I have gotten back to working on the ’51 after the summer doldrums.  Doldrums interspersed with changing jobs, thinking about moving, and doing the remove & replace thing with the transmission in the Wife’s Miata…..twice and a half.  The Miata transmission still isn’t right but ignoring it until spring is starting to look like a really good idea.

  Continue Reading »

Last winter I spent several months working away from home.  This meant that I had lots of time but since I couldn’t bring the garage with me I couldn’t work on the ’51.  Being disappointed with this state of affairs I brought the steering wheel along with me to work on during the long winter evenings.

I figured that it would only take a week to finish the steering wheel, two at the most.  I guess that I was partly right because it did only take a couple of weeks to do the steering wheel paint.  What I didn’t figure on was doing the job multiple times at two weeks a try.

  Continue Reading »

Knowing that at some point I would have to cut the glass for the ’51 I determined that some glass cutting practice would be a good thing. 

I have cut laminated safety glass in the past using the traditional method of scoring and snapping each side and then burning the laminate with alcohol or lighter fluid.  This method worked out so well for me that I have been looking for some time into an alternate method of cutting automotive glass. 

A number of years ago I attempted to cut some old flat safety glass that came out of a school bus.  I used a four inch angle grinder, the same one that I am still using to grind weld beads.  I did manage to cut the glass but the abrasive heated the glass up to the point that the abrasive wheel was throwing off fiberglass strands.  At least I learned how to make fiberglass!  The heat also made what I call “herring bone” cracks all along the cut.  None of the cracks went into the usable glass area because they arced along the cut line.  My plan was to try to sand them off.   Continue Reading »

 I have made progress on various parts of the ’51 and have lost track of what parts have been documented and what parts haven’t.  The top chop and door opening job was done on a fill in basis between other things that were happening.  Life is like that sometimes.

When I decided to widen the cowl I also needed to widen the windshield opening.  The chopped windshield posts remained where they were and needed no changes.  I put the driver’s side windshield post in place with my normal inside reinforcing plates.  After it was all welded in I stood back and discovered that the post was not straight.   No matter how I turned my head the post still was not straight.  The only way that it looked right was if I turned the lights off.  Figuring that at some point the truck would be outside in the day time I cut the post loose and took a second stab at it.  Look twice and weld once. 

In the middle of all this confusion Continue Reading »

After widening the cowl and windshield area on the truck I realized that the ’85 Nissin Z car windshield that was slated to be installed in the truck was too narrow by about four inches.  This realization resulted in returning to the junkyard (my favorite shopping place) with a note pad, tape liar and camera. 

 I knew that I needed Continue Reading »