The Tale of Vintage Don and a 1948 Willys pickup

< was this really less than a year ago? Feels like 5 years..... >

April 7, 2020:

"... Boy, this is slow going. Especially since I don't really know what I'm doing, and kinda making it up as I go....

Nevertheless, a little bit of progress has been made.

Spent some time cleaning up the metal I'm saving, and then acid-etched the interior areas that have surface rust. I also decided where and how much more of the questionable old metal needs to be cut away. (that's the chalk lines in this first photo).

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Then I just plunged into it, trying to make shapes I can eventually weld together that will look like it's supposed to. Hopefully! I realize somebody that knows what they're doing would probably do many things differently. For instance, cutting out more of the old metal, and making a single, long patch panel. I don't have a brake, and I'm trying to make these shapes with a hammer, vise, and anvil....

This is how far I was when the "dinner whistle blew."


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The new "end cap" piece is just kinda hanging there in the photo, loose and crooked - it actually fits up pretty decent.

I still need to make that final upward radiused bend on the second piece.


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Yep, this is gonna take a while.... "


April 8, 2020:

"... Two hours (so far) of painstaking, meticulous and definitely amateur hand-fitting of this ridiculously difficult shaped corner fabrication. Almost ready to tack it. "

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April 9, 2020:

"... I'm calling this corner "done" at this point. It's definitely not perfect - but after all, it's the bottom of a door that nobody will ever even look at. And there wasn't anything left there at all when I started. Plus, I don't really know what I'm doing here - I've never fabricated anything quite like this before with these complicated (at least to me!) shapes. Now I can start to make that long center piece next... "

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Just a week or so ago, I was here - "

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Shoot.... Listen to me, all puffed up... I was all proud of myself, like I had gotten some where! I hadn't even really gotten STARTED with these doors! One lousy little corner done. Hahahaha


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Don,
Don't forget the weep holes! There are two drain holes at the bottom of the doors and you just covered one of them up with the new piece. They were likely clogged, causing the rust in the first place.
 
LOL.... Sorry to panic. I realize that Don has forgotten more about these trucks than I will ever know. I knew something had to be wrong for me to have something to add or point out to Don....
 
LOL.... Sorry to panic. I realize that Don has forgotten more about these trucks than I will ever know. I knew something had to be wrong for me to have something to add or point out to Don....
Don actually does a really cool job of duplicating the drain holes. I think you'll enjoy.
 
LOL.... Sorry to panic. I realize that Don has forgotten more about these trucks than I will ever know. I knew something had to be wrong for me to have something to add or point out to Don....

Not at all, cj847. I totally didn't know they were there. But somebody caught it back at that time, and we got 'em in there. As Stakebed mentioned, I'll be coming to that shortly. Thanks for watching out for me.
 
So this kind of slow progress kept on happening, one painful section of door bottom at a time. We also talked about many related topics, naturally. One of which was the need to put a piece of copper behind a weld seam or hole - which prevents you from burning through, at least not as easily. Copper was much discussed.... I have a nice collection of 'copper-backer-uppers' for various shapes and situations. I usually hold them against the backsides with a magnet or two, or sometimes a clamp if it'll fit into the situation.

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I also received a bunch of pats-on-the-back, which are truly very helpful. Encouragement helps! I had never done this type of work, and I was definitely struggling to try to make things work out right, at every step.

Some of those longer pieces with multiple folds were REALLY challenging! For example -

April 9, 2020:

"... So here's today's continuing adventure, the "other part" of the job of patching these doors - making the patches.... "

(Then I went on about cleaning up the area where my next piece was going, and then making a template piece out of card stock to fit. Then translating it to steel - that's when it gets tough.)

".. Then the next couple hours - first translating the fold lines from the paper onto the steel. And then it goes into the vise. The first fold (not shown) was the easiest. Start with just muscle power, bending it over and finish with a rubber mallet. My vise is 6", so I start at one end of the work piece, get it started, slide it over 6" and continue, a little at a time, back and forth - so that the metal follows the fold correctly - back and forth until it's bent far enough.

Then the second fold gets harder... Now the piece is kind of "reinforced" with the first crease in it, and the dimension gets tighter. And a tighter radius on this one, too. Back and forth in the vise until I get to a 90 degree bend. I can still get my big block of steel into the work space here, so still a decent finish.


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Third fold - lots of hammer marks now! Hitting it with chisels and everything else, to get it to start folding in the right place... Later, I come back and work those hammer marks out, mostly.

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That fold is the hardest. Now it doesn't want to flex, and plus it's a tight dimension.. This one is tough, and takes a while.

Lots of back and forth, a few degrees at a time. And finish up with working out the worst of the hammer marks, etc. Whew!


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And that results in my roughed out patch piece, finally. Tomorrow I'll be trimming and fitting it, getting it ready to weld in place. (Thank God it's not a four-door! haha) It has a slight radius at the top edge where it curves slightly upward to meet the existing metal, too, that I'll have to put in.

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I'm surprised nobody yelled at me yet for not taking the doors off to do the work. I thought about it. But the truck does a fine job of holding them in place, and with the Lift I can put them at a convenient height for each stage of the work. I may have to pull them if I need to get too far into the front corners, I'm hoping the metal there is in decent shape where I can save it. I've been afraid to look too far ahead so far! One little step at a time.... "

Then @Stakebed gave me a nice pat-on-the-back, which coming from a sheetmetal guy felt real good!

he said: "Kudos to you for struggling to shape a Z metal in a vise."

See, I didn't know that what I was trying to do was considered to be difficult - I just figured it was difficult for ME, because I didn't know how!! haha

After some conversation, the next morning I posted -

".. So, a little further exploratory surgery this morning has shown me that I DO need to go into the lower front corner of that door, too. So we're nowhere close to the end of this particular little door project! (and the other side is worse....) haha "

And then we came to that moment that @cj847 warned me about a day or two ago. It seems @PTV had made a comment kidding around about the whole bottom of the door was kind of a "big drain hole...."

I became an Archaeologist. Briefly. I went and looked at the OTHER DOOR! haha

April 10, 2020:


"... I got thinking last night about PTV's post above, which was just kidding around really. But it occurred to me that there probably WAS supposed to be a drain..... I remembered when I was replacing part of the rocker, I learned that the early trucks were a straight line at the door sill - but after 1953 (I think) there were 2 "dimples" in the rocker stairstep-looking surface - for THE DOOR BOTTOM DRAINS. Hmmm.

So I investigated on the driver's side door, and, lo and behold, there was still evidence of a factory slot at that bottom pinch / crimp.


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This also would explain why that lip that folds around from the outer door skin had two places where it kinda dips down. I had just carefully replicated one of those areas, on that rear corner work.

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That's supposed to be the DRAIN! That's why that folded-over lip is cut down for a couple inches right along there! Wondered about why they did that...

So, more surgery.... all Dremel work and tiny tools, so I didn't mess up what I just finished making. Got it done.


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There's one of these here, and at the front lower lip, too. Wish I'd have realized that when I was doing the fabrication, but we've caught it in time for the next 3 places.

So - thanks for that, PTV! "


Then later on, when I was putting finish paint on the whole effort, I came back to that and cleaned it up some more before paint. It ended up looking OK. (And you can't really see it, anyway. Just like the rest of this job! haha)

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I have a nice collection of copper-backer-uppers for various shapes and situations. I usually hold them against the backsides with a magnet or two, or sometimes a clamp if it'll fit into the situation.
Whoa! You have those super rare copper magnets Don? I am super impressed. Looked all my life for one of those. ;)

Funny you should mention my compliment. I was reading your post here and while reading/looking at pic of vise work, I literally was thinking about how tough that is to make the part look good and maintain your dimensions.
 
Whoa! You have those super rare copper magnets Don? I am super impressed. Looked all my life for one of those. ;)

Funny you should mention my compliment. I was reading your post here and while reading/looking at pic of vise work, I literally was thinking about how tough that is to make the part look good and maintain your dimensions.

Joe - I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to have these copper magnets - they probably "are known to cause cancer in California" - like most everything else does..... haha

Yes, that was a very tough piece to shape, for sure. I think this is about the point where I started being called "the Caveman," for beating stuff out like this with a hammer, vise, and anvil - which was supposed to require "more sophisticated" equipment to be able to make.
 
Don I have seen some of your posts in the past, but the "Story of Willa Dean." was awesome. I also have a flat fender48 pickup, and am building a 48 Willys woody using a 73 Commando as running gear. Love the righty/lefty, been there and done that!!!!! whish I had your trailer, I have dragged them on with missing tires, Hauled three jeepsters home in one day and three wagons on another day. love that you have one of the few column shift trucks. One of my Jeepsters was 4x4 with a pto winch so four sticks. Keep having fun.
 
Pressing on forward here -

But there is a noteworthy development near the end of the post tonight. Kind of a Milestone, a Turning Point - "Forum-wise," not "Project-wise."

So still on that same day of postings -

April 10, 2020:

"... Earlier today, I finished cutting away all the rest of the bad metal that will get replaced on the underside... That one remaining horizontal piece that kind of juts out there (below) - that's a good "reference point" to tie the rest in to - and leaving it there also leaves me needing to make less / smaller patches! haha It was still very solid there.

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I ended up needing to take a small section on the front lower corner of the outer skin. I had hoped that wouldn't be necessary, but it was too soft and rotten when I started poking on it and studying it closely. That cut-out may grow bigger, when I start working it. (It scares me, when I need to cut on "visible when finished" sheetmetal! haha)

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By the end of the day, I have the remaining lower patches all roughed out and bent into shape. They still need trimming, fitting, and "flushening" before starting the welding work. And I haven't made the little one on the outside skin yet, that'll be the last one. "

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Then @Stakebed asked me a question, which led to a pretty funny response in his follow-up comment. He first asked:

"Have you already de-rusted the inside of the door before sealing it up with new metal?"

I answered with the usual too-much-information -

".. Yep. Wire brush, then sand it with 80 grit - then scrub and acid etch with phosphoric. After that cures overnight, I scrub it again with lacquer thinner and hit it with self-etching primer. When that sets, I squirt a light coat of rubberized undercoating spray.

And I hit the back side of the patches with weld-through primer before they go on - and after welding then in place I hit them on the inside with the self-etching and the undercoat too, as above - as best as I can reach them down in there at that point, anyway. "


Which got me this response back -

"Outstanding Don! That'll do 'er for sure. You don't want your grandchildren to have to fix the doors again."

Hahaha - I was quiet for 2 days.... Then -

April 12, 2020:

"... A little Easter progress update. They made me quit early - but that's OK, the food was worth it!

I'll be brief (very unusual for me, I know). I finally got the patch pieces fitted up close enough for welding. (Which took me a long time...)


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And I got my first round of welding done. More than just tacking it, but not a very complete effort yet, I was running out of time. So it's spotted in there finally, and a first quick, rough grinding done now.

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Yesterday, I went ahead and patched the small area on the outside skin, too.

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So, getting pretty close with this side, no "open holes" remaining at this point. (The other side is worse....)

I've figured out that it would probably be better / easier to just cut off that whole bottom and somehow get a single patch piece all in one shot. But don't know how I'd make that patch.

Happy Easter! "

Then there was a confusing post by someone, who told me I could buy PRE-FABRICATED LOWER DOOR PATCH PANELS!!!!

I got very excited, because I had searched high and low for just that. But it turned out he was talking about outer door skins. Old news. Not what I was making here, obviously.

I answered, on April 13, 2020:

"... Darn... I was hoping you knew of a source for these that I had somehow missed when I was searching for them. I really tried to find them, I was a little surprised nobody makes them actually.

I was going to be first in line to get one!!! Because they are not easy to make with my Stone Age set-up... haha"


@JABJEEP came back -

".. Don, don't sell yourself short; you're at least Iron Age. With a little more work like you've been doing pretty soon you'll have your own category; Steel Age. " (that was also the day he started on his GPW body, he mentioned - far worse that old Willa Dean here. Brave man!)

And @Stakebed chimed in -

"Yeah, I think Don is ready for the Bronze Age."

Then it happened... I responded with -

"... That's great news, JABJeep! Atta Boy. Glad you're into the GPW. It may be necessary to re-adjust what you think "fun" is, but you get used to it.....

I gotta tell you guys, though - I'm happy with my Old Skool, Stone Age methods. It takes me a little while, but I get there. I'm not ready for any fancy, new-fangled Bronze Age stuff just yet. You gotta watch out with that high tech stuff - if you're not careful, it could lead you right into 12 Volts.... "


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And so I became officially recognized as A Caveman. And it was good......




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