With the door gaps done, I realised just how bad the rest of the gutter was on the drivers side. I’d already made a new piece for the end, so I decided to cut off the rest of it and make some more as it was beyond saving. After a few hours with the hammers, files and the shrinker it was replaced with a nice shiny new bit

I had been thinking about what to do with the door gaps as I still wasn’t happy with them even after chopping them up and extending the frame.
I hung the door properly and did my best to get it to sit evenly. The top hinge didn’t feel right, so I took that back off and set about it with a hammer until it worked properly. With that done the gaps were still big enough to get a horse through, complete with rider.
I finally decided to TIG filler rods onto the edges to close the gaps up, then once I was happy I was pretty close, I went over it all with the MIG to “fill in” the joins between the rods.

After a lot of careful grinding and hand filing I decided it was time to call it a day. It was a lot of work, but there’s not much else you can say about it! The end result is much, much better than it was.

After a good clean with panel wipe and a quick skim of filler the lumps and bumps mostly dissapeared. Needs a bit more work before I call it quits, but I’ll leave it alone till it’s back on the cab now.

Weather was absolutely awful here this weekend, the only thing that was missing was Noah and his animals. I didn’t want the ’55 sat out in weather that bad so I had a big tidy up and spun the cab round ninety degrees to get a bit more space to work in. I had a quick look at the passenger door and decided to leave it alone till I got it back on the cab and could see what the gaps were like. I got one of the wings out of the cab, and set about doing some more on that. It had a few rust holes on the top edge, so I ground them out to good metal and tig’d them up.

A quick rub down with a grinder and a file and they were done. I had put a big patch panel in the middle and it needed a bit of work to get the curve back in it. Faced with trying to spend the next year or so trying to hone my metalwork skills or using a bit of filler I got the filler out. It’s a lot smoother than it looks in the pic, but it’s had a tough life made worse by me. It got a quick skim of filler and I’ll give it a sand down when I’m out there next.

I’d spent a fair bit of time stretching the door edges to fit the opening a lot better, but had noticed that the inner part of the frame was all over the place from where the roof had been chopped.

I decided it was beyond hope, and just chopped it out. The replacement panel was easy enough, but welding it back in wasn’t so easy. I decided to hang the cab from the roof by one of the hinges with the other side on the floor.

With it up like that I could stand in the hole where the transmission cover goes, and reach up to weld the frame. Welding was better but I burnt my head a lot with sparks!. Quick smooth with a flap disc and I was back where I started minus the wrinkles and dents.

I’d pulled off the rotten remains of the gutter on the drivers side, and had now got to the point where they either all had to be cut off, or I had to make some new ones. I decided I’d just get on with it and make some. Firstly I made a plate to hold the shrinker too as it was a pain to use clamped in the vice. I could then clamp the plate really tight so it didn’t move about.

After a bit of measuring, I cut up some more of the donor hood and folded up a strip of it to use. It was a few inches more than I needed, but was the right size. With the shrinking jaws swapped for stretching ones I made the curve for the end of the rail then cut it down to the right length. A few quick tacks with the gas welder and it was done for now. It’s between the two lines on the roof in case you’re trying to work it out!

For a bit of a change, I decided to make a start on the front valance panel. I had two of them with the truck, one bent like a banana and one that was full of holes. I picked the one that was the straightest, and spent a while bending it roughly back into shape. I also wanted to fill the bumper slots, so the rusty one became a donor for repair patches and filling it in.

After carefully cutting out the damaged bumper slot, I used that as a template for a piece from the donor, and after a lot of slow and careful welding it was filled in with very little distortion. A quick run over with the flap disk, and it was pretty much ready to go. It needs a fair bit of reshaping to get the rest of the dents out, but I’m happy with the result. I’ll do the other side when I’m fed up of doing something else!

I really wanted to learn how to do heat shrinking properly after messing about with a shrinking disc and not being happy with the results. Knowing nothing about gas torches, I decided I’d rather play it safe and buy new stuff than set myself on fire. A quick chat with the welding supplies place round the corner from work and I bought a load of bits and rented some more bottles. With it all bolted together, I was still not convinced I wouldn’t burn myself and nervously lit the torch. I had made a test piece to shrink from an old bit of hood that I beat the heck out of with a ball pein hammer to get about an inch deep stretch in it. I gently heated it to cherry red, then hammer and dollied it flat. And that was it, done. I was amazed.

Convinced that it was a fluke, I got another scrap piece and did the same. To my amazement it came out spot on as well. At that point I decided I may as well have a go at one of the front wings. They were in a pretty sorry state, with a few bad tears, and were stretched really badly where I had tried to repair them with just hammer and dollies. After a few hours of heating, hammering and some gas welding (which I really like for some odd reason) I was miles further forward despite them looking like they had been in a fire. I even managed to get rid of the”oilcan” in the bead that made the bottom quarter pop too far in or out. Another thing to add to the list of “if only I’d bought one years ago I’d be miles ahead”.

I’ve been doing loads of little bits and bobs on the cab, and with the constant rain and damp I was concerned it was going to be rusty before I got any primer on there. I decided the time had come to clean it up and start putting filler on. Quite a good feeling to go from hammering and welding constantly to filling. That didn’t last long, as I remembered how much I disliked filling and sanding. All progress tho.

There was also a big chunk missing out of the floor, and I was starting to get concerned about how much it was flexing when I climbed in and out. Afer a bit of origami with some cardboard, I folded up a patch piece in metal to put it back together. Not exactly a work of art but it will be under the carpet so it doesn’t matter in the least. A bit of rattle can primer and it’s another little job done.

The passenger side firewall is full of holes for the heater and various other bits. I don’t have the original heater so it’ll end up with a different one in. I’d rather fill all the holes and re-drill for what I need than end up with spare holes like I did on the Bel Air.the panel was rippled where the heater hole was, so I taped it and cut it out before making a new one to go in it’s place. No real drama just lots of time later and it was done.I also filled in a few smaller round holes and I’ll grind it all down when I get on with the firewall.

It’s almost impossible to work on the firewall sensibly with the engine and box in place, even with the cab pushed back on the frame till it touches the rear tyres. With the Camaro out of the way, I got the engine and box on the hoist before taking the wheels off and dropping the frame down to allow me to lift it over the A arms easily. I split the 4L60E off the back, as it’s getting a 4L80E instead, and got the LQ4 onto the stand. A very quick clean up and re-sealed the holes before pulling off the water pump and some other bits to lighten it up a little.When I have some time I’ll clean it all up properly ready for stripping down. Think I’m going to have a go at building it myself. Eeek.

Now I could get at the passenger side, I could sort some of the bad bits of the chop out. It just doesn’t line up that well where it’s been stuck back together and although I could just bury it in filler, I’d like to get it as good as I can. There was a vertical strip welded in to fill a gap on the pillar that I just cut out and threw away, and slit the welds back open. After a little bit of hammer and dolly work, I was happy that it lined up properly.

A few tacks, and I was ready to cut out the replacement filler strip. Again working slowly I gradually filled in the gaps then set about it with a file, a flap disk and the sander. That showed up the inconsistencies in the shape of the cab pillar, so I worked my way through that as well till I was happier with the overall look of it. I also started working my way along the roof seam and filling that in too as it dissapears in the centre of the chop so I’d rather it was smooth. The door pillar was also not smooth at the join, so that got cut again, slide hammered out, and re-welded. A lot of work but all worth it I think.