46 Power Wagon Restoration pt. 2

[Desoto61]

To get into the corner I cut the drip rail and drilled out the spot welds behind the cut line so I could pull the rail back. As expected the acid dip revealed holes here too. The body saw took care of the rest of the seam so I could weld in the last piece of the repair and cut the slot for the reinforcing bar.

After lots of bending, fitting, and welding the other seam bar is welded into place. I need to figure out how best to dress the welds, the shape prevents normal access with the usual tools.

The final result won't look perfectly stock, but it retains the character line and should have similar strength to the original seam while being less prone to rust in the future. It will also provide more room inside the header panel which might make a windshield wiper setup easier.

[Desoto61]

I pushed the drip rail on the passenger side back into place and spot welded it to the roof. Not the easiest task, there's always variability in the welds, sometimes its a good weld, other times its thin and blows out. Guess that comes with the territory on old metal.

Last step for the drip rail was to replace the piece I had cut loose. It was thin had holes on the portion by the door opening. Since the curvy portion was OK I cut the straight part off and welded a new piece on then cut it to length. I drilled a hole for a spot weld, put it in place and welded it in and cleaned up. Not perfect but few will notice.

Next will be to do the same repair on the other side.

[Desoto61]

More progress today. Bent up my patch piece for above the door opening. In trying to get the drip rail out of the way the next spot weld gave way and the two behind it, I have a feeling it was weak to begin with and further compromised by the acid dip. Regardless one braze spot was all that was holding it on, so I cut it loose and removed it. That will let me clean up the mounting lip and the drip rail before re-installing. The good news is that there were no other bad spots underneath, though I did find a strange hole.

I bent the patch piece a little differently in that I didn't cut the slots, just slowly bent it over with the hammer in the vice as I moved the piece. Seemed to work just as well and no cut lines to repair. I did have cut lines but this time I cut them in the long side of the L that welds to the door pillar. I could clamp it in place and slowly work it into shape, adding or opening the slots as needed to get the piece into the right shape.

Once I got it close I drilled some holes for the spot welds, cleaned up all the surfaces and hit them with a coat of weld-through primer then welded it in and dressed the welds. Definitely came out better the second time.

[Desoto61]

With the drip rail removed I used a hammer and dolly to work it back into shape and clean up around the spot weld holes. I drilled out the weld spots that broke loose, then ran it through the blast cabinet, cleaned the surface and hit it with some of the weld-through primer.

The other fix was the strange hole in the roof. It looks like something punched it, the metal from the hole was bunched up in the back of the hole, but there was no damage to the drip rail.

I cut out around the hole and put in a small patch and cleaned up the area with a sanding disk. I'll clean up the lip for the drip rail, prime it and then I can weld the drip rail back in.

[Desoto61]

Got a little time in the garage the other night to re-install the drip rail. The spot welds didn't go as clean as I would have liked, but I've learned if you're not good just be persistent. A few rounds of grinding and re-welding and re-grinding and the end result seems solid and looks good enough for where it is.

Last major fix on the outside is the driver's lower valance panel. Mine was rusted along the front corner and pretty badly bent and damaged both from past events and with all the recent movement off the truck. I cut the old one off, it should still work as a template to have a new one bent up, or I might be able to get a good one from another cab.

Otherwise I have a handful of smaller areas I need to work on, some additional fastener holes I'd like to fill in, and a few other rough spots I'll try and clean up. Also need to install the studs for that brake light assembly.

[Desoto61]

New year, same truck

The long holiday break provides time to work on the cab, but it also means supplies can be tricky since different places are closed at different times. I took the lower valance panel to a local metal shop to have a new one bent up, but they're closed over the holidays so I'll move on to some smaller tasks.

I decided to cut loose the cowl vent trip tray. I want to make sure it gets cleaned and painted completely since it will see water and be prone to corrosion, it also allows access to the area under it. It's held in by two brackets and a series of spot welds around the perimeter. Most of the spot welds had let loose, there were three I had to cut loose.

The piece had some pin holes and rough areas as well as the three spots I cut loose. So I blasted the unit and then welded up the weak areas, cleaned up the welds and then re-blasted and treated the piece and set it aside to be primed.

Some other little repairs included welding up the mounting holes from the old teardrop spot light on the driver's A pillar, and fixing a stress crack on the lower drivers door opening. I cut the crack open with a grinding wheel and then re-weld. Someone had also hacked at the driver's side hood latch tab, so I cut a patch piece and welded that back on.

[Desoto61]

Picked up most of the paint and filler/surfacer I should need to get the cab ready for color, but I'm waiting on a few other supplies so I decided to start working on the doors.

The passenger door was dipped with the cab. It's in good shape other than the lower corner which had been dinged up somewhere along the line, and a spot below the door stop where the inner structure strapped water against the outer skin.

I decided to start there by cutting away the outer skin to find the extent of the damage. It took a few cuts but eventually found solid if rusty metal. I then cut the outer skin back a little further so I had room to weld.

The inner piece is a strip of metal that runs the length of the door to reinforce the hinges and door stop mount area. It has a stamped shape to provide extra strength, so I had to figure out how to re-create that shape.

[Desoto61]

So I decided to do some wood working. I needed to create the bottom of the trough in the piece I cut out. So I took a piece of 2x4 scrap and chiseled out a shape close to that of the piece I cut out.

Then I cut a blank from some 16 ga. steel and clamped it to the form and started hammering. I used a piece of square tubing to start forming the divit and the end of the tube allowed me to apply force in a smaller area. It didn't work real well since I couldn't get the clamps to hold well enough to really form the shape. The vice worked a little better and I managed to get something close enough considering it will be hidden inside the door.

If I were to do it again I'd cut a larger blank so I had more metal to clamp to.

[Alxj64]

I've been messing with forming patch panels for my Carryall lately too and it is a major pain in the neck. I like the idea of making the template with wood. That looks like it works decent. When I made my little dies for my rear radius for my Carryall tailgate, I made the mistake of no compensating for extra depth needed for the material to spring back while forming it so my parts turned out shallow. One of these days I am going to make it over there to take a look at this thing! Can't wait to see it done!

[Desoto61]

I get the feeling that even if you have the right tools it is still a time consuming and difficult job. Luckily most of the complex curves and shapes are OK on my cab, the roof seam was the worst of it.

One of the big tasks coming up will be how to get paint on all these surfaces to try and prevent the rust from coming back for a long time.

[Desoto61]

It's amazing the progress you can make when you don't have annoying distractions like work to slow you down.

I welded the inner patch panel into the door and dressed the welds enough to make sure the outer patch would sit flat. Then cut and fit the outer patch panel and cleaned and primed both inner surfaces before welding the outer patch in place and cleaned up the welds.

I also had some small stress cracks around the door hing rivets so I cleaned up and welded those areas too. The welds are kind of ugly but solid and not very visible.

Next was the damage to the lower corner of the door. I used a dremel to cut away the outer skin. This corner was pretty heavily rusted so the metal is thin in places. The acid took care of most of it, I used some rust converter into the open corner to take care of any remaining areas.

[Desoto61]

The inner lip was kind of weak so the worst of it was cut out and a small patch installed. The area was cleaned up and the inner surfaces were primed before welding in the new piece of door skin.

The outer skin I templated with a piece of cardboard first to work out the overhang required to fold it over. Then cut and primed it. Once it was tacked to the outside of the door I used a straight edge on the back side and a hammer to fold the edges over. Since this was the corner I used the driver's door to figure out the original fold line.

Once I had them folded 90 degrees I flipped the door over and used a dolly on the outside of the door and the hammer to fold the lip the rest of the way over, using the cutting wheel to cut the corner to lay flat. I didn't get the fold line right the first time so I had to pound it back out flat and re-bend it.

I ended up cracking the inner panel during this so I had to weld it back, but I may look at a more extensive patch. Then I finished the welds on the back side and dressed all the welds.

The corner has been pushed in so I will need to pull it out once I get a new stud puller, the first one I bought didn't work well, it couldn't reliably grip the pins.

[Desoto61]

No major progress today, seems like most of the various tasks are waiting on some piece, part, or supply. With most of the exterior metal work done I want to get it protected with some primer. Since the cab was acid dipped and not blasted in order to make sure the metal has the right key I'll sand it down with 180 grit per the primer instructions. Before I do that I want to wash the cab so I'm not driving anything into the metal.

I put the cab on it's cart and pushed it outside and hosed it down with some metal wash and gave it a good scrubbing then rinsed it with more metal wash. I used some compressed air to blow out all the seams and anywhere water was sitting and then wiped it down with clean cloths and let it air dry in the garage.

It was also good as it made you go over the cab and I found some minor issues and spots that needed some additional attention. A few pinholes in some weld areas, a small damage spot to weld up, a patch area I needed to re-do and one last task for the 3rd brake light.

[Desoto61]

I had already cut the hole for the high mount stop light I'm installing, but there are two mounting studs that hold the light housing in place.

I fitted the lens which helps to locate the housing. Then marked and drilled out the stud locations. The kit includes two screws which I threaded through the holes in the cab. Then used a grinder to remove the heads and tack welded the studs in place.

It's a tight fit but shouldn't need to come back out after the final install.

[Desoto61]

Had a local metal shop bend up a new valance panel for the driver's side. The original was too far gone to save. They did a really good job considering the template they had to work from, but it still required some modification and fitting.

They bent the top lip along the full length of the panel, but as far as I can figure from the passenger side the lip stops at the front of the door opening. I cut and straightened the front of the lip and then trimmed it down. I drilled holes to plug weld it to the cab along the top lip.

A couple of rounds of fitting and tweaking and it was basically ready to go in. I blasted the piece and cleaned it up the applied some weld-through primer along the top lip where it will be welded to the cab. I used some vice-grips to clamp the panel at the back aligned with the rear of the cab, then another set at the front. I welded the front and rear in place in one or two spots.