New Project - 1957 PW

[RicherRacing]

I am stripping down the doors to be grit blasted and ran into difficulty with the lock cylinder on the passenger door. I consulted with Matt at VPW and he told me that the setscrew that is visible from the side of the door must be removed to remove the cylinder. I soaked it for two days with penetrating fluid but it did not budge. The latch is also a pain to remove with the window track welded into the door. Matt said he has drilled out the setscrew before but I didn't want to destroy the retainer.
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[RicherRacing]

I marked the area to remove and used a cut off wheel to access the interior of the door. This made it easy to remove the latch. I used a torch and heated the setscrew and retainer. Fortunately the setscrew came out and the lock cylinder was removed. It will be easy to weld the piece back in and finish the door back so as to not see that it was ever cut.
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[Matthew Welcher PWA]

John, your work on this project is fantastic.
your fabrication and dedication will show.
great job and thank you for sharing

[RicherRacing]

Thanks Matt. Your knowledge and help in invaluable not to mention the plethora of parts you stock at Vintage Power Wagons! It may not be complete by next June but it will be driving so I will plan to be at the 32nd Rally.
Do you have any thoughts on priming? I have read that I should prime right after grit blast with an epoxy primer and then do any body filler over the primer, but I have also read to do the bodywork and then epoxy prime.

[Desoto61]

You want to get paint on the metal as fast as possible after blasting, if you live where there's any humidity it will flash rust quickly, I might even let the blaster do it if you can't tackle the painting very quickly. Once it's epoxy primed you can take your time on getting to body work without worry, and for most of us that could be weeks or months. The only downside is that after the primer's top-coat window you have to scuff the primer to top coat it (usually about 5-7 days), but I think it's worth it to keep the metal rust free.

As for the benefits of filler direct to metal or over primer, I'll leave that to professionals, but with a good body filler it's probably not that important, which is good because you'll probably at some point sand through the primer and need to apply more filler which will end up being to metal unless you re-prime first, and that's just a pain.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

I completely agree with Desoto on this, I try to not paint that much anymore. Years ago I used to do it quite a bit. I am not terribly up to snuff on modern paints and primers. Last time I went to the Martin Senour paint school I was still in my 20's. Maybe Ron in Indiana will chime in here with some auto body insight.

[RicherRacing]

Blasting is done. Overall a very good cab. One area of cancer that needs to be removed and repaired in the lower right rear corner.
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[RicherRacing]

One more area of damage noted in the front right A pillar after I got the cab home. Easy fix.
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[Matt Wilson]

I just read through the whole thread, from page 1 to now. Very nice watching this build. Nice work!

[RicherRacing]

Thank you Matt. I have had inspiration from many threads on this site and am glad to add my project to those.
John

[RicherRacing]

I started tackling the one area of cancer on the lower right rear of the cab.
I removed this section using a cut off wheel in a die grinder, cutting well beyond the eaten away part.
I found batting (or maybe mouse nest material) sandwiched in between the outer shell and the inner reinforcement.
The thickness of the cut off piece is .045 adjacent to the cut so I ordered some 18 gauge cold rolled patch material.
I made sure to remove all of the rust and scale with a chisel and scraper, then applied some rust converter (not pictured)

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[RicherRacing]

This truck was last used at a logging company in Northern California. It must have been quite an impact to cause a dent like this in the A Pillar. The holes were from where a dent puller was tried with little success. There is an inner structure so I could not push this out from the inside. I decided to cut a vertical slit through the holes with the cutoff wheel and pry the two halves closer to profile.I then MIG welded (my first time after a little practice) the holes and cuts. I used .030 wire in 110V mig but it burned through in a couple of spots. I will get some .023 wire which should have less tendency to burn through. I will practice much more before tackling the cab repair. It isn't perfect but it is much closer to profile to be filled with body filler.
I used a flap sanding disk to grind down the high spots.
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[RicherRacing]

It is a bit premature to do the seat now but I took advantage of a friend visiting San Diego for the summer who is a well known professional auto upholsterer in Australia named Rod Lingard from Rodtrim Upholstery.

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[Matthew Welcher PWA]

That seat looks as if it could be more comfortable than my recliner, very nice work.

[Tom Petroff]

Yup.
He knows how to handle a sewing machine!

Beautiful Job.
Tom