'46 Chevy Shorty

[BlackJohn]

Originally Posted by Tango

Simply outstanding! --- Gotta love that old school elegance.


Been a long past few weeks. Getting the damned latex paint off this beast is wearing me out. Amazing how tiring 6 straight hours of hefting a 7" grinder at arms length can get. But...I am getting close to wrapping this phase up. One of the surprise hassles has been picking up crinkly wires thrown off the grinder. They are all over my shop. Forty feet from where I am working. And then there is the time spent pulling them out of my gloves, clothes and butt. Yes, butt. I was in bed a couple of days ago and just about asleep when I rolled over and one that I didn't even feel (until then), snagged on the sheets and brought me back to consciousness. Abruptly. I couldn't even pull it out with my fingers. I had to get a pair of pliers. That sucker was 1/2" deep!


And yes...I am wearing a hard plastic face shield and long gloves...but...they seem to find a way in no matter what.


Good thing I am getting close to finishing up. This part of the build has NOT been fun.

Boy, I feel for you doing all that grinding, can't imagine in that heat. You must be from good stock, and keep eating your spinach, good for the muskles....Good to see you are nearly there to that end.



John

[Tango]

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement John. I am getting closer but still have not figured out just how to wrap up the centerline part of the roof. Looking to borrow/beg some scaffolding right now.

[CHUCK4850]

Originally Posted by Tango

Spent much of the day cleaning gutters --- The ones on my bus, that is. They are actually part of a structural element that is about 3/16" thick and run from the front all the way to the rear. I will be welding some roof rack brackets to them and needed to clean them up. Like everything else, they were encased in a quarter inch of crappy, peeling, latex house paint. I discovered that wire wheels work much better than sandpaper, flap disks or stripping pads as they all get gunked up quickly with that type of paint. I also discovered that wire wheels and skin are a bad mix, but that's another story. After two days of holding a 7" grinder out at arms' length...I am sore. Pumped up...but sore.



Still some touch up to do, but got this far on both sides. In the process discovered that some genius had filled some of the body gaps with Bondo. Genius because they had done the lower edge...but not the upper. Seems that went out of their way to capture and hold water there for some reason (?). After much ado, the Bondo is gone and I will rust treat the metal then apply seam sealer to both top & bottom.


Also got the rest of my glass today.



The wing vent...now with real, see through glass.
The roll up driver window is here but I am waiting to install it. Want to get some other stuff in place first.





ONWARD!

Is this a new vent window rubber seal, or did you just get lucky after you stripped the paint off of the original? It looks great, and I need them for the 2 1948 Wayne buses I'm restoring now.
Chuck

[Tango]

Howdy Chuck --- The vent window seal is original. Since it is a part made by Wayne and not Chevy, there is no way I could hope to get a replacement. And the custom glass guy I worked with said there was also no way he could fab one.


Mine had several, thick coats of latex paint over it and at first I was hesitant to try and strip it. All the paint strippers I have found specifically state to "avoid contact with rubber". But I tested it on a small area and managed to clean it up without destroying it. Worked slowly on small areas, did not leave it on for very long, and used a stiff plastic toothbrush to get the paint loose. Did a final wipedown with paint thinner, then applied several passes of a "rubber restorer" type product. It may well be that the crappy latex actually protected it a bit. The only other option offered by the glass man was to fab a new, non-opening frame and glue the glass in place.



Best of luck on yours.


BTW...not sure if they are the same, but I do now have a pair of the quarter-moon rear windows. They are the originals that we took out to make patterns. They should fit the '42 through early '47's. (?)

[CHUCK4850]

That's what I suspected. I have one that's decent enough to pull a mold off of, so I'll probably cast my own new ones. I'll have to do some research on what modern product will cure similar to rubber. I'm also going to have the extrusions made for the rubbers on the doors, and around the inside of the rear windows.

Chuck

[Tango]

Chuck --- Is anyone "3D printing" rubber or something similar? Just a thought. Might be a Godsend for replicating some of these long lost old parts.


Meanwhile...back at the ranch house...


Only have that pesky center section of the roof left to strip but still a bit boggled on how to go about it. Did more Bondo work today. This time on the front of the roof. Looks to have been an old marker light location (?). There was one of the same on each corner of the bus. Who knows?



Not too concerned with "feathering" these out. They will all wind up under a heavy coat of roof sealant type material.


Then there is this...



A mystery tool. I made this today. Can you guess it's purpose?


A free, one year membership to Skoolie.net for the correct answer. It measures 6" long X 2" at the widest point and is 14 ga. steel.





ONWARD!

[CHUCK4850]

Not that I have heard. There are really nice mold making materials available, though.
Chuck

[Ronnie]

It looks like the base for a marker light. But since you said tool, maybe for glass work? Or shaping bondo, wrap the sand paper around it.

[Ronnie]

My wife thinks body work tool also

[plfking]

Originally Posted by Tango

A mystery tool. I made this today. Can you guess it's purpose?


A free, one year membership to Skoolie.net for the correct answer. It measures 6" long X 2" at the widest point and is 14 ga. steel.





ONWARD!

A pry tool for stubborn rubber gaskets?

A shoehorn for your exceptionally large feet?

(...I could really use the free membership....these annual dues are killing me....).

[Mark_In_MA]

Aluminum snowshoe?

[Tango]

Ronnie was closest.


It is a template for cutting out replacement marker light gaskets.


Tried just cutting them out with scissors, but they have to be quite precise and I need seven of them. Mine are all crumbly and since they are no longer available, this seemed to be a reasonable approach. This doodad and an Exacto knife worked like a champ.




The inner cutouts were not demanding, but the outer profile had to be pretty much dead on and consistent.


But...when done with this...I just may keep it to shape some Bondo!





ONWARD!

[Tango]

Missed a few days working on the bus due the City screwing up an electrical permit for my studios..but, the lights are on again and I got back to work today.



Getting the bits and pieces together for the deck mounts. Turns out, getting holes through square tube that line up properly can be tricky so I made a template/guide from some C-channel. Helped a bunch. Also used it to size the length.



Only the quarter-inch baseplate will get welded to the bus. I am intentionally creating a "weak line" via the nuts & bolts on the light gauge tube so that anything snags or bangs into the deck, it will (hopefully) give way at that point rather than ripping the roof off the bus. Plenty of strength in compression though.




Checking alignment and getting a measure across the top.


And...I am getting close to wrapping up the #@$%&# paint removal!!!



Just a little more on the cowl. Did find more lead and Bondo on the other side (of course). Also found a crack in the metal so I drilled some holes at the ends then laid a bead down over it all with my welder.


With any luck, my hydraulics guy will be back in town soon and we can wrap up the tranny, oil cooler and brakes.








ONWARD!

[BlackJohn]

Did you use a drill press or hand bomb those bracket holes Tango?
Looking good! Did you get at the roof yet for cleaning with the wirewheel?

Looks like a strong platform but I would still never let Marc behind that wheel. He would definitely prove the shear strength of the bolted pieces,


John

[ol trunt]

Could you use nylon bolts with lock nuts to secure the light gauge tubing? I think even 1/4x20 bolts (maybe 3/8") would be enough to hold the deck load--and they certainly would shear off at a road speed hit. Jack

[Tango]

BJ --- I have a small press, but I found that it was necessary to lock the tubes down securely and have a guide at the same time. Otherwise...the holes were fine on the up side but misaligned on the other. Still need to rig something to reach the center of the roof. The "unique" metal Wayne employed during WWII will NOT stand up to any foot traffic. Heck...the weight of my 7" grinder was enough to cause depressions. I call the alloy "Leadnesium".



Jack --- Don't know how nylon would hold up out in the weather over time. I am relying on (hoping for) the 16 ga. tube folding where it is drilled if it gets whacked. Should be fine for any low speed encounter. If I hit something solid at 65...well, there will probably be other issues to worry about.

[Tango]

Getting closer --- Finished scouring off the old latex on the cowl today. The only old paint left is down the middle of the roof. May have to rent some scaffolding to get at it.



Beginning to look a little more civilized.






ONWARD!

[GuidoLyons]

Hey Don give me a call if you need an extra set of hands with the roof rack fab.

[Tango]

Thanks Guido --- Just went and looked at commercial scaffolding today. Can rent a nifty wheeled set up for 28 days for a couple of hundred bucks. At first I thought I'd stack all the pieces on the roof of my 4Runner...then I saw the weight. 1080 pounds!


Maybe not.



First need to find someone with a trailer...then a couple of spare hands to assemble and erect the damned thing. So I just may take you up on it pardner.

[cadillackid]

what gasket material are you using for your marker lights? i need to make some of those myself..



also need to find some high temp gasket material so i can make a new compressor gasket on my Superior
-Christopher