My body man is in McElhatten right by the bridge that goes over the river. The Amish upholsterer is in Lamar. I can text you their numbers if you want them.

 

Thanks, Abe. I appreciate that very much. I had seen the kits on MidFifty, and I have to say that I much prefer the earlier glass reservoir to the '56 colostomy bag! I think I see that going on my parts wishlist - straight away.

Thanks again for posting up the pictures.

 

That's funny, colostomy bag!

I was at the body shop this morning to take out the division bars and wing vents so I can clean them up and paint them. I also took out the window fuzzies, which weren't too fuzzy, and the glass run. There was one stubborn screw that we had drill out and the glass run was hard to pull out at the upper end. At home I took the vents out of the frames and sanded the rust off, took real fine steel wool to the handles to shine them up. Then I put a coat of primer on the frames. I will take them to Safelite to put new glass in tomorrow. Then tape them up and put two coats of gloss black on when I get them back.

Getting the window crank handles off was difficult too. And my body man even had one of those tools. The ends of the spring clip did not stick out so we couldn't push the clip out. We buggered up the escutcheons in our attempt. But I have an NOS set in my stash. And I think I'll buy new handles too while I'm at it.

Tonight I also worked on the window regulators. Some of the captured nuts that are supposed to slide to allow for adjustment were rusted fast so I freed them up and lubed them. And I put the final coat of red paint on the sideboards. Tomorrow I'll repaint the headboard.

Here is a picture of the hood I talked about earlier, dents out, lip patch panel in place and primed.


I told him I need the truck before the grass starts growing. I use it to haul my mower, trimmer and blower in my lawn mowing business. He said he'd have it done by the end of the week. He also said if we get a warm day he'll take the truck outside and use his hot water pressure washer to clean up the engine compartment and the engine block. So I guess I better look for some yellow paint to paint the engine! Project creep!

 

I had a devil of a time too. My clips didn't stick out either. The new ones you buy don't either, they are all too small. I was having a hard time getting my passenger side back on too. So far, I have given up on that. I don't use that door. I will need to look at it again soon.

The hood is looking nice! I can't wait to see it all together.
I need to take my truck to the car wash and clean the engine. It will help me better see where I'm losing oil as well.

 

I put mine on my 54 with a rubber mallet. Did you try that?

 

Doh!!! gotta try that.

 

The hood sure turned out nice Abe! Like you told me, stay on top of the painter or you will be putting up hay on those lawns Those springs are a booger. Everyone has problems with them. Can you tell me if the 56' handles are different? I remember reading somewhere that they are attached with set screws. I have thought about switching to them if that was the case.That would sure be easier! With new paint on my doors I would sure hate to scratch them up Keep the pictures coming!

 

Yes the 56 window cranks use a set screw but I don't think you can use them on a 53-55's. Perhaps you can. But you won't scratch your paint as the spring clip is between the handle and the escutcheon, not the escutcheon and the door.

 

Abe,
Just found this! Nice upgrades on the truck. Yea you better watch the scope creep on these types of projects. That hood looks good!
The old truck thing is on hold with me as other things in life take over.
Regards,
Chris

 

Today I painted the headboard. I gave the sideboards two coats since hey were missing a lot of paint. I think the headboard just needs one coat.


And here are the wing vents. I cleaned the rust off and then gave them a coat of primer before taking them to Safelite to put new glass in.

 

 

Did Safelite cut the glass specifically for your wing vents or did they have a source for them.
I need to do something like that one of these days. I went to a local glass shop for my side window and it was cheaper to get it from LMC even with shipping.

 

He is going to cut the glass in his shop.

 

Well, since my truck is a hodge/podge between a 55/56, maybe I can confuse the issue of 55 vs. 56 cranks and handles even more. My 56 doors which came on the truck had 55 handles on it and the clips seemed to engage the shaft. Later when I parted out a 56 wrecker it had the 56 type with set screws. It looks like the shafts on the 56 doors have a larger groove which the set screw tightens in to. I used the 55 cranks/handles temporarily as I was trying to free up and lube stuff inside door and they seemed to work ok. I'm not positive but I think the 55 clips will engage the groove on a 56 shaft, weather the 56 screw will engage the smaller groove of the 55 I dunno... Also I have a set of those cheap picks that Harbor Freight gives away and one of them works really well for getting the clips out pulling them from the other side instead of pushing the out.

 

I took the window cranks off my 55 to be able to get the window regulators, division bars, and wing vents out. I didn't realize how pitted they were. So I bought new ones on eBay. Here's my old ones.
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I put the new ones on Old Betsy, my 54, and will put those the ones I took off on Jimmy, my 55, when it is painted. Here is a pic of the ones off old Betsy with a new one in the middle.

The new ones came with clips. But the ends were so long that they got between the escutcheon and the crank so I trimmed some length off. Here is a new one next to a different old one.


We've talked about how hard it is to get the clips out. My body man and I had a real hard time getting them off of my 55 handles and be had one of those tools. Today I used a little pick shown here and it was easy!


I had a pair of NOS escutcheons in my stash so I put them one my 54. Here is a pic of the handle on the door.