Thread: 53 Is back from the Body Shop

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Like putting a large sign up " Enter This Way Please " ?

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Like putting a large sign up " Enter This Way Please " ?

Or they could just climb over the side of the box

Latest work done is I got the rear fender rivets smoothed out and the small dent fixed. I am working on smoothing the spot welds on the box witch won't take too much. I got a different rearend for it that I will pick up Sat. The rearend I have, I found out the posi clutches are fried, it's 7.5 and not an 8.8 so now is the time to make that right. Now I have an 8.8 with 3.73 posi out of an Explorer.

I ordered kick panels with speakers for my radio and wouldn't you know it, the drivers speaker goes right where my fuse box was mounted.I took loose everything that was previously permanent and finished, thankfully I left enough wire so I'll be able to move my fuse box to the other side of the steering column. It's actually a nicer place anyway.

Bummer. At least now I know I'm not the only one that has to "revisit" things I think I'm done with.

Are you going to have to narrow the Explorer rear?

Originally Posted by Hotrod46

Bummer. At least now I know I'm not the only one that has to "revisit" things I think I'm done with.

Are you going to have to narrow the Explorer rear?

I don't think so. As far as I know they are the same or just an inch wider. Right now I have a Ranger rear end which is
58" and I had to put two inch spacers on it to widen it four inches so I could fit rims and tires on it. If the explorer one is an inch wider, that would be good because I can't find an 8 inch rim with enough back set to fit without rubbing the box side. I think I will end up using 7 inch rims.

"...... the drivers speaker goes right where my fuse box was mounted........."

Yup you must have borrowed some of my luck.


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Seth, what brand are those speakers? If they are custom audio sound, go buy a new pair before you bolt them in because their speakers are terrible. Not a good convo piece for me.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Seth, what brand are those speakers? If they are custom audio sound, go buy a new pair before you bolt them in because their speakers are terrible. Not a good convo piece for me.

Really, and crap. I bought the dash speakers from them and didn't think they were too bad. I know I could have bought my own kick panel speakers vs buying theirs but I got lazy. I'll try them and I hope I'm not as fussy as you

LMAO! My center speaker is from them too and it started cracking within the first week of driving the truck and I didn't get all punk rock with the volume. Of course that is the worst speaker to change since its an ac truck....

If you end up changing them out I've had good luck with Pyle speakers.hey On my last few builds I've been using their marine speakers and been really happy with them. Also a plus is they are reasonably priced.

Keep in mind I'm an old guy with and my hearing hasn't been great for years. My definition of a good stereo is one I can hear over the exhaust and rattles.


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Been kinda slow with the 53 lately and this didn't help. Remember my rear fenders that I had finished up? Well it was a nice day outside today so I opened the garage door to let the sun in and it was shining nice on my rear fenders. I looked over and thought what the crap is that. Turns out that the epoxy that I used to fill up the rivet holes was said not to shrink, but it sure as heck expanded. Two rivet holes showed up like a sore thumb, but at least it was before it was painted. So now I drilled out the rivets and put a stove bolt in instead and welded the head and put a nut on the back. Sorta like a stud now. needless to say, the fenders are no longer finished.

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Two rivet holes showed up like a sore thumb, but at least it was before it was painted. So now I drilled out the rivets and put a stove bolt in instead and welded the head and put a nut on the back. Sorta like a stud now. needless to say, the fenders are no longer finished.

I got a question and I gotta ask.. you replaced the rivets with a bolt then welded that in. Why didn't you just weld the hole closed?

I'm no body guy by any stretch of some imagination!! But it just "feels" wrong to have a bolt with nut hanging in there. Wouldn't it have been easier to fit a small piece of flatstock and weld that in?

I don't mean to offend! You can tell me to go s_ _ _ in my hat, I'll understand! I'm just trying to understand why you did it this way.

No problem, the rivet actually holds on a inner fender brace, just like the original fenders had. The only difference was the new fenders had a new style rivet showing in a countersunk hole. The original was a round head rivet and there was no counter sunk hole. I had to weight my options and decided to just smooth out the new fenders or they were going to look goofy with the modern rivet. I thought about plug welding it all together but I already had them Line X on the back side and I didn't want to warp the crap out of them either, so I went with welding the screw head and bolting on the brace in the back.I'll clip the bolts a bit shorter later. Now go ship in your hat Just kidding

One step forward and two back but now you know that the repair won't show it's ugly head again when the top coat is applied.