That usually comes from opening the door TOOO far. I just rebuilt this area on
our 50 1/2 ton and the PO had run his tractor into the door when it was open.
It turned out fantastic and my old-time body man straightened the thing back to
standard. It was really bad also.
It is possible to cut that part out of a truck body probably and weld it in but
my guy elected to fix what we had.
Sincerely,
Dave Shier
www.mtntown.com
-----Original Message-----
From: G. Simmons [SMTP:gls@4link.net]
Sent: Friday, December 31, 1999 6:18 PM
To: Deve Krehbiel; oletrucks@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [oletrucks] 1950 3100 Side Cowl Damage Help
Hi Deve,
>The drivers side panel in front of the door (about 4 inches above the side
>vent to about 12 inches below) is badly damaged. Someone jarred the crap
out
>of that side of the front end and then tried to fix it with a hammer making
>it impossible to get the wrinkles out. The door fits fine, the vent even
>works as advertised but of course the damaged look is unacceptable. I would
>assume that I need that piece from another truck?
Don't know whether you're adept at body work, but even if you are, these
comments may help someone else. Before you splice another truck part in,
consider working out the dents with a hammer and dolly. The dolly goes
behind the metal and keeps the metal from going beyond the surrounding sheet
metal. It takes practice, but it doesn't take too long to get the basic
idea. Once it is basically flat, a little work with a flat file and a skim
coat of body filler and/or sandable primer will get you smooth.
I can't tell you how much I've saved by being able to work metal with a
hammer and dolly, not that I'm even close to being an expert. The steel on
oletrucks is amazingly resilient. One of my trucks had been hit in the
front, and the round nose of the hood was crushed in. After I bought it, I
was going to buy a new hood, but I decided to try to bang out the old one's
dents just for practice. To my surprise, it came back to shape with
amazingly little trouble.
I got my basic flat dolly from Eastwood, but you can get them most anywhere,
probably for less. It is flat on one side, mildly convex on the other,
straight on one end, and curved on the other. It approximates most of the
surfaces you'll find on a truck. There are many other shapes available.
You can make your own. I use various pipe diameters for curves, and grind
blunt chisels out of small bar remnants from the steelyard for tapping in
tight places. There are lots of hammer styles, but I mostly use a small
ball-peen hammer. I'm not a fan of square faced hammers because the angles
tend to leave marks.
Some guys can build a whole car body by hand without too much more in the
way of tools. Here's a great how-to site in which the author builds an old
jaguar fender from flat sheet steel.
http://www.artmetal.com/brambush/forging/proj06/
For the kind of damage you have, you'll probably want to take the door off,
carefully cut out the kick panel and remove the glove box. From the inside,
hammer the metal so it is even with where it should be or just a little
more, trying not to stretch it. Then, using the dolly against the inner
surface, hammer from the outside in a rapid, but gentle tap-tap-tap motion
to get the surface smoother and smoother. Don't stay in one spot, but go
around the whole area, bringing it flat gradually.
The vent is tricky, and you may need to make a spoon, which is a piece of
metal welded to a handle rod to back up the hammer. You can use needle-nose
pliers to rough it out and then use a small blunt punch to tap high spots
down to the spoon, and finish with a file.
Regards,
Grant S. gls@4link.net
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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