Dan's '46 - Some Small Stuff Done Today.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Justcuz,
I agree with you guys about posting separate threads for the reaosns stated. It's just too hard to find info about a specific thing if it's buried in a thread with a title that doesn't steer you there.

I am ordering a one piece fiberglas headliner from Chev's of the 40's today. I now have all the trim needed to hold it and have sprayed it all semi gloss black. I'm debating going to get some S.S. clutch head screws (to use throughout the cab) or will more of the same button head, zinc plated Phillips I already have do just fine?

Later, when I do the thread I'll title it "41-46 Chevy Pickup Headliner Install" or something like that so it is easy to do a search on for others. With that title, if someone adds to it later with say...COE info, the title is still likely to come up in a "headliner" search.

Justcuz, if you know where the chassis of your truck is, aren't you ever tempted to get it back and put a new body on it? 73-87 bodies are dirt cheap on CL these days. What projects; if any, do you currently have in work?

[Driveway Dreams]

Dan, I look forward to the headliner. Obviously we wont be able to use one for my buddies truck. But I do want to see how it works out for you.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Gerald.
Its raining today out here but I did manage to make it to a fantastic place I just heard about for SoCal guys (I've been working on cars for 40 years and can't beleive I never heard of it before now). Its called King Bolt and its in Glendora, CA...about 10 mi. from Pasadena. This place has EVERY nut, bolt, washer in the world I think. Brackets, grommets, Dzus fasteners, cables, armored electrical, tools, hoses, basically anything related to building a hotrod, boat or plane you could possibly think of and in every finish.

I almost felt ashamed buying a few little black anodized set crews, washers, and some J-nuts for finishing the installation on my glove box.

[Driveway Dreams]

Sounds like a candy store for people like us. So did you get your glove box installed now?

[justcuz]

Dan,

One thing I do before a headliner install is buy some rolled insulation. It is about 1 inch thick and you can buy it at most home improvement centers.

Yes I am very tempted to retrieve my old chassis! It is not going anywhere and I will get it back someday. I have a lot on my plate now though.

My fleet consists of 3 Suburbans 2000,1993, 1973. 3 pickups 1976 and 1971 Chevy and 1987 Mazda getting a 3.0 Ford V6 transplant. 5 cars 1996 Impala SS, and 4 Chevelles 2 1968 2 door hardtops and a 68 wagon with a factory 4spd and a 72 Concours 3 seat. 2 of the Suburbans (2000&1993) and 2 of the pickups (1976 & Mazda) are 4x4's. The 1993 pickup in my pictures is actually my son's (but I've done most of the work on it) that I was babysitting while he was in the service. It still lives part time at my house!

I will retire this year after 37 years in the fire service and plan on working full time on my fleet. Once the Mazda is done it will go up for sale and I will probably go to Nevada and bring the shortbed home...unless I find a nice K5 Blazer!

[Dan in Pasadena]

What? No partridge in a pear tree? Geez, seems like you've got a LOT on your plate.

As for insulation, yes I plan on using some. There is quite a bit of space between the underside of the roof and the top of the pre-formed fiberglass headliner. After de-rusting and using some thing like POR-15 or No-Rust, etc. I plan on using one of the quilted Peel n' Stick type thin insulation blankets. But I still plan to fill up the space with fiberglass batting of some type as well. Don't want to bake my noggin anymore than I already have!

[justcuz]

Ya you will be glad for the insulation in the summer with a black truck!

The partridge and the pear tree would be my house and yard work.

I have a peach tree actually...plus orange and lemon.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Just to finish out this thread, here are some pictures of the glove box and the glove box door finally installed. It took me awhile to find the J nuts I needed for the box. The only problem is the #8 screws that attach the door to the hinges fit loosely. I was going to use Loktite, but I think the threads are too loose even for that. I'm going to have to CAREFULLY drill the holes out larger and tap a #10 screw in...but I'm afraid of breaking loose the trapped screws inside the glove box door. Oh well, if that happens I'll be looking for a new door (mine has a crease in it anyway!)

[justcuz]

Hey Dan,

Looks good! Went to Temecula Rod Run yesterday, LOTS of old Chevy trucks.
One early like yours plus a couple 30's trucks, tons of 50 and 60's trucks.

Drop Shop truck looked good. No pics...I forgot my camera!

I am not a big fan of slammed pickups but theirs looked good.

Did you line the glovebox or did it come that way?

[Dan in Pasadena]

Oh man, I wish I'd known about that show in Temecula, I might have made it..not with my truck though. I really need to see some '41-'46's to take pictures of all the small stuff - the door rubber and various rubber bumper on the doors, hood, etc. I have a bunch of that stuff but still haven't figured out where all of it goes!

The box came like that. I was pleased with it.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Just an update to this thread on a little thing I got done this weekend:

My firewall has a bunch of holes in it from previous owners over the years. I bought a nice used Hobart MIG welder, but the problem is I haven't bought a bottle, gas, welding gloves or helmet yet - a couple hundred dollars I don't need to spend right now. But I found a temporary fix; see (crappy cell) photo. Hopefully, this will keep the heat out and to a lesser degree, the noise out of the cab too (yeah, right).

The plugs are stainless steel found at the hardware store. I think they're intended for holes in stainless sinks that have an extra faucet hole. The hardware store I went to had them in 1/4" to 1-1/4" diameters. Some just snapped in and on a couple I had to bend the little tabs on the back to make them hold. For insurance, I put a dab of black RTV on the backside.

Also this weekend, I installed the hood-to-cowl weatherstripping, the bump stops at the grill, and the two final pieces of windlace retainer trips that go on the kick panels below the dash but I have no photos of this stuff yet.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Not much activity on this board anymore.

Partly my fault as I've been too busy to work on my '46 but I found a minor score today. I've been looking for the 3 pc's of trim that go along the bottom of the dash. So far I've never found it reproduced so I've been eBay shopping it, etc. The only ones I found were beat up, dented. Last night I found a complete '46 Chevy dash WITH the trim and as a bonus it had an un-dented glove box door. Picked it up cheap including the instrument cluster.

These (lousy, sorry) cell phone pix show the door and one piece of the trim in process as I took my wire wheel to them. My truck will (hopefully) be a clean, weekend, Home Depot driver so I intend to prime-sand-prime-paint silver & clear coat the trim. I think it'll look good enough for my purposes. I MAY do a Krylon rebuild on the dash and display it on my garage wall to test colors....OR...I MAY sell it. Still haven't decided.

[greystoke]

please always post what you've done to your truck. My truck is a 69 but I love the old 30's, 40's and 50's trucks. As a kid my grandpa had a 46 and dad tells me the story how he wanted the truck and grandpa was going to give it to him till dads sister put up a squawk about it. Dad knew grandpa didn't like to have any bad feelings so he told grandpa just to give the truck to her. He said as far as he knew the truck got taken to Maryland and just sat and rot. Makes a person sad because it was a straight original and rust free Arizona truck. Anyways, I like to follow what you've done so keep posting.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Thanks Greystoke,
I will keep posting but with some things there's not much to show. For example, the brand new high dollar Odyssey battery I installed under the seat on my truck when I had it rewired last summer went dead. It won't hold a charge higher than about 11.4 volts. Long story short? I pulled it out and installed a small conventional (and way cheaper) battery from Walmart in the same location. It has side terminals which I like better in the very unlikely event the seat ever failed structurally. I had to pull the special Odyssey mount and use a Pep Boys plastic tray and ties down but frankly, its a lot more conventional, probably will last longer because I can put a trickle charger on it, and its unexciting as hell to post here about. However/ I DID raise the seat about 2-1/2" higher when I remounted it and though it looks the same, it makes a huge difference in driving comfort.

[Muleman100]

Where did you get your instrument panel, the one partially shown in one of the pics?

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by Muleman100

Where did you get your instrument panel, the one partially shown in one of the pics?

Muleman, First, thanks for caring/asking.

Hmmm...I THINK I got it from Chev's of the 40's. I wanted to restore my factory cluster but with modern gauge ranges as the original had like 0-30psi for oil pressure and I think 0-180 degrees for water temperature. It was going to be over $400 I think and at the time I needed to have the truck rewired so I needed to conserve cash.

I'm ok with the billet insert but it doesn't fit exactly right and I opted for the two gauge panel for a Speedo and Tach with the other gauges below the dash. I wish I had not. It's location currently prevent me from installing the cowl vent arm in its original position so I either have to modify that or move the gauge panel elsewhere. I haven't decided if I'll move them overhead in the panel above the windshield (not sure I like that), go to a billet panel that will mount all the gauges and leave the Tach out, or finally get the cluster restored with modern gauges.

[Muleman100]

I just bought a '41 3/4 ton stake bed. All the guages work but are hard to see. I think I will keep these going for the time being. Mine has been converted to 12 volts, also has a1960 235 with dual carbs and a 1982 S10 rear end. Presently waiting on my front brake cylinders and master cylinder. After new tires I will be driving it daily.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Congrats on your purchase. We need to see pictures of course. You can't get away with NOT posting a thread since this Pre-47 forum gets so little traffic.

What kind of condition is the truck in overall? If you're planning to use it as a daily it must be in pretty good shape. I'm sure the AIR CONDITIONING is in great shape for those Texas summers, huh?

Seriously, I really like flat beds so I'd love to see yours. Best of luck with it. Keep posting info and PICTURES!

[Muleman100]

I will post some pics when I get off the lift after putting the brakes on. I am doing some minor rust repair today. The AC is a 2/50, two windows down at 50 mph. This truck was not equiped with a heater. Also can open the cowl vent but am cautious to open the winshield.

[Dan in Pasadena]

When I got mine it had NO windshield regulator at all. The windshield hinges were fine and the rubber was new-ish. I found a frozen one intending to use it as a core for a rebuilt one from Jim Carter's but it turned out to be good enough to rebuild. SO I did and it turned out great. My windshield opens and closes easily now....but of course it still leaks air like a sieve!

[Muleman100]

I need some plastic knobs for my lights and cig tray. Do you know of anyone selling these?

[Dan in Pasadena]

I'm kinda of assuming you are looking for the stock light sorta moca colored knobs?

There are some non-stock but nice ones at the bottom of this page:

http://www.chevsofthe40s.com/shop/se...kip=160&Max=40

Here's a link to stock knobs for sale:

http://www.bowtiebits.com/store/stor..._Category_ID=4

Best of luck.

[K-TEN]

Dan, did you ever figure out the cowl rubber? Here's my take. You don't have the correct one. You have a perfect rectangle and it has a lip or two. The correct or repop ones should have a "bend" in the middle of the two long sides. Kind of like a boomerang. So, throw that one aside and get a repop from Carter or however, and lay that baby in there.
As to the gauges, maybe you could mount them in the glove box. It's been done before. Personally, I like the stock look, and if I needed a tach, then I'd add a Sun onto the column. If you mount them in the header panel, realize that there isn't a lot of space in there due to the wiper motors. (I have a GMC which has 2 motors. Maybe your chevy only has one?)

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally Posted by K-TEN

Dan, did you ever figure out the cowl rubber? Here's my take. You don't have the correct one. You have a perfect rectangle and it has a lip or two. The correct or repop ones should have a "bend" in the middle of the two long sides. Kind of like a boomerang. So, throw that one aside and get a repop from Carter or however, and lay that baby in there.
As to the gauges, maybe you could mount them in the glove box. It's been done before. Personally, I like the stock look, and if I needed a tach, then I'd add a Sun onto the column. If you mount them in the header panel, realize that there isn't a lot of space in there due to the wiper motors. (I have a GMC which has 2 motors. Maybe your chevy only has one?)

Wiper motors? I don't need no stinkin' wiper motors!

Seriously, I MUCH prefer the stock look too and would have gone that way but at the time I was watching every penny (still am!) and had not yet gotten the re-wiring done. A restored gauge cluster with update to 80 psi for oil pressure and 220 or 240 max water temp would have been a lot more costly than the way I went. So that is a long term plan - to return to a stock restored but updated (oxymoron) cluster.

Yeah, I already figured out the cowl vent rubber is the wrong one. I've been on hold on my truck for the most part because my daughter got married May 30th ($$$) and my stepson is getting married in two weeks (Yeeesh...$$$...again). I have a LOT of things i can do though that don't require money so much as dedication. I'll get back on it soon then:

Pull Jag rotors & turn/replace them
R&R Rear end & tranny fluids
Sand/POR-15 (or Master Series - haven't decided) interior roof - install headliner
Pull bed and wire brush/paint rear half of rame
...and on and on and on...

[K-TEN]

Headliner isn't too bad. I did it while waiting for my son's Football practice one evening. They don't actually fit. They are cut too small. the 2 piece cardboard ones from Jim Carter et al. The one piece fiberglas are supposed to fit better and be fairly easy to install.
The GMC guages have a higher oil pressure to them due to the higher pressure in the GMC motors. Scott's speedometer service could set you up with a cluster that's ready to go. I bought an NOS one some years ago for short money.
Check out hisa phot gallery. There are 4 Deco GMC speedo's on the shelf shots waiting for an owner.
http://www.scottspeedometer.com/photogallery/
I know he has complete clusters as well. Good people. Knows his stuff, been doing it for years. His sons are in the biz too.