Hi,

I have been busy in spite of the snow. I had to fix the cowl area (the panel in front of the doors) on both sides. The doors had been opened too far and had put large dents into the cowl. I expect to make some kind of door stops to prevent future occurrences.

The cowl is not accessible from the inside so I had to remove them to pound out the dents. I checked the cowl on my parts cab but they were all rusted and so were not usable, drat.

After I got the driver’s side off I discovered that I was not the first tourist to work on the cowl. It had at least 1/4″ of lead filling some dents and creases. There also was a little lead on the passenger side. The inner kick panels were in pretty rough shape on both cabs so I expect that I will have to make new ones when I get that far.

I actually managed to get the cowls done without any serious damage to myself but ruined a bunch of light bulbs. I’ll let you know if I manage to figure out how to keep from breaking the light bulbs.

I am using compact fluorescent bulbs because they can be dropped (usually) without breaking them. I have found that dropping an incandescent bulb (even the rough service type) results in turning them into a “dark”. The problem with CFL bulbs is that if they are hit with a piece of welding or grinding slag it ruins them. I like to hold the drop light in one hand close enough to the work that I can see the work through the welding hood. Then I weld with the other hand. This puts the bulb pretty close to the welding splatter, and at a couple bucks a pop it can get expensive. I currently have a 20 watt CFL bulb that has a cover that makes it look like a regular incandescent bulb. Hopefully the cover will protect the bulb.

I like the CFL bulbs because besides being pretty rugged they don’t get hot, I get burned enough with out getting toasted by the drop light. They also put out good light (after they warm up that is) and the light is spread out in the bulb enough that it doesn’t cause spots in my eyes if I happen to look directly at the bulb.

More Pictures in Norm’s ’51 Gallery

Tags: 1951 GMC

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