With a little bit of searching I was able to finally find my new hinge pins that had gone missing some time ago. Actually, I had placed them in a nicely marked bag which ended up in the wrong storage bin.
Tailgate Hinges
Anyway, I measured the width of the hinge and then cut both pins down to the proper size (3.0″). I used my gas rig to heat the pins made from water harden tool stock up to a red-orange color – around 1600F and then quenched them in a bucket of brine water. After the quench, I polished the pins back to remove the scale and then reheated them to a blue color – around 600F and let them air quench to draw back the hardness some.
I assembled the pins into the hinges using lithium grease and then cleaned them with soap and water followed by wax & grease remover. I then painted them using the airbrush when I was completing the last of the touch up work.
Once the hinges were done I opened all of the doors and cleaned all the jambs and noted where the paint was thin or damaged. Using the airbrush, I went around and repainted the bottom of all the jambs with three coats of beige and then touched up a number of other spots in orange. I really need to find a better way of mixing very small quantities of paint, every time I end up with most of it left over which I end up tossing out. I guess I need to look for a smaller shot glass!
After letting everything dry for 24 hrs I went around and cleaned up any over spray and buffed the touch up spots back to an even shine.
The Body and Paint Work Is DONE!
It has been a long time coming, but I am now ready to call the body and paint work phase of the project complete. The amount of man hours to move the project this far has been much more than I had anticipated when I started. It seemed like every time I started to work on a panel, I would find a whole long list of things that needed to be repaired. Patch panels for 1956 Dodge Station Wagons are almost non existant with the few that you can find being priced out of my budget. In the end I think if I counted correctly, I made close to 35 to 40 patch panels that needed to be welded in, and then metal finished. The large panel areas that had multiple compound curves were more than a challenge to get half way straight. Interminal hours of applying material and sanding it off, only to apply more and sand more.
Is it all ‘Just Wonderful’ as a good friend of mine is want to say, no it isnt. On a good day it will be a 10-15 footer if I am lucky. It’s not going to be a trohpy winner or show queen, it was built to be a driver and a driver it will be. I for one am pretty happy with how it has turned out so far.
Now starts the real fun work! Putting her back together and getting her running and on the road. I am still dont have all of my rubber seals and gaskets handled yet, and there is the matter of trim clips not to mention fuel, brake and A/C lines to be made and some fabrication work on the dash board, but the end is in sight! WOOT!
I think I might call it a day and go in and have a beer! Life is GOOD!