48 chevy truck

[kb426]

O&S got a late start today. Grandkids involved. I made a pattern to get the cowl radius as close side to side as I could. I was concerned that it might move around so I welded in some braces. I may fill the rest of the area in with sheet metal??? I had to cut out the area on the cowl where the hood center strip would go. I took a piece of .125 x 2" strap and made a filler plate. One end was curved to match up to the original cowl line but the rest was to try and keep a straight hood line from the cowl to grille shell. One of the pics shows the angle of the hood hinge bracket on the grille shell. Tomorrow it will get cut and the angle changed.

[jaybee]

A couple of days on some other parts of the car to bring fresh eyes...

[kb426]

I have about a half day in today. O&S at his best. I cut the mount on the grille shell loose and changed the angle and welded it back together. I cut a piece for a hood side panel. it's roughed in. Before I did that, I realized that if I made it longer and changed the seam where the fender bolted to the cab, that it might be better. The bottom of the truck cowl sticks out a little to far so tomorrow, I will figure out some way to pie cut that area and pull it in to make the side panel easier to fit. I have more ideas in my feeble brain so I'm hoping that I will have the front sheet metal taken care of in a couple of days. This morning one of my thoughts was that hood panels need to be easily removed to allow access to what's behind them. That's when I changed my focus on making the side panel cover as much as possible. I want to be able to remove a side panel and leave the lowers in place. More thinking.

[kb426]

End of the day for O&S. I worked slowly, trying not to make mistakes. Yesterday's panel served as a pattern. I have both side panels bent, one with fasteners and neither finish trimmed. This was from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Lots of steps in this.

[kb426]

O&S has the right side panel hung. I cut up the metal for the hood and then found at least 3 ways not to bend it. More thinking ahead.

[idrivejunk]

I see unity and repetition, with the raised areas on side panels. 

Piano hinged hood suits me. Points for sheer boldness of idea.

Quite the epic saga. I need more Junior Mints.

[kb426]

Dust removed from tool. ?

[kb426]

O&S is not finished with the right side but getting close. More trimming, edging and a slight hump at the cowl to work out.

[WZ JUNK]

That"s looking good.

[kb426]

O&S has had enough fun today.

[jaybee]

Interesting, and bold. No belly button rod here, and I mean that in the best way.

[chimp koose]

Jeez , I am impressed ! I will need to do that hood thing some day . I hope mine turns out near as good as that . Last time I did that kind of thing I made a 1 pc  body for my FED from front of engine to back of nose cone . That was early 90's 

[idrivejunk]

Interesting   

[kb426]

O&S started out with yard work this am. I spent some time aligning the hood panels with the hinge. I drilled some pilot holes. I'm going to rivet the hood to the hinge. No rivets anywhere around me. I believe it was in the 49 Ford cab that I used on the rolling dumpster that there was a few spare parts. One of which was the shifter for an old Ford truck. I machined the base to bolt to the t5 and then bent it to where I think it will work. I ground down the top end and threaded it for 1/2 x 13. I sanded it with the 80 grit da to remove all of the surface rust.

[kb426]

O&S flopped along like a fish on the ground. I started off by bolting the bed sides together to make some measurements before fabbing the bed cover. I looked at the shifter handle and decided it was too plain. I ball milled some on the sides. I went to bolt it on and found the aftermarket shifter had a different bolt pattern than any other shifter out there. I put the lever back in the mill and machined another hole to fit the pattern. The pics show the metal cut for the bed cover. One is completed, the other lacks the center support.