Rufus: Did somebody call a cab?

(12/01/05) I thought I was going to start by installing the wiring harness. Well, although it's still up at the top of the list, I realized that I was gonna have to do some crawling around in the cab to make and install a mounting plate and begin the harness routing. I thought it might be a good idea to make the cab a little sturdier. A whole lot of the structural integrity of the cab comes from the top. And since I didn't have one...well the structure wasn't too integral.

The doors had been held closed from the inside with a cargo strap, so I released that and the driver's door swung open. I guess that was ok, since there's no latch mechanism or handle.

The floorboard area is a little...uhhh...vacant, too.

I had a little more fun opening the passenger door. It has a latch mechanism, but again, no handle. It was rusted solid, but with some PB Blaster and a few taps with a dead blow hammer, I got it to move and the door swung open. It has a broken hinge on the bottom. One nice thing about Model As...they have 3 door hinges on each side. I wish some newer vehicles I could think of had that.

Look: A seat! I'd talked with the guy that I bought Rufus from and he told me that the center seat from a lot of minivans (Ford Windstar or Dodge Caravan in particular) fit real nice. I got one real cheap from a junkyard, removed the brackets and it almost fits like it was designed for it.

While all this planning and hootin and hollerin had been going on, I'd ordered some wood kits from Floyd's Model A parts in Washington state. I wish they had a website I could link to. These people have to be the nicest folks I've dealt with in a long time. They sent me the parts (which were here in 2 days) and told me to send them a check when I got them. Wow!!! And the order was right...no problems...I'd really recommend them. Floyd's Model A Parts in Ridgefield, Wa. 1-800-852-2606. Anyway, these are the floorboard pieces.

This is the top wood kit.

And these are the cab wood pieces.

The wood kits reminded me a lot of those Chinese puzzles we used to get when I was a kid. If ya looked at them the wrong way, they'd fall apart and you'd never get them back together again. So I did some test assembly on the top wood and found out that it wasn't too bad. The quality of the parts seems to be pretty good, too.

Then I started hanging parts from whatever convenient places I could find and coating them with spar varnish. These parts are the door posts that go inside the cab and where the striker plate attaches.

The floorboards got some varnish, too.

I also removed the grill shell and brought it down to the dungeon. Plans are afoot to create a replacement for the blue oval that may be more in keeping with the Chevy Asylum spirit. No, not a bowtie, but something different.

(12/03/05) It's hard to believe that this has only been two days. Things are moving forward. I wish I could make it happen quicker, but then I'd miss out on most of the fun.

(12/07/05) The "El Cheapo" seat I got had a small tear in it. So with an upholstery needle and thread...

...I proceeded to mend it.

I did a "so-so" job of it. But it won't flap around or get worse. After I did that, I shampooed the seat to get rid of about 2 pounds of dog hair and a bunch of junkyard grime.

While I was at the fabric store getting the upholstery needle (I don't keep too many of them on hand) I found this fabric in the discount rack. I figured that for the few dollars they were asking for it, I could do a quick and dirty job of upholstery and give it a rat rod look.

Out came the hog rings and pliers and I went to it.

Here are a few of the rings holding the fabric in place underneath.

Here's the finished product. I think it'll do ok for a temporary seat.

(12/12/05) Meanwhile, back at the cab, I cleaned the inside sheet metal, worked it over with a wire brush and painted it with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. Then I did a test fit of the door post and seat back wood pieces. I should mention here that I'm testing the Rust Encapsulator. It seems to be a replacement for Corroless and if it isn't the greatest stuff...well, that's ok, because this isn't intended to be the final product. This is the Phase 1 shot at it.

Then I set the seat in to see how it looked. Seemed ok. Then I got to sit in the truck for the first time since I bought it. I resisted the temptation to make "vroom, vroom" sounds. But I came to realize something. That seat has to be temporary or I'll have to use a smaller steering wheel. There just isn't enough room for me and the wheel in there. And I'm not a big guy. Maybe I can "adjust" the angle of the seat back and move it rearward a bit. But it's sure cramped.

(12/16/05) Next I assembled the striker plate and door post. A note here for the purists. I know that Henry and the boys didn't varnish the wood. And I know that I'm doing a lot of things that just ain't right according to MAFCA and their judging standards. But I'm never gonna enter this in a restoration competition. I'm doing it the way I want it and I decded to varnish the new wooden parts.

I was able to do a lot of this stuff in my basement. That was really nice because I was on an oxygen tube at the time and it was downright cold out in the garage. That sorta made it difficult to use the propane heater while wearing the oxygen thingie...so being able to bring things down to the basement and work on them there was a heck of a lot better than freezing my buns off in the garage...or going up like a Roman Candle with the O2 and the flame from the heater.

Finally, after about a dozen test fittings, the door post is installed. That black thing is a mail pouch. There was one on each side of all 28-29 pickups. I cleaned this one up, painted it with Zero-Rust primer, then satin black Rustoleum.

(12/19/05) I decided to paint the area above the windshield with Rust Encapsulator because I was painting the very top portion of that panel that the wooden header piece will mount to and it's going to be under a visor, anyway. I'm resisting the temptation to paint the whole truck with the stuff. There's a part of me that loves to see the nice fresh primer look...and then there's the part of me that says, "no...do the rat rod thing, then in Phase 3 or 4 you can tear the whole thing down again and paint it the right way." It's gonna be an ongoing battle, I'm afraid. I have bed wood being made for it and I'm going to paint underneath that area...and I know I'll have to struggle to keep from painting the whole bed.

After installing the left door post, I could remove the right one without having the rear of the cab collapse entirely. I gave that corner a coat of the Encapsulator, too. Now to finish up the other door post and seat back pieces and then it's on to the top wood.

Next: More CABinetry.

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