46 Power Wagon Restoration pt. 2

[cj7ox]

Awesome work, Desoto! Thanks for sharing your build!

Sean

[Desoto61]

The other two winch parts came back from the shop clean and shiny black. I made sure to blow out the interior and clean out any leftover blasting dust. I also took a brake hone to the inside of the drum where it rides on the shaft to clean and hone the surfaces that had been roughed up slightly during blasting.

While I was reluctant to fill the entire cavity around the drum shaft with grease based on how nasty the grease that was in there was to deal with elected to coat the shaft with grease and spray some spray lubricant into the drum cavity and roll it around to coat the interior surface. New zerk fittings were installed at each end of the drum and the end support.

I used new grade 8 hardware to assemble the rails to the gearbox and end support. A dab of anti-seize on the bolts should hopefully assist them in coming apart if that should ever be necessary.

With everything together I pumped all the fittings full of grease and checked the rotation of the drum and it was smooth and fairly free. I was somewhat concerned as the front frame extensions had been bent by some previous force. But it looks like one of the mounting bolts snapped allowing the winch frame to stay straight and just lift from the truck frame.

My truck (like many it seems) is missing the whole lever assembly, so I'll need to order a replacement. I also will need a new instruction plate.

[Desoto61]

With the winch tucked away it's time to work on something a little more substantial: the frame. I moved it into the garage a few days ago, but in preparation I've been cutting lots of scrap metal apart and then welding it back together in order to get some practice.

With the frame propped up and a set of jack stands under the axle I worked on removing the forward spring pins for the rear axle in order to get at the spring mount bolts/rivets.

I tried to force some grease into the bushings prior to removal, but no such luck. The zerk fittings did come out easily though. I wasn't so lucky with the pin retaining bolts. One came loose with the impact gun and some penetrating oil, the other side had to be cut off.

I took a zerk fitting, ground down the end slightly and welded it to the end of a bolt. I could then thread the fitting back into the pin, attach a slide hammer to the bolt and pound the pin out. This worked well on the driver's side, the passenger side pin was less cooperative.

When the slid hammer failed to move the pin I threaded a rod onto the end of the bolt and rigged up a puller, which only succeeded in tearing the threads off the zerk.

The pin is hardened so drilling and tapping are out, so attempt to was to fit a bolt into the bore in the pin and weld it to the end of the pin and use that to extract the pin. My first welds did not get into the pin well enough as I was trying to prevent welding the pin to the bracket. The second attempt was better and I was able to get the pin part way out of the spring before the bolt snapped.

With the pin part way out of the support I could be a little more liberal with the welder and a new bolt allowed me to finish removing the pin.

With the springs out of the way I'll make some measurements and some marks in order to make sure the new piece goes in the same place before I chop out the old one.

[Desoto61]

With the springs out of the way and some measurements taken it's time to start removing the crossmember.

To remove the forward spring hangers (which share their fasteners with the 3rd crossmember) I used a technique I read here. Basically take a grinder and grind the head of the rivet (or bolt as on the driver's side) flat with the surrounding metal. Then drill a hole (or series of holes) in the rivet, not the whole way through, just about half the remaining depth, or deeper than the metal the fastener goes through. I went to about 1/2 the thickness of the fastener too. Then you can usually drive them out with a punch and hammer, or even easier, an air chisel. Worked wonderfully on all the fasteners, though some were easier than others.

Some tips: center punch the rivet/bolt before drilling, it's easy for the drill bit to get off center, which is fine for a small pilot hole but trouble for the larger final hole.
A course flap wheel seemed to do a better job than a grinding wheel. It removed the material as fast and was less likely to gouge or mark up the surrounding material.

With these removed I will clean up the mating surfaces and paint them to prevent corrosion since they will be covered when the frame is blasted.

[Desoto61]

Crossmemeber removal

There are two rivets through the bottom of the "C" channel into the crossmember, these get removed the same way as the others, it's just a little more akward to get at them.

My frame has an L-shaped brace/mount on the back of the frame to support the wrecker assembly. This prevents easy access to the two rivet/bolt assembles in the top of the frame. So to open things up I cut out the middle of the crossmember close to the sides with a sawzall.

I left the passenger side bracket intact, I will cut it loose and see about modifying it to fit the new crossmember. Now I should be able to get the two top bolts/rivets loose on each side and remove the rest of the old metal.

Then I'll work on cleaning up the frame area that will be covered by the new crossmember and protecting it prior to installing the new metal.

[Desoto61]

The exposed frame areas get cleaned up and a coat of Eastwood Rust Converter and then a coat of rust encapsulator. When everything is dry I fitted the inner plates of the new crossmember, marked the bolt locations and drilled 1/2" mounting holes.

Grade 8 1/2" x 2" fine thread bolts and nuts are used to re-mount the spring hanger. The nuts are tack welded to the inside of the plate. A smaller 5th mounting bolt is located in the center of the plate and gets the same treatment. The side facing the frame was then painted and the side assembly re-bolted.

With both sides done I primed them with some weld-through primer and worked on the upper and lower plates of the new cross member. They get fitted like the side plates: measured, fitted, holes marked and drilled, bolted, and the nuts welded.

The upper plate was a little trickier due to the upper frame brace but in the end it was fitted like the bottom.

The upper and lower plates were then welded to the end plates on each end. I did the lower first but in the future would reverse and do the upper first, then install and weld the lower plate. Easier access to weld that way.

[Desoto61]

With the top and bottom plates welded I can fit up the end plates. I finished welding the sleeves to one of the side plates on the bench where I had easy access.

Then each side was fitted into the frame and each other before aligning them and tack welding each in place.

With the ends fitted and tacked in place I could start finish welding the cross member together. My welding isn't anything to show off but it should be plenty strong and there's lots of welds to share the strain.

I welded in sections to prevent putting too much heat into the piece.

[Charles Talbert]

Too little, too late

I hope not; using Eastwood rust converter and encapsulator cost me an out of pocket redo on a $25,000 paint job. Expensive education, I'll never use another drop of that stuff. Their tech guy even admitted it caused problems. When I asked how much they wanted to toss in on the redo, I simply got no further reply. They really stand behind their products, NOT.

Hope you have better luck with yours than I did.

[Doc Dave]

Damien,
NIce job on the resto so far. You did a really good job recreating the cross member. Also the winch looks fantastic.
FWIW, the only place I use a "miracle paint" is inside of crossmembers, etc., where I can't blast the rust off before hand and use epoxy primer and urethane paint.
From reading on the autobodystore forum, I learned about such a rust covering paint called Zero Rust. It is cheaper than POR and held up better in one of the experiments they conducted. I used this on these hidden areas.
I don't have any experience with Eastwood's paint, but I saw on my truck where the person before me (who began a resto), used POR on the back half of the frame. IN a few places I could see where it had got scratched or damaged, and rust was visible creeping under it and "bubbling". When I blasted the frame clean, it came off in sheets in places-it does not seem to adhere to the steel like epoxy primer on blasted metal.
Perhaps you will not have any problems with the Eastwood paint, but I would monitor it carefully.

[Desoto61]

Yes, I'm not sure how well it will hold up. I was tempted to use some sort of seam sealer or calking since technically all I was trying to do was protect those areas where metal is touching metal and it won't get blasted when I have the frame done.

I figure that once I blast it and have some good primer and paint over the frame that will help to seal those areas even more.

I do have a can of that new Eastwood coating that I plan on spraying into the cavity of the crossmember through some weep holes I need to drill to help protect the interior metal.

[Kevin in Ohio]

Stainless steel fasteners are equal to grade 5 and not as "brittle"

Stainless bolts are equal to grade 2 (70,000 PSI). You can get stainless bolts in grade 8 but they are pretty expensive.

On dealing with rivets and not marring surrounding area, this is what I do. Center punch in center, drill with a fairly small drill. Wrap a piece of tape around your drill bit to give you a depth guide so you don't go all the way through. You want to get passed the second layer of steel into the other sides rivet head.

Redrill with a bit several 64ths smaller than the rivets body diameter. Take a cold chisel and shear the rivet head off. You can see if your hole is on center and redrill closer to body diameter, go till it bottoms in your previous drill hole. Sometimes when rivets are clinched it offsets the centerline. In other words, the outside of the rivet head(clinched side) will not be true the to shank.

Punch it out with a drift punch. I normally up the diameter of the hole for more strength as the bottom of your threads is the actual "strength diameter", rivets are solid. Using grade 8 would enter in here too.

Another hint is to redrill each hole as you take a rivet out and bolt it tight before moving on. Keeps everything where it should be.

[olgraybeard]

Sorry Kev I have to disagree I have worked in aircraft tooling for twenty years before that 20 years in shipbuilding structural design. Grade 5 and stainless steel bolt are interchangeable in most structural applications the only problem you get into is with dissimilar metal applications (galling and corrosion with some aluminum) my reference is . . . http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-in...ade-Chart.aspx (the first chart I found when I googled it) or any bolt manufacture or the Machinery Handbook which is the bible. Grade 2 market has been flooded with Chinese products for as long as I can remember and is NEVER recommended for structural applications.

[Desoto61]

Here's the final product. I have a little more finish work to do on it: drill two weep holes, coat the interior metal, and transfer the one bracket from the original to the new crossmember but it's essentially done.

Next it's on to creating/modifying the fuel tank mounting setup. The original one was cut down to support the winch controls in the bed and was set up for a stock size tank. The new one will need a new mounting plate. I'm also trying to decide if I want to create and replace the rear driver's frame brace while I'm at it. Mine was cut out for the above controls.

[Kevin in Ohio]

Sorry Kev I have to disagree I have worked in aircraft tooling for twenty years before that 20 years in shipbuilding structural design. Grade 5 and stainless steel bolt are interchangeable in most structural applications the only problem you get into is with dissimilar metal applications (galling and corrosion with some aluminum) my reference is . . . http://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-in...ade-Chart.aspx (the first chart I found when I googled it) or any bolt manufacture or the Machinery Handbook which is the bible. Grade 2 market has been flooded with Chinese products for as long as I can remember and is NEVER recommended for structural applications.

I was going on what I've been told and read:

http://www.totallystainless.com/yoursafety.htm

Unless you are getting your hardware from a supply house that knowledgable on what they have you may get the lower grade stuff. I always tend to the better safe than sorry aspect of things so make sure you know what you are getting. The big box stores will give an odd look if you ask about strength grade.

[74w300uteline]

desoto rust converter

Ospho by the skybrite corp. recommended by Military truck club members. the stuff is thin as water, gets in tight spots. you're supposed to paint over it. i never did. It kept the underside of a deteriorating M880 from getting any worse. 3 years of jersey salt and slush still looks ok.