chassis almost there!

It warmed up enough to finish sanding the body filler and get a few coats of polyester primer on top of the frame. You can really see the how ruff it was before I started.  Now I will do a little finish sanding and if the weather holds up I will paint the chassis red. I plan to get the rear end over to my house and clean it up for paint. I was going to have it sand blasted but with all the rain and cold weather it will be hard to keep it from rusting before I can get paint on it. I might wait till spring to finish the rear end. But I get impatient and want to keep things moving. So in the next few weeks I will decide what to do. So soon I will have to start sorting all my chassis and brake parts to get prepped to paint. I also found a set of 1933 license plates at a flea market in Illinois called the pink elephant.

creating dust!

 I have been working on getting the chassis all strait and smooth for paint. I have been using filler on top of the Epoxy to level out all the pits in the top of the frame and a few dings. I know this is a little more work but I think it will pay off in the long run in looks and keeping it from gathering water on the top of the frame. My kids came out to help me sand on the frame too. Soon I will take the front wheels and hubs down to Hoods Machine to have them turned for new bearings. I don't want to do this but the original bearing size is hard to find or gone. So the easiest way to solve the problem is widen the hub by .075 to fit a slightly bigger race. With that done the bearings will be on the shelf at most parts stores.

So I have got my frame back from Owens sand blasting in Lebanon Mo. Every thing look great. So I got it home put it in the shop and what does it do, start raining! I rearranged the shop and put up plastic spay booth. So after a few days of rain it cleared up enough to get epoxy on the frame. Now I am going to put a skim coat of body filler on the frame and slick it up a bit. I also got started on my blasting cabinet. I cut a 55gal drum long ways in half. And I am working on how to finish it out.

Frame Work

 I bought rivets to reinstall the front leaf spring hangers. And made a rivet hammer. After the brackets were reinstalled, I took the frame to the sand blasters. I will have it back next week and will start painting it next week. I am going build a paint booth for the frame in my dad's shop. I took the front end completely apart took the spindles off, and the brakes apart. We had a little trouble taking the rear u-bolts off the New Mexico truck. No! they were not rusted the had been put on tight!!. So with the help of my Dad and 6ft cheater bar we managed to remove them with out braking any thing. I also found a place to buy cut to fit rubber to replace my motor and transmission mounts. The mounts are really simple all 1/4inch sheet rubber. So here soon looks like I will be painting the frame and getting it ready to put the motor back in. I got an 55gal drum to build my self a sand blasting cabinet. So I will also post how I build my blast cabinet too. I am going to sand blast all the small stuff my self and save a little money and give me a lot to do this winter. I have plenty of things to keep me busy for a while. Just not as much fun as I had rebuilding the engine and trans. I am also in the process of looking for a company to rebuild the brake cables. I have been told about a place in Massachusetts which is fine, but I was going to try and find something more local.

Framed!

Out with the old in with the older. My father and me moved the Texas frame out of the shop and on to the trailer to take to the sand blaster. Okay why take the Texas frame to the sand blaster? Well after a whole lot of debating, milling over and a sleepless night or two. The original frame for Granddaddy's truck had the last two feet cut off to fit the well drill on, and because of the cutting of the frame it weakened it enough to crack the supports and the frame in places. The second problem is the cab lists the chassis as 160 inches but Granddaddy's is the shorter 136 inch chassis. The Texas frame will put it back to the original 160 inch chassis, witch will make the build plate match the truck. I was really worried about the cost of fixing it correctly, and making it structurally sound as opposed to using the alternate frame. I put Granddaddy's truck in to the garage to take off every thing I need to fix the Texas frame, brackets for the finders, and other brake parts. So now I have to order new rivets for the brackets I have taken off, and make a rivet hammer to put them back on. I have found most of the bearings for the rear end so hopefully it will not take me too long to put it back together. I am going to send the rear end and front axle to be sand blasted too. I would have sandblasted these on my own, but my father offered to help, and did not want the mess in the yard.  We have a local blaster that is well experienced and is priced well. I hope to get this all done in time to get it painted while it is still warm.

Well transmission is done. I primed it on a Tuesday night and painted it on Thursday and added a little stainless to dress it up a little. I also took the differential apart and got all of the bearings lined out, so next week I will start rebuilding it. Then the only thing left is the front hubs and brakes. And I have a running and rolling chassis. Ohhh yeah!!! Can't wait to get the chassis done so I can put the motor back in!!

Chassis coming along

I finished cleaning off the frame, and started cutting off broken brackets and hangers. I pulled Granddaddy's truck under the covered side of the garage to start cleaning off the frame on it. I pulled off the front bumper brackets/leaf spring hanger and came up with one good one and one half good one. I the half good one is all there but has a broken tabs for the front bumper. So I took them to Hoods machine in Bolivar Mo. to see if they could weld it back together for me. I talked to Hoods and we are going to try to come up some 3/8s rivets to replace the old ones. I have several holes that were drilled in the old frame to weld up before sand blasting. I have one step hanger I have to swap from one truck to the other, then I can start putting the frame together. I started taking apart the rear diff and found out the rear bearings are easy to get. So soon I will have the transmission and the rear end all rebuilt and ready to go much quicker than thought. (hopefully) I had to get a new socket for the rear end its only a 3 1/4in  nut. While taking the wheels off I got a small surprise, a hand full of dead scorpions.

deconstructing truck #2

I got a wild hire and worked all night the other night. I completely emptied the frame of my other truck. I pulled the cowling off first then just kept going. By one in the morning I had the engine, clutch housing and the transmission pulled. Then I started on the rear duels. I pulled the outer wheels off and removed the axles. Then I lifted the whole frame up and slid the rear housing out from under the frame.  It is a good thing this is only a parts truck. When I pulled the axles out metal shavings came out with them and the bearing retainer nuts have been welded in place. I have to get a socket to take off the 3 1/4 inch bearing retainer nut. But it looks like the rear end under the parts truck is only going to be good for dead weight. The transmission was not any better, the case on this one was cracked.  But the more I dig into granddaddy's the more I think it was completely rebuilt just before it was stuck by the well drill. I ordered the bearings for the transmission last week, which all but one was on the shelf at the local parts store. So now my good transmission is sitting in a bath of degreaser. then it is going to have a good cleaning and new paint.

motor ready!

Well I got busy lately and finished out the motor, it is ready to run. I took the transmission and put it on a engine stand. I power washed 72 years of dirt off it and found out the top had been repainted black. As I took off the shifter I saw what looked like brand new gears and a really clean housing. I removed the drive gears and bearings. I went to the local auto store and got new bearings for the transmission and as soon as I can I will clean the trans housing and paint it. Then put it all back together. My father and me took my truck from Texas and put it in the frame in the shop. So soon as I can I will strip the chassis pull the spare motor and all the finders and mounts, then have the frame sandblasted, then prep and paint. 

I started work on the chassis this week. I got the front wheel off so I can find bearings for the wheels. Once I got the wheel off, I was surprised to find the bearings were original and probably had never been changed.The brakes are worn down to almost nothing! So no new original bearings to be found. The bearings are a strange size and it looks like I will have to modify the hub a little to get bearings that fit. I hate modifying the hub but all I am doing is taking off .075 of a inch and then I can get wheel bearings easy and much cheaper. So back to Hoods I go. Maybe I should see if they need some part time help?. So the next thing to do is to strip both chassis and sort all of the parts. Then get the chassis sandblasted, primed and painted!Now if it would quit raining! 

I have been doing some finishing touches to the motor. I had my sister in law come over and help me with the safety wire on the bolts. This is where I thank my wonderful sister in law. First for her service in the U.S. Army. Second being a helicopter mechanic. Third having safety wire experience. Fourth for teaching me this tedious task. Well after we finished the safety wire lesson I got busy and put on the intake and exhaust and the carburetor. I found a small problem with my crank pulley but will be a easy fix. The next problem I ran in to was my oil pump. Not as much a problem with the pump but the tube feeding the pump. I removed the copper tube that feeds the pump while I was dismantling the engine in October. I didn't think much of it I figured that a little tubing and a new fitting or two and it would be easy! I thought wrong!! I spent the last month going threw books at work, asking shops, any thing from automotive comp., hydraulic shops and brake shops looking for the fitting. The tubing was easy half inch copper tube. I went to a pluming store to get that. There I should have stayed. I looked and looked and finally someone from work reminded me back in the thirty's all they had was pluming supply's. And the light bulb finally clicked on. So off to a pluming store I went to several and couldn't find what I needed, feeling like my I am on the right track bubble was about to burst I went to one last place. I went to Edge Supply in Springfield Mo. They laughed a little(I would have too) then proceeded to tell me that they have the local steam engine clubs come in all the time looking for odd ball parts. With in five minutes they had me all my brass fittings and they even had a ninety degree fitting so I don't have to bend my tubing! So now I am ready to put the oil pan on for the last time thanks to Edge!

Reviving/renewing old cork gaskets. I was finishing putting together the motor and some of my gaskets had shrunk. Given the gaskets are cork and 80 plus years old they are brittle. I looked online and found one listing on how to revive cork not much else so I asked several older mechanics and found out several ways to do it. Some of the ways I was reluctant to try. One way to revive the gasket was to soak it in marvel mystery oil that had been warmed. MMO is flammable so I wanted to try something a bit less hazardous so I had also been told to soak them in room temp water for a couple days, this seamed more safe. So I tried with one of my extra gaskets and it didn't do much. So on to what worked and quick! I was told hot almost boiling water was what works the best. So I first cleaned out a old parts wash tub to hold my gaskets. I boiled a large pot of water. I carried the pot out to the wash tub and carefully poured it in. I laid the gaskets in the HOT! water and used some tongs to turn and sink the cork into the HOT! water. I saw a immediate change to the gaskets as soon as they touched HOT! water. The gaskets sat in the HOT! water for almost two minutes and was back to normal.