8.24.03
Today was spent installing the windshield and the window surrounds. We thought that we would pop this thing in within the first hour or two. Ha! We put the glass in the rubber surround, then the cable in the rubber, the calking around the frame, and then lifted it into place. We got the whole thing in and then noticed that the center line of the window was off by about an inch or two. So out came the window, sloppy and sticky. After a few minutes of cleaning up all of the dried glue we started all over. This time we used pins to hold the gasket in the center of the opening. It worked a lot better, but we still had some trimming and pushing to do to get it just right. Then we installed the metal surrounds and cleaned everything up one last time. The final product takes your breath away. I have never seen a new car's interior that pulls of the charm and style that these simple old trucks had.

8.23.03
Earlier this week we had started working on the interior of the car, as there is nothing other than final sanding left for most of the exterior. And we were sick of sanding. The items that we fished out of the parts buckets were the window surrounds, speaker grille, speedometer and gauge cluster, and other little items. At the same time, we also did finish work on the dashboard. This included a final sanding, two coats of gunmetal paint, and about three coats of clear coat. Wow, talk about a nice finish once you buff it down and then wax it. All of the parts we brought inside were treated to the same details as the dash. I ripped apart the gauges and went to work designing new faces for them. I tried to stay true to the style of the era as well as give it some hotrod look. Out of about 6 designs we finally narrowed it down to one by mixing pieces from each of them. Once the gauges were reassembled and mounted you would swear that we spent big money on a new set. Total cost, probably less then a meal a McDonalds. So, when today finally came around it was time to cram all of this stuff back in, and it took us half the day to do it. I am always amazed at how hard some of these little tasks turn out. It seriously is a two person job to reassemble the dash, or you need three hands, which I am sure most of us just do not have.

8.16.03
The first order of business today was hooking in the rebuilt gas tank. My father had taken some time off this week and had managed to rehang the tank by himself. Not an easy feat. We had spent a few hours walking around Home Depot trying to come up with new hangers because we had destroyed the old ones trying to get the tank out last fall. After about two hours of aimlessly walking the aisles we came up with a design. We would use a series of steal strapping, carriage bolts, eye bolts, and other items to construct hangers that were very much like the original ones, only stronger. This was all done Thursday night and Friday he fabricated it all so that when I stopped by after work we just hade to tighten it into place and run the fuel line to the gas pump. So, this brings us to Saturday, when we finally got Delia running off of her own tank and found a new problem. After going to all of the local auto shops and realizing that almost no one knew that there was a hose that connected the gas tank to the filler pipe in cars we finally found one at Napa. This went in smooth and allowed us to fill the tank. There was only one thing left to do, siphon the gas up the line to the pump. Lucky me! I had never done this before and let me tell you that if I never do it again I will die a happy man. After a mouthful of gas everything was ready to go. (For those of you who want to know, Gas does not taste like it smells. But it does taste better than the wort when brewing beer!) So Delia started and we went to take her for a drive. But there was no power when we hit the gas pedal. Somehow the clutch died this winter, not sure how, but it did. We also got the roll pan mounted to the grill. This took a while to fit, but it really cleans up the front of the car and hides most of the front suspension when you look at the truck straight on.

8.10.03
Woo Hoo! We got the grill mounted and it looks great. This wasn't the easiest job either, but it went a lot smoother than I thought. In fact, it was just time consuming trying to get all of the holes drilled and aligned. We found that the best way to do it was to remove the top bar of the grill and mount that by itself. This is a lot easier then holding the whole grill up and trying to mark holes to drill. Once that top bar is fit then you can attach the rest of the grill back onto it and the whole thing will just float there. Another problem that we noticed was that the machine nuts that come in the new grill would push out rather easily and this made it hard to keep taking the grill off and putting it back on during fitting. To solve this we just knocked them out with a hammer and used the classic nut and bolt combo. It works a lot better and now we don't have to worry about the stock ones falling out when we hit a pothole. We also cut out the holes for the headlights and mounted the parking lights. The only thing left on the front now is the roll pan.

8.9.03
It was another weekend spent working on the front end of the Delia. We have had the front fenders fit for a week but the truck just didn't look right without the grill put back into place. We had talked about how we were going to do this earlier in the week, but talk is just that. I had discussed the topic of the hood not aligning correctly with a few guys on the Classic Truck Shop forum about what to look for. All agreed that the supports connecting the firewall to the fenders would help with the hood. In the end, the fix that worked best for us was getting longer bolts that go from the radiator support to the fender skirts and placing six washers in between them. This worked great. It widened the space between the front of the fenders enough that the grill would slip into place and also allowed the hood to come all the way down. Although this sounds like it should have been an easy job, it did take us most of the day. We also sanded the mold release marks on the front fenders and hit them with some black primer. You can start to get a feel for what the final paint job will look like.

8.3.03
Today was Delia's 1st Birthday, well at least since we got her. That's right, we brought her home exactly one year today so it was only fitting that we install the other fender so that she looked like a complete truck again. This side was much easier than the driver's side, but we had planned on that from the start. The back curve of the fender falls exactly into the grove that was there. We had to grind some of the metal away and hammer in a few high spots to do this, but we got it done. It fits very tight and there is no extra body work that needed to be done like the other side. We did find it easier however to hand this side as two separate pieces and then attach them together once they were both in place. We might have read that this is how it's supposed to be done, not sure, but for those of you out there trying this, it helps. Amazing how much we have done in just a year, and this is the first project for both of us. Thanks for those of you that have helped out, whether it was rebuilding a seat, offering advice, or even just stopping by to talk to us while we are on a break.
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8.2.03
We started off the day by hiding from the rain. Down in the basement we were able to mount one of the new fenders to the inner skirts. If wasn't too hard, the fender come pre-marked for where the bolt holes should be made, and they almost lined up too. We had to adjust one or two of them, but it was a hundred times easier then guessing where they would have to go without them there. We fought to get the now one-piece fender in place and hoped that it would solve most of our problems. And it did. This fender fit a lot more snug then the original steal one and it had a little play in it that the steal did not. We still had a few issues with the welding job performed on the body cowl, but our increased bodywork skills made short order of them. The fender looks really nice in place and this is the first time that we can really get a feel of what Delia will look like when we are done.
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7.30.03
Well my Ford was broken again today so I got out of work early today to return the car that I had borrowed. With the extra free time and the great weather I decided that I would try to replace Delia's front shocks, something that I thought would be pretty easy. And I was right! When I tried to remove the rusted nuts from the shocks they simply shattered the studs and the shocks fell to the ground. Installing the new ones was almost as easy, just two nuts, some rubber spacers and that's it. The rear shocks gave a little more of a fight though. The nuts holding the top of the shocks in place was at an odd location and the fact that the rear fenders were attached made it a little harder to get in at. The hardest part was actually getting the nut off of the lower post. These threads saw a lot of salty roads and the rust was pretty severe. In order to break the passenger side nut I used a jack stand and a pair of vice grips, another one of my finer tricks. Our neighbor at the top of the street came by a little later and gave us some liquid wrench stuff, so I tried it out on the driver side. Still no luck, so I brought out the torch. Wow, turns out that liquid wrench stuff doesn't play nice with fire. After the bonfire died down I tried to loosen the nut. To my surprise it came off nearly by hand.
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7.28.03
Man, talk about service. Those fiberglass fenders that we order last Thursday were shipped to my work today. So much for 2-3 weeks, we got them in 2 business days, now that is service. Thanks for coming through for us American Classics! We also got that shipment from Chevy Duty today too. Turns out they were holding the whole order for a wiper bezel which was out of stock. They neglected to inform us of this and we had to call to find out the status of our order. We asked them to ship the order without the bezel and the package showed up in a few days. Would have been nice if they had informed us so that we could have had the huge order when we were on vacation. Oh, well.

7.24.03
Well we came up with an answer to the fender issue. We ordered new fiberglass fenders from American Classics in Texas. They set us back a little bit, but we feel that it will solve a number of our problems. Maybe if we had experience with welding we could cut some of the metal off of the steal ones and get them working, but we just don't have the talent or equipment for that yet. They are in great shape though and we know that we can get a decent amount for them at the local swap meets. Someone willing to spend a little time on them will easily have them fixed and mounted. The bad news is that the fiberglass fenders might take 2-3 weeks to come in, this sets us back big time.

7.23.03
Well, we hung the fender and it turned out worse than we could have imagined. After closer inspection there are a number of issues that we are going to have to address in order to get Delia back together. Turns out that the cowl on the body has had some patch panels put in too. But the way that the guy put them on is all wrong. Instead on cutting out the old metal and welding the new metal in its place, he just hung the new metal over the old metal. So now the dimensions of the cab were off in some locations. Notably the bottom of the cowl where they wrap under the cab; the bottom of the curve on the passenger side now hung almost inches lower than its original metal. This caused the fender to pitch backward at an odd angle and leave a fairly large gap at the top. We hit it with a hammer, but there was just no getting the patch to where we wanted it. The other problem that we encountered was the opening for the grill. It was too narrow by about two inches. Turns out that each fender was patched on the front and the lip that caught the grill side was extended toward the center. There was no way we could get the grill to fit no matter how much we loosened the bolt holding the fender skirts to the radiator support. We ended the day on a sad note and I went home to search the net for answers.

7.22.03
K, I'm on my second week of vacation and I wanted to work on Delia all week and get some important things done. So far it doesn't look too good; the forecast is saying rain and thundershowers all week. But the rain held off for most of the day so I did get some work done. I decided to hang the driver's side front fender, a job that is easier said then done. In order to hang the front fenders they have to have the inner and outer fenders attached together and are put on as one piece. Yah, not an easy job for one person. I tried being stubborn and hang the fender as two pieces, but Delia didn't like that idea and quickly made me aware of this but cutting a few of my knuckles up while wrestling the fender into place. So I took the pieces down, attached them and got them in place. It was going too easy so I stopped and tried to see what I was doing wrong. I forgot to put in the anti-squeaks!!! I took off the fender, ripped it apart, put in the rubber and tar paper gaskets, and sealed her back up. The fender went in with a little fighting but I did get it in. We thought that we were going to have some problems fitting the fenders to the cab, so it was only at this point did I realize just how much a problem this was going to be. The previous owner had spent countless hours smoothing the original steal fenders so that from the outside they looked like new. On the inside you could see that there had been quite a bit of welding to repair some rusted edges. Turns out that the last owner had a friend do the welding for him and he messed it up. Some of the edges were too short of there original locations by about an inch, and in other places greatly exceeded there original dimensions. When my father returned from work we talked about this issue and agreed to try and hang the other fender in the next few days. Oh, and good news about that exhaust manifold that I cracked, some one that my father works with just happens to have an old stovebolt I6 in their barn and gave us the manifold for taking him out for lunch. Thanks!
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7.20.03
Like I said yesterday, there is still plenty of little work that needs to be done on Delia before we can get her painted. So today we decided on finishing up the wiring harness. We installed this last year, but never ran the wires all the way to the back of the truck. This was a rather simple job, just a little dirty. I am a photographer so the use of my eyes are pretty important to me, but I never fail to get something in at least one of my eyes that will irritate it for at least a day. Today was not an exception. I even wore goggles and still got rust in my eyes. Guess I am just cursed. But the new harness is now fully in and we are good to go. Also found a bee's nest hiding in the new grill. Strange though, we ran wires right beside them and had our hands no more than three inches from them, but they acted like they didn't see us. I on the other hand am not that nice and the bees are now gone. Oh well.
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7.19.03
Well the big shipment of supplies that we were waiting for just didn't come in. We did however get the new exhaust pipe in from American Classics. Chevy Duty has always done us right, but sometimes the turn around time can be a little longer than I would like. But, there is plenty of work that can be done till all the parts come in. So, the first order of business today was to hack off the old exhaust and install the new one. Sounds easy, but with any project involving a truck that is over 50 years old, it simply just wasn't. The first step was to remove the old one. This actually wasn't too bad, just a few rusted bolts and the thing fell right out. But this is when things started to go awry. We took out the new exhaust and lined it up to the new one, it seemed shorter. When we ordered the exhaust we weren't quite sure if we wanted the long-bed or the short-bed system (seeing as no parts companies ever list parts for panel trucks), so we took their advice (which seemed like they were just as confused as us) and ordered the short-bed. It was a little different, but it did turn out to be the same length, turns out the muffler was about 4 inches shorter then the one we pulled off, but the end pipes were a little longer to make up for it. What we did have some problems with where the tips, they were not properly flanged to allow the pipes to slide into them. That and the pipes were more oval than circle. So out came the grinding wheel and we were able to pull off some magic. Another issue was that the exhaust was not bent far enough to clear part of the frame; maybe the undercarriage of a panel truck is a little different from a 3100. Again, we turned to the use of some high-tech tools, two trees in the side yard that happened to be pretty close together. We wedged the pipes in the 'v' of the trees and pushed, BAM, it worked. So the exhaust went in fine after that and it sounds great, a nice hum when at idle and a meaty growl when you step on it. OK, I was trying to avoid this but I know that my father will call me on it. The last time that someone had installed an exhaust on this truck they must have broke the studs off of the exhaust manifold because there were two bolts in there instead. How they got these things in there was beyond me, one was bent almost 45 degrees in order to clear part of the manifold. Well mighty me, I tried to force the bolts out. You ever try to force something out of a cast iron flange? Yeah, snap, I broke the manifold. We were able to get it to work though, but there is only a little shelf left where the flange used to be.
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7.10.2003
Day two of the battle with the fenders. My father took his Bondo skills to the driver side, while I attacked the passenger side with red lead putty. I was able to really blend the trim of the bodywork into the fender so that it looked like stock. I never thought that I would ever use all those things I learned in my scupture class in college, heh, amazing! After getting it just right I moved on to the other side while my father continued playing with the Bondo. I think he just likes the smell. He filled in the gap under the drip rails that were bugging him, then moved on to the neighbors truck. Yeah, he whipped out the cutting wheel and hacked at the neighbor's truck and then filled in all his work with Bondo. No joke! Granted the neighbor asked us to fix the big rust spot, but the story sounds better if I leave that detail out. When the day was all done we had both rear fenders finsihed, mounted with the welts, and even attached the running boards that we spent most of the winter working on. All in all, the truck is really looking sweet and you can get an idea of just how well Delia will look when done. Another thing that I did while bored was knock out all of the windows. Unfortunatly I found a little bit of rust at the bottom of the sills, but I guess its better to find it now.
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7.8.2003
I know, its amazing, we actually worked on the truck again! We both took the week after the 4th off and were lucky enough to get a few good days of great weather. The parts that we ordered didnt show though, so we went on to do the remaining body work. We are planning on getting the panel painted at the end of the month, or more likely, in the first half of August. We attacked the rear fenders thinking that this would be an easy thing. Well Delia has a wicked crosshook because this little job wasnt so little. We hung the passanger side fender first because we knew it would give us the most trouble. The previous owner had some patches welded in and the opening no longer followed the curve of the fender. Another issue that we ran into was that most of the holes for the fender bolts were either stripped or had something broken off in them. So out came the new thread tap and a drill, after a lot of slow work we know had all but one of the holes cleared. With the fender test hung we saw out problem first hand and the only way that we knew how to fix it, dare I say, was Bondo. Ok, all of you super car nutz out there are cringing, but we are new to this and we needed to brind the body down about 1/4 to almost a 1/2 inch to match the fender. So, while I went to work drilling out the driver side fender holes, my father got a little carried away with the Bondo. Wait till you see the photos and you will understand why I almost passed out when I took a break and went to see how he was doing. After some mad sanding skills nearly all of the Bondo was removed and we had a rough extention to the lip that we wanted. Test fitting the driver side fender left us feeling better for the day, it fit almost perfectly and we had already learned a great deal on the other side.
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3.16.2003
So, today was the first weekend this year with a temperature about 50 degrees and we didn't waste a minute of it. The first thing that we had to do was dig her out of the monster amounts of snow that we got this year. Lucky us, the last rainstorm that came through had already knocked a good portion of it down. However the day after the rain came the temp dropped to about single digits for a few days so what was left was ice, not snow. Shovels just didn't seem to do a thing, so I turned to the trusty axe, really, no joking here. Once freed we gave her some fresh gas, attached the battery, and stomped on the pedal. BrrrrBroooommm…. She lives again! Wow, nothing kills these engines, now if only my Ford was like that. After a little bit of idling I backed her out into the street to finish cleaning up the snow and ice. After lunch we stood there looking at her trying to figure out if we should just put her back or get to work stripping some more metal off of her. Well of course we got the tools out, cant waste a good day, no can we? Over the winter we had decided to go with roll pans front and back instead of the bumpers so the bumper brackets had to go. Easy work, just six bolts front, four rear, and Delia lost another 20 pounds in a little under an hour. We held the front pan up to see how it looked. Sweet, just need the front fenders hung to get the whole picture now. Regrettably we had to stop working on her as the day ran on because we had to go replace the tarps that were covering her all winter. Seems that a tarp doesn't hold up to being hit with an axe, no matter if it says heavy duty or not. Go figure. Also, the roof rusted through again. Not as bad as when we started, but with all the snow that we got it could have been a lot worse.
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2.3.2003
Happy new year everyone! Sorry that I haven't written anything since November but nothing positive has really happened. Delia is comfortably sleeping under a couple of feet of snow and the weather for the past few weeks has not gone above freezing. What we have been doing is collecting various pieces and rebuilding others that we had pulled off of her before it started snowing. For christmas Delia got some new toys: a front rollpan to give her a sporty, youthful look; a pair of chrome peep mirrors instead of the clunky black ones that we have; and we had the fuel tank rebuilt for a lot less $$$ than a new one. I will try to get some pics up soon. Thank you all for the support and comments, check back soon for some new pics.

11.2.2002
We did it, we took the panel for her first drive since we got her! Granted it was a small trip, but we did a few laps around the neighborhood and showed her off to a few of or friends. Everyone keeps asking how she drives and I only have one word to describe it... TANK. You have no idea how large one of these things are until your behind the wheel and bombing down a hill in second and hoping that the brakes you just installed work. Yes, they did, to our relief. It was absolutely amazing, we both had the biggest smiles on our faces. All the work has started to pay off. This will be one of the last major things that we do to Delia before we put her away for the winter. It was about 30 degrees today while we were working on her so its getting harder to work outside. We might have a place to keep her, but still holding out for an answer.
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10.27.2002
I know that these entries are coming farther and farther apart, but we are still working on Delia. The reason is that I have been putting in over 65 hours a week and that leaves little time for other things. Well, lets get you up to date. The brake lines finally came in, only two weeks longer than they promised. They look great done up in Stainless Steal, too bad you can't see them once they are installed. We also had to do some grinding and sawing to get the rear drums back together. The emergency brakes where holding the shoes open too much so we had to shorten the arms a little with a hacksaw. Now the rear wheels spin a little more free. To finish up the running gear we hung the new wheels and tires, what a difference from stock. We got a set of 16x7 American Racing Tailgunners done up in chrome and wrapped them with 225/70R16 Dunlop's. It took us sometime surfing the Internet to find a tire that would clear the rear fenders and these did just fine. There is about a 1 to 1.5 inch clearance to the backside of the fender and about the same to the front lip. The front fenders were not an issue, and they are able to turn their full range without scraping. Anther new goodie that we sprang for was a new chrome grille. The difference between the new and the old are amazing. I am glad that we diced to go with the chrome, it really catches your eye. Any takers for the old one? Its in great shape and is very straight. I promise that we will have her on her first drive within two weeks, all she needs is brake fluid and some gas.
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10.6.2002
We went to work putting the brake drums back together. The backing plates were removed, cleaned and then painted a nice satin black. The axle and the rest of the steering gear was also treated to a brushing with the wire wheel With all this done we then put it all back together, reset the return springs, and attached the new brake hoses. Looks really good. I'm also sorry to say that I was unable to get a before and after pic because the batteries died in my camera, and I being a pro did not have the handy spares in my bag. I will try to get some after pics a least someday this week, as well as some shots of the new seating, I noticed that I never got them on the site. We did come up with a little trick with the brakes that you should know. When you go to put the return springs back on, use a belt to hold the brake shoes together. This makes it a lot easier because it gets one set of hands out of the way and keeps the emergency brake in place too.

10.5.2002
Today started off pretty slow but we did do a few major things. We had discussed what our next few steps would be earlier this week and decided that we wanted to get everything in place for when the new brake lines come in. So over the past few nights my father has been rebuilding the brake cylinders in the basement. They were all pulled apart, honed, painted up and reassembled. The drums and shoes still looked fresh so we figured that the previous owner must have done a little work on them as well. More good luck. So there was only one major thing stopping us from being able to drive Delia around the neighborhood once the brakes are done next weekend... she only had three tires. I guess that wouldn't be that big a deal if we took the corners slow. Just kidding. So we went out hunting for new shoes. We got to the local wheel showroom at about 12:30 and, of course, they closed at noon. By looking at the operating hours we decided that there was no way that either of us would be able to visit again before next Saturday. We went with the old back up, Sears. Yeah, I know its Sears but they do carry some nice rims now. After a little talking we decided that they had to be chrome and that we wanted something a little classic but also different from the average Joe. What it finally came down to was a set of 16x7 ARE TailGunners. We even lugged in one of the front hub assemblies to make sure that they would fit through the 2WD center holes. The only bad part... I have to wait until Wednesday before they are in. Once we fit them up to check the backspacing we will decide on the tires. Looks like 235/65R16's for now, a little odd to find, but I think we can get them.

9.29.2002
We made the trip up to Amherst, NH today to see an antique auto show and swap. The flyer said that the show opened at dawn so we got there at about 10:30 (Come on, do you really think I would get out of bed early on a weekend?). You could probably find anything that you could need there, if it was a Ford. The only thing that we found for Delia was window trim for the interior and we were looking for the exterior trim for the doors. Almost a winner there. We found two pickups that were the same style as our panel which allowed us to make mental notes of where things went and how they were supposed to look. Our only purchases were a set of Ventvisors for my mother's PT (so much for antique car show) and some food that smelled better then the vintage oil and rust smell that came from all the old metal. We left feeling pretty confident with what we have done so far and decided that next spring we will drive down to Carlisle, PA for the spring gathering there.

9.28.2002
We picked out Delia's new clothes today. That's right, we finally settled on a paint scheme. We went to Elmar in Haverhill, MA to see what they had. I never knew there were so many shades of the same color. We finally decided on a dark graphite and a metallic black. $$$, ok little paint equals lot of money. Could have used a warning there, but we are ready to start trying this stuff out on the running boards and seat buckets. We also picked up some blocks so that we could get the tires off and start working on the brakes. All the old lines were stripped out and tossed in preparation for the new ones which should arrive some time next week.

9.22.2002
We set out early this morning after a large breakfast, our task today, get Delia started and idling. We picked up a few supplies at the local Autozone and Wal-Mart: a red gas tank (Delia's has some plumbing issues and probably some rust too), some fuel line, a filter, and some carb & choke cleaner. One of the problems that we noticed with the choke yesterday was that the butterfly was hanging up on one side so we adjusted that and reinstalled a new choke cable in the dash. The fuel pump was taken apart, cleaned and reinstalled too. The filter we bought was hooked to this and then the hose was run from this into the temporary tank. We crossed our fingers and I mashed the starter to the floor. Brooooommmm! She fired up instantly and continued to run smooth once I tweaked the choke a little. We couldn't believe it, it ran, and was rather quite too. There was only a little shake, but what can you expect from an engine that hasn't been started in two years. Unfortunately a little later my father started her up again and she just cut out after only about a minute. (We had to shut her down earlier because the oil pressure sender wasn't attached to anything and was spraying all over out clean fire wall To solve this we just jammed the end of the hose into an empty bottle.) I instantly thought the worse, we ceased the engine. But that wasn't the case, after a little inspection it turned out that the points were finally gone in the distributor. We ran back down to Autozone and to our surprise they had our part in stock. Maybe not has changed much in the past 52 years in terms of ignition design, I mean all's you really need is a spark. After we popped the piece in, gapped them, and closed everything up we tried it again. She started first turn. We even had a few friends stop by that we could show off too. It was a good day. We then did what really had to be done, we hung the hood. There is no way that we wanted to chance it breaking again. When we were done it was time for football, and yes, the Patriots won again, although barely.
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9.21.2002
A tragedy befell Delia earlier this week, during a windstorm the hood that was leaning up against the back doors decided to do a back flip onto its nose. In the process she split three of the rivets holding the front crest together and put a nice little dent on one side. So, the first order of this morning was to fix this little problem. I'll admit that looking at this earlier this week worried us a lot, even to the point that I was looking for replacement hoods up on the net. Strange that they make a fiberglass hood for almost every model year except the AD, which as I have come to learn is one of the most highly sot after styles. Well we able to fix it though so it is no longer an issue. We bashed the hell out it with a rubber mallet until the two pieces began to line up again. The popped rivets were drilled out and we replaced them temporarily with nuts and bolts. With the bolts in I was able to pinch the two pieces together with a set of vice grips until the hood looked like new again. This time we laid it down in the corner of the yard with every intention of getting it remounted to the truck the following day. With all this done within only the first hour and a half it was time to start working on what we planned on doing... putting in the new wiring harness. After sorting out all the various wires and looking over the diagram in the assembly manual we began. The kit was great, we got it from Chevy Duty and it had everything we needed, looked great, and was a breeze to put in. At the end of the day we tried the impossible, (well we thought is was at the time) to turn the key and start the engine. I lugged the battery out of the basement and hooked it up. With a little gas sprayed down the carburetor and a little bit inside the first two cylinders we turned the key and stepped on the starter... nothing, no even a peep. So we chased down the wires to see if everything was getting power. The problem turned out to be some dirt on the points so we cleaned them up with a little sandpaper and tried it again. Put, put, put, brooooommmmm! It kicked over and stalled, but we celebrated anyway, the engine was still alive. We did a little more sanding and tried a little more gas down the carburetor while hitting the starter again. This time we were able to keep it running a little longer by operating the choke by hand (the pull cords were removed when we cleaned up the dash and fire wall). We were happy with what we had accomplished and decided to call it a day. Oh, when the engine finally kicked over everyone, I mean Everyone with a capital "E", on the street stopped what they were doing and looked our way. Seems like we know what we are doing after all.
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9.16.2002
I ate supper at my parents tonight and afterward we hooked the battery up to the charger hoping that we could get some life into it. Surprisingly the battery was still pulling a little over 4.5 volts after sitting unused for over two years. Remember this is a 6 volt system still so 4.5 is actually pretty high.

9.8.2002
I took the morning off to drive down to Foxwoods with my mother, no story there except loss though. In the afternoon we were able to finish up the fenders with a new coat of primer after working out the rest of the bugs. We also hit the hood with a fresh coat while we were at it because it was starting to rust through again. Another thing that we picked up at the store was a gallon of that bed liner paint. I sprayed down all of the inner fenders with a nice thick coating, both the front pieces and the rear body side fenders. We also cleaned up the radiator housing and the hood latch plate.

9.7.2002
It was my birthday today and I got all sorts of goodies for Delia. Amongst them were "new" seats. My brother-in-law works at LeBaron Bonnies, one of the best antique upholsterers in the States, and had the seats rebuilt in new charcoal vinyl. Right after the party we dragged them out and test fit them in the buckets and placed the buckets in the cab. It was the first time that we could actually "sit" in Delia. To be safe though we carted them back inside and are storing them in my old bedroom closet. The other stuff that we got included all of the weather seals, the door trim material, and window rubber. Another key part that we finally got was a set of four Clutch drivers, I dont know how we made it this far without them.

9.2.2002
Delia got a little brother. My parents went out this morning and got my mother a 2003 PT Cruiser. It looks a little weird to have them parked beside each other in the driveway. I almost went down and picked one up too, a black 2002 with the wood siding, sweet. I talked myself out of it though, well at least I put it on hold till the spring. Delia was neglected again do to rain, a garage would really be cool. So much for our big three day weekend.

9.1.2002
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Well we tried to start the day off at 10am but came to realize that my mothers Blazer had finally died. Seems the head gasket cracked and it was more practical to buy her a new car than to sink more money into her old one. The thoughts of using her truck for parts raced through our heads. I mean, here sitting before us was a 4.3 liter vortec, auto trans, 4 wheel drive, IFS and power everything. But we turned it in. The engine was shot and neither of us felt like trying to rebuild it. Besides everyone knows that a V8 is the true engine for Delia. So, we did finally get to work on the truck for a while. We finished up rebuilding the front inner fenders and painted them with that rubber truck bed liner stuff. They look great and they should hold up a lot better with the weather up here in New England. I also painted the rear fender wells with the stuff too. After this was done we stepped back and tried to picture what she would look like painted. We were thinking of a dark charcoal body with black fenders and running boards (like the splash screen when you hit our site), but are now having second thoughts. With the body now gray primer and the fender wells and running boards black its a little easier to imagine it in real life. We think that for our first coat we are going to do the whole think charcoal and then go from there.

8.31.2002
It seems as the days go by we are having less time to work on Delia, and the sad thing is that come winter we have no place to keep her out of the snow. At least not yet. We think we might have a relative that has an empty garage (fingers crossed). Well, we helped my sister move into her new house this morning so that killed a few good hours and then I had to photograph a wedding tonight. My father was able to finally clean down the passenger door, we were putting it off. Here is a question for anyone out there who has been restoring an AD truck, do you know where we can get new outer window trim? The metal trim pieces around the windows have rusted through and we would rather not have to use body filler to rebuild them. They would look a lot better in SS or Chrome.

8.25.2002
My father had to fly to Texas today at noon so we started the day at 8:30. We couldn't have asked for a better day; the sky was blue with just a cloud here and there, a nice calm breeze on occasion, and the temperature was an amazing 78 degrees. We finished up the fire wall with a nice black satin finish, sweet! It really does look amazing, and I took picks so they will be posted tomorrow night. After my father left I worked on the inner fenders and painted them up. It really is weird that you can find almost any little part in the catalogs except the ones that you really need. The inner fenders are a little shot, we actually snapped off a section of one of them while trying to remove one of the bolts. We were able to fix it with a new metal patch and some filler to smooth it out. But you can not find them in any of the catalogs. Another piece that we noticed could use a retirement was the piece of metal below the grille assembly. I have no idea what it is called, I will have to look it up in the manual, but its dead. Oh, I forgot, we also painted the underside of the hood to match the fire wall, should look really good when remounted.
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8.24.2002
Well Delia is lost a few pounds this weekend; we removed the inner and outer fenders, yanked off the grill, and lifted the hood. This let us get in at the fire wall and remove the 52 years of grease and paint. Let me give you some very valuable advice if you are going to rebuild a truck or can, buy the cheapest right-angle grinder you can find. The first one that we bought on August 4th finally died, but it was worth every penny of the $19.95 we paid for it. It stripped off all of the paint and primmer on the whole truck (and there is a lot of metal on this truck) as well as the insides of the doors, the dash, half the fire wall (that's where it met its match) and dear I forget the 4 days working on the roof. So, we bought another one, this time we spent a little more money and paid $19.99 (the extra 4 cents bought us a nifty green body over the yellow, but then again we really didn't have a choice). So we were able to finish removing the paint with the new tool and just started to paint the fire wall when... drip. It started raining. We covered the front end and went inside to see if the rain would pass. Nope, another day cut short.
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8.22.2002
Now that the two of us are back at work things are starting to slow down. We have also noticed that the number of hours of daylight are starting to dwindle. It was raining tonight so we went to Home Depot and K-Mart hoping to find some sort of canopy or temporary garage for this winter. No go. We also spent some time looking at cars in the parking lots to get a better idea of what we want. It still looks like a dark charcoal gray body with black fenders and running boards We also discussed what our next few steps will be. This weekend we will take off the inner fenders and clean up the fire wall. That way next weekend we will be able to install the new wire harness.

8.17.2002
I am starting to hate this roof. I broke out the wire wheel again and cleaned the rust sealer off the roof so that we could prime it today. After the first hour of work in the 90+ degrees, I am considering making Delia a convertible or putting in a huge rag top. Anything would be easier than grinding this roof again. I finally got the job done though and we primed the roof. Just for S&G's we hung the front fenders. Wow, wait till you see the pics. She is one nice truck. We were starting to tire out, but seeing the panel like this gave us a second wind. Next on the list is prepping the fenders for perfect hanging. They have already been restored by the previous owner, but need a little tender loving care do to the two year storage.
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8.16.2002
Can you believe it, we actually took our first major day off. My father did a little filler work on the bottom of the passenger door, but other than that nothing. We had good reason, 97+ degrees and Delia sits in the sun most of the day. We sat down with a few of out catalogs and came up with a list of needed parts and the order of their importance. Monday morning I will put in the order for a complete set of rubber seals and gaskets for the whole truck.

8.15.2002
Looking good. Delia now has primer on all sides. Today the rear doors were taken off and cleaned up. One of the hinges is a little bent, but it still works. In fact, after we rehung the rear and driver's side doors they open and close a lot better then when we got her home. My father has done a great job with the body filler, the welds from the patches are completely gone now. It really looks amazing all one color. Its fun watching the neighbors go by, they slow down every time they pass the house. We are actually getting more traffic on our street from the people that live on adjacent streets to us. Others that have stopped to talk are the mailman, the trash man, and even a tow truck driver.
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8.14.2002
Delia gets some new clothes. The body work on the driver's side was finished up and primed. Looks great. A lot of people thought we were nuts when we first brought her home, now they are amazed. The metal is smooth and dent free, the rust is gone, and with fresh primer you can start to imagine what she will look like done. This site is starting to make it out to the rest of the world. We broke 50 hits today, not bad for only being up for a little over a week. Thank you PanelTruck.com. Please feel free to e-mail us any comments or questions at projectdelia@code3eleven.com
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8.13.2002
Well it rained today, I guess the nice weather couldn't last forever. We covered over the front of the truck before it rained thinking that the back would be all right. Well it turns out that bare metal will rust after 20 minutes of rain. Nothing too serious, just a little color change. We wrapped the whole truck for the night just in case it rains again. We decided that the whole truck needs to be primed tomorrow before we go any farther. I'm glad I spent that extra time treating the roof, otherwise it would have been a nightmare after the rain. Other things that happened today: the small pieces of body work that were welded in were smoothed out and prepped for priming and the hood was sanded down using 400 grit. Smoooooth.

8.12.2002
Vacation's over, back to the real world for me. However, my father took this week off to spend some time on Delia. He went about touching up the body work and did a great job. The rear doors look like new. He also was able to finish clean down one of the doors, inside and out. The second owner of the truck was up from Florida so I brought him by to see what we have done. I think he was proud that the truck had fallen into the hands of someone that was willing to put in the time to get her in shape again. He was able to give us a little more of the history of the truck (his Uncle was the original owner from 1950-1986). He also went over the repairs that he had done as well as give us some advice on what to do. After he left we started to prime the hood and one of the doors. We are only using a cheap sprayer but are very pleased with the job it is doing. With a little sanding using 220 grit its looking very good.

8.11.2002
My niece's 5th Birthday was today so we only had a few hours to spend on Delia. In the morning we went about scraping down the doors and cleaning out the sills. We also started using some body filler on the really rough parts. The hole for the second brake light was filled as well as some other random screw holes located in the back door. After walking around the truck a few times, there was really only about five places that needed the filler.

8.10.2002
Today was the final day of work on the roof. I never thought it would end, and I think the neighbors were glad too. We coated the roof and hood with rust sealer. Cool stuff until you get it on your skin, now I have a purple circle on my wrist. The dash was fully stripped of paint and the speaker grill was painted. We also tried to remove the front bumper by splitting the nuts. The nut splitter only fits on two of the five bolts and even then did little more then put a few bite marks into the nuts. I think that we might have to use the air chisel again.
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8.9.2002
I got called into work today so I wasn't able to start working on the panel until almost 1:30. I climbed up the ladder to do more work on the roof, hoping that this would be the final day. Too bad. By quitting time I still had some more to go. But the roof is coming out good, only a slight discoloration in the metal, no more rust. We also removed the doors and went to work ripping out the wiring harness. I had ordered one from Jim Carter's but it hasn't arrived for the weekend. My father also went to work on the dash, removing all of the gauges, the trim, and anything deemed unworthy (the stupid directionals that attach to the steering column). For the neighbors listening pleasure we thought that a half hour use of the air chisel (we would later get a complaint about this) to remove the running boards was in call. The material for the seats was also ordered.
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8.8.2002
Today I went to work on the rust. I used the grinder with 50 grit sandpaper. It ate through the rust on the roof with ease. I have been fortunate to have great weather, 70's with a nice breeze. I worked for about six hours today and got 2/3 of the rust removed. The roof is beautiful, in some places it is as reflective as a mirror. I am really surprised that I am doing so well and so quickly. I thought that the paint removal would have taken longer. At about 4:30 I got annoyed with the remaining body trim- drivers mirror, front emblem, and vents. I was able to remove one of the stripped screws from the mirror with the aide of a hammer - don't ask. I also stumbled across the side vent lever- I will admit, we hadn't found the levers for the the vents until this moment- it was very humbling. I was able to force the two vents open and clean out the seals, someone had caulked them shut. To get the front emblem off I attacked it with a grinding wheel- didn't work. The grinder simply reshaped the metal and wouldn't cut through. I finally shoved a screwdriver through a hole in the front of the emblem. By doing this I was able to snap one of the mounting brackets and then muscled the rest of the emblem off with brute strength. I then drilled out the bolts holding the brackets to the hood. Yes- finally that rusted out emblem was gone.

8.7.2002
Got called into work again, some vacation. I was able to start just after 1 o'clock, this time on the roof. What a nightmare! The hood and doors had a thin black primer that came off easy, the rest of the body has a rust-brown primer that turns to a chocolate pudding consistency when the chemical stripper hits it. Its a real mess to clean. By dinner time I have the whole roof stripped of paint and can really get a look at the amount of rust. There's a lot of it, but it hasn't done too much damage yet. We tried the rust sealer on the hood, it seems to be working. I brushed on the sealer by hand and it left huge streaks, so I will have to sand it again before we prime her. I'm almost a pro at it now. Almost all of the neighbors have stopped by at least once. General census is that men love it and the woman just dont understand why we would want to fix it.

8.6.2002
I had to go to work today to install a cable modem, but my father was able to work on the panel while his car was getting fixed. He found out that taking the paint stripper and rag we could get the rear quarters completely clean. The sides almost look like stainless steel! We decide to make it a quite night and go about removing some more of the body trim. The rear bumper was removed with four simple bolts, one of which I had to grind off. I never realized how fun a right-angle grinder could be, although the flying sparks suck when you are wearing shorts and sandals. We are also able to remove the rear splashguard and taillight assembly. Amazingly under the rubber seal for the taillight is a patch of paint that is as bright as the day it was painted - a nice forest green. We finally call it a day at 8 o'clock. At the end of the day we have both sides completely clean as well as the hood and rear doors.
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8.5.2002
I took the week off to strip the paint and start attacking the rust. I spent the better half of the morning trying to find supplies, I was amazed how many automotive stores (i.e.Autozone, Pepboys) do not carry primer or paint thinner. I finally found the primer at Napa, where I also picked up thinner and something to treat the rust with. I was finally able to start just after noon. I was able to peal the passenger door and the rear quarter in just over three hours, I was very pleased. My father was able to come home early from work to help out too. Turns out that his radiator sprung a leak and he wanted to get the car home before the rush hour traffic set in. That night we were able to clean off the driver's door and start on the hood. Unfortunately the paint stripper does nothing to the rust, that will need to be sanded off.

8.4.2002
Time to see what we got. I started by emptying out the truck so that it would at least look a little better. There were all sorts of things thrown in her: 12 tires, 8 Jaguar rims, two bucket seats, a tarp, an anchor, a life vest, a pool pump, 3 rims for the truck, a baseball bat, a green sand bucket, weed killer, an instrument gauge from some car, various engine left over from the rebuild (hopefully they were replaced and not just left out), and about 3 pounds of old mouse droppings. I had no idea that these trucks could hold so much. So, after throwing all of this stuff out of the rear doors I went to work on the rest of the interior. With the seat cushions removed and the headliner ripped out, it was now possible to sit in the truck without holding your nose. Turns out that the inside is in better condition then the exterior, most of the truck is still original color but the floor boards have been replaced with plywood. We were also able to salvage one top and one bottom seat cover to bring to LeBaron Bonnie, a local, and nationally famous, vintage automotive upholstery company. We decided that the first major part of this rebuild was to strip the paint and treat the rust. We had no idea how to go about doing this so we tried a few different things at first. I turns out that the fastest thing to use is chemical paint stripper and a steel hand brush. It also leaves you with a nice red glow if you happen to get it on your skin! The other things we tried were an orbital sander, a right-angle grinder with a brash brush, and a belt sander. Some of there worked well, just slow, the others simply ripped the steel apart too quickly.
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8.3.2002
Delia comes home. We got her up on the flatbed with ease and finally got a good look at the undercarriage. The ride home on the truck was probably the fastest this Panel has gone in its whole life. When we got home she was lowered into the driveway. My mother, seeing the truck for the first time, was not as excited about it as my father and I were. Thank you Ray for towing her back to town, we owe you one.
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7.26.2002
Got a ride home for her! Right now it looks like she will be coming home next Saturday.

7.24.2002
I got the call back from the owner- we finally agreed on a price. Now its just trying to get her home, a 1.5 hour drive north.

7.22.2002
We took our first look at the old girl. The truck is a lot better then she looks in these pictures. The rust is only minor and the stance is do to a flat front tire. The fenders have been pulled and smoothed; they await reattaching in the back of the panel. Also stored back there are about eight tires, some rims off an old Jaguar, a bench seat out of a 70's Bronco, and who knows what else. There are also a few boxes full of all sorts of goodies including almost all of the chrome emblems for the exterior. After looking her over for about an hour we decided to make an offer.
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