Since I have had to wait a couple weeks to pick up this jailbar tonner pickup, I have been picking away at the 8' bed after work. I was able to haul the bed and rear fenders home in my suburban as it had been broken down. OK, I've been working on it sometimes when I shoulda been working... Well at 5:30 am I leave to meet the guy and pick this thing up. What's interesting about this central California truck is that the cab is really nice and rust free and the bottom edge of the bed has none of the rusty stuff that happens with salted roads. All the damage is from the riveted 'angle iron' support for the floor. Also the headboard rotted off about an inch above the wood floor. The rear crossmember is formed steel but the headboard is against a 2 1/2" wood floor support. I replaced the bottom 6" of the head board with a piece of 11 gauge steel welded to a piece of 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 steel tubing. This replaces the front wood crossmember (good riddance). Anyways in the pics you can see the rust and scale sandwiched between the angle and the bed side. I replaced all the rivets with carraige bolts, using some specialized 'bed strip bolts' I had bought years ago. The heads are remarkably similar to ford's rivets. I made up new angles where needed and cleaned and primed all surfaces after welding in new bed side material as needed.. Now between all these primered steel is a thick layer of sikaflex polyurethane marine sealant which squeezed out as I tightened the carraige bolts. There is now a urethane fillet on top of this angle that wont let moisture back in.. I did not grind the welds flush where they are covered by the fenders. I finished my work off with at least 15 partially clogged rattle cans of every kind of primer I could find on my back shelves. Note how the steel looks in the second photo when there wasn't a dirt trap.....I won't be back til late Saturday so I will check in on Sunday, but I'm way behind on honey-do like assembling the new (our first) gas bbq. Not sure why we needed that (says Mr. six jailbars)..... Wish me luck

 

You might make a sheet metal man yet. Dang those dirt traps Henry left. Have a fun road trip, can't wait to see the rest of the truck.

 

turned out nice!

 

It looks good. Those panels are strait!

 

Well I got home about half hour ago. I had four hours to kill before my ferry so I parked way down behind the municipal pier and worked on the truck in the driving rain. In the past I may have gone to the Rockfish Grill and downed a few pints, but it's not the old days anymore so I hooked up a better tank, re-wired a few connections and wire brushed the floors which were indeed the best I have ever had,. The door bottoms were like Henry's boys had folded them last week. I will drive it off the trailer in the morning....

 

Well I drove it off the trailer today and did a few laps around the property with it. There is a big mud hole in the road so I got some mud on the back of the cab and running boards. I have 2 new 7.50 x 17 steer tires and two very lightly used tractions for the rear. The floors are really nice and the doors are too.. The running boards are better than average with most of the damage being cracks, not rust. I still don't have it running how I would like. The compression is quite even and averages 85 psi. I tried a known good carb and it still runs rough. Tomorrow after work I will put the Bubba's crab distributor on it and see how she sounds. Hot idle about 15 lbs. This is the first time I bought somebody else's project. It is all clean, over and under with no old coke cans and rats nests under the seat. The way I roll, this thing is ready for paint tomorrow.

 

Nice!! Is it going to be your daily driver?

 

I really think it might! These tonner's steering is incredibly light as long as we keep those tall skinnies on them. Once accustomed to the crash box shifting, the gear changing is also light and effortless. My DD for six years has been a 900.00 toyota t-100 4x4 which has more complex hard to reach issues every day. This truck was the same red as my '38 tonner dd that I sold in '99 when I was going through the 'big D'. The 8500.00 I got for it helped me buy out my half of the house, and with this truck I feel I have gotten my old truck back. It will look quite similar in a rear quarter view. Ok, back to work.....

 

Not as old or slow as your tonner but I haven't driven anything else but the 59 4x4 since I got it running. Except the day I had the door tore apart and had to go get a new glass. I hate even getting back in a modern vehicle. My tags are due by the end of May and I'll not re-register the Aerostar, drop it off the insurance. I need a tonner now, but a 40, and cheap, and close to home.

 

Nice work on the bed, how do the fenders look?

 

Today I rolled out the pair of coursers that I mounted last year. I have 2 new michelin 7.50 x 17s that I bought last fall off CL, but they aren't mounted yet. In an effort to lose the 7.00 x 17s that were on it and really cracked and rotten, I pilfered the spare off the panel and one decent front off Uncle Oscar. When my son showed up this afternoon we used the skidsteer to set the bed on the frame. I know it wasn't really time to do that but there are projects spread all over and I needed to consolidate. When I get serious about this tonner I will pull the 4 bolts and lift the bed back off. I could not help but hang a fender off the studs on the bed just for a visual. The fenders have some cracks and a few dents but are pretty good considering. I worry about how thin the steel is for welding. Not rusted thin, but how they were made. The bed has been pretty easy for an amature welder but the fenders are quite a bit lighter. It feels good to get the truck into one piece and on good rubber. The engine seems fairly worn as I investigate, but I know a guy with a bunch of blocks and a standard size 4" merc crank. Next winter's project. Here's some pics. I am quite thrilled with this thing, in case you haven't figured that out by now....

 

Great picture of the truck and the backdrop! Better put the other hubcap on for the visual.

Nice work to finish out the day.

 

Looks sweet
I would love to rent that building in the background with the French doors.
I could just sit out front w/coffee and watch.
Think ya must have some grease on your camera lens.
There is a black spot that keeps moving around on the pics.
Lotsa neat projects going on Have fun and keep on posting them pictures

Roger

 

We lived in that 10 x 14 cabin for two years while we built our house. We built it without electricity in '79. My oldest son learned to crawl in that place and we kept the refrigerator on the front porch to save floor space. Had a wood cook stove where we cooked and heated water for the outdoor shower. We had a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a toilet tank flapper valve over the sprinkler outlet. Raise this affair up on a pulley, pull the chain and the water started flowing. It was a race against time as it would take a half hour to heat another 5 gallons. Kinda fun looking back, but I prefer our real house. Got some time in on the tonner but I really just want it to where it is in one piece and can be stored on ice a while. I was getting close to putting the engine in the woodie, but need to do brakes, kingpins and spring bushings first. Couldn't pass this tonner up for being complete, running and yes, those floors, not to mention the hub caps and jailbars..... Now we are getting real busy at work. We just landed a job for a Seattle contractor where we will be doing cabinets and millwork for a 1600 sq ft condominium right in the middle of Downtown Seattle. Oh, and we have 2 cabinet jobs already, here on the island. Yikes, better sign off. New pics after work.

 

The best time of my life was living in a 300 sq. ft. cabin in Alaska. Hauled my water in jugs from the gas station 3 miles away, used the outhouse and had a makeshift shower I heated water for. I did get electricity after a couple years. My neighbors kinda forced me to. I was the 6th person needed to get it brought in at no cost through some rural grant thing. Always hated looking at those power lines.