September
1, 2002
First item for today is to install the newly painted
splash guards. I buggered up the heads of the Phillips bolts
getting them out so I used some extra inner fender screws and j-nuts
to install the splash guards. I may replace them with the proper bolts
at a later date, but they're good for now. After the guards
where installed, Dave and I reinstalled the tailgate (being very
careful). Now we could install the bumpers.
I bought a new reproduction rear bumper
from King Parts because the original
was beyond repair. After we got the new
rear bumper installed,
we noticed that it was tilted up on the passenger side. I
suspected the bumper supports were bent because the original bumper
was damaged on the passenger side. Before applying any
drastic measures to straighten out the supports, we thought we would
try loosening the bolts that attach the supports to the frame and see
if we could pull the supports down far enough to get the bumper to
align properly. 
We removed the bumper, then I loosened the
bolts and Dave put his weight on the supports. Sure enough, they
moved down about an inch. When we reinstalled the bumper it fit
perfectly. The front bumper was the original
and it went back on without a hitch.
The only thing left to
complete the exterior is to install the upper and lower body side
moldings. I had ordered new reproduction molding from King
Parts several months ago. The look and quality of the
reproduction molding appeared to be identical to that of the originals
and I was anxious to see if they fit as good as they looked.
The main difference between the
original molding and the reproduction pieces is the fasteners used to
attach the molding. The original molding was attached mainly
with metal speed nut type fasteners and a few stick-on type fasteners. The
reproduction molding came with stick-on fasteners for nearly all the
pieces. I suppose they supplied stick-on fasteners under the
assumption that it is impossible to install speed nuts on the
molding in some areas when all of the sheet metal is installed.
For instance, with the inner fenders installed it would be very
difficult to install the speed nuts on the upper fender
molding. I had saved all of the metal fasteners that were
still useable when I removed the original molding and I wanted to
use them instead of the stick-on fasteners where ever
possible.
We couldn't really just grab pieces
of molding and start installing them. We had to keep in mind
that the molding needed to line up properly between the front fenders
and the doors, and between the doors and the bed. This alignment
somewhat dictated what type of fastener was used. With the metal
fasteners, there is very little adjustment possible, but the stick-on
fasteners allow quite a bit of flexibility.
With this in mind, we installed the
front fender upper molding using the metal fasteners in all of the
original holes except the one closest to the door. We were able
to use the metal fasteners on this molding
because
we had not yet installed the inner fenders. We didn't use the metal fastener on the hole
closest to the door because if there was any adjustment needed to
align the front fender upper molding and the door upper molding it
would have to be made by adjusting the fender molding. This is
because the door molding is attached with a sheet metal screw where it
meets the front fender and there is no way to adjust it without
drilling a new hole.
Next, we attached the door upper
moldings using the metal
fasteners and sheet metal screws. With the door piece installed,
we removed the paper from the stick on fastener at the end of front
fender upper molding, adjusted the molding so that the two pieces
aligned properly and then stuck the fastener in place.
Next, we installed the lower,
woodgrain molding using the same principle -- metal fasteners where
ever possible and stick-on fasteners where we needed maximum
adjustment to align things. I thought we could finish installing
the molding today, but (like most things involving restorations) it's
taking much longer than I expected. But, we should easily be
able to finish getting all the molding installed tomorrow (Labor
Day).
September
1, 2002
The only pieces of molding left to install are the
upper bed and upper cab moldings. Dave was not here
today, so I was on my own. I installed the upper cab molding
first because it had to align with the molding already installed on
the door. I was able to use the medal fasteners for the cab
molding on the passenger side but I had to use the stick-on fasteners
on the driver side because the gas tank prevented me from getting to
the speed nuts.
The last piece of molding was the
upper bed molding. No metal fasteners here, only stick-on
fasteners. That was OK because that's the way the original was
installed also. Because I used metal fasteners where ever
possible, I had a lot of extra stick-on fasteners. I used the
extras to place a fastener about every six inches on the molding --
about twice as many as they originally used. Hey, the more the
better, right?
With all the fasteners in place, it
was simply a matter of
making sure I keep everything lined up while I pressed the molding in
place. You have to get it right the first time because there's
not much of a second chance with the stick-on fasteners.
That's it, I'm done! Seems
hard to believe, but with that last piece of molding in place the
exterior and interior restoration of Maych is
complete. Oh, there will always be "one more thing" to
do, but for all intents and purposes I'm done. Now I need to
start thinking about what work is needed on the engine and engine
compartment. I know, I should have done the engine work
first, but sometimes (actually most of the time), what you should do
doesn't actually occur to you until it's too late.
Anyway, I need to decide on a
course of action pretty quick, because Dave said he would need the
shop to store his snow blowing equipment once the heavy snow season
arrived (usually December). An additional incentive to acting
quickly is that Dave's shop doesn't have any heat and that's definitely
not a good thing in Nebraska!
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