1961H67

A little more progress, it’s been raining here for a couple days, that gives me some more time on the LJ .

There is no good way that I know to repair the hinge, I’m sure someone has. I’ll try to patch the best I can.

Vlad , you are correct about the center hood hinge , just like my other trucks they are worn on each end, I was thinking about putting a small piece of aluminum underneath the hold down and let it come back a inch or so to catch some good hinge, also the chrome was bad so I did it like I did the radiator chrome, I sanded it off and polished the brass, we'll see how that works out.

LAST coat of primer! I’m going to block sand this out and PAINT.

So True! And plus now days the paint is too dang expensive to make mistakes, so you have to learn to get it right.

Thank You, I’m not a body man either, i really would not want to do it for a living if I had a choice. And I’m sure it would cost a fortune to have this truck restored. It will turn out just fine for me.

I test fitted the fenders ( mainly because they were off 2 other separate LJs ) I had to adjust the Fender “ Horns “ on both, they had to much of a gap between the radiator shroud, I had to cut a small notch and bend them in about a 1/2 inch. And reweld . But now is the time to adjust. Those Horns are an afterthought addition to cover the notches in the shroud for the frame, they moved the radiator out about 8 inches for the Cummins. You can see the notch straight under the hood lace on the shroud, evidently instead of making a solid shroud, they came up with the Horns to hide the notch. One more hurdle behind me!

It is a pain, I tapped up the surface on the radiator shroud and the panels at the rear where the fenders are almost touching the cab ( but they are not bolted to the cab) the fender mounts off the frame are adjustable, so hopefully I can adjust them while in Primer, and be easy installing them with the finished paint, I have done the whole process this way, it looks detailed with all new bolts showing, but it is a pain, I usually get a couple young guys to help hold stuff In place while I start the bolts.

lol, it’s killing me ! 2 coats of primer, probably put one more heavy coat on and sand that down and hopefully ready to paint next week, I finally got all the pits out . I’m going to hang them on the truck before I paint them and check the adjustment of the mounting .

I finished the lacing on the shroud, I didn’t mention before but I purchased 16 ft , I had less than a foot left, it would probably take more for a B73 or LT as the radiator is wider (18 ft just to be safe) . Got all the glaze sanded off, just a bit more filler and I’ll start with the filler primer. The glaze filled a lot of pits ,, but kinda a pain sanding it all off ,, ( or I’m just getting inpatient,, ready to get this behind me! )

Found some thin glaze, I think it will save a few coats of the hi build primer, since I primed the parts with black bare metal primer it shows every pit . I’ll see if it was a good idea when I get it all sanded down.

Shop and Show activities!! Hopefully he will

Here’s a picture of a piece of my old lacing with new, exactly the same. I also used Permatex “ Yellow “ Weather Strip Glue to hold it between the rivets .

Along with his body shop duties he got one last run complete this week.

Last Day of Summer break, I had to cut out some rust and weld some patch’s in , then send to my body man for some touch up,, Back to school Monday.

I had a duplex get some old silicone in the drain for the front input shaft bearing, it was running oil down to the bearing but couldn’t drain back into the case , and was running oil out the front input, I pulled the cap and blew all the feed and drain holes out , no leaks. Just an idea., could the restriction passed on. And let it be draining the way it should??? .

It’s kinda like our “TERMACK” ,, 1/2 Terex and R Model.

Vlad , glad to help with anything, I have gotten tons of help from all of y’all. I’ll send you some pictures of the packages ,hopefully it’s what you need.

Thanks Matt , yes I’ll have to use some glaze on some of the pitted areas and I have some high build primer,,Time will tell how many coats. Val I’m out of town till Sunday, when I get back I’ll send you the exact width, thickness of the cowl lace and the info on the brass rivet

A little more progress today,, covering a lot of bare metal. A lot of pits to fill now.

Yes he’s getting serious about helping me. The Charger is a 70 we’ve had it 20 years, it’s in pretty good shape, we’ve got the engine out of it now,, we had the interior done , even had Richard Petty sign the dash. We need to finish it , you don’t see that many at the car shows ,, I think the Dukes of Hazard wasted a lot of them.

A little more progress,,new hood lace on the cab ,hopefully I can finish it on the radiator shroud soon then move on to finish finishing the hood. My Helper has been polishing small parts , working on the copper heater lines .

That is beautiful! Congratulations on staying the course, you have got something to be proud of!

The internet definitely has helped, back in the 70s I knew about every one in North & South Carolina with a lot of L cab parts,but you had no idea a few hundred miles away until the internet.

Matt is right, The L is VERY hard to find any parts for. In all I have used parts from about 5 different trucks ( I have 2 parts trucks) . I was very lucky to find people like Matt , And a few others who had extra parts, remember I came across a brand new steering wheel and speedometer for my LJ ,,Unheard of now! Actually I probably would have never resorted mine if it wasn’t the truck I learned to drive on,we had a 5th wheel wrecker on this thing and we used it a lot in the winter with chains and the salt didn’t help a cab that was prone to rust bad anyway, because I have seen several for sale in great shape ( maybe just needed painting) for way less than what I have in this,, and I’m sure most of us have been down that road but once we get started we’re too far in to stop .