De-construction Day #1 (4-8-05)
On the first day of removal, I got the front bumper off, using gloves so I wouldn't cut myself again. We also got the headlight buckets off. Boy these were a pain. Hopefully other things will come off easier. I did find a means of holding the hollow bolt through the stantion, but I sacrificed a drill bit in the process to do it. I was also able to get the doors open too. That was about all for this workday's evening.
Doors open picture from the side
De-construction Day #2 (4-10-05)
Today I got the front fenders off. A lot of the bolts broke and there was a lot more rust on the bottom of the door areas of the cab noted here today. I pulled the rest of the glass out of the truck without cutting myself. Boy did I get immersed in rust and dirt debris on this day!
De-construction Day #3 (4-11-05)
I got a little more done today. The bed is removed and the running boards. I got the bed completely broken down and everything is fitting on some shelving that I was able to build out of some material that Joel Harrison gave me. It sure is nice to have room to work on things down at the shop and these shelves are really helping to keep the work area clear.
Only the cab to go to get this puppy apart
Same status from the front passenger side
Parts on the shelves
De-construction Day #4 (4-17-05)
I got a partial day to work on "Mavis" (taken from a character on Thomas the Tank Engine) yesterday and an afternoon today, after church and lunch. Yesterday, grass and hair cuttings hampered our progress a little bit.
Progress was slow when we got the chance to work on her too. Rust is a real pain. Bolts and pins are all ceased to the point where they either break or need to be drilled out to be removed. The door hinges proved to be the real first test. I applied heat to the lower hinge of the passenger door to the point where I had the entire hinge area cherry red hot. Slag was moving around all over on the outside and yet I broke a couple of drift pins trying to get this thing out. Checking with Joel, he was not sure why the heat wasn't moving the part, but suggested trying to confine it to just the pin and not running too much over the entire part area. Feiss seemed to think that the end of the pin flaired out with all the heat softening the metal. He felt that the drift pin just spread out the bottom of the pin, making a head inside the pin hole. He suggested drilling the pins out out. After the band-job on Saturday night, that is what I tried and it worked pretty good. I got the passenger door off at 4am so I felt better to head home and get some shut-eye.
After church and lunch, I made it back down to the shop and just drilled the pins out of the driver door. That went pretty well. Then I worked on the windshield frame. When I pulled the checkplates for the windshield wiper motor/windshield hinge area on the top jamp of the window (inside the cab) there was a ton of insulative material in the area. Apparently when this truck sat outside, this stuff would get wet and take forever to dry out. The result is that the interior panel (that is a part of the frame of the cab itself) is fairly well rusted. It will take some work, but when I get the MIG welder, I will try to fill and grind some of the damage here to try to bring this panel back into some sort of shape. I broke all but about 2 screws involved with the front window hinges, but I eventaully got the unit out. More broken tools in the form of busted screw driver tips. Good thing Craftsman will replace these for free at a Sears store.
I got the windshield out, the steering column out and started on one of the 8 bolts that attach the cab to the frame. At that point Chris said I should clean up so we can go to Bandana's for supper. Whoopie, no McDonald's!!! Danny (our 3 year old) was not enthused. Good thing we haven't gone to a Chuckie Cheese yet!!!!
Below are the status shots for today.
Same status view from the side
De-construction Day #5 (4-19-05)
I was tired and sore from my first ball practice in 15 years the night before. I was playing 3rd base, but I soon found out I was no Scott Rolen. Man they were smacking the ball down there. I soon started to get some smarts and backed up in the field to help my reaction time. I guess I am really past my prime. Good thing I've been working out. I felt I was running pretty well and my hitting practice looked ok for a 47 year old. Needless to say, I kept my objectives for the truck low tonight in the hopes of getting home early to catch up on some much needed sleep. Five bolts and the cab should be ready to come off.
Tired of beating my knuckles into mince meat, I decided to burn off the bolts that did not have the castle nuts on them. The others were just seized up to point where they were just twisting off anyway, causing more knuckle damage on sharp steel parts. I fired up the "hot wrench" (as Feiss would call it) and blasted the last 3 bolts off. The Cardinals scored 5 runs against Pittsburgh in the process, according to Mike Shannon on the radio. I guess I should fire up the hot wrench more often!
I got some old straps I use to keep my riding lawnmower on the trailer and hooked them up to the cab and the picking winch. The winch and picking frame worked perfectly and the cab was off in 5 minutes. I found that I am going to have to work on the casters I have under the cab to move it around the shop. One of them are higher than the other 2, making the cab wobbly on the wheeled platform made by the 3 casters.
The wood under the cab (to the frame) was shot. I kept the old ones for patterns to make up new ones. The rear of the frame was shot, but I knew that when I picked up the truck with Feiss. I am going to attempt to re-build the rear with some 1/8" plate and some 2" wide (by 3/16") band iron on the top and bottom to re-form the outer channels. Scott Reed gave me some X-bracing he is not going to use on his Woody. That will help properly pattern in the rear as they go all the way back to the tail. Hopefully, the profile of the car frames match the truck frames. There are differences in the holes in the (car verses the truck) X-braces, so we'll see how this all works out.
Below are the status shots for today.
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Start ..... LINK ..... Last Entry
(4-4-05) ..... Getting the Truck ..... (Finished 4-4-05)(4-6-05) ..... Getting Ready ..... (5-6-05)
(4-8-05) ..... Deconstruction Work ..... (Finished: 4-19-05)
(5-1-05) ..... Frame Work ..... (11-19-05)
(4-24-05 ..... Rear Suspension Work ..... (12-23-05)
(4-24-05) ..... Front Suspension Work ..... (7-15-06)
(3-18-06) ..... Drivetrain Work ..... (5-27-07)
(7-11-05) ..... Body Work ..... (9-1-08)
(7-15-07) ..... Shop Visits ..... (7-15-07)
(4-24-05) ..... "Feiss" Vette-mobile ..... (4-24-05)
(4-4-05) ..... Acknowledgements ..... (6-12-05)