1936 Diamond T with 6BT cummins

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I just cannot WAIT for the fenders and running boards to go back on! It is best to leave them off for now because they just are SO in-the-way when working on it because they are SO HUGE. Plus, they need to be sandblasted still yet. And major bodywork done on the drivers fender :rolleyes:

I will be happy when everything is in epoxy primer - so it can be just one shade of black, haha.
 
got the oval defroster vents cut in the dash top:



The oval bezels will be attached after painting


The 2'' hole I had to cut in the top of the cowl for the vent to come though (the turnbuckle is for the hood lace on the outside of the cowl)



We started reskinning the lower part of the driver door and put POR15 on the inside


new 18g skin marked and ready for the brake:


bent the edges as far as we could on the brake - then we will use ''The Skinner'' to crimp the edges.


Before welding, we are on the fence about using our new tool ''the perfect panel prep tool'' from eastwood. Anybody use one? it creates a tiny bend on the edge of sheet metal - so when you line up two pieces of sheet metal, you have a 'valley' to weld in instead of on top of two butted pieces. Thinking that would work better and help keep it from distorting too.
 
We started reskinning the lower part of the driver door...


Before welding, we are on the fence about using our new tool ''the perfect panel prep tool'' from eastwood. Anybody use one? it creates a tiny bend on the edge of sheet metal - so when you line up two pieces of sheet metal, you have a 'valley' to weld in instead of on top of two butted pieces. Thinking that would work better and help keep it from distorting too.
Lookin' good. Sounds like you have some great tools to go with your skills.

The tool sounds like a good idea. It would logically leave you with a flatter weld. But, I doubt it will prevent distortion. At least not much, if any. Only keeping the heat to a minimum will do that. The conventional wisdom is to use short welds, and move around a lot, allowing each area to cool before revisiting it.

But you probably knew that already. :D
 
Lookin' good. Sounds like you have some great tools to go with your skills.

The tool sounds like a good idea. It would logically leave you with a flatter weld. But, I doubt it will prevent distortion. At least not much, if any. Only keeping the heat to a minimum will do that. The conventional wisdom is to use short welds, and move around a lot, allowing each area to cool before revisiting it.

But you probably knew that already. :D

yes, we ended up teaming up to do the seam. I used the tool to make the bevel on the edges, then Brian tack welded - as I stood by with the air to cool the tacks off one at a time. It kept the distortion to a minimum, yay! Our best seam-weld to date on the project I think. The grinding was very minimal too since a good portion of the weld was below ''grade''.

I forgot to take a pic of the finish weld from the front, but here it is maybe 1/4 of the way done:


and done pic from the back:


and we started to put paint on some of the interior parts!


We are doing beige and dark brown interior
 
After stripping it back to bare metal again, we got the dash face painted (as well as one of the doors on the inside and door panel). The Shoreline Beige we chose is really close to Cummins beige and looks good with the dark brown dash top! :)






The garnish molding for the door windows is the same brown as the dash top (and the trim inside and all the handle bezels are the brown too). I also got a dark brown ''One Shot'' and will eventually do some pinstriping on the beige of the doors with the brown.

Now, back to bodywork for the other door :rolleyes:
 
Congrats! This thing looks and sounds great, i really like your color choice on the dash. [cl

-Chris

thanks! we are happy with the choice too. We have more interior parts in final primer ready for paint (no pics yet)

I also got the passenger door glass installed! I see I need to roll the glass down and 'adjust' the top of the door to fit better though, haha.



we didn't get anything accomplished on the truck this last weekend because we were busy all weekend dragging this old girl home:

It will be notched in the front, tubbed in the back, lowered to fit the stance of the truck (like a moving van, but lower yet). It will be left a blank interior with just paneling and flooring so it can be multi-purpose.
 
Love the little details of the trailer. Things like that are gone forever...
yes, the details are so appealing, everything is square square square now :rolleyes:
We have the stamped logo that goes in the center/top/front too - just haven't put it up there yet (got from someone on the Fruehauf facebook page)
 
we ordered a custom bead-rolled panel that I turned into a front cover for the heater. It is painted and heater is installed now. It doesn't show real well because of the dash extension we made, but oh well.





and, we have officially started sound deadening and wiring. I did the sound deadener on the firewall and the top of the inside part of the cowl first - will do the floor later after wiring is completed.

had to do a mock-up with the dash panels/gauges and the center console top - and then they came back out to work on the wiring



Brian is doing a great job keeping the wiring neat and tidy. He is picky that way thankfully!


I converted the alternator (with a purchased kit) into a ''1-wire'' and added a 'w' wire for the tachometer.


everything will have wire loom on it after it is all routed where it will live permanently.
 
The dash looks super nice.

thanks! It is one of my favorite parts of what we have done so far :) We are saving the center of the middle one for something decorative - maybe a Diamond T emblem of some sort if we can get one for not an arm/leg
 
We have finally got far enough in the wiring (we are both being VERY picky about the routing so it is taking a lot of time). We got the relay box wired for headlights/high beams/fog lights/fuel shut-off. The engine fan has a separate relay and the heater fan and horn have a relay in the harness on the firewall.
Anyhow, you can see a short video : https://youtu.be/S0Tu3Nx54BA

I wasn't going to pay almost 10 bucks each for door bumpers from Diamond T Rubber, so I made my own (and decided to sell them on ebay too):





shifter boot I made for the main box:


I also made one for the auxiliary transmission, but forgot to take a pic (had to make the bezel for that boot as well). You can see it in the video though. Now I have to drill holes in the console to attach it (so I am waiting until I get some screws painted, we have a large batch of screws to paint in both the dark brown and the beige).
 
got the driver door innards all in, including the glass!



I didn't realize how fuzzy this pic is - but I got leather door pulls made to fit in the place of the original arm rests that are scarce-as-hens-teeth. I am going to do dark brown pinstriping on the door panel, the window garnish molding is dark brown (that I am going to do beige pinstriping on). Very happy with the door pulls though!
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and, I customized a purchased switch panel (it is aluminum and the color of the metal just didn't look right with stainless and chrome parts elsewhere). Painted it the beige, added the veneer, stained it dark walnut, then coated in epoxy glaze.
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I also ended up putting the veneer/epoxy glaze in the bottom of the cubby in the center console (you can also see the auxiliary trans boot+trim that I made) sorry for the fuzzy pic :p
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Brian has been working hard on the wiring keeping it tidy and every wire covered in loom (I found the best braided split loom at a great price on ebay called 'flexo' - I would compare it to the Painless stuff, but a MUCH better price - and the seller ships SUPER fast! (we did use some poly loom underneath here, but it will only be used under the cab where it won't be seen. The braided stuff is so much more attractive.
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And, I have to say - I am thankful that I didn't use Photobucket! I pay for Flickr, but it really isn't very expensive. I have an auto-upload feature set up on mine and my husband's phones - so ALL our photos get uploaded (as private until I change individual photos to public to be able to share them). No more lost photos to computer crashes!
 

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