The WC53 Carryall thread .

[Ugg013]

Gary:

It looks to solid for that. I guess we'll just have to wait until BC Bruce gets back on task for a correct answer. HA!

BC Bruce:

Did I mention that it was a no-go on that drawing (Field Limo) from Chrysler? Well, it is. 8>( Somebody else is looking into it for me, so there's still hope. From my understanding (for what it's worth), they cut out the doors from the body and added framing to them and the innards of the body. I don't think the rear door windows cranked up and down either. Then there's the matter of the rear hatches being replaced with the cargo doors.

Later
Ugg

[Bruce in BC]

Carryall doors and related topics

The material used inside the door is basically tar . It is pretty much the same muck that was used as undercoating for many years . The tar worked fine when it was soft , but once hard the stuff became brittle and would seperate from the metal . This seperation would become a great place for water to hide and rust to form . I am not sure when this stuff was first used but I have found it in a few different makes of cars built in the early thirties.
Both of the doors in my carryall have the tar inside the doors . I bought 2 later PW doors and they had the tar in them too. I believe the tar would lose its volatiles over time and that is why it would get brittle .
Every door for these trucks that I have seen to date has this sound deadening , insulating type tar in them . The stuff never seems to reach the door frame and was only sprayed on the inside of the door skin in a curserary manner . So it is reasonable to asume that it was to help quiet down the tinny sound that the door would create when closing .

To remove the tar use a wood chisel and scrape away . i would avoid using gasoline or any petrolium products .

(1) some are dangerous
(2) The tar will turn sticky again and be difficult to remove .

You need to remove the stuff to do body work and seal the inside metal .

If I was going to create a 4 door Carryall I would not attempt to build a copy of the original ugly Dodge model . Instead I would turn the back doors around like most on the 4 door PW that we have seen . The conversion would look more natural than the Dodge conversion and I suspect most folks would think the Carryall came with 4 doors .

take care

Bruce

Had to toss my rear bumper steel today . The stuff was galvanized . Too dangerous to work with .....darn .

[Bruce in BC]

my first front view of a Carryall

Looked like this . Some folks would cry , I said "Oh Yah , this is SOOooo cool "

[Ugg013]

BC Bruce:

If ya went that route with the 4 door you'd have MAJOR fitment issues. Check out the picture I posted of the Field Limo in the WW II section. If ya like, I'll send it to ya. The doors on the Beast have NOTHING inside for insulation, and quite frankly, I don't recall ever seeing anything used from the factory until the 70's. Then again, my experience was mainly GM.

Ooooh, don't remind me about galvanized metal. Whoever did the work on the Beast before I got it had an in with that stuff. It's EVERYWHERE! Inside and out. Even the headliner is/was galvanized sheet. 8>0 As ya know, NOTHING sticks to it. HA!

Yeah, Bruce, that picture brings back memories. All the glass on the Beast had either holes or was cracked (except for the rear hatch). Why is it such a big thrill for some folk to break glass? I remember walkin thru the supposed WILDERNESS and coming across broken bottles. It wasn't as if they were even used for target practice, they were just smooshed (usin your words) against some rock. 8>(

Later
Ugg

[Bruce in BC]

do not stand on your hood

The passenger side is very straight but the drivers side as this wee bitty crease in it . I am about to get bold and start on a door . This means I will attempt to remove the skin . It sure would be nice if some one made a skin for these things. I sure hope I do not mess it up . Its been awhile and this is not easy to do .

[Ugg013]

BC Bruce:

I have this extra hood. The only thing is, we're not sure what it's off of. It was supposed to be for a WC, and as far as I can tell, the top part IS the same. It's just that the side panels are different. If you'd like, I can get ya the measurements for the top.

Later
Ugg

[Bruce in BC]

Most kind of you ugg

But I may be able to remove that dent with not much work . I will let you know how that works and we will proceed from there . As I wrote in my last post I am about to remove the skin from the door . I will go through the whole process but am having second thoughts . The process of bending back the folded door skin creates some damage on its own . This damage is usually a little crease or fold along the door skin . What happens is the door skin's edge is worked hardened when it is folded around the inner door structure . When the folded metal is bent back it does not straighten out on the tight work hardened metal . Instead it bends the metal beside the bend and this creates a bump or ridge in the door skin . To avoid this the folde metal is heated red hot . To prevent the door skin from warping from the heat it is necessary to build a heat dam along the edge of the door and heat only the folded metal . This is not easy to do and usually some heat does affect the door skin . I saw a bill for a door several months back that quoted 10 hours for removing the skin . This sounds high until you calculate the care that was taken to remove the entire skin without damaging it . Lots of spot weld to drill , heat dams to create and gentle unfolding of the seam . The fastest and most simple way to fix one of these doors would be by using a new door skin . Welding between the character lines would create the least warpage . I will describe the process of installing a door skin in a future post .
Talked to Northwest Fab this morning about my second transfer case or "black box " It should be ready next week . The crew at NWF just did an all nighter getting a truck ready for a customer. They worked till 5 this morning and then slept in the shop for a few hours.

take care

Bruce


We need more Carryall input . I know that Mel up in Penticton has one of these and many of you out there have one too . Fieldphoto,s , garage photos . progress reports and building tips are very welcome , Please take the time to drop in a photo or tip.

[Gary Weaklend]

Door Patching

Bruce in BC:
If you're planning on replacing the entire or even half a door skin good luck. It's been about 8 years since I did this but I had 3-4" of rust along the bottom of the door that needed new metal (in places). I only cut out the bad metal and kept the good so it wasn't a complete strip. That way I was able to keep the normal curve in the door. I did grind along the edge and removed that section of the skin. This was my first time in patching so I had warpage in the metal and had to heat and quench it to get it to shrink back in place. I remember I was concerned for awhile about how easy the center of the skin would push in and stay (like duct work) but the heat quenching and then the tar inside firmed it up. Be sure to put a slight curve on the metal so it follows the contour of the door. I didn't and had to work with it to make it look right. After welding and grinding I went over it with a polyester filler and primer.
Again, I only did a very small section but it was enough for me.
Hope this helps.

[Ugg013]

BC Bruce:

Well let me know on that. On the door skin, an old trick to keep the warping down was to place wet rags on the surface near the work area. It DOES help a bit, but ya have to keep rewetting the rags, so it's good to have someone else there to help with this. It's also good to have the door or whatever your doin on a table/jig/platform so the water doesn't run into your torch flame. Good luck.

Later
Ugg

[Bruce in BC]

Converting a Power wagon door to a Carryall style.

This is what I am talking about when I say that I am removing the skin . Photo (a) shows the skin being seperated . Photo (b) shows the 2 halfs now seperated .
I have some work to do before the skin gets modified and can be recrimped to the old door inner structure . The top of the inner structure needs to be modified , rust removed and some strengthening here and there . That and 12 holes need to be filled . It will be interesting to see what kind of mess I end up with .

best regards
Bruce

[Bruce in BC]

Got a few more holes filled .

Working on the door structure and am using the tig . I filled 9 holes in the skin today using the mig . Backed up the holes with a piece of copper and went at it . I ground down the welds using a cut off disc and finished the spots using a 2 inch sandinng disc on a right angle sander. A few small dents got bumped away and I have 5 nasty mirror screw holes to fill . The metal around each hole is raised like a miniture volcano .
I left half the door in the derusting tank for the night .

That is it , back in a day or two .

Bruce

I hit OX up for a sponsership . I have received no comment from them to date . If I do not get an answer I will consider it a clear signal on who to go to for a locker . I will wait a few days yet .

[jawgroth]

derusting tank

Bruce- what is your derusting tank?

[Bruce in BC]

Derusting tank is a fiberglass bathtub .

If you look up derusting with electricity or some combination you will see what I am up to . Sort of a home made Redistrip . There is a article on the power wagon page tucked away someplace .

[Bruce in BC]

more door shots and new facts

This may be of interest . The inside half of the door for the 42 carryall is 3/16ths thicker than the later power wagon door . This is up where it rolls into the window area . You all know what I am talking about . This is the area that your arm rests on when cruising with the window down . I am not sure if this is a result of a design change or variance from door to door .

This is a shot of the Carryall door beside a pickupdoor of similiar design but unknown year . All of the holes are now filled and I need to add the tin to the top of the door skin .

Photo 2 shows a corner of the inner door structure mounted in the Carryall . I am checking for clearance and trying to figure our how to get the new door locks to work . To be honest fitting new locks is more work than it is worth . After doing this I would not bother to do it on another vehicle . Simple back up sliding door bolts may be the way to go .
There is an additional brace added to this inner door structure . I stamped some data on the brace that will help identify the vehicle if it is ever stolen . The brace was added in an effort to keep the hinges from cracking the inner door sheet metal . This seeems to happen on these early doors . Actually I see the same problem on late model doors too.

Got a ways to go yet before I try and reassemble this door . It will not be perfect. But it should turn out good enough to last 30 or 40 years without rusting away .

Take care

Bruce

[Bruce in BC]

This is a shot that I had never seen until today

I got the top of the inner door skin welded up today . I should have the inner door structure finished on monday night. The total time on the door will come in around 14 hours . That is discounting the time looking for tools and cleaning the spray gun and other stuff that eats up time .
I am using a old millar 150 tig machine . For those of you who do not know this unit , it is a drag to start unit . What happens is a little bit of metal gets stuck to the tungston and when welding , this little drop migrates around the tungston and moves the arc with it . To counter this I am constantly changing the torch angle and touching up the tip on the grinder. The arc can move about 3/32 from one side to the other while welding . I have to do an article on this , the whole thing is just to darn funny not to share .
It is too quiet around here. Carryall content would be most welcome.

Bruce

Getting some ARB's in a few weeks .