1951 F16

[kb426]

Matt, I've had enough of "manual" in an old truck. The last 10 years has changed my opinion on that.
O&S tackled the 53 grille today. It's now shortened to fit the 51 grille opening. It needs blasted and Mr. Bondo to show up. All I can say is it's better than when I started.

[idrivejunk]

Nice welds on such crusty stuff Can't wait to see how that looks once its up there.

I wonder what oh... say a 1962 tailgate script panel would look like in your gate.

[kb426]

I'm thinking of taking the revel on the grille and removing to so the grille resembles the 56 more. That's a fair amount of cutting , hammering and welding. Still thinking. I need to get on with the tailgate so the back end of the truck can be at least primer so it could be moved outside so I can work on the other parts. Cold weather is closing in on me.

[kb426]

O&S got started with yard work and cleaning the 51 after it's trip to kill insects yesterday. I went to the shop thinking I would work on the tail gate. I looked at the grille and said now or never. I had the vision of Ed Roth on one side and Mark Moriarity on the other and in unison they said "big mess, big success". I sliced and beat out the reveal as best as I could while dealing with all of the collision damage on the lower part. It's ready to be blasted and bondoed for sure now.

[kb426]

O&S decided to do something different with the tailgate that I had never seen before. I might find out why I've never seen it done before. LOL. It's very plain so I may do something to it. Maybe not. I'm going to look at it for a bit before I make any decisions. The one thing about a tail gate, a few bolts and it's off and you can start over quickly.

[idrivejunk]

You've been zigging while the world zags, I see.  

[kb426]

O&S had a productive day. Clear mindset of my goals did help:) The front bed rail fillers are in. The rear bed rail fillers are finished, also. I made some small filler panels to go over the square tubes on the tail gate frame. I thought I could metal finish them but there is some scratches that will require filler. I'm happier with the way the tail gate is looking. I'm still not ready to quit on it but I'm needing an idea.

[idrivejunk]

I'm trying to swear off of ideas so I stopped at the shallow end yesterday and kept them to myself. You won't like them but the more jovial jocularity has to come out first 

Thot 1:  An inlaid and intricately carved western scene on a thick, wooden panel.  Hee-haw!    Some worked fancy leather and brass too.

Thot 2: Billboard. You can sell that space.

Thot 3: One of those big flat white panel lights. As a backup light / outer panel.

Thot 4: I was coming up short on serious thoughts for it and enjoying observation. But theres that tall script 60s thing I said.

So I uh... could you define the parameters? Want double wall or no? Want to sit on it, Potsie?

Would it be tasteful to have just matching V8 emblems, center front and rear? Or looking to give another go with the roller maybe? It would be cool if the gate had stock embossed type letters like a Merc gate but said interceptor. Yeah, right. Or you could see about playing off the rail cap angles and stepping a raised V across your panel. Like the emblem V but stretched out. CAD some stuffs, let us peek.

See there, I better quit. Gotta throttle my idea mill. But you've seen a whole bunch of variations from me already. I can link you to ye olde blog page with several playful, unheard-of variations if you wish. At least now I know all but which one won't be used.

Heres my card. " Have pencil, will scribble"  'Cause I'm a paladin, see? Myeah. 

[idrivejunk]

P.S: Then pocket shaves and end caps are purt near invisible. Nice!

[kb426]

Matt, anything with the bead roller would have had to be done before the panel was installed. The throat isn't tall enough for more than about a half inch to go through. I'm stuck in neutral on all of the rest. There's a good chance that it will stay single panel. I don't think I will use this truck for items that aren't tied down in the bed. But that could change easily. I have your pic blog bookmarked. I have looked at it several times for ideas. Decisions have been tough to make for some reason. ??

[idrivejunk]

My ideas tend to want to put lettering there. Like the center script bumpout only, from a stock gate. Or the Super Duty embossed strip from a new aluminum job, bonded.

Adding an outer layer opens the opportunity to style it with roller. Plus the option of using the depth, the distance between inner and outer, for styling. Maybe you could shave the handle hole on a 70s gate skin with the recessed center and plop that over somehow. A second layer would also not have to cover the whole space. It could even be fiberglass. Think on that.

Of course maybe a paint treatment, a darker color in the inset center just on the flat face maybe. With an emblem centerpiece. Or two toned in that stretched emblem V style with emblem at the focal point.

Could a ribbed running board section go across there?

Would a Mach1 door molding stretch across there?

You could use stick on moldings with the single layer. Couple of base model chrome spear door moldings from a 2000s yukon tahoe flanking a Ford grille oval perhaps.

Is there something that could be done with pieces of the stock hood side trim?

Are there some stick on Ford letters that are raised chrome, off of something?

I know you're about less is more. I kinda like the plain but with a V8 emblem for grille and gate.

Cut a proportionally correct but downsized template of the area from plain paper. Lay it on another sheet and outline four or six gate shaped boxes with a pencil. Fill in two or three with initial basic shapes or ideas, no matter how weak. Then stare at those until another vague idea pops up then rinse and repeat. Pencil is the fastest way to generate, develop, and cull, for me.

There were two books we read in art school: A kick in the seat of the pants, and A whack on the side of the head. About learning to generate ideas. For example there was a list of things like:

Invert it. Make it tiny. Make it huge. Turn it inside out. Freeze it. Smash it. Melt it. Turn it on it's side. Associate it with an animal. Make it look natural. Make it futuristic. Paint it black. Chrome it. Push harder on an idea already tossed out. Finger random dictionary words and pair them with it in your mind.

Etc. Its a rectangle. So yeah. Try stuff on paper, just real loosely. Try not to gather elements from other things as many of my thoughts do. I still don't have a good feel for what you're after and that hinders me. If I can cap this off with a dab of critique, Bill... I'd have to say the flat tops of tail light pods bug me.

I took a mirror from a 442 yesterday, held it up to the F. Interesting shape but would require too much stalk and look gangly dangly. Right now I'm thinking of if outside rearview housings could make tail light pods with the right pieces. But thats getting away from ideas you might actually implement at this point and can just be filed away for another job.

[idrivejunk]

Here... a one-line laugh....

Put the inside skin of a double walled gate on the outside so it looks like the truck got dressed in the dark and put it's gate on inside out. Ha.

[idrivejunk]

A quickie

[idrivejunk]

Sorry for the clutter. Only wanting to assist. But I tell ya what...

That quicky with a couple slots in the bottom section could emulate the grille interestingly if the shapes were right.

My idea mill has a heavy flywheel. Much inertia, slow to start and to stop.  You have to sort nuggets from ore but I bring cartfuls from the mine once I get up to speed.

[kb426]

I'm with you on the tail light mounts. That may get addressed today.