Progress 39 Panel

[Gary in Mozarks]

Well we got the rear wheels and wishbone out of the panel frame tonight and filpped the frame over so I can better get at the running board bolts. (pictures in the morning) I also need to remove and transfer the spare tire carrier.

After reviewing everything I have decided to transfer the rear extension and use the pickup frame. The patch is only 4x4 and right at the dogleg. I think it will be less work than transfering the drive train. I will start sandblasting the frame tomorrow. I will paint it with rustoleum satin black (50/50 mix of flat and gloss black) 7.99 a quart at the local elevator.

I am going to remove 4 riviets to straighten the cross brace right in front of the muffler. I can do a better job of it out of the frame and rivet it back. I bought a bunch of shovel rivets at an auction and they are the right size. I just have to shorten them.

The body is supported well on jackstands. I have a problem with the lower right corner at the back door. The seam seperated in the process of jacking up the body. I am going to have to bring that back together and keep everything square.

It looks like somebody used a pry bar to get the left rear door open at some point. I have a dent right next to where the top bolt latches into the upper recess, above the left rear door. That one is going to take some thought.
Gary in Mozarks

 

[Gary in Mozarks]

Here is the bottom of the frame

Here is where the body seperated

Here is where someone took a pry bar to the top

Think I need a new fender?

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Gary, On mine I bought a new frame, it was gone, yours dont look bad, I put sheet steel floors in it and replaced the wooden frame spacers with boxed steel spacers, at that rear point, I put a 4x2 steel tube to tie the rear together and welded it so the back end was a unit. I made the rear valence out of a sheet of steel and rolled it over an oxygen bottle, It was a pain because the valence tapers at each end, I had to rebuild the fender lips and made tubs for the inner fender, i can describe that fun for you later, To beat the body accents straight i made a dolly that fit into the pattern from the reverse side and a receiver pattern for the outside from a chunk of rock maple, it was about a foot long, i used a pattern transfer jig to get the contour routed the pattern to the rock maple and put my wife on the other side of it while i pounded the steel into submission, had to let her beat the thing for a while too, she took it personal. That quarter needs a lot of love, might have to get creative with it. The most important thing is the door frame. Overall, mine was more rotten, yours is more dented. There are very few welds on this body, mostly rivets, the one way they did join panels was with lead wiping seaming, there is a lot of lead at the round shape above your quarter panel photo, there is a ton of lead work in the door frames, most of this is structural lead work, they joined her with lead. This was my favorite part of the truck
. Did a lot of tigging.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

on the boards you need all of those braces, you can get new boards from northern for 450.00 ish.

 

[55 dude]

keep the pic's coming as these panels rock! it's gonna take some TLC. but will be worth it, wish my truck was a panel.

 

[Frank The Plumber]

Dude, its early in the build, make a quad cab or cab and a half out of it.

 

[55 dude]

extended cab would be nice but oooh those panels really rock!

 

[Gary in Mozarks]

This fellow built a extended cab 36 ford using two extra doors for the window frames and filler. He split the cab just behind the doors and added the extension. Pretty sharp I would think the same thing could be done with a 39
Gary in mozarks

 

[55 dude]

really nice, reminds me of the trucks that were built for the railroad repair crews.