COE WWII ex Army 1943 Chevrolet 1 1/2 ton 4x4 COE Crew Build

I came from the south and tried to buy a 1970 Cuda 440 6pack car, the guy wouldn't sell it to me, it was bought a year later and the new owner opened the doors and both fell to the ground...That my friend is RUST, these California boys whine about the "dust rust" they haven't a clue! LOL!

 

Oh and I want you to meet one of the many ladies that helped the war effort

Florence Woo Woo DiTullio
She is going to be my "nose art" the name of my truck will be Hot Wrench Woo Woo (It was the knickname the guys at the shipyard called her and she put it on her jacket!)!

 

Love the idea of her for nose art . My mom , in the animal print vest , " Rosie the riveter .

 

Mornin' folks,
To bring things together, I had a breakout thread to ask fabbing questions here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/crew-cabing-101-questions.1027992/#post-11641640
To bring some pics in here is a copy of my post
This is why God on the eight day created bench racing!
RMR&C I almost went extended cab due to your build, but need the leg room for my boys...they grow fast! I put the photoshop gurus to work and they created 2 versions for me. Check my build thread.
Verde thanks again for your comments
Blue you temp me with your kind offer, I take off work and you hop a plane to the wet northwest...what gives? Just Kidding!!!!!!! I gave my Bridgeport away and have to move my lathe from storage this month, so I have to get this at least tacked up as I will have very little room to even breath. I am taking off next week to do it!
RMR&C/Pleaseantlefarm/Wetskier I think I am obsessing too much, I will take your advice. I won't be pie shaping it (Thank You Pleasantlefarm for your pictures) just keep it the same width from the rear of the front doors all the way back. KeepItSimpleStupid always seems best and definitely a quicker route.I have to run suicide doors as that is what they did on the GMCs they sent (mostly from the surviving pictures it seems) to Greenland and the pre and postwar Crown (I think) Coachwork firetrucks

In addition to the photoshop gurus, I did some of my own caveman photoshop


Those are 26 and 24 inch doors, going to go with 26 as visually looks good and is bigger.
So much to comment, been trying for 2 days to write a coherent post..Last thing, Blue, the original roof of the COE was done from rust from irrigation sprinklers and the foreman standing on top of it every day in the field, thus the center was gone, will have to fab or use the 4door roof to make the missing sides. Might have to break down and buy the Harbor Freight English wheel frame and learn without a mentor...Kidding. I hope this is understandable and not all jumbled, Thank You for your guidance!

I will be following a mixture of Pleasantlefarm and RMR&C's suggestions and using as much of the 4door roof as possible and splicing in like Pleasantlefarm did.

After 2 days of straightening/cleaning/organizing (well I tried to clean and organize...believe you me it looks 1000% better...sad eh?) Last night I finished up the third mutation of the body dolly...

Much more rigid!
Set the body on it

Will have to add the front mount area today

My fingers are getting tired, I will show you my next steps and how I make notes as I go...

Followed by

Off to church then hit it again!

 

Third day progress, I'm tired, just pics...


First mockup

Off to bed, tomorrow's plan.....making rear doors, splicing COE front (regular cab cowl was butchered for lower panels ) rear door frames and hopefully starting roof splice......

 

Wow I wish the floor in my 40 looked that good. I had to remake mine. Looks good!

 

Nice start. I'll be watching!

 

Yesterday just ****ed, not much progress trying to get blaster working, so I am not gonna count it. So the new fourth-day progress...

This morning got the COE cowl mounted


after satisfied with alignment skinned the rear

Everyone works at the Garage! Kids, women ..if they can hold a tool they work!

Second mock-up!!!

Still have a little daylight so hitting it some more!

 

Can't you work any faster? Seriously, slow down, you're making multi-year guys like me look bad.

Why did the cowl need to come off the COE cab?

 

Wetskier,
They butchered the firewall, cab mount and hinge frame, the sheetmetal needed to be replaced, rusty underneath and almost through in a couple of spots and I want to keep the hand brake under the dash on the floor, saved 2 plus days, cost 1/2 a day to replace. I need to save as much time as possible especially seeing how much time the other stuff is taking.....
Day 5 update:
Door frame moded and stock frame


unmodded and modded door

3rd mockup!

have to finish the door frames, work on the door skeletons and tack it. Doesn't look like the roof skin is gonna get done this vacation....

 

Had to work on the teahouse/storage shed for the wife, snuck in alittle work on the truck...
Well here is the last mockup of the vacation crunch, "missed it by that much" (said in my best Maxwell Smart voice for the youguns here.)

In my case, the gap is 3/8" gunning for 1/4" for the space in between the front and rear doors.
Will keep plugging along just no long bursts like this week.....

 

Looking good bud .

 

Time for an update ?

 

HiYa Blue,
Other than tacking the rear door frames, not much to write about. I was working on getting a frame as the only bent channel I can get reasonable is the wrong flange width
I was trying hard to get the frame of the Army COE firetruck that set next to the G-7123 that was on eBay, the guy who had them at that time never got me pictures....he had some issues.
Located another frame agreed on price, arranged transportation the seller then wanted transport driver give him cash......
Needless to say I was bummed for a bit. Didn't do much, but I will be going to the garage this weekend and get my a$$ working on it again.
Thanks for your hinge write up I will be using the best of the 12 sets I have to make the 4 I need.
I pan to cool off on the frame thing as you never catch anything reasonable when you are hunting it. If I get to the upper desert I will pick up that bumper for you. It came off a Chevy COE but seemed flatter than the one in the picture you posted.
If I make decent progress I hopefully will post some pics for ya'll

 

Gentry , I don't know if you got that inner door panel you needed but I found out that the are the same as the pickup . I needed one so I just cut out the radius on the bottom then went ahead and put a little bead , the smallest I had , around the bottom for the fun of it .

How is your project coming .? Blue