A friend loaned me his plasma but I can't get a decent cut with it, I think somethings wrong with it. I cut them with a angle grinder and finished them all clamped together on a 12 inch bench sander, maybe my most used tool.
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A friend loaned me his plasma but I can't get a decent cut with it, I think somethings wrong with it. I cut them with a angle grinder and finished them all clamped together on a 12 inch bench sander, maybe my most used tool.
I have used these blades in my skilsaw to 1/4" plate steel, cuts like a laser. They make one for aluminum too.;
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Nice job BTW!
The photo function seems to be gone, but my old photos are still here. How do I post pictures on here now?
Never mind I got the photos to work again... Got the Radiator mount back in for trial fit and also made a shroud out of some scrap stainless I had laying around. Stainless is a pain to work with, its hard on blades and eats up the disc sander paper. Now the front end is sitting on it's own mounts for the first time too.
Nice work on your shroud!
Yes, very nice. Looks great.
Well, that just made my modified M Farmall shroud look bad:LOL: Your project looks like it's one of those that everything's going to work right the first time. Nice work.
Everything never works right the first time but you got to try. Thanks for all the kind words. I haven't made much progress this summer, too many things to do. Number one goal is to get all the new work blasted and painted before another rainy winter. Plan on moving the cab to the yard to do that.
Every project I've done the last 10 years or longer has been that way. Why, oh because putting things where they don't belong. :LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by v8nutz
Yup ditto!
Whenever I do something I try to make it perfect because it never comes out perfect no matter how hard I try. If I just shoot for "good" it usually comes out kind of crappy.
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Had the truck out in the yard and blasted the inside, firewall and underside. I wanted to hit all the areas I did welding on and then prime it all. I used the U-pol bedliner underneath and in the inside of the cab. I didn't have enough to totally cover the inside so I will probably spray some black chassis paint over it to seal it all up. It felt good to do a little finish work.
Wow that thing looks clean, what did you use for media? You guys in the warmer states are so lucky not have to deal with rust.
Pretty shroud. Stainless might be tough to cut, but it does weld easy.
Cab looks good.
I used the black diamond stuff from tractor supply, it's cheap and it works well, discovered the hard way that medium grit won't work with my blaster, that ate up a couple of hours. I know I'm lucky having a Nevada truck but I still had to replace half the floor, both cab corners and the rear lower section of the cab.Quote:
Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
Thanks. I used the stainless just because I had a piece laying around, it is a pain to work with, eats up the abrasives. I would have rather used aluminum but I didn't want to drive downtown to get some.Quote:
Originally Posted by firebird77clone
This is such a cool build, gotta love Studes!
Very nice work! I really like your seat riser you built in the floor too.
Thanks, but I can't take credit for the riser that's all studebaker. I just built the tunnel.
Really nice build. I really like the studes trucks
Quote:
Originally Posted by v8nutz
Wow what a nice looking truck. With the explorer rolling frame, that is going to be a nice ride.
Thanks. I just noticed from the quote that I put in the wrong year, its a 47, whoops. I'm thinking of cleaning up the frame and painting it a satin black. I'm going to go down to the paint store tomorrow and see what they have, probably some kind of water based california junk. I miss those isocyanates.
Attachment 68546 Been cleaning the frame with a wire wheel on the angle grinder (be careful, it can be dangerous) next it's going out in the yard for some blasting of the hard to reach places and some semigloss black paint. I got the front a arm bushings and ball joints done (that was fun).
How come all of a sudden it won't let me post pictures, it says they are too big. I've been using the same phone camera I don't understand what is different.
Did your camera have some different settings?
Compare the pic sizes in the cameras gallery, see if this attempt was with large(r) pics. This place does have a size limit.
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I had to download a photo resizer to get the pictures in. The quick and easy rotisserie worked really well, just an old engine stand at one end and a piece of plywood with a hole in it at the other. Sandblasted and painted everything with summit urethane primer and hotrod black, wow that was a lot of work!
".......wow that was a lot of work!......"
Yup, been there done that. but when it's in the shop and you start bolting pieces on it it makes it all worth while.
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I am looking forward to that!
Definitely looks great and for sure a lot of work. Been there too and will be back down that road again soon. :LOL:
Thanks, it felt like I cleared a major hurdle on the project. Next hurdles will be building the bed and doing the body work (arrgg)
Nice work, body work is the worst for me, can't stand it. No mater what mask I use lately I can feel it in my lungs the next day after I paint. Good enough reason for me to hire it done now. PS. You guys that don't need a heated shed suck :mad::LOL:
I'm really considering getting the fiberglass fenders instead of straightening the beat old fenders. All the compound curves on the old vehicles makes for some very challenging body work. I agree with the breathing issue, I have a home made remote fresh air supply but it still is not perfect, I think it drys me out and maybe a little fumes still get in around the mask. When i used to use a filter mask the smell was really powerful, not good. Then there's all that bondo and primer dust too. How do people do it for a living?
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So I have been reassembling the explorer chassis, its been slow and tedious but fun to be bolting on new parts that I've had for ever. When I installed the gas tank I went doh!, I made my cab mounts with the tank conveniently out of the way but with it back in there I can't mount the one side of the rear mount! I don't know what I was thinking leaving that out when I fabbed that stuff, I guess I was enjoying all the extra room, the tank is huge. So now I'm going to have to figure out a way to mount that side of the rear.
I would double check on using fiberglass fenders. I bought some rears for my 53 and after talking to the body shop, they all but told be that I would regret using fiberglass due to stars developing in the glass coat due to flying rocks. They also were not happy with the glass coat on just about every glass fender they've ever ordered and spend a lot of time re doing the glass coat. I was lucky enough to sell my glass ones in a couple of days and got some new steel fenders and was very happy with the quality of them. I had my front fenders and hood repaired at the shop for the same cost as if I bought new, maybe a bit more but I wanted as much of the original steel on as I could. The rear fenders could have possibly been fixed but they were in pretty tough shape.Quote:
Originally Posted by v8nutz
A hammer to the tank sounds the easiest, maybe somebody else has a better idea:LOL: I think I'd look for a different tank in reality, that looks like the easiest solution to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by v8nutz
Hmm, that's good to know. I've had reservations about going with fiberglass because I can imagine them developing cracks. Two of my fenders are in really bad shape. Sadly there are no steel reproduction ones for my year stude. Finding decent old ones is almost impossible.Quote:
Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
When I finish assembling the frame I'm going to have to put the cab back on and see what can be done. I think I can find some other solution other than the big hammer.Quote:
Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5
Sometimes we use what we use for the limited budget or alternatives. I will be putting Beebops fiberglass running boards on my truck because I don't have an extra$ 1000.00 dollars for Chinese steel ones. I imagine the results may be less than great, but in order to finish my project compromises must be made. My truck will not be show quality, but for me, so whatever evolves will be o.k. At some point I can fix or replace what doesn't work.
The problem I've had with later repairs is I can never match the paint exactly, makes me crazy but it is a skill that I don't possess. Even with a solid color and a factory pack paint it didn't match. The best luck I've had is having paint color matched and mixed and don't even try to use the original mix. Of course temperature, humidity, spray technique all has an effect on it. Color matching and blending is an art in my opinion.
There's people on the studebaker forum that have used the fiberglass fenders and like them, but I don't know how long they've been using them.
I hear yah, and when I look at the cost and time for paint, I'm even more inclined to stay with an epoxy primer!
