Projects 41 Ford pickup finally got it home and pictures pictures

Thanks Sam. I am looking forward to seeing your work. I have thought about building the Stroker Mc Gurk car over the years and have looked at the Shadow Rods T as a start, but ........who knows?

 

Thanks Mart, I had some real good help from friends. I don't regret buying the truck; I just paid way too much. When you have the fever, you make questionable decisions.

 

It's 17 days since I had much to report. I have a couple of small repairs back where the gas tank mounts and I am replacing the side braces from the center of the X to the outer frame next. I bought replacements because I'm tired of bent , twisted 12 ga. I'll rivet them in also. Here are some status pics that are up to today.

Everything so far is within about 1/16 in including the 2 rails being level with each other. I added a short section of 11 ga. boxing where the weld joints are. I figure this old girl deserved some support.

The wood blocks were curved on the bottom to match the frame as manufactured. The patch pieces I bought were flat. I'm not complaining; without them I would not been able to fix the frame. With the welding and grinding done in that area, I set the wood up and scribed the mismatch to be sanded off. It took about an hour with the belt sander.... sand and check.

The cab sits on the "posts' that stick up; the rest is clearance. The level is on the rear most cab mount location.

You can see the A piller bolt hole in the foreground left and the hole for the bolt in front of the seat riser on the right. There is no block at the firewall hole. That's how you fit a flat floor to a curved frame.
I bought a new rear spring (Posies) and installed it to see if it sits square with the frame. The cross member was welded on the back side where the U bolts go. I didn't notice this until I was well into frame repairs; anyway, it appears it may have been cracked in use and repaired. I've never heard of this, but apparently there is a rear cross member on FB Marketplace that shows this kind of damage. Has anyone ever seen or heard of this?

 

Enjoying your build, that’s a lot of frame work. I’ll be looking at mine soon, Hopefully it’s not as far gone as yours, but you’ve given me loads of info, thanks

 

Thanks. I feel that is maybe the greatest benefit of the Hamb; seeing how others have attacked and solved problems has helped me a lot.
I just finished riveting in the torque box to running board supports and I managed to take a couple of pictures of the process.
There were 4 rivets in this position ( 2 per side) and they were the most difficult. I could not keep my bucking pieces in position and tight against the rivet head.

This is what I had clamped in the corner to hammer against.
The angle iron is so the frame didn't bounce around... much.

This setup worked pretty well because the wrench at the bottom wouldn't let the "stack" move off to the side and release pressure on the rivet.

This is the top view of the above setup. The in this location needs to be flat as in the picture below.

The cab wood passes over the top of these 2 rivets ( one on each side). Next; I'm removing the torque
box and I'm going to do some painting. It will be nothing serious.... brush and rattle can and some undercoating here and there.

 

Nice work Joel! Thanks for the detailed description of the process.

 

Nice job on the frame, are you bucking the rivets cold and what size gun are you using. I'm going to reassemble a '32 frame and need all the info i can get.
Tom

 

I wasn't able to find rivets with diameters in 32nds in small quantities and there were originally some holes smaller than 5/16 (probably originally 9/32) and I enlarged them to 5/16. I bought my rivets and bucking hardware from Big Flats Rivet Co. in Big Flats NY. They are very helpful and they will send you a small but very useful catalogue... lots of info including how long to make your rivets.
More to your question; the dead end of the rivet must be held firmly in place when you heat the the end that is formed with an oxy- acetylene torch with a neutral flame. The first couple I did I set the rivet length to 1 and a half times the diameter of the rivet PLUS the thickness of the layers of metal you are clamping. I used a hammer to start forming the head and finished forming it with an air hammer, while reheating the end of the rivet . The forming tools have a .401 in dia shank which is a standard size for a mechanics tools. I don't have a video because I did this by myself. Big Flats has one I believe.
It is recommended that you bolt the frame members together and check dimensions, squareness and then remove a bolt and install a rivet.


Directly above is one of the "bucking fixtures I purchased from Big Flats. Above that is a collection of blocks and other pieces I used in various combinations.

 

Thanks for the info. Did you do something different after the first two?

 

Joel, thanx for the info, it's a big help.
Tom

 

I did ,after the first 2, reduce the length of the rivet by about 1/16-3/32 for both 5/16 and 3/8 rivets. This is for the 'round head' rivets; the 2 flat head in post # 245 were a little shorter yet.
The best technique I found was to install the rivet and bucking support, with the metal layers clamped together tight ( vice grips) , measure what sticks up and cut it off with a cut off wheel. Almost all of my holes were less than .010" larger in dia than the rivet, which means very little expansion is required.

 

You're welcome. I wouldn't hesitate to do your frame if I were you.

 

I have been working on the truck chassis and have run into something I can't understand; so I'm going around it for now. I need the chassis to be a roller right now. I put new Posies rev. eye springs front and rear and mounted the axles.
I'm using repo Lincoln brakes all around and when I began installing the E brake cable I noticed the "tube" cable guide on the backing plate was pointing up in relation to the wishbone and decided to fix it. I bent the tube down to approximately parallel to the wishbone and this left a small kink in the bottom of the tube and I had to file 2 flats on the lead ball on the cable end to get the cable in.
I'm assembling as much of the chassis as I can so I don't forget where I put the stuff.


Just a couple of frame pix below

 

Change of plan, sort of. Back in about July, I struggled with whether to repair the frame on this truck or find another, better frame. I spent 2 or 3 weeks searching for a candidate and struck out. I knew if I repaired what I had it would be a lot of work and, after I got it done, I would stumble across a better frame.
so, here it is..... my new frame. It was painted when I got it, but I decided to have it sandblasted and powder coated. Here are some pix.

Below are the only repairs I see. The first one I have to do and the second one I just have to re-weld.


The repairs in progress.

I'm pretty happy, except I have to remove another trans mount and torque box. I should be able to get that done today.

 

Ain't it always the way.

 

Sure seems like it.

 

Some progress in the last few days; I replaced some bolts with rivets. T his was where rivets would have been from the factory. I'm getting ready to take the torque box and original trans mount out and replace them with mounts I made for the T 170 trans.

This is the right side hidden repair tacked in. It's filly welded in now.

Steering box mount riveted.

topside of steering mount
2 in and 2 to go
left side patch was already done, but not completely welded..... until now.
A little to grind and smooth the side. Supposed to go to powder coat Jan 5th.

 

It looks like a great repair. Nice job on the rivets. That's one job I haven't tried yet.

 

Nice work, Joel - new frame looks pretty good! Couple of minor patches - no problem!

 

Where do you get the rivets? Work looks top notch.

 

Nice work Joel! Merry Christmas !

 

The Big Flats Rivet Company is where I got the rivets, bucking tools, and air hammer bits to shape the heads http://bigflatsrivet.com/.

Thanks Mart. There is a little learning curve, however, I'm sure most on this board could do it. I thought about doing a "how to" thread, but I don't know if there is any interest.

Thanks, Tom. I feel better about the overall condition of the project now.

 

Thank you Sir for the reply.

 

Merry Christmas to you, Sam. I hope all is well and the weather is mild.

 

I’d be interested in a “how to” if you decided to do one.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Beautiful truck love the color!

 

I got the torque box out today. It was more work than the other frame because this frame was for a convertible . You can see where in some of the pix.
notice the grinding on the left and right edges. I had to cut the edges from the center so I could peel them off and break the weld and spot welds.


bottom side


All out. I need to get this rust cleaned off... something for tomorrow

 

You've done a ton of work. I caught this thread early on, but hadn't seen it since. You've made good progress.

Devin

 

You will be happy that you made the extra effort to save the original wishbone mounting location. Many of us don't have a second thought when splitting the 'bones on our rides, but your ride will be much better and more original with NO binding whatsoever. Doing a great job, Bud !

 

Man, YOU are a dying breed ! What a great job of literally resurrecting a frame from the grave. This will be a super fine '41 truck !