My Project

[MoparFreak69]

Got a chance to take a few pics so figured I might as well start up my own build thread and give you guys a taste of my lastest project.


Here she is in her busted out headlight glory:


Until I came across this truck I had never heard of civilian bodied Power Wagons. Turns out this is the 2nd gen of them, the first being the 57's.


Bed couldnt be in better shape. 2 cracks in the rear fenders to weld up and a bit of 1/2" rod formed to the lip for support will pretty much be all they need. Have you ever seen a tailgate in this good of shape?





So far I am thinking of the project going like this:
MPFI Magnum 5.9 w/46RE 4 speed auto and 242 T-case.
Dana 60 front from donor truck and will probably keep the Dana 60 rear although upgrade the brakes to newer hardware.
Power brakes
Power steering
AC
Electronic gauges probably along the lines of the classic Stewart Warner style.
40/20/40 split bench from newer Ram pickup
Single under bed fuel tank in place of behind the seat and behind the rear axle tank setup it came with
Stock outside appearance sans extra trim
Modern interior with vintage touches

Not bad for $35 in fuel to go get it from a field huh?

[MoparFreak69]

One more pic it wouldnt let me add:

[Ron in Indiana]

Nice score for $35 in fuel. I was the same way having never seen a Power Giant before I saw mine. The bumper is a little bent. LOL. You may want to look at that rear axle as I think it'll be a corporate instead of a Dana. If there is no rear cover it's a corporate full floating axle. SAVE the stainless trim. I've seen several fenders with the same problem and worse. The bumpers used back then usually wrapped around the side of the fenders and were bolted on. The problem is when it was backed into something the fenders got wrinkled too. Sounds like you have a plan for a nice ride when it's done. Do you do your own bodywork and paint? Here is my 59 W200 and a 59 W300 on my trailer at the Iowa rally this year. The W300 is now in California. Looking forward to your build story. Take plenty of pictures and keep a journal. Gordon is always looking for articles to publish in the PWA.

[MoparFreak69]

Data tag says Spicer 60 and it looks original so I should be ok.
Yeah the back bumper is a little tweaked, nothing a come-a-long cant take care of!
I dont have all of the trim, and what I have is kinda beat up but it does look like it could be repaired. I will try to find someone who can use it and sell it off to fund more aspects of the project.
I see what you mean by the rear fenders getting the brunt of anything that you happen to come in contact with being attached the way they are. About the only thing I can do is repair, strengthen the weak spots and hope I dont hit/get hit by anything and keep em straight.
I will be doing most all of the bodywork by myself, probably only enlisting manual labor at times if necessary. As far as painting goes I would like to do it myself but am not sure I will have the facilities to do so. I could drag it out to my shop and do it out there but in reality the only benefit I have there is a roof over my head to hold the dust in vs out in the driveway. I guess I will have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

Oh yeah almost forgot, color choice at this point is a metallic midnight blue.

[MoparFreak69]

Did some major cleaning/pressure washing and got pretty much all of the old field dust and crud out of everything. I found a rust hole about the size of a half dollar under the accelerator pedal and 2 pinholes at the far left of the drivers floorboard, where it meets the wheelwell. So looks like 1 patch and a little bit of brazing will take care of most of my rust problems. Only other hole I have found is the apparently typical under the battery fender hole. I am thinking that I will patch that spot and then build a hefty tray to go in that spot to keep the battery from sliding around and to act as a cradle of sorts.

Got my passenger side door pretty much repaired and straightened. If I can get my old man to bring either my welder or his oxy/acetylene (sp?) torch setup I can get the torn window frame repaired and the trim holes filled that will mark that chore done. I cant find anything more than light surface rust on the doors so far, they even have all of their original undercoating on and intact.

I am thinking the drivers door is repairable. I am thinking I have 2 options to pull the major dent out of the lower section. 1: Pull the skin off the door, straighten it and weld it back on or 2: drill some half inch holes on the inner section of the door, use a strategically placed rod/chunk o' steel to beat the door into submission. Option 2 is defiantely the easiest, but I think I may get better results with option 1. Unfortunately I cant get my other truck sold so I am still working on a budget of -$35.00

[Ron in Indiana]

I am thinking the drivers door is repairable. I am thinking I have 2 options to pull the major dent out of the lower section. 1: Pull the skin off the door, straighten it and weld it back on or 2: drill some half inch holes on the inner section of the door, use a strategically placed rod/chunk o' steel to beat the door into submission. Option 2 is defiantely the easiest, but I think I may get better results with option 1. Unfortunately I cant get my other truck sold so I am still working on a budget of -$35.00[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't remove the door skin unless you have another one. You'll destroy the edge and make a lot more work for yourself. Get inside and push out as much as you can first. A stud welder and a slide hammer will do a lot of the work and not make more work. Of course you have to have access to one in order to do that. An alternative is to weld a small piece of sheet metal to the lowest part of the dent and then pull on it. Once pulled cut/grind the strip off. DON'T use a screw type slide hammer and swiss cheese the door skin. Your idea of drilling holes on the inside of the door will work but try to keep them to a minimum. There is a large hole in the door you can work through first before punching holes. The door handles come off by pushing in the rubber trim piece and pushing out the pin in case you didn't know already. Glad you to hear you have a rust free cab. The battery trays are always rusted as are the inner fender. If you're going to use filler(bondo) over any places you braze the filler will not stick. It will eventually come off, I learned this years ago from experience. Gas weld with steel rod not brass.

[MoparFreak69]

A stud welder and a slide hammer will do a lot of the work and not make more work. Of course you have to have access to one in order to do that.

I dont have access to a stud welder but may be able to find a workaround.

An alternative is to weld a small piece of sheet metal to the lowest part of the dent and then pull on it. Once pulled cut/grind the strip off.

That may work as well. Gotta be careful to not get any heat into that spot though, dont wanna shrink/expand it anymore than it already has.

DON'T use a screw type slide hammer and swiss cheese the door skin.

Wouldnt dream of it, those things are downright cheezy!

Your idea of drilling holes on the inside of the door will work but try to keep them to a minimum. There is a large hole in the door you can work through first before punching holes. The door handles come off by pushing in the rubber trim piece and pushing out the pin in case you didn't know already.

It is below and forward of the access hole that is behind the door panels so that is why I was thinking about drilling the holes. I could probably get most of it with only 2 or 3 holes which would be fairly easy to patch back over. I will yank it off and do some studying with it on a bench and see what route looks best. I noticed how remarkably similar the handles are to both of my boss' 39 Fords. I think the square head is even the same size. Gives me some ideas when I go back together and if I want to get some custom stuff put on.

If you're going to use filler(bondo) over any places you braze the filler will not stick. It will eventually come off, I learned this years ago from experience. Gas weld with steel rod not brass.

Good info to know. I will skip the brass and go straight to rod if I decide to gas it. Of course if I take it in to work I can just use our 440volt MIG with some .023 wire and dial in the heat to just enough to get the task done.

[Ron in Indiana]

If you're going to pull the door off anyway is there a bodyshop close by that could weld some pins on for you? They may even rough out the door while you're there for a small fee. Even if they weld on the studs you can get a grip on them with a vice grip. With welding on a strip for pulling with a mig I doubt you'll get that much heat into it. Since it's stretched anyway it wouldn't hurt anything. I've used pull strips just 1 1/2" long and spot welded each side a bit. Any chance you can post a picture of the door in question? Is it just caved in or is it creased? A block of wood or something to pry from the inside may push out to a rough shape. The trick is not ending up with an oil can skin. I had that on one that was stretched. A bit of heat shrinking took care of it. I don't know your body repair skill level so I hope I'm not telling you things you already know. By the way it's ok to use your name on posts to be a little more personal. Thanks Ron

[MoparFreak69]

Ill start off with the little bit of repair needed to the passenger door. This door is going to be a pretty easy repair and doesnt concern me one bit.
Here are a few pics of what needs to be done to it, should be pretty obvious:

[MoparFreak69]

This:

Is where my concern lies. Looks like someone turned into a post or something and crunched it in pretty good. It is about an inch away from touching the inner panel of the door.

A side shot, a bit hard to see without the depth that you get from looking at it in person:


In this one if you look closely you can see that the metal where the lower hinge bolts though has been cut out. Its a pretty flat area so I dont think that repair will be difficult. I will have to make my own pocket for a bolt plate but that should be easy enough. The big ol dent in the door is my major concern right now:

[MoparFreak69]

And last but not least, it may be an optical illusion between the paint and trim lines but it looks like the drivers side fender droops a bit at the far outside edge.
Problem is looking down the side of the truck the line looks fine.



Any thoughts power giant gurus?

Ben (just for you Ron ;) )

[Ron in Indiana]

Ok Ben now I know what you have let's dive into it. First I think the fender looks fine. It may be down a little but that might be from the door damage. If the gap at the top of the fender to the cab is not opened up I'd say it good. Check also at the upper core support to see if any gaps are showing there from side to side.

The door is mashed pretty good no doubt about that. I think once you remove the inner door panel if it's still on you'll be able to push a lot from inside. If you can get out what you can then pulling from the outside is your next step. Grind to bare metal and tack on a pull strip. Leaving the door on the truck closed if you have a come along or something to pull with hook it up. This is beyond studs. Start at the deepest area and pull there first. Pull slowly and tap around the area with a body hammer to release the tension in the metal. This will also bring the lower area out. Release and if needed weld on above that pull. Repeat the process carefully.

The cracked door post is a common thing and just needs cleaned and welded with a mig welder. To bad there are so many miles between us or I could pull that out in an hour or so. Keep me posted I'll try to help as much as I can. Ron

[mattsoldmopars]

Ben

nice truck you have there, cant beat the price!!

I would be interested in the buying the front axle from your W100, if your going to swap it out for a newer one. Also maybe a few other things you might take off.

If you wanted to trade, I am sure I have a better drivers door, without the big dent.

Here is my email, mattsoldmopars@yahoo.com

Talk to you soon,

Matt

[MoparFreak69]

Ron, Im sure it is going to be easier than it looks, I am just not very experienced in huge dents like that. Like they say, start from where the impact ended and work your way back and you should be good. I think I will start in those 2 gouges with a tack strip like you mentioned and grab ahold of it with the slide hammer and see what I can get it to do. If I can get it to work most of the way out then I can get something inside the door to take care of the rest.

Matt, if I can get my tow rig sold then I will have the funds to jump in and get this project going in a good way. If I cant sell the rig then I will be a bit slow on the process and may be a couple months away from doing anything with the drivetrain. I have a drivers drop Dana 44 but its a CAD axle and I would prefer to find one out of a yard with manual hubs that I can fit under it. Either way I will definately be selling off some stuff I am not using first to make a bit of project money up and second so that it can go to good use and not find itself in the scrap bin.

Thanks for the info and support guys!
Ben

[MoparFreak69]

Well, small update. Got the passenger door back into shape and welded up. I started sanding off the many, many, MANY coats of paint from the door since budget isnt allowing soda/plastic blasting at this time. The truck was originally blue, was painted 2 different tones of white, back to original blue, a reddish/brown color, white again and then a gold/white 2 tone deal that you sorta see in the pictures. Poor thing had been in the booth so many times you would think it would have been beat to heck and back but I am not seeing much by way of bondo so far. I managed to get a little side work that got me a quart of primer, some grinding discs and some DA sanding discs. Should keep me busy for a while and get some good progress at least.

Sure wish I could sell that darn Cummins........................... Whoda thunk I cant sell it for the life of me?!