46 Power Wagon Restoration pt. 2

[Doc Dave]

Definitely makes you want to get back to work! So I spent the rest of the day working on the cab. Cut out the worst section of the floor on the driver's side and used it as a template for the new piece. Then fitted and started welding.

The outside forward door sill is just too think from corrosion to weld to very well. I'll probably have to try and cut it back and weld in some new metal. Otherwise I don't think it came out too bad for my first time!

Good work.
In the archives of this forum, I have pics of when I repaired the same area of the floor. I made a corrugating device with pipe to simulate the factory corrugation channels in the 14 gauge metal.

[Kevin in Ohio]

Eastwood sells them. They give you the correct gap for Mig welding and hold both panels level. They have their limits but they are handy. Kevin

[Desoto61]

Eastwood sells them. They give you the correct gap for Mig welding and hold both panels level. They have their limits but they are handy. Kevin

Yes, and 14 ga. steel is about their limit. They worked but the screw was just barely long enough to get them in and the pin fitted.

Gordon they are basically a C shaped piece of steel with a hole in the back side of the C. A screw goes inside and up through the hole with a thin piece of metal welded to the head so it sticks out the opening of the C. This has a square hole in it that a small piece of bar stock goes through.

You put the plate between the two pieces of metal and insert the bar stock then tighten the wing nut on the screw and pull the bar against the metal and the face of the C. You automatically get a small gap for welding and it holds the two pieces of metal tight.

When you're done you losen the screw, slide the bar out, remove the clamp, and finish welding.

[BigSmoke]

Eastwood sells them. They give you the correct gap for Mig welding and hold both panels level. They have their limits but they are handy. Kevin

The more you add of these clamps to your work piece, the better they work.

I bought more of them through Amazon for half the price of the ones I got from Eastwood.

Same product.

[olgraybeard]

$9.99 at Northern http://www.amazon.com/Northern-Indus...xp_grid_pt_1_2
$29.99 at Eastwood and Amazon. I going to get me a couple of sets

[Desoto61]

One side down (almost)

I finished the floor section. I actually went back and cut part out part of the door sill, and made a new piece with the correct lip on it and welded that in place. A decent amount of time in that little lip!

I then moved on to the bad section of the corner support. I cut out the rusted part which included part of the floor as you can see in the one picture. I cleaned and used some rust converter in open area behind while I had access.

Used some cardboard to make two separate templates which I laid out and traced onto one template that I used to cut out my steel. Then bent it into shape on the vice and with a little tweaking at the part in the second picture. I welded that into place and ground it all down.

After prepping all the surfaces and spraying a little weld-thru primer I drilled some holes in the repo floor board and then welded that to the cab and the new pieces. The repo was very close but the lower angle was a little off, but again a little tweaking and it's very close.

Still have some pieces to weld and replace, as well as a little more welding of the corner. Then try to do it again on the other side.

[Desoto61]

Work has been keeping me swamped (good for the paycheck though), so just found some time to get back to the truck.

I did manage to find the transmission assembly to go behind the Cummins. It's a 93/94 Chevy NV4500 2WD. Seller included everything except the clutch needed to bolt it up.

A little scrubbing (OK a lot of scrubbing) and a coat of paint and it's ready to fight it onto the back of the motor. Much struggling and a few swear words later and the two are together for what I hope will be a long and sucessful marriage.

One of the slave cylinder bolts won't fit into it's mounting location due to the design of the adapter plate on the engine. But by cocking the cylinder slightly and making a small tab cut from some plate it will be held tight and work great.

I will have to re-level the motor and build a transmission mount for the stand but it's secure and mobil for now.

With that done I went back to work on the cab. Managed to get the first of my passenger side patch pannels in place. Due to the shapes and my tools I'll have to build it in a few sections.

With the cab structure firmed up I'll probably send it out to be blasted so i can get a better idea of the remaining metal work. Plus I can move back to the frame. I have a few other repairs/modifications and then I can have it blasted and painted. That will let me start hanging some of the pieces parts back on it so I can free up some space in the garage.

[Desoto61]

Slowly chipping away at the cab work. Like everything though what you find and what you expect aren't the same.

I had most of the floor pan area fixed and was working on the interior cab corner and as I cut into the area by the door pillar I didn't find what I expected: metal.

So after some more cutting and removal I find most of the lower door pillar is more rust than metal. Nothing to do but cut it out and figure out how to replace it.

I cut back the lower door pillar to solid metal, this included the lower door mounting point. It's two pieces nested together. The outer piece is a U-shaped cup with an indent and cutout for the hinge. The other piece fits inside and completes the box. The inside piece forms a strange little Z bend that I didn't think I could re-create but I don't really need to.

Had to re-create the hinge bolting block and weld it into place inside the new pillar. Also had to re-create the jog in the pillar where the hing bolts. There were a lot of hours in trying to get that right. It looks right but I haven't tried hanging a door to verify yet.

I bent a second piece into sort of a J shape with the short side toward the back and fitted it inside the first piece. The whole unit gets covered with the corner brace on the cab and the kick plate so it won't be visible when done and should be at least as strong as stock.

[Doc Dave]

Nice Job!
I thought I had rust issues with my '52 but your project takes the cake. I am sure you are starting to feel like I did at this stage of the project, and that is having some sense of satisfaction at working through a difficult task.

[Desoto61]

Thanks. If I was smart instead of stubborn I'd probably be better off finding a better starting point, but it has been a good learning experience.

I made some more progress over the weekend. Hung the door to see how it fit (or if it would), which is something I probably should have done before I welded the new piece in place but I didn't think of it.

But I lucked out and the door fit pretty close. It will need some adjustment but it's pretty good for a first attempt.

Once I knew it could stay I finished welding everything in and putting the corner bracing back together. Templated and fabricated a new patch panel and test fitted the new floor plate. A little fine tuning and once it's welded in the major structural work should be done!

[Doc Dave]

That is a good that you are working out the door fitment at this stage. In the pic it looks like it hangs pretty well.
My truck was my very first project. As a first project one makes some mistakes. One of mine was not tweaking the doors fitment to the degree they needed before I started painting.
Then, when all was done and I hung the doors again, the driver door was off a bit as far as the body lines go as well as to how well it closed/latched. Getting it right caused some paint damage that I had to then repair. It looks good now but caused more work for me.
In retrospect I needed to have had a porta - power to push the cab opening shape back to factory size and shape. I think the truck had previously been in some sort of minor collision that caused the cab opening for the door to be slightly off.

[Desoto61]

I was thinking about that when I test fit the door, how much harder this would be if it were finish painted and I was trying to be careful. I figure I'll hang and fit the doors when I do the body prep, then hopefully it will still be right when it's time for final assembly.

I need to figure out what the correct hinge pin is. Mine just had some bolts in them, which is what I used for a quick test fit, but I'm not sure if that's right.

[Desoto61]

Finished the major floor repairs. Still a lot more metal work to do on the cab but it's strong enough to get it blasted or dipped so I can figure out what I'm really up against.

It will also let me put it back on the frame so I can mock up the engine and transmission and build new mounts.

Need to finish some work on the frame so I can get it blasted and primed and then start on the axles. Time to spend some $$$.

[Desoto61]

Skid plate

I moved the cab out of the garage so I could work on the frame. I modified the stainless fuel tank to take a universal sending unit. I didn't specify when I ordered it so he built it to take a stock unit. They're expensive and I'm not using the stock guage so I ordered an aftermarket universal sender.

To make it fit I ground down the mounting flange till it fit in the original sender hole. I had to clearance the hole a little with a dremel so the sending unit would fit. Then I drilled and tapped the 5 mounting holes and threaded in some stainless machine screws. The unit comes with a nice thick rubber washer that should form a good seal.

I've been working on a skid plate to protect the fuel tank. So with the tank mounted in the truck I made up a template with some cardboard to get rough dimensions. I laid it out on a sheet of 3/16" plate and cut out the rough shape.

I then used an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to score the metal along the bend lines till I could bend it over. I formed the side, and left 2" tabs on the sides that I could cut and bend in to form a short sided box using the same method as above.

After some trial fitting to get the angle of the front and back plate correct (there isn't a lot of clearance between the axle housing and the tank at full compression, so you have to keep the skid plate close to the tank). I cut some square tubing at an angle to form some mounting tabs. I used a floor jack to hold the tank in position where I wanted it and marked where to mount the tabs, which I positioned and then tack welded in place. They go up against the bottom side of the frame rails. Once I verified the fit I final welded the tabs in place.

With the mounting points figured I cut down the excess from the front and back plate to remove some weight and allow better access to the fuel fittings. Then I welded all the seams up.

I'll do a final fit-up and square it to the tank then drill the mounting holes and use some bolts to hold it all in place.

[Desoto61]

Bumper and winch

With the skid plate essentially done I pulled the tank and installed the plate as the whole assembly will be going to the blaster, and it keeps it out of the way.

Then I moved on to the front end. The original bumper was modified for tow truck duty, and had been bent by some unknown force. So new frame extensions from PWP, and a heavy duty bumper assembly from Dean Moffett could be fitted into place. Neither piece comes drilled which means fitting, measuring, adjusting, re-measuring, re-adjusting, rinse and repeat until my perfectionist side is happy. Then clamping, drilling, and bolting.

Since the winch sits on top it also has to be involved in the fitting aspect, which is where I ran into a snag. The rear mounting holes didn't line up with the rear winch support bar. They were about right forward and aft, but were way off side to side.

After some discussion on the Power Wagon forum and a few more measurements it was determined that the rear winch angle had been cut down and re-drilled. I'm assuming to deal with the bent front bumper I removed. So I'll probably get a piece of angle the same size and thickness and re-drill the mounting holes. It won't have the bump the original does but I don't thing I'll be crank starting the Cummins any time soon and we've already established originality isn't my primary concern, so it should be OK.

Dean's bumper's are super heavy duty. Built from 1/4" plate they're not only heavier but his bracing is designed to actually reach back and gusset to the frame on the side and bottom. Along with some grade 8 hardware I feel sorry for anything that get's hit by this thing!

Still need to drill and attach a few other bolts on the gussets, as well as re-drill for the tow hooks. Then I'd like to cut holes in each side to mount some auxiliary lights in the bumper.

Then it can all go with the frame to get blasted and primed.