small improvements to that pesky door

 I spent quite a few hours farting around with the hinges and cab front and so on just to get it to this stage. I think the way to do this is to get the door looking neat and actually working before starting on the cab front. I managed, just by unpicking the spot welds and repositioning it, to get the panel to within a couple of mm of where it should be. I am almost happy enough with it now. 

That pesky door problem revisited and the Mar-K 5/16 rivnut debacle.

 Well, that troublesome drivers' door is back at the forefront of my mind at the moment. Did I mention a guy called James was gonna do the resto work for me? Well, that all fell into a stinking pile of dog poop, like just about everything else associated with this project.

I do have a professional shop interested in doing the work for me; that is, finishing off the fitment of the panels and getting it to a stage where it is ready to paint and if satisfied go ahead and paint it. But that is  a couple of months off at this stage.

In the meantime I am going to try and deal with the situation as best I can. 

I threw this picture out there on FarceBook and I did receive some excellent responses. The general consensus being that I need to address the cab front as the door actually looks pretty decent. It was obvious the panel needed work as it sits dead flat, and that probably reflects its aftermarket heritage. The original panel has a slightly concave curve to it that matches the door, but as you might be abl to make out, this panel is flat. So, what happens now? Well, it has to come apart for one thing and it has to be massaged into shape. Easier said than done, but I am going to have a crack at it anyway.

Did I tell you the story about the Goddamned Rivnut saga?

I bought the excellent Mar-K f100 tub kit and began fitting up the tailgate to the unit. 

If you go to this posting https://56pickup.blogspot.com/2024/08/mar-k-tailgate-latch-for-truck.html 

you'll see how the instructions tell you to screw the nutsert into the side of the tub wall without using a rivnut gun. Well, to be honest, it kinda sorta worked, but the reality was, it didn't really work that well. One side didn't lock tightly into the steel and the other side twisted the nutsert to a point where the bolt wouldn't tighten. 

So, I guess you could call that a bit of a failure.

So, I decided to fork out and buy a rivnut gun. I wanted one that had the 5/16 mandrel, and they were very hard to find for a reasonable price. However, I found one on Temu for around $90 with a number of mandrel sizes and lots of rivnuts. So, I bought it. Several weeks later it arrived. After spending about two hours trying to figure out how to change mandrels, I had it all ready to go.

So, what was the problem? Well, the nutsert thing that Mar-K supply has a wider outer diameter than the standard nutsert. This means, that if I go and fit the 5/16 nutsert up, it will fall through the hole. The weird 17/32 hole that I was told to drill. That alone was annoying as it was an odd size and a rare and expensive drill bit to get. I did find one through Gasweld.

So, bottom line was, I should have just bought a cheap metric rivnut gun kit in Australia for half the price and used a 10mm nutsert and be done with it.

But wait, there's more...

The problem is, the bolt that needs to go into that nutsert is a 5/16 shoulder bolt. A special sized thing that is designed to slide along the ridge of the bar that attaches to the tailgate as you lower and raise it.

So, I decided to use the 10mm nutserts as they fitted snugly in the drilled hole, and correspondingly, I needed to find a 10mm shoulder bolt. Wouldn't that be an easy thing to find? You would think so, and I did find a couple, but they were stupidly priced, and as much as I like to shop locally, I wasn't going to pay three times the price for a 10mm shoulder bolt that I eventually bought on eBay from China.

Go figure all that out.

Classy aluminium shroud for the F100

 Nathan made this very nice shroud for me the other day. It came out very well. He even rivnutted the thing together and fastened it with nice Allan key screws for that finishing touch. I didn't want it polished as I think I will be painting it black to match the old original radiator for a bit of a stealth look. Although, should I really bother as it has a modern 16" Davies Craig thermatic fan hooked up to it. The only mod I think I would do to is is cut a few holes out in each corner and bolt up some sort of louvered thing to help the passage of air through the radiator. 

Well what a difference a month makes!

 Well, what a difference 4 weeks make.

4 weeks later...The builder came down and had a good long look at the project. He said his workspace was not much bigger than mine and that he would need to take it off the chassis and work on the cabin on dollies. Personally, I had a huge question mark over this, because how can you possibly line up things like the guards when it's not on the chassis? I think he had a long look at it and began to realise he needed to take the entire truck with him, and with that he changed his tune. He said he has been overwhelmed with jobs since starting back up again at his place and he wouldn't be able to accommodate the truck into his suddenly heavy schedule. I even told him he could work in our garage. I had everything he needed, but reading between the lines, I knew he had enough work to keep him going and he could afford to be choosy. A far cry from when he first turned up all excited like.

Anyway, I decided to get stuck into at least one of the jobs I thought was too hard for me: aligning the doors. And, surprising even myself, I was able to get at least one of the doors lined up enough for me to call it an achievement. That gave me a whole lot of confidence, and now I feel ready to tackle the bad side, and who knows, maybe I can even do the rest of the body work myself. Maybe it's meant to be like this...

It's too late to turn back now. And one of the reasons is; we're knocking out the centre pillar of our double garage and installing a wide single door JUST for the rotten truck! How spoilt is this thing?

So I will be fully welding up the cab front now that I believe it is in the correct place and if the door doesn't fit, I can adjust the door, weld more metal on it or grind some off as needed. I also hop to fit the front fenders correctly and align them with the stone guard, and after that, repair the fibreglass guards and hit them with a couple of coats of 2k epoxy primer. That should be enough for this weekend. 

I'm chasing up a part that connects the rod from the firewall to the radiator support. Doesn't look like an easy part to find, and nor does it look easy to make.  Still, the search goes on...

Good news! The radiator shroud is nearly done and I should have that back by the weekend. Happy days. Gotta be happy about something. 

PS.. I managed to find a supplier of the above part, and guess how much they want for it? $190. The world has gone stark raving mad. 

9th Romans Car display Kiama 8th September 2024

 Well, what a great day! Thousands turned up to the little seaside town of Kiama, home of the biggest blowhole in the world, to see hundreds of righteous hotrods with a small smattering of old Holdens and Falcons, and even a couple of non American cars turned up. The weather was about as perfect as you could hope for: not too sunny with plenty of cloud and no rain. and no flies. Great fifties tunes were playing (not too loudly) and there was food on offer and some other goodies in a few stores I didn't get to check out, although, I must confess I did check out the pizza, and it was very nice.

But today was all about the vehicles...and the Romans. For those that don't know, the Romans are a hot rod club formed in NSW in 1960, so they are celebrating their 64th year! What an amazing achievement!

Here are just some of the cars that we saw on the day.

Kicking myself I didn't spend more time in the company of this grand old girl, and I didn't get a front snap, either. But this was a beautifully restored Chrysler Imperial coupe from 1956 (I believe) 

Just check out that stunning dash! Who doesn't love chrome? This car was lavished with it.  Hard for me to pick a favourite, but this one would be right up there. 

Thunderbird for GO! (that is, for sale)  This one looked very nice. 

Had to trim this pic as someone's big schnozz got right in the way.

Stunning looking rod. Just check out the beautiful interior! 

Here was another one with a very stylish interior. Some sort of two tone leather. 

Sittin' back watching the people go by and lovin' it! 

Just beautiful! 

Not many sleds there, but this one was a standout.

An absolute peach!

A few Chevy pickups from the 60's but surprisingly next to nothing representing Ford. 

The ever photogenic XA GT Coupe. If I'd just seen this car and walked away I would have had a satisfying day. 

Tastefully two tined and looked very effective. 

Anyone else go weak at the knees when they see a Camaro? Oh SS! 

A Scottish guy called Jack owns this. Jack who? 

Lil' buttkickin' Morris looking great. 

GT 40 was surprisingly sedately sounding when it cruised in. I never understood why they would put a wheel well in the front of the car for the spare tyre. Must make it hard to see. Good to see the owner opted to leave it out. 

Gotta love these old girls. Must cost the owner a lot of money in new number plates, tho. See it under there crushed to oblivion. 

It's well known fact I am a Ford fan, but you'll never hear me say anything derogatory about a gorgeous old '54 Chevy!

Like a beauty parade without the headlights! 

A nicely understated 34 Ford. 

Yes, that's my wife, the obsessed Cronulla Sharks fan! Deep in contemplation here, probably thinking why don't we own something like this beautiful hotrod instead of that POS I'm trying to fix. She'd have a point. Go the sharks! (Had to say that) 

Sorry guys, I wasn't allowed to get a close up of the mural on this WB ute. I got dragged off quickly to the next car. This was the best I could do. 

Coffin shaped trailer. Not my cup of tea, but did overhear some woman saying she'd happily get driven to the cemetery in that. 

Wee wee, as in very French...Frenched headlights...get it? 

This pickup was bloody beautiful. The shine on the paint was something else, and the dull day didn't do it justice. Check out the interior!

A very tastefully done interior incorporating modern styling cues, like modern gauges, seating and door panels.  A high quality build. But just keep looking, dudes, and check out that tub! 

Like, what is that floor made of? I don't think they were individual strips, and I don't even know if it is wood, but it looked like you could just do a big bellyflop on that and slide all the way to the mural headfirst. 

How do you know this show was not in the Bunnings car park? Answer: just one dog all day. 

Wendy's favourite car. I think we came back to this three times. I told her we'd have to go otherwise they'd call the cops. "Calling all cars, look out for the car shark!"  Gotta say I loved it to. The owner's weren't very talkative, but it was hard to talk with a face full of burger. You have to concentrate when there is beetroot somewhere in that roll. I get it.