 pickemup in NJ "the Rebuild"

[paintman]

Next up was the actual bracket that would be the mounting point for the belt. Again I would use this for additional structural support of the pillar extensions. So I cut another access hole through the inside of the door jam right above the center rib this would let the bracket sit directly on top of the rib and get welded to it as well.. This would again allow me to slide the bracket in from the front side and also give me a welding point to fasten it to the jam.
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Once I had the bracket in the hole I could tack it in place take it out and do the final welding of it.
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So the last thing I got done today was drilling all the holes for the plug welds.
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So to re-cap.....the pillar extension will get welded the full length along the seam of the factory pillar. Then it will get plug welded through all the holes I made in the factory pillar. Then I will weld all the ribbing and the bracket to the inside of the door jam. Overkill perhaps, but I don't think it will fold forward as easy. I guess in the event of an accident I will probably only be a vegetable instead of pushing up daisies!

[Cape Codder]

That looks good ,but the only thing I would do different is to do half inc stitch welds with half in gaps between the welds. I think it will actually be stronger as the welds will hold it in place and the unwelded areas will be stronger. When you weld sheet metal the weld is strong but it actually makes the metal next to the weld the weak point. The only place you will find a continuous weld in factory construction in a boxed frame section.

[paintman]

Originally Posted by Cape Codder

That looks good ,but the only thing I would do different is to do half inc stitch welds with half in gaps between the welds. I think it will actually be stronger as the welds will hold it in place and the unwelded areas will be stronger. When you weld sheet metal the weld is strong but it actually makes the metal next to the weld the weak point. The only place you will find a continuous weld in factory construction in a boxed frame section.

And that my friends is why the Paintman has absolutely no business building a Hot Rod........I had no idea!!! It's a good thing i ran out of welding gas yesterday, or else I would have boggered it all up. Thanks Codder!!!!

[solidaxel]

Excellent idea for the upper anchor for the belts.
As we found out after we had the seat installed in the 46 and siting behind the wheel, the upper belt was hitting my chin when seated in a driving position.
So the fix was to remove the window panel and re locate the upper anchor down a bit and more towards the rear window. The position of the belt is now in a better feeling spot across my shoulder. I love doing things twice!!!

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by paintman

Those plugs will be indicative of what this truck has had thrown at it in its past life as we will all go on to see in my future posts.None of this really bothered me all that much due to the fact once I had the nose off the truck the plan was to have the engine rebuilt anyway.

Now that the motor was out I could take a better look at how the Pacer front end was installed.

Other than being somewhat ugly it served its purpose to a point however, When I had the few opportunities to drive the truck, the steering wheel never wanted to come back straight by itself after going around a corner, indicating that there was some kind of alignment issue. Now remember this initially was just going to be a clean-up resto of sorts.
A couple of months after I bought the truck I had a chance to buy a complete rebuild kit for the Pacer front end on the cheap. So My first thought was rebuild it, align it, and the just drive the sucker. After more drinking and further consideration I realized I may have a more serious issue with the steering. Perhaps the whole front cross member was put in wrong the truck would never steer correctly even after the rebuild. so another decision had to be made.

Well you guessed it.. After measuring, measuring some more, and then marking the center line of the wheel hubs on the frame, it was out with the old ......



And in with the new with a call to Scottshotrods.com

What size front tires and wheels are you running?

What is your track width on the front?

How much clearance from the tire to the bar did you end up with the new offset sway bar?

How does your front tires set under the fender, could you have used a wider track front end (A-arms)?

Thanks

[Cape Codder]

If the steering doesn't return you need to add more caster to the front end.It will also cause the truck to try to wander instead of running straight. If you had moved the upper ball joint to the rear with either adjustment or tilting the front clip to the rear it would correct it. I think replacing the pacer clip is a good idea if for no other reason I would worry about availability of parts for that old rack. It doesn't look like the p.o spent a lot of time making it look like it belonged there.

[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by Cape Codder

If the steering doesn't return you need to add more caster to the front end.It will also cause the truck to try to wander instead of running straight. If you had moved the upper ball joint to the rear with either adjustment or tilting the front clip to the rear it would correct it. I think replacing the pacer clip is a good idea if for no other reason I would worry about availability of parts for that old rack. It doesn't look like the p.o spent a lot of time making it look like it belonged there.

Thanks Cape Codder but I am having some clearance problems, we are not on the road yet!

[paintman]

Wow been a lounge time since i updated! I kind of got help up back in February. We had so much snow piled up (from the 14 times we got our driveway plowed this winter), that every day the snow would melt, run under the side door to the garage, and then freeze over night. I had a 2 inch thick slab of ice covering the entire garage floor. In fact it was so bad, the dolley that my cab is on was frozen fast to the floor so I couldn't move it.

The only good thing that come about from the terrible winter was that I could spend some much needed time on my other hobby (see post 77). I tell ya if you ever have the desire to spend money chasing gremlins and hot rods just ain't doing it for you.....buy a salt water reef tank, UGH!

Anyways I digress, When I last posted I was working on the seat belts. Well I got that all squared away and I have to say turned out better then expected. Next up, now that the weather is better here in Nj was the bottom of the cab. I decided to get the old girl down off the dolley and give the bottom a good scraping and undercoating. After about 6 hours of scraping, wire brushing, sanding, cleaning, and of course drinking.....I had the bottom ready to go. Of course as you can see somebody has worked on the underside previous to me.
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I gave the ole girl 2 good coats of this stuff along with the inside of the rocker panels
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Looks pretty good or at least better then it did......
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[paintman]

So now at this point I figured it was getting close to a time when I would have to decide if I was going to repaint the truck or not. My options were.........

1. Just hit the repaired portion of the back of the cab with red oxide and throw it back together as is and look past all the other problems it has.

2. Just scuff the whole truck and repaint entirely with another coat of red oxide primer.

3. Address the issues that all the previous owners neglected to do, strip, prime, and paint.

So seeing as how I am starting to get really burned out messing with this truck, (remember I only bought it hoping to have something to tinker with on the weekends), I decided to just scuff the whole truck and give it another shot of primer and call it done. However, that was until my good buddy came over and started to poke around a little more and started to find some stuff that just couldn't be left un-repaired.

Soooooooo 2 weeks and about $500 later here is where I am at. I must have removed about 75 Lbs. of body filler. In some spots were it was needed it was about 1" deep. In the spots were it wasn't needed it was only 1/2" deep

[truckeez]

anybody know if there is 1 piece windshields for the 39-47 like there are for the advanced design trucks?

[paintman]

So after removing the 75 Lbs. of $&%# from all the other hacks, my buddy and I addressed the issues as best we could and proceeded to put only about 10 Lbs. of putty back on.
This is a pic of the back of the cab after we did the re-inforcing of the back panel. who ever did the original body work completely puttied in the style line across the back so we ground it back out.
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Upon closer review, we discovered what we thought was the paint bubbling up on the top of the cab, so we started to grind away only to find surface rust under the original coat of filler. Ground off the top of the cab and cleaned off all the rust.
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Re-worked the doors, I won't even begin to tell you what kind of a mess we found under the filler on these.
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Sanded and sanded and sanded until me, the wife, my 2 daughters, and Mr. Magoo had dust in places we didn't know we had
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I have another day or so of sanding and cleaning up the cab and then it will be ready for primer. In the meantime, I am going to hop on my 4 wheeler and go on a beer run for me and Goo Be Doo
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[solidaxel]

Originally Posted by truckeez

anybody know if there is 1 piece windshields for the 39-47 like there are for the advanced design trucks?

We had a 2 piece made with a "V" butt in the center without the chrome center strip

[old yelr]

I have seen the one piece windshields on ebay for 1939-46 trucks before so I know that they exist. I was going to get one for my truck but I waited too long and they sold them out. I wish I could remember what the name of the company was.

[paintman]

Originally Posted by old yelr

I have seen the one piece windshields on ebay for 1939-46 trucks before so I know that they exist. I was going to get one for my truck but I waited too long and they sold them out. I wish I could remember what the name of the company was.

1 piece windshield for 46 truck scroll about 1/2 way down and shell out 400 clams!

[paintman]

Originally Posted by paintman

1 piece windshield for 46 truck scroll about 1/2 way down and shell out 400 clams!

sorry http://www.belairautoparts.com/newdesign/33-48parts.htm

[old yelr]

Yeah, they aren't cheap! I thinks that's why I waited too long!! Gave me an excuse not to buy one

[paintman]

pretty self explanatory here......2k primer........
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I think it turned out 1000% better then expected. Not perfect but far better then that 1/2 azzed band aid I had n the back of the cab.
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[Cape Codder]

Looks great ,nice work. Now what color are we going for?

[CHIZZLER]

Looking good. Any colors picked yet?

[paintman]

Originally Posted by CHIZZLER

Looking good. Any colors picked yet?

Hood, grille, and top of the truck from the belt line up is going to be copper orange. And the bottom will either be satin black, cream, or blue.

[paintman]

this is what I am shooting [/URL]

[Oldchevypickup]

That will look awesome.
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[Oldchevypickup]

Originally Posted by Oldchevypickup

That will look awesome.
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I kind of did the opposite.
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[CHIZZLER]

I really dig your color choices. Black is always going to be my favorite but another color would be nice to see. Great progress.

[paintman]

Anybody know what the hell the 2 holes next to my door handle holes are for??? I have looked a a ton of other 46's, and none of them have these holes. They almost look like they are for another trim piece that would snap in place around the door handle???
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