I got a few more of Earl's innards on display at Earl's World. All are invited to let me know if anything in the new stuff doesn't make sense. On second thought, it might be easier to just point out the stuff that does make sense - less work on your part that way.

 

Great job, George! I really enjoy following along step by step. An excellent example of how to go through the process. The fun certainly builds as these parts come together. Give us more! Best. Peter

 

George,
I am in awe! You are doing so much better of a job on Earl than 'ol Henry did the first time around!
I really enjoy "Earl's World". your documentation of the process is priceless, and your humor makes it fun as well.

Beautiful job!

 

Ah yes the more inspiration to get my restoration going. George I honestly think you should get into the restoration business. Your work is some of the best I've seen. Man if was only your neighbor, I'd be over bead blasting everything. Great Job! I check your site every week for updates! -4speed

 

Earl's World - The "E-Ticket" ride on the Restoration Highway!

 

I really, really appreciate your support. Sometimes I get frustrated with the whole thing and want to chuck it all. I suppose that's happened to just about all of us at one point or another. The other thing I noticed is that it's often a lot more relaxing, and always a lot cleaner, writing about it than doing it.

Oh well, gotta go grit blast an inner fender. Seems that whenever I grit blast sheet metal, there's a lot more holes when I'm finished than when I started. I guess those rust spots that are paper-thin turn into holes from the grit. That's probably good since I'd never find them otherwise.

 

Make sure you drop the pressure on the sheet metal, or holes won't be the concern! Esp. when you do the exterior stuff....

- A concerned fellow restorer

BTW, that article you're doing is killer. You should, I don't know, go to Kinko's or something when you're done and print it out like a big ol' Ford truck resto manual for us to refer to. We can give you a couple bucks to take care of the copying. You're leadin' the pack on what to expect when we do our own trucks, either completely or certain areas.

Your thing on the leaf spring resto has helped me. My 2 lower leafs (leaves?) on both sides just fell apart when I removed the axle. I won't have time to have new ones made, so in the meantime I'm going to just remove the part that's still bolted to the other leaves. Hope it doesn't look funny!

- Six (just down the road from you!)

 

Good point, Shane. I usually have it dialed down to about 50-60 psi for the sheet metal but I have actually tried it at 125 psi.

On the old 18-gage steel, it really doesn't seem to do any damage, even at 125 psi with the heavy-duty CrystalGrit media. The holes I create when blasting sheet metal are the bottom of rust pits that have gotten oh-so-thin, but haven't quite rusted through. In a way, it's probably good that I end up punching them through so I don't end up with a panel that I think is solid but really is on the brink of having a bunch of pinholes.

Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure I check the pressure when I do the other inner fender. BTW, I go through Columbus every now and then. If I give you a heads-up would you mind a visit?