The WC53 Carryall thread .

[HRT5SLCFD]

Frankenstein stich job

Well I put my new rocker panel and new "C" post in. Fourty years ago the belt line had been cut up and welded about 3/4" wrong. I needed to fix the belt line to match the new rear doors. I also needed to fix the rear window, it having had two windows, and I turned it into one. I fixed the belt line by taking my saw and cutting about 2.5' back, and below the belt line. Then I pie cut the belt line out, and shifted it back to straight and tacked into place. I did the same thing with the window. I know it looks bad with all the tack welds, but it is all straight and lines up with all new doors and lines. I will put the old roof section back and build a new drip rail over the fourth door. With about 2-3 hours welding you wont even notice. I get so excited I can't wait to get home from the fire house. We work 48 hour shifts then have 96 hours off and I work most of them on the carryall. Some times I have to keep the concrete bussiness going, but my dear wife helps a lot with that.

[Bruce in BC]

Proportions look great .

Are you butt welding , lap welding or a combination of both ? I refuse to lap weld my panels together and only butt weld but the factory did and still does , use lap welds in constructing their bodies . Sometimes it is a great place for rust to start and in other places it does not seem to be an issue .
You are progressing at an awesume rate . I am so toasty from my day job that I find it hard to get much done after work . I should have my rear crossmember finished by Monday . I am building it in one location and the Carryall is in another . Gotta double check it to make sure it will fit .

Bruce

I had to fix a crooked chop job on an old merc a few years back . They lap welded the rear corners in one of the biggest messes I have ever seen . But on the outside it looked fine and the lead was still intact after lord knows how many years . We decided to leave it alone and fix the front part only . It was one of my smarter moves . The merc had been chopped with a cutting torch . Here I am measuring cutting , filing until there is no gap on a joint and some guy gets the same results with a torch . I wanted to fix the mess but the more I looked at it the more it grew on me .

[HRT5SLCFD]

Both

I'm using both types of joints. Butt welds work ok on none structure suff, but with all the cuts to fix the problems I had to lap welded with a 1/8" strap backer. I'm going to redo the inside panels and when that happens I will rino line all the panels. I have had good luck with the rino liner it seals everything. I'm going power windows and will need to make a tray for the rear window to slide, so all or most of all of the inner panels with have to be modified. I have to go up to Wyoming for a concrete job, so I'll only have 1 or 2 days to work on the carryall, but it should give me enough money to buy my new engine. Has anybody put a 5.9 in a carryall?

[Bruce in BC]

5.9 in a Carryall

I have seen a couple but the results did not look very good . Either too big of a dog house or the radiator shroud was lengthened - which looks way wrong in my opinion . Many of us have gone the 4bt route . I think you could squeeze one in but the rad would need to move forward and the fire wall rearward by 4 inches .
I am running a 4bt - if I was to do it again I would try and use a civy firewall .

Bruce

[HRT5SLCFD]

More work on "C" post and roof

I worked on the roof and the "C" post today. The roof line has two slopes to it, so it is hard to find the exact fit. I ended up cutting my piece out twice to get it to look right. I'll roll another piece to fit into the empty spot. I may end up pie cutting the new roof piece to get the right line. I will end up filling the whole roof anyway. The door jamb on the "C" post I just took the donor truck jamb and split the jamb off of it, then cut away the truck part and tacked into my post. It went together really easy. With a little patience and time welding it will look stock. In fact my wife commented how normal the project looked. I said thank you for the compliment.

[HRT5SLCFD]

Passenger side

I worked on the passenger side today. This side was a little more messed up than the drivers side. The shorted job was really done bad when it came time for the battery box. It was warped so bad that I just cut it out and started over. Well I built the pass. "C" post and welded it to the body mount. I also had to cut out the old battery box support from the inside. It will come together fine my goal is to get the floor and the roof in by Oct. 1.

[Bruce in BC]

I shortened my shifter today

The shifter knob hit the steering wheel . I took 3 1/2 inches out of it , slid in a little stud and welded it up . I have to go guiding for 4 days and have had a couple of callouts for searches too . Toss in the kids , regular vehicles exploding , house , work , garden and forced no work time it is difficult to find time to work on the carryall . But I am squeezing in a few hours each week . Working on the cross member - still . Off tah bed .
Oct 1st to get the floor and roof in ? Man I will be lucky if I get a cord of wood in by then .

take care
Bruce

Wonder what other carryalls are being built right now.

[lebowski]

ok, drove it around, got some pics today. ill try and get back on it.

http://gallery.me.com/ltalessi#100372

feel free to download/take what you want.....
thats a lexan.margard moon roof.....

McInfantry,
Where'd you get those rims? Suits the truck well.

[Bruce in BC]

Those are stock Chevy rims

He painted them green . They are cast aluminum and i see them on all kinds of chev trucks . they look much nicer when painted and stuck on a carryall than they do unpainted on a newer truck . There are some killer DOT beadlocks made from aluminum and stuck on some boarder patrol vehicles . Many got taken off because a lot of the local tire guys did not like working on them . Sure wish I could get them up here .
I tossed some paint at a door last night . Pressure pot blaster used whole bag and ran I ran out of sand ( actually ground glass ) before the job was done . messy messy .

Bruce

[Bruce in BC]

Too darn quiet around here , what happened ?

We were posting like gangbusters here for a few weeks . Now we gots nada .
I think I scored another door for the Carryall - it is supposed to have all the guts that I seem to be missing . I will believe it when I actually have the door in my hands . I am working on several parts at once , got a door in the dip tank , rear cross member is a little farther along and the lower window channel for the front doors is now done .

Yep I need to fire up the camera .
take care
Bruce

[Gary Weaklend]

I agree it is too quiet on this thread and....

in my garage. I'm ready to paint some parts and actually finish the truck but my day job has me tied down.

[Bruce in BC]

I wonder where this door came from .

I picked it up in Chilliwack B.C. I thought VFD stood for Vancouver fire dept but I was wrong VFD stands for volunteer fire dept . Bow Horn Bay is really close to Qualicum Bay on vancouver island . . The door has the dead bolt style latch . I suspect the door is from a 39 Dodge . The door has all it's innards and is in pretty good shape , no rust through . Not bad for a 70 year old door .

[Bruce in BC]

Cross member is almost done

This is my rear cross member . It has a built in reciever tube . Licence plate mount is in , access holes for the body mounts and the gas tank bungs and bumper mount bungs are welded in place . I have some stainless tacked in place for grounds , rustless grounds . I would have the bungs for the pintle hook but I do not have a pintle hook . " No pintle hookie no mountie ".

[HRT5SLCFD]

Been a long time

Bruce your bumper looks great. I moved my 4 door in the back garage and cleaned the garage so I can work over the winter. I worked on the right rear door and the jamb. I had to move the top hindge and graft the belt line to match. Also the inner door had to be lenghted about an inch to take up the slack from the curved frount door jamb. Got my new welder and my new compressor is shipping this week. It's time to start putting pics on this thread.

[Bruce in BC]

I wondered what you were up to .

I got to try out my stud welder today . It is great for pulling dents on double panels and I managed to make one crease disappear . I think I have my head around the rotary latches but have yet to try out the solution . I see in street Rodder where one guy bolted them to the outside of the door . I almost went this route but would have pocketed the latches into the door about 3/4 to 1 inch . Do you have any spare lower rear tailgate latches ?


take care
Bruce

Your shop looks neater than mine .