The WC53 Carryall thread .

[Alxj64]

Gary, that truck is beautiful. I remember stumbling across your build pictures years ago now when I was looking for a Civilian Power wagon. Glad I didn't find one and ended up buying the Carryall now. But really, that truck is a true head turner.

[Alxj64]

Removed more bondo, and cut out more bad patch work last night. That big section was also cut out after this picture but I forgot to take a picture before going into the house for the night. However, I have finally reached the point of rebuilding the rear lower gate cross member. This is certainly going to be a challenge. I have to try and get the creative/artsy side of my brain to play along nicely with my mechanical and structural side of my brain. Lets see what happens!

Cutting out these funky patch jobs. Not really sure what was going one when these were put in. This was not done by the previous owner, but by someone quite a bit ago. I can't sleep at night knowing that there is this much "ugly" under the bondo back there. Also, notice I added some flat stock across the bottom of the rolled lip to give me a rigid point to weld back to when it comes time to close this thing up with the sheet metal covers.



This is a picture of me getting everything lined back up again. Used the angle steel to get a plumb reference point so that I know that the corners are the same length out from the same relative height reference point on the truck. The passenger's corner has the porta power behind it with just the ever so slight load on it to hold it in place as the steel keeps relaxing on me. Once I get the lower cross member plate built I can set it all free. The reason I want to overkill build this lower cross member and body mount are is everyone says the trucks are really "twisty" when offroad or under hard torque conditions. This being the case, I want to stiffen up the body, stiffen up the frame, and soften the suspension to get rid of as much of that as I can, mostly to help prevent fatigue cracking.

Also notice that nice big 4x8 piece of cold roll sheet!

[Bruce in BC]

Flat stock

How did you bend that flat stock ? Looks like it is bent and has a rolled edge , but pictures can be misleading . So what is the real story ?

[Alxj64]

How did you bend that flat stock ? Looks like it is bent and has a rolled edge , but pictures can be misleading . So what is the real story ?

Its cut with a plasma cutter along the arc that I wanted and then the edges are smoothed and blended with a flap disc and then if you look to the left in the picture I already did some welding and blending. I used some coarse Roloc polishing discs to blend that in... And then promptly ordered some 40, 60, and 120 sanding discs because the polishing discs are not the right thing for the job. Be mindful that this is all my first real hand at body work. About 12 years ago I did some "bondo" work on my '65 Mustang, but I was also 16, and my dad oversaw the project to make sure I wasn't goofing it up too terribly.

[Bruce in BC]

Nice job

I think you should build the frame around the rear door opening before removing any more of the skin . The bottom of the frame will anchor to the frame and keep things square . It may be possible to build the bottom of the door frame from 2x6 tubing and cut the curve in one side with the plasma cutter and have at her . Either that or fab the thing from cold rolled flat sheet and weld it back together . Both methods will take a bit of creative fabrication . Which is not an issue for you from what I can see .
If you can get your hands on a English wheel or a planishing hammer the rear skins should be a piece of cake . The rear patch on mine was bent over one of my former student's knees and welded in place with a TIG welder . Thanks for that Tate .
I need a plasma cutter but I am now on a limited budget and need to think about what I spend my dollars on .

Progress report - I am down to the last adjustment to my frame . There is no question that I should have built a new one . I have now been told by 3 different people " You should have built a new frame from tubing "

Heading out to the shop to tack some bars to the frame - then I get to weld in a patch , or piece , or adjustment to one area of the frame .


take care

Bruce

[Bruce in BC]

It is the little things that suck up time

I elected to scrape the frame before sand blasting it . I suspect there is a fair amount of lead in the paint and I do not want it laying in my driveway and billowing up every time I drive on it . By placing some plastic under the frame and some careful sweeping along with a shop vac with a hep filter I think the lead will be pretty much contained .
Got about 1/3 scraped so far and about 2 full dust pans of old paint .
Interesting what shows up under the old paint , lots of stamping marks and scrapes from unknown sources from the factory . Here is a interesting number stamped on the driver side of the frame , the letters are very large and have nothing to do with the serial number .
Found some cracks in one of the out riggers for the body mounts . Pulled it off and welded it up . Of course I did not weld it up while it was on the frame , as a result I warped it and one of the holes will not line up .
The rain is coming tonight . The frame is wrapped in plastic and the tools are back in the shop . The shop looks like a bomb ha stone off . I think I will tuck my tail between my legs and come clean on what a disaster the shop has become . But that is for another day .

Take care
Bruce

Edit , just got the bill for a pint of Rescue Green ..... 52 bucks , I sure wish for the days when a paint supplier would drop off a couple of cans for free and tell me " Just mention our name and how much you like the product ...... and do not tell anyone how you got it ." Strainers , stir sticks , measuring cups and what not would get left with the paint and once in a while a sack of beer . What changed ?

[HRT5SLCFD]

Number

I believe that number, is the part number for the frame rail. I have the same number on mine. Still working on the right rear fender, then painting both fenders at the same time.

James

[Bruce in BC]

One small step

Got the frame scraped down , not a bolt left . Polished up a couple of welds and acid washed them and let it sit for a few days . Found one small crack at the beginning of one weld , lack of fusion , most likely due to a cold start . Ground out the area and welded it a second time . The rest of the welds look fine . Blast the frame tomorrow but I am a week behind and have other jobs piling up . May have to leave it for a few weeks . What I really want to do is get the frame back to rolling stage and roll it back into the shop ........ then close the door and leave it there for awhile .

Bruce

Off to play with ropes and rock faces .

[Gary Weaklend]

Window Trays

It's been about 10 years since I did this but thought I would post pictures of how I handled the rear window trays. When I "tried" to fix the trays in high school in 1970, I used what any high school kid would use...tar paper and Black Jack. The tar kept the rust under control but as you can imagine, the windows still leaked. During the second restoration I cut the trays out, made new ones to fit and welded them in. If you weld in new trays be sure to fit the interior covers to make sure the screw holes on the body are in the correct spot. Otherwise you will be fighting and enlarging the cover holes when you go to install them. HTH

[Bruce in BC]

1970 ? boy you had good taste for a kid .

Buying one of these ugly beasts in 1970 took foresight and guts . Hot rods were pretty much dead , 55 - 57 chevys and muscle cars were where it was at . You done good .
I got the outside of my frame painted . Stripped it by hand then went at it with a disc and then sand blasted it to rough up the surface and get the odd pitted area clean . I have a limited amount of sand , hoping that I can get the inside blasted before I run out . Otherwise I will need to travel for a day to pick up some more blasting media . No filler or smoothing on this frame , it has that "farm fresh " look .

take care
Bruce

[Alxj64]

Thanks for those pictures of the window trays. Mine will be needing some attention no doubt.

I was out of town for this past week working in Glacier National Park, which was not a bad week at all, except that I have a nasty pulled muscle in my neck/upper back that was doing okay until a week of hiking, climbing, and repelling changed all of that. I'm pretty bad off at the moment except for a brief moment when all of the drubs, ice packs, and my motivation must have aligned perfectly for me to sneak out into the garage this afternoon for about 3 hours. The 4 leg out, and 3 leg return flights warranted me sufficient time to "daydream" about how I would continue my repairs with the tailgate and surrounding area. Today I took those dreams and cut some of them out of metal. My arc curve for the rear is a 12' radius. Its very broad, yes, but its pretty close to what I calculated based on the remnants of the truck, the old banged up gate, the numbers guys have posted for me here, and the position in which my rear corners ended up. So, the slot in the bottom cross plate is for me to slide in some flat bar and follow that curve. I don't have a roll bender so I figure I could finagle some flat stock into those slots to get the vertical section of my rear gate "frame" built. This will have holes for the gate hinges installed in it as well. Then some gussets will tie that vertical member in to the legs of the bottom plate where the body mount holes are. I know its not an exact restoration, but given the tooling I have to work with, I think this will work out well and actually be less prone to twisting and moving when the truck is moving. The bottom plate is 3/16" cold roll and is some scrap steel left over from some armor rear corners I installed on my Jeep TJ / Rock Crawler back last fall.



Also, while I was in the shop, I installed (finger threaded) my cowl support rods in, set the radiator shell in, and then laid the hood over it all. Nothing is "aligned" properly but its all pretty close. I took a picture of it all with the XML next to it. I think its going to look awesome!

[Gary Weaklend]

Good Job and...

those tires will really set it off. Working at Glacier National Park sounds like it would be fun if you didn't have to go through a long trip and then recovery.

[Bruce]

Nice!

[scott]

Now I can show you

Hey all,
I put a little something together for you all about my carryall let me know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=zjun4EPL6tI

[Alxj64]

Hey all,
I put a little something together for you all about my carryall let me know what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=zjun4EPL6tI

That was very cool! Thanks for the putting that together! That in itself is even a time consuming task!