Cool McCool's Garage

I’ve spent the better part of the past three days doing nothing but working on the running boards of the Diamond T.  I probably would have been time ahead to just make completely new ones, rather than extend the originals, by the time I got the dents out, lengthened the cab-length originals, and fitted them properly.  Oh well, they will look pretty nice.  Actually, the reason I didn’t just make new ones was because the originals have the little reverse beads rolled in, to fit the rubber treads.  In hindsight, it’d have been easy to roll new beads in new board, but I can say I used the originals now!  They were cab length, as the truck had a flat-bed, and I made extensions which I welded to the original shortys.  By the time I hammered all the old dents out, and took care of the warpage from welding them together, it took plenty of hammer and dolly, then filler work, to make them flat and presentable. 

I actually did something else, I got a pair of inner fender liners, plastic, I think they’re from the front of a Chevy 4×4, and adapted these to the rear fenders of the truck.  They’ll keep dirt and road debris from flying up and getting in the bed framework of the new box.   Three sheet metal brackets welded to the framework of the box serve as mounts, and I had to trim about 3″ from the sides to fit under the Auburn fenders.  I like the way they look, they fit nice, and save me days of fabrication making splash shields, which I’d have to have done if I hadn’t found these.    Thanks to my friend Brad Rose, for letting me scrounge these from his salvage yard.  They also hide the ugly raw ‘glass undersides of the fenders, a big bonus!

It’s nice to see the truck setting on the floor, after it being up on the stands all winter.  I still have to run the brake lines and do some touch up painting on the frame rails, but it’s easy to lift it back up.  Makes it seem more like an actual vehicle than garage art, setting on the floor.  Today I bought three Dodge 3/4 ton, 8 lug rims,  not only to replace the bent steel rim on the left front that leaks, but also to take the aluminum rims (the matching pair to the ones seen on the rear of the truck in this shot) from the Spartan.  I “borrowed” those when I swapped axles under the trailer.  Now I have 4 aluminum wheels and 4 new 17″ tires for the truck, and will put two of the steel  ones, blasted and painted on the trailer with two nearly new Michelons, and have a third for a spare.  The truck and trailer have the same bolt pattern, so one spare for both will be all we need.

It won’t be long now till I can start priming and painting sheet metal, that will feel really good after the long build.  The other big milestone is to get it started.  I’m a little apprehensive, but I’m going to have confidence that all my work wiring and sorting the electronics out will pay off and it’ll start right up.