my shipwrecked '63

[Truckrat]

April, your flareside bed looks to be in pretty decent shape!
Carpenters is not that far from you in N. Carolina/ Charlotte.
I bought a brand new left side fender from them at Pate for
$150 still in the box. Ended up trading it for a beautiful 62
Chrome grill, but they bring stuff like that down there every
year. Is that fender with all the bondo the left or right fender? TR

[shipwrecked]

It's the left fender. I took more detailed photos and will update when I get a moment. I took a paint eater wheel to the bottom of the fenders. Showed the patches- and I bought new fender patches online that go where the step mounts to it. Decent price of 30$ for each. I will probably try my hand at hammer forming a patch for that left rear portion of the fender. We'll see. I got the new bed extension patches in the mail yesterday. $60 for all 4.

[shipwrecked]

new bed extension panel pieces came in from National Parts Depot. They are very nice!



The patch panel pieces for the fender step area came in from CMW as well. They look great!


I think I may buy those patch panels again and modify them a bit to fit the rear portion of the fender.
The right fender rear piece doesn't look horrible, I could probably prep this area and use all-metal to fill the little pitting.


This is the left fender. The little patch welded on there now is a lot thinner than the fender material. The color was blue as well-




The 90* flange edge which is at the base of the bed sides is somewhat rotten. I am going to get the machine shop to help me at work this week. I could probably work on those fenders this weekend instead of the bedsides because I can't install the bed extensions until that flange gets made.

[sgettin]

The side mount spare tire holder and notch fender (if repairable) are somewhat desirable. I wish my original bed boards were in as good a shape as yours I'd like to stay with original boards.

[shipwrecked]

After measuring, cutting, cussing and grinding, I did some welding and hammering.

I chose to do the passenger fender first. It doesn't have the spare tire cut out so I could easily replace this fender if needed. I took the chance and so far so good. Here you go:



It was a difficult cut and fit, but with time, I got it to line up. I even compared it to the other fender to be sure I was in line.


There was a gap in the fender wheel opening that needed some backing. I bought a piece of copper pipe and bent it to use back there.



Here it is 90% done. I have a few pin holes to deal with.

[SteveCanup]

April...that is some excellent welding and metal work. Good job, looks great!

[Truckrat]

Looking good April. Great job lining that up.
Truck will look good with that flareside bed.
Keep up the good work! TR

[grump]

Lookin' good April, as TR said you did a really nice job on that fender. Keep up the good work.

[shipwrecked]

I'm taking some time to patch in some new metal. I bought another set of those fender patches because they had the correct fender edge for the wheel well. I clipped one and started making piece fit.

In this photo, I am holding the old rusted/bondo piece up under the piece I just tacked on.


The real bad pitting areas I am cropping out as well, and going to patch new metal in.


Since I don't want to spend $130.00 on a shrinker stretcher stand so I spent 12.00 on a piece of steel at the box store and a couple 3/8"x1" bolts.
Welded the flat stock onto a piece of 1x1" steel tubing I had in the garage.

[shipwrecked]

finished building the shrinker/stretcher stand.painted green cause it was an open can is all.



put a patch piece in here.



I also cropped out some more pitted metal. The passenger fender welding is complete.

[shipwrecked]

The driver side fender is hell. I am in hell.

The original patch someone did years ago would be exactly like my 86 year old neighbor would do. A piece of donor car panel just welded right in there- no prep, no sealing it.

This fender is different then the passenger side- it doesn't fit the patch well. I have to do a lot of relief cuts, and also cut the edge to make it fit. Its going to be a few days of working on this one.
On other news- i went down to the machine shop today and talked about the engine. Its almost ready. He still needs to hone the cylinders, and he was waiting on me to bring him some con-rod bolts. check.. Now I just need him to button it up and i will come get it.

[shipwrecked]

Up till today I was still using flux core wire on my Hobart Handler 140... mostly cause i was too unsure how to set up the gas and reluctant to get going on that. Today I took a minute out in the garage and set it up and put out a few scrap pieces to practice on. First few spots I put down, I was sold on using gas from now on. I should have done it a year ago!

Nothing getting done on the truck this past two weeks. The puppy is taking a lot of time and energy from me so I am trying to get as much training in with her.

I did talk to the machine shop, I should get the block back any day now. I finally got my tax return back so I am going to roll into the machine shop with cash in hand to pay for the engine work. Need to hit the catalogs and get an order in for the other stuff I need for my engine- like a radiator, water pump, thermostat, distributor, wires etc. I bought a holley carb rebuild kit to rebuild the one I have.

Next also to purchase will most likely be floor boards for the cab. And get the bed over to the sandblaster.

[grump]

April, you should see a difference in your welds by going to a gas setup. I thought by your welds that you were using flux wire. I think you'll see much cleaner welds and easier to clean up your welds when you grind them. Drive on.

[SteveCanup]

Yep...I went to gas on mine last year. It's like night and day as far as your welds are concerned. A friend told me to get a tank of gas and I would be welding "like a pro." He was right....I'm on my 3rd tank.

[shipwrecked]

still working a bit on this fender. taking my time- and school just started again today.



will be able to pick up my engine block next week.

for my birthday- i bought myself new floor pans for the cab. :0

[LM14]

Lookin' great April. Glad to see you switched to gas and got rid of the flux core. You'll like it a lot better. Bought myself a new torch for my birthday yesterday. Great excuse to get things you want!

SPark

[shipwrecked]

No pictures- I took today off and drove up north to drop my intake/exhaust and battery tray off at the powder coat shop. Going to get them done- may take them a month since they are backed up but that is fine as I am backed up with work too.

Yesterday was a busy day. I had to get up early and drive to Philly by 0500 to be on an AM radio talk show. I was interviewed for a few minutes but the podcast didn't record. They did mention me a few more times after my slot but that was interesting. I also was interviewed by the USO for their 75th anniversary video. They interviewed me for about 15 minutes. Then I took the 2 hour drive home to Cape May just to get to work in time for our semi-annual physical fitness test. I was tired! I didn't run as well as I normally would want to but a pass is a pass.


So- on Monday I was supposed to pick up the engine block, head and crank from the machine shop. He called and told me the wrist pin bushings are worn out. Where in the world am I going to find those?

No welding getting done yet- been spending time with little Hildegard and Diesel Dawg.

[shipwrecked]

officially have spent my tax return money on truck parts... I could have gone on a vacation and been comfortable for a week in some resort somewhere... but I bought:
Radiator, a lot of engine parts, brake parts, speedo cable, bumper, and some brackets for the fenders.
How easy it is to spend the money on this truck.

I still need to call flashbacks and order my wire harness. I just am preparing to throw the truck back into an operational status in case my request to extend in my current job doesn't go through. I am down to 11 months till transfer if it doesn't. pictures will be added when they come in next week.

[shipwrecked]

[youtube] http://youtu.be/k3TzhPKz0ac[/youtube]. Was surfing YouTube and found the "proof of life" video to that 223 I bought last fall- the one I had bored out and am going to build. Just sort of neat to find though he wasn't doing the engine any favors the way he ran it.

[shipwrecked]

still working on that driver side rear fender. I am plugging away at the rusty mess in the lower rear section.
Here is what I was working on yesterday and today. I used my shrinker/stretcher and some hammering to get it to fit about right. I am sure I am going to be cursing it as I sand and see I still have a nice high spot there. Just going to take some time and work it out.


Got around to opening the box to the floor pans I bought. Disappointed that the driver floor pan is bent in shipping.
Will call Dennis Carpenter tomorrow and see if they can do anything about it. I am sure I can bend it back to make it useable, but I spent $$ on it and shipping $$ too expecting a undamaged product.

Champion radiator is on the way. as well as a my National Parts Depot order of misc items. I can probably drop another 2k for the little things but I will pace myself. I still want to save a little and get some nice tires.. But I will need tires on the '13 before the '63 gets them.