46 Power Wagon Restoration pt. 2

[Desoto61]

It works!

Window Opener

Not perfectly, for some reason it was not extending or retracting as far as it had on the bench, and it's just slightly rubbing one side of the opening. I think one of the links is too loose, I'll have to weld up and re-drill the mounting hole to tighten the action and clearance the cowl opening. Still, it may just do what I want.

It's not the simplest way but even with the linear motor it was no more expensive then I've seen decent stock mechanisms for on e-bay and elsewhere. It should be every bit as reliable and takes up less vertical space behind the dash which can be used for other things.

Once I work out the bugs and finish the welding, the next task is to do something similar for the cowl vent but that can will be far simpler. Also finally recieved the fabric samples for the seats so I can decide and get those ordered along with the seatbelts.

[Desoto61]

My motivation hasn't been what it was, partly because I'm still not sure all this effort is going to work the way I want it to, so it could turn out to be a waste. But forward progres is being made. I recieved the linear motor, it has a 2" throw and is rated at 150 lbs. Probably overkill, but at higher speeds there is fairly significant force excerted on the windshield, and there is no difference in cost, the heavier units just move slower, which is fine.

I had to create two new links to attach the ends of the motor to the scissor mechanism. This all got mounted to a cup that holds the motor from moving forwards or backwards and will attach to the dashboard mount. The linkage mounts to the base using a bolt through the fixed pivot point on a spacer to allow the linkages room to move. Longer bolts with support tubes attach the motor to the end links.

The hardest part has been determining the correct mounting angle and position for the unit under the dash. Holding it in place and trying to take measurements, or do work is tricky. An angle measurement helps determine where to attach it to the backing plate, and some flexability in the mounting plate will let me locate it more easily so I can mark and drill the mounting holes. Then I can at least test it to make sure it all works before welding the mount plate to the support base.

[Desoto61]

the little things

One of my goals with this thread was to document all the work that goes into one of these trucks. We all understand that there is a lot of work in it, but that's kind of like saying we all understand that the universe is really big. Knowing and comprehending are not the same thing.

It somehow never seems to stop surprising me at how much time disappears on details (which may be the real devil referred to). Most of a day was spent yesterday on seemingly minor things. I finished building and mounting the windshield opener bracket, which naturally involved having to drill out and remove the two screws that had snapped off in the frame. That required disassembling the frame so I could more easily get it in the drill press, and all ultimately so I could install two screws which took all of 30 seconds.

I also cut and welded a few tabs into the opening in the dash so I can mount the new gauge panel (once I have it cut). Again, cutting, cleaning, fitting, welding, and dressing the six little squares of metal was at least an hour, probably closer to two, and thats only because I already have all the tools out and ready to use. I also closed some smaller mounting holes from previous modifications that are no longer needed while I was at it. Add in some cleanup time and most of a day is gone with what feels like nothing done.

There are lots of these, and they are all necessary, but the devil of the details is that they take most of the time and yield few of the joys of tasks such as paint or installing the drivetrain.

[Desoto61]

Check out autoloc.com, they have a power cowl vent kit and all sorts of actuators and solenoids. I bought a shaved door handlr kit from them, nice stuff seems overbuilt.

Thanks for the link, I ended up getting it elsewhere but they do have some other interesting pieces.

The screws and nylon lock nuts were too big and prevented the mechanism from fitting through the cowl opening. So I got some 1/4" round stock and drilled and cut them to make little pins that I then welded to one of the two pieces. A cotter pin will hold the two together and still allow for disassembly.

Then I needed a way to mount it to the windshield. I cut and bent some 16 ga. sheet to form a mount. I have to drill out a broken screw from my frame before I can fit it though. Once I have the shape correct I can trim the upper and lower piece and weld it. Then cut another pin that will hold the front two links and the bracket all together.

I did however have to open up the cowl opening on each side by about 1/2" to provde the clearance the linkage needed to unfurl. Next will be to build a mount for it. The linkage will need more of an angle than I thought which will make the mount a little more challenging, but I need to get the actuator attached first.

[Matthew Ziegler]

actuator

Check out autoloc.com, they have a power cowl vent kit and all sorts of actuators and solenoids. I bought a shaved door handlr kit from them, nice stuff seems overbuilt.

[Desoto61]

franken-vents

I removed the gutter inside the cowl vent so I could clean and paint the area properly, but I need to temporarily put the cowl vent back in order to repair the mechanism. The push rod on mine had broken and the pivot points were hung up. I haven't decided if I'm going to try and re-do the mechanical linkage or go with an aftermarket electrical mechanism, but regardless the actual door needs to be in place so I know what space I have under the dash.

The original shoulder bolts were in pretty rough shape and replacements locally are not a simple task so an alternative needed to be found. The original has 1/4-20 threads but the shoulder area that the hinge rides on is 3/8". I found spacer material with those dimensions and installed it into the bracket as a slight press. It was way longer then I needed so i cut it long and ground it back till it was just proud of the hinge on both sides. then a bolt and nylon locknut can be installed through the two pieces and tightened till snug. This allows the two pieces to pivot against each other.

I also had to drill out and re-tap the threaded holes that mount the hinge bar to the cowl vent as the originals had snapped off during disassembly. The unit isn't attached to the truck but doesn't need to be for mockup purposes.

The windshield opener on my truck had been removed at some point in the past. I'd like to keep the functionality but refurbished openers are expensive and take up lots of room vertically behind the dash, so I figured I'd exeriment. I made some cardboard mockups and played around with a 4-bar and then a 6-bar linkage which is more robust, takes up less room vertically, and is fairly simple (if I can make it work).

The big issue with them is the horizontal space, there is plenty under the dash but the opening in the cowl is fairly small and I don't want to open it up any more than i have to. This is what drove the need to go from 4 to 6 bar linkages. I also needed some additional length which the extra links provide. It works nicely but the fasteners are too thick so I'll need to work out a different way of connecting the pivot points. A linear actuator between the two links or geared motor attached one of the link bars should open and close the unit. Then I just need to work on mounting the whole unit under the dash.

[Desoto61]

Managed to save the passenger side floor plate. Modified the holes so it could be bolted in place then welded up the extra space. As for bending the two panels, I used some angle iron clamped into my vice, a second piece was clamped on top of that with the panel in between. Then I could use some leverage and a hammer to work the bend into the piece. The driver's side went a lot easier with the learning curve from the passenger side.

The trans cover has captured nuts which I cleaned out with a tap, on the outside I had to drill new holes due to the new floors. I purchased some domed stainless screws and washers to hold the pans down. On the outside holes I installed regular nuts to the under side of the floor and tack welded them in place. I'll have to finish them when the cab comes back off.

I think I've managed to figure a plan for seats, just waiting on some fabric samples before I place an order.

[defdes]

I've done a lot of .065 counter and table tops that way, but it was also laminated to a plywood sub straight and didn't require the welding on the back.

[Desoto61]

It's more work, but you can score the backside of your plate where you want the bends with a cut off wheel and then in-fill weld and grind. You can attain nice sharp bends that way. Easier with a big brake, but you do seem like a DIY guy....

I've done that with the thicker material like the 3/16" plate I used for the skid plate, but this seems kind of thin for that.

[defdes]

It's more work, but you can score the backside of your plate where you want the bends with a cut off wheel and then in-fill weld and grind. You can attain nice sharp bends that way. Easier with a big brake, but you do seem like a DIY guy....

[Desoto61]

Still trying to get the seat issue worked out. Too many questions and not enough answers.

With the steering box re-installed I tried to attach the pitman arm. This one is a replacement as the ball on the end of my original was badly worn. I ran into a problem though in that it does not go on as far as I expected it too on either the new power box or the original steering box. I verified that the splines and sizing are the same, but it's still tight. I took a small file and cleaned up all of the splines which helped a little but it is still only on to about half the depth of the pitman arm.

I can't go full depth as the steering shaft does not potrude far enough away from the frame, but after some work I got it on about as far as the original fits onto the stock steering box. It's enough to get the nut on and leaves a little room for a pitman arm puller should I need to remove it but it is only into the arm about half way. However from looking at the stock steering shaft the original shaft wasn't on much further.

Outside of that I've also been working on what fittings I need to make the steering and brake hydraulics work. The pump and Hydroboost use metric fittings while the steering box uses a flared fitting, on top of that there are different sizes between the different components and even between inlet and outlet on the same part.

Last task was new floor pans. My originals were in pretty good shape, but they have openings I no longer need. My plan is to have the floor coated with some sort of bed-liner, professional or DIY. So I don't really need all the same overlap of the stock floor pans. Like the ducts though I used them as a template to cut some from cardboard which I could easly shape and then use as a template for the plasma cutter.

That part went OK, the hard part is the final fitting. I used 14 ga sheetmetal so putting the bend into it is tough. My first attempt didn't go well, and I'm not sure it can be salvaged. I'll either have to find someone who can bend them or come up with a better method.

[Desoto61]

No major task lately, just bouncing between small tasks. Plus with the weather finally improving there is all the outdoor stuff to do. Finally ran down to the Cummins dealer and had them get a few parts I've been needing, including a new dipstick. The bread truck uses an insanely long one so it can be checked from the front of the vehicle. Since I'll have access from the side I could make due with a smaller one.

I got the dipstick and the mounting tube, though I ended up finding out that the extension tube for the original dipstick was just pushed over the same metal tube they gave me. I may still try to replace it since I damaged the original one when trying to remove the extension tube, but I may need to drop the pan to do so.

Still scratching my head over the windshield wiper setup. I keep playing but there are still more questions then answers. I decided to put the windshield in to get a better idea of what space I had. The original frame was pretty much gone so I picked up a replacement a while ago. It's solid but I think it was tweaked when they took it apart as the bottom channel was distorted. I played with trying to work it back into shape but only had minimal success. Regardless I cleaned up the original hinges and bolted the frame back in place.

When I got the power steering box I thought it had been clear coated, turns out that was not true and after sitting outside for a few days it was no longer metal colored. So it had to come back out so it could be cleaned up and painted then put back onto place.

I also decided to repair some metal under the rear window. It wasn't gone but was thin and rusted through in places. I was going to leave it since it was not structurally weakened and would be sealed around the glass, but decided it would go.

There are two pieces of metal here, the top of the cross brace to which the bottom of the window opening attaches to. Both got cut away and two new pieces were bent and welded into place. This is one of those places a metal brake would be great but I made do. Not my best patch, but it's all hidden so it doesn't have to be.

[Gordon Maney]

That would likely be a better option, I'll make my own. Sorry to mess up your build thread

You're not messing up anything. You are asking related questions.

[gyman98]

Yes, it takes up most of the space between the cowl vent lever support bar and the outside of the cab, so I can see that being an issue. There's so little room in those cabs I'm not sure where else it could go.

Since you won't need defrost and probably not heat much at all I almost wonder Vintage Air could fab a heater unit with just an evap coil in it. Kind of like the old cab heaters just for AC. They are simple but small, or failing that you could try and modify one of the old cab heaters to do the same thing. Find an evap coil that is the same size as the heater core and swap it out. You'd just have to rig up the electrical so that the compressor comes on when you turn the fan on.

If you wanted really fancy you could try and fit both in the same box, hard part would be rigging up a valve to shut off the coolant flow when you didn't want heat.

That would likely be a better option, I'll make my own. Sorry to mess up your build thread

[Desoto61]

Wipers

A better replacement wiper system is one of those nuts that doesn't seem to have a great solution. I've looked at the cable operated units, but longevity and strength seem to be issues. Vacuum operated ones are out for plenty of reasons, not the least of which is that with a diesel I don't have a ready source of vacuum. The Bosh or current electric units from VPW are not very strong or fast, especially the VPW ones.

There are a ton of options on modern vehicles, but ideally the new system would fit in the header with no obvious modifications, and most modern systems are too large to fit well. They are however a good place to start. I've been staring at this one for a while, wondering around the junk yards staring at the different vehicle configurations.

I looked at rear window wiper setups. Some are direct drive with no linkages, and are fairly compact. The big problems end up being that they usually have too much rotation, only have one speed, and often the gearbox has an offset output so they may fit on one side of the cab but not the other, assuming they fit at all. My truck no longer has the cab seam and it's still not enough room.

Another issue is mounting, many of the wiper arm pivots mount through their face to a bracket under the cowl vent panel which would mean studs or similar through the face of the sheetmetal. The linkage arms also tend to be long or rotate over too large of an area for the space constraints.

The marine industry has some options but again, most are larger and more imporantly are designed to go through a thicker bulkhead and so have too long of a shaft to work well in the header panel.

I've seen custom made systems that mounted the motor under the dash and run a linkage up one of the A pillars and across the header panel. I tend to dislike the length of a linkage that long as to give it strength against bending in compression will require some decent sized link bars.

Right now I'm thinking the best option will either be a linkage for maximum stealth though it will give up some reliability and strength, or more likely mounting the motor to the exterior of the header panel with the linkage inside it and then building a cover for the motor. It will extend into the cab and not look stock, but the system would be simple, compact, and easily accessable.

I've got a junkyard system from a Durango/Dakota that has some positive benefits for this purpose, just need to see if I can make anything out of it.