Having had my fun with a few projects over the last couple of years, I figured it was time to let our SIM Tech Center Manager Jason Scudellari in on some of the good times. It’d been a while since he had a project of his own to work on, but to say that he’s no stranger to working on vintage tin would be putting it lightly. His daily responsibilities range from keeping the company’s ever rotating fleet of hot rods in pristine condition to helping us magazine editorial types keep from hurting ourselves while we’re shooting tech stories in the shop. Day in and day out, he’s wrenching on some kind of hot rod, muscle car, or classic truck. But until now, they always belonged to someone else. And so, it was under these circumstances that he decided to become an official member of the CCT family by taking on a project of his own, a ’56 Chevy.
Sourced from a friend who found the truck on Craigslist, Jason scored the truck for a song. But as these things can oftentimes go, he was soon singin’ the blues. Upon delivery, he brought the truck over to our warehouse to sit for a few days before he tore it apart to send off to the sandblaster. It was at this point that we both had a good look at what he was going to be up against in the months to come.
The truck had quite a bit of cancer and its fair share of dings and dents, but the price was right and Jason was determined to fix the damage. Before he could get started however, he needed to get the truck cab and related sheetmetal components free of any previous paint, body work, and surface rust. This task was handled by Blasting Specialties and Powdercoating in Commerce, California. Using a combination of crushed garnet and walnut shells, they were able to strip the cab down to its original sheetmetal skin, exposing even more problems. This rather odd combination is actually quite common in the media blasting industry thanks to its ability to quickly strip rust, scale, and paint without damaging the sheetmetal with excess heat.
Undeterred by the ever growing torrent of body woes, Jason shot the truck in Eastwood Gray Primer to keep the bare steel from developing any more body cancer before bringing it over to the SIM Tech Center where the majority of body fix-its will be completed. In the coming months, we’ll be covering the various repairs necessary to get the ’56 straight and in a semi-presentable form, but until then, check out the original condition of the truck as we picked it up and some of the problem areas we encountered. I’m sure a few of you can relate and have come across similar trucks in your time! CCT
Here’s the ’56, fresh off...
Here’s the ’56, fresh off the trailer from the previous owner’s farm. Check out the grille to keep critters from crawling into the broken vent window.
The view from the backside...
The view from the backside actually shows what looks to be a decent set of fenders and a fairly nice pair of bedsides.
Unfortunately, the driver’s...
Unfortunately, the driver’s side fender has the spare tire mount and will need to be filled to match the opposite side.
The header panel in the bed...
The header panel in the bed has definitely seen better days. It’s safe to say that the truck was used at least!
Moving to the front of the...
Moving to the front of the truck, the fenders have the usual dings and dents, with the driver’s side being the worst of the two.
The lower rear corner is especially...
The lower rear corner is especially bad due to a combination of rust and panel damage.
Inside the cab is where things...
Inside the cab is where things start to get real ugly.
The floor is rotted up to...
The floor is rotted up to and surrounding the front cab mounts on both sides, a tricky place to have to make repairs. Also note the lower step area of the passenger side has a bit of cancer as well.
Unfortunately, the rear cab...
Unfortunately, the rear cab mounts haven’t fared much better over the years and will need to be replaced as well.
The lower corner section of...
The lower corner section of the door step areas also had its share of body rot where dirt and debris lodged itself over the years and ate away at the metal.
Up on the roof, it was pretty...
Up on the roof, it was pretty obvious that lurking under that beautiful pink shade lurked some sketchy body work that had already started to crack and break apart.
The upper half of the cab...
The upper half of the cab and the majority of steel in the interior, such as the dash, door pillars, and inner roof skin are in pretty good shape compared to the rest of the cab.
The last and final step before...
The last and final step before sending the cab and doors off to the media blaster is to remove the bed and rear fenders as well as the front clip. Then the lower portions of the cab can be inspected one final time.
Nothing else grabbed our attention...
Nothing else grabbed our attention as being particularly heinous, though there were some definite areas that would require some serious attention, so it was decided to send the cab and doors off to the blasters. We decided to hold off on sending out the rest of the sheetmetal until we got the cab and chassis sorted out.
Over at Blasting Specialties...
Over at Blasting Specialties and Powder-coating, here’s a close up of the media that they used to get our truck down to bare metal.
Here’s a good shot of the...
Here’s a good shot of the blasted area at the corner of the cab (right) compared to the still painted area (left). Note the layers of primer and paint that are visible that all work in conjunction to hide problem areas in old trucks.
The lower cab corners on our...
The lower cab corners on our truck are perfect examples of what old paint and body filler can hide.
Thought they looked okay,...
Thought they looked okay, underneath all that old junk was a pair of patch panels that were done rather crudely; and something we’ll want to replace!
Without having sandblasted...
Without having sandblasted the truck, it’s doubtful we would have uncovered the problem areas. Here, you can see the technique used to attach the patch panels before they were tack welded into place and skimmed over with filler. “Just a coupl’a rivets oughta do the job …”
Here’s the ’56 back from the...
Here’s the ’56 back from the blaster.
It doesn’t look too bad from...
It doesn’t look too bad from ten or fifteen feet away … but upon closer inspection, what looked bad before looks particularly ugly now.
While the area around the...
While the area around the front body bolts looked pretty bad before, it’s now painfully obvious that the entire mounting area is going to need to be replaced on both sides.
The hinge pocket sections...
The hinge pocket sections on the driver’s side were also ravaged by cancer over the years …
… as was the step pocket area...
… as was the step pocket area on the passenger side.
In addition to the damage...
In addition to the damage to the rear body mount, we found that the seam where the backside of the cab met the floor was also pretty rotten.
Another area where someone...
Another area where someone had performed some rather shoddy bodywork in the past was on the roof, where a number of dents were present, filled with body filler in a haphazard manner.
The body filler allowed moisture...
The body filler allowed moisture to get underneath it, resulting in surface rust under the paint to form. This then caused the filler and paint above it to buckle.
We’ll be tackling all the...
We’ll be tackling all the problem areas on the ’56 in the months to come, but in the meantime, Jason shot some Eastwood self-etching primer on the bare metal body to buy us some time before the cab starts rusting again.
Now it can sit in the shop...
Now it can sit in the shop without the fear of developing surface rust until the next time we get around to working on it.