So I'll have to find another place if I come back to help?

 

Don't worry. I will give good directions.

 

Well, I just couldn't do it!
I have...had the front sheet metal on and was ready to bolt it down more. Last night, I decided to clean up some fender supports. They came out nice:



But, looking at the inner fenders and the hood locking panel, I just couldn't let them stay all rusty like that. So, I removed them this evening and will clean and paint them hopefully this weekend.
Here are some before pictures.




Hopefully I will have them all clean before the end of the weekend.

 

I agree! They'll look much better cleaned up. We just ran out of time. Were you able to find more nuts and bolts? Put flat washers on the bolts along the fenders.

 

I haven't gone to look yet. I will try Ace Hardware tomorrow. I know they have the fine thread, it would be nice if they had the proper heads though. Yep, flat washers. Got quite a few. I will go to Orschlen's to get more since they sell by the pound. Too bad they don't sell fine thread by the pound.

Gotta get a new wire cup for my angle grinder too. It's a little worn down now.

 

Be careful! Around here bolts by the pound are Grade 2, here in PA it is not legal to use anything less than a Grade 5 bolt for motor vehicle applications.

I'm not clear if that applies to body panels however. I never buy anything less than a grade 5 to have on hand at the shop. If I have a specific project that a grade 2 will do, I just purchase what I need.

 

Missouri sells grade 5 by the pound, I'm pretty sure.... But, I haven't bought any for a little while. I will double check just to be sure. I definitely don't want grade 2 on my truck.

 

I can only find Grade 8 UNF bolts at our farm stores. They are sold by the pound.
I did some research on the web and found a place that sells the original body bolts with the taper on the end. Classic Car Restoration Fasteners, Harley Davidson Chrome bolts, plastic auto clips, Virginia page 25 of their catalog. 5/16-24x3/4" or 5/16-24x1" but they are a buck apiece. Not sure what MidFiftys sells them for.

 

MidFifty seems to be the cheapest. $22.50 plus shipping for it looks like 24 nuts, lock washers and bolts. 1953-56 Ford F-100 Front Fender & Valance Top Bolts Black

 

I went to Lowe's and they had a coarse thread bolt of this type, but they wanted $1.39 each!!! Coarse thread won't work anyway.

I considered using the coarse bolts I have, but for $22.50 I will be better off with the fine thread body bolts.

Now on the flip side, Lowe's had the 1/4 - 28 bolts for my hood latch parts for $0.56 for a pack of 4. Same for nuts. Now that was a deal! Ace Hardware had them for $0.39 each!

School board meeting tonight, so I won't be able to get dirty. Saturday sure changed my progress and attitude. THANKS!

 

Yes a little progress does tend to give you a second wind!

 

Well, I got my upper valance cleaned painted and installed this weekend. I started on the inner fenders. Dang, I'm looking into finding someone to sand blast some parts. The wire brush on the grinder moves so slow, and the paint and rust stripper pad for the grinder works well, but you go through it so fast. I will probably be better off with the sand blasting.



Look at my poor frame all dirty. I need to give her a sponge bath.

 

Lookin Good!

 

Well, I decided to take a break from grinding and did a basic cleaning of the instrument cluster. It cleaned up pretty good with only two cuts on my fingers.
Before:


After:


I will do more work on it, but this will hold it for now.

 

Joe, here are some tips:

Get some red hobby paint. Put some paper underneath the needles and with a fine brush give the needle one brushstroke of paint. They do sell red paint that has some radioactive particles in it so they show up better at night... but I just used my wife's paint. Take it apart so you can start on the needle where you won't see it.

Sand your trim ring and paint it argent. There is a paint made by duplicolor that matches the silver used by Ford quite well.

I put some Armor All on a soft rag and wiped the black part of the panel. It brightens it up. Be careful not to get it on the white numbers as they can smear a bit.

If your rubber gasket is shot underneath the glass, go to the hardware store and buy some weather stripping of the same thickness. Do have the glass in in that after pic? If so it cleaned up nice, if not go to the hardware store and have them cut you a piece of single strength glass.