Thread: 53 Is back from the Body Shop

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It looks like the front of the fenders are low. Did it fit before you painted it?

Thanks for the questions Sef and V8, I did have things fit b/f I had it painted and the I checked the cab height and it was good. I did find the problem though and it is because of the questions you asked me. I was double checking everything and what I found was the problem was the radiator support. When I cut out the top of it to fit the new radiator I knew it weakened it but the effect was when I pulled the fenders in with the draw bolts in the engine bay, it pulled the front of the fenders more in instead of up.The hood would not go down far enough and screwed everything up. We made a new brace today and refit everything and wa la, it worked. However it doesn't help when the right and left sides of the hood are not even from the factory.

Always a case of playing around with things until one has it all aligned but as you mentioned, trucks from the factory were work horses so the gaps were never a propriety to align correctly or nicely. You are doing a fantastic job on it though so thanks for the updates. Imagine aligning the tilt front of an E Type Jaguar as that still brings nightmares to me when I allow those memories to come back.

It was an all day battle but well worth it. I don't know what the Jaguar is like but you made me laugh about blocking the memories. I must have somewhat did that with this thing. My wife and boy were helping put on the hood and I kept saying "this is going to suck " cause I remembered the prefit. She laughed at me one time because right before we started I must have walked past the hood and gave it the Death Look.

That looks much better. Getting all those lines perfect on old cars is a bitch.

Ditto patience is needed as well as a few sets of helping hands!

Here is a couple of photos of the same model truck taken at the very first Hot Rod and Bike show anywhere in the world today held at Whangamata, a small coastal beach resort town where they have a high number of Rodders per head of population. I only pinched these as I thought of you putting yours together.nice truck no.3.jpgNice truck no.2.jpgNice truck.jpg

Thanks for the pics, the burnt orange one was the color we were going to go with for awhile, then it turned to green. I like looking at those pics of those old pickups. I told my wife a long time ago that when I am getting mad at the hood not fitting right, show me pics on the internet of every other one out there that can't get their hood good either. Most all have terrible gaps although the last one in your pics may be the exception.
I did't do much yesterday, I got the headlights in and the light harness wrapped and also the condenser put in. I think I may order 2 10 inch fans for the condenser, wire one in for constant on with A/C and the other to come on if the high side calls for more cooling. That's about all I did yesterday then called it quits to go to a friends house for the new years.

Got the grill all fixed up, I couldn't stand looking at the front of the pickup without it anymore. Had the Mrs drill out the rivets and then I bead blasted it, sanded it and shot it with some semi gloss. I bolted in the chrome bars which have been siting around for better than 20 yrs.That really set this thing off. I wanted to blend the new seat in with the old frame. I took my old seat frame and narrowed it up about 2 inches and removed the rear bar and took about 2 inches off the height of the wrap around trim on the front corners. I have to pinch the tubes together on the top yet but I think it turned out pretty good for a rough draft. I called the upholstery shop to get an appointment and they are booked up till the end of the summer so I guess it will look like an Astro seat in an old frame for this year. I'm back to working on it nights and weekends now so things are going to slow up now.

What do you like better, the hood with the chrome strip in the middle or without? I think I know what I like better.

Chrome strip really cleans it up!

With! SO much better!

And nice work with that grille! Man that's nice.

Yes to the chrome strip as it flows up into the screen divider nicely.

I like it with the chrome strip. I also think the grill would look sweet with the back bases painted body color too. It would really make those chrome bars stand out.

I'd tend to disagree Mike.
When we painted the bus initially we painted the grille the same colour as the body.
It looked bloody horrible!
It was just too much of the one colour.
Within a very short time we painted the 'teeth' and bars of the grille ivory with black behind it.
Much better!
It just 'broke' that entire slab of yellow.

Although, having said that; as Ryan said you will have the horizontal chromium bars across yours.
That also could 'break' any overkill of colour.