Wow. Two posts in two days! I should be doing something productive, but this looks SO good I wanted to come in and post this while I’m so excited.I’d primed the sheet metal a couple of days ago, on one of the rare sunny days, before it turned orange again. Since I need to pull the wagon in and REALLY fix the leaky gas tank, I needed to pile all the DT sheet metal up somewhere, and the most logical somewhere was on the truck.
So, here it is, more or less together, and the shop (more or less) cleaned up. At least I can get the car in to work on it now.
I spent yesterday, and a couple of hours today, correcting another production oddity. The cabs on these trucks are made in sections, and bolted together. The early ones had wood inner structure, these later ones have steel framing, but they are still made in sections, and these sections are all bolted together.
In this picture, you can see the big gap between the windshield frame, which along with the roof, is bolted to the cowl, and the rear of the cab. This big gap was originally sealed with a rubber molding, which was shrunken, brittle, and cracked. I have one car that leaks at the windshield, I don’t need two that give me wet feet in the rain.
Now with the rotten, cracked old rubber out, what to do with the gap?
Now, a filler strip of 18ga. gets welded in where the gap is about 3/8″, and the smaller gap welded full…
A little “Mar-Glass” reinforced filler….
…a little sanding, then some plastic filler to finesse it, and the result is this. A nice crisp character line to match the beltline, a filled seam that won’t leak, and a nice way to eliminate a piece of rubber trim thats unavailable, and looks bad too boot.
I was never happy with the way the hood fit the grill shell, even when it rolled off the truck here 4 years ago. The front edge was way too tight, and the gap was uneven top to bottom. To help with this, I slotted the holes for radiator support mount, and moved it, and the grill shell, forward about 3/8 of an inch. That let the hood fit properly, and the front fenders now mount to the grill shell without any tension, which they didn’t before.I guess people figured, “Hey, it’s a truck, the panel fit doesn’t have to be good.”, and it wasn’t. Now, it’s much better. Not Mercedes Benz good, but pretty good for a 60 year old farm truck.
So, now it’s on to finish up the little bit of finessing body work, and I can start shooting high build primer and get it ready to paint. It’s a huge step to get it in primer, I’ve been anxious to see it all one color, even if it is only grey epoxy! The vision I had is a little easier to see when it’s (almost) all one color.
Cool McCool's Garage 
WOW..that is turning into a huge old truck. BTW what is the logo on the drivers door?
Paul McClain
Paul, that is a memento of our Rt. 40 Bicentennial Tour with the Tin Can Tourists. It’s a magnetic emblem that we had on the car during the trip. We pulled the ’48 Spartan behind the ’48 Pontiac convert to Cumberland MD from here in Kalamazoo, MI, and then back across Rt. 40 to Springfield Ill. Rt. 40 was established by G. Washington and Thomas Jefferson to open the West, and is the first link in our national highway system. It was quite a trip.