Slick 60's

After swapping the 5.0 / 5 speed MR52 into my sons swb 64 in the spring progress has been slow and we are finally getting around to messing with a few things again. Not sure how much we will get done since he is scheduled to leave for the Navy in March and he is doing the work on his dime.

Since his truck did not have a tailgate when he bought it we had to pick up one that did not quite match up to what the seller anticipated after we had it blasted. The seller threw us junker to put on the truck until he was able to get a hold of "better" one. He was kind enough to credit the selling price of the previous one towards the better one plus some additional coin. The end result was one that looked farely rust free but with the center panel and top edge beat quite a bit, one with the bottom edge gone from rust but a good center panel & top edge, and one with a few straight areas for patch panels. Since I was wanting my son to learn some basic mig & patch work we elected to take the 3 gates and make 1 "franken-gate" . I have no doubt ther are better ways and a single good solid gate woukd have been much less work but it was a good learning process for him.




After removing the end caps we cut out the sections we wanted of each panel.




After putting some Rustoleum Rust Reformer on the inside areas we stitch welded all the seams. In retrospect it would have been mutch easier to make our joints out in flat areas instead of in the recessed corners.


One last patch panel where the gate had previously been drilled, dent pulled, ground and bondoed to death.


After gringing welds, a layer of epoxy primer, fill & glazing as needed we shot on another layer of epoxy to leave it until the entire truck is ready to finish out. We still need to adjust the handle but over all it turned out straight and it works. Our next goal is to start working from the top and do one panel at a time until it is gray above the body line and blue below before moving to the bottom sections.

Captains log day 2, I think the tribbles have taken over... wait, wrong forum.
We got the cab top down to bare metal yesterday. Let my son do the work to help his tan.




We found out the small pin holes above the driver rain gutter were the remanant of someones 20 year old 1/2" thick bodo cover up.


Stripped all the sealant out of the gutter with a very stiff knotted wire brush. It may not be prefered but it dug it out well without polishing at all. We ran over it all with the DA up to 120 grit anyway.




Got all the top taped off and gave my son some more experience shooting on 2 coats of epoxy. Ready to start patch panels, hammering and filling on the cab top.





While taking a quick run before pulling it in for primer the steering seemed harder than I remebered. Then I made a left turn, the steering wheel did not return to center. Ahhh, almost hit another car turning it back. A slight addition to the body work plans, kingpins so stiff you can't hardly turn them. The joy! Shocked to call the local carquest with real parts guys & said they will have a replacement kit for us Monday! Now to try to get the pesky things out without having to take the entire axle to a friend Monday to have them pressed out.

Just a thought that now might be the time to upgrade the brakes. Its all apart then it will stop sooooooo much better.

ras4434 wrote:Just a thought that now might be the time to upgrade the brakes. Its all apart then it will stop sooooooo much better.

Good thought! Unfortunately my sons bank account seems to have an opposing idea.

We were planning to do leaf spring bushings and have the drivers spring dearched to match the sag of the passenger side the end of this week. Decided to go ahead and take care of it now. We were unsuccessful at getting the king pins out so off to a friends shop to be pressed out tomorrow.

We ran into an unexpected delay on the king pin change when the king pins would not come out with the 20 ton press at my mechanic friends shop. He and his employees are no stranger to king pins but hours of work only resultd in bending the press plates. We finally took the axel to an area semi spring and axle shop and hope to have it all back by the end of the week ready to install.

We finally got the axle back with the new king pins and springs with all new bushings. King pins installed including parts ended up at right $190. Springs dearched to match and new bushing installed ended up at $90.

The back spring eyes were a pain to get back in place & we ended up having to grind down the bushing center sleeve to get them in. A fairly quick install ended up taking 4 hours with 2 of us. At least it is done and when my son backed it out for a drive he felt like he just got power steering compared to before. Should be good for another 50 years.

Moving forward on roof patch panels.above the rain gutters. We made up patch panels for each side and cut out about & inch above the highest hole one both sides of the truck to make sure we got all the bad metal.


Since the panel insidet he cab behind the patch was quite rusty we went ahead and sprayed some Rustoleum Restorer on it.

We tacked the panel in place & my son got busy stitch welding the panel up.

I do NOT envy you that roof rust repair.. Thank goodness it doesn't typically happen here. Looks like you have it well underway now ! great pics and repair work.

be careful welding around your windows, the welding spatter will ruin them

50adrod wrote:be careful welding around your windows, the welding spatter will ruin them

Good point! It has been so long since I have welded anything I totally forgot. Thanks for the reminder since we ran out of mig gas before we got it finished!

Thanks as well foodstick. This cab is actually in very good shape with great mounts and floor. The plates on it when we bought it were Alabama historic vehicle so I am not sure what route it took to get the raingutter rust.

Finally getting the rain gutter repairs finished. We got the gutter patch welds ground down, sprayed a coat of self etch and some filler before attempting to redue the gutter seam sealer. We used some SEM 2372 gray seam sealer in the gutter as well as the back of cab seam. While it turned out ok self leveling would have been much easier for the gutter. With the regular sealer my fear is hidden air pockets that open up don the road. Ready for a coat of epoxy primer tommorow night and call the top good enough for now. The flimsiness of the cab top made getting it pefectly flat a non reality but my son decided he was done with it.

Impressive work guys. Especially the drip rail, I don't see a whole lot or warping either, which is impressive in and of itself.


Thank that Squid of yours for his service, too.

eminencefront wrote:Impressive work guys. Especially the drip rail, I don't see a whole lot or warping either, which is impressive in and of itself.

Thank that Squid of yours for his service, too.

Thanks eminencefront!
With the fall Indiana cool down we have moved from the speed of slow on the redo to roadkill crawl.

Before we tackled the roof I had noticed some slight water puddeling on the floor boards and while driving in the rain one day i felt a few drips on my foot. I would like to get the leak fixed before weather gets totally bad. I am assuming possible windsheild seal? Any experienced slicksters know if there is a typical culprit lor the leak?