Time well spent

From what I can see in the world there is a wide range of opinion on what constitutes good use of time. Fixing things and walking around with dogs are my top 2 suppliers of satisfaction right now, but there are clearly many other options that can be checked on the ballot of life.
My neighbor, for example, is building a small scale railroad around his yard. His passion is pure. His skill and knowledge undeniable. The small buildings go up and the track goes down. It is a remarkable endeavor that his wife helps with and his grandchildren love to explore.  Truly time well spent and the world is made better through his efforts.

Spending money on my toys can be hard to defend. There are so many better uses for my limited resources than something new for an old truck. That's why it feels so good to make new parts out of stuff I already have or to find bargains on eBay or CL. The trick is to not compromise the quality of the finished job. With economy in mind, but no tolerance for anything less than top quality, I made a new floor mat for my truck. Starting with a heavy duty stall pad from Tractor Supply (and a sample floor mat from another truck) I cut out a floor mat shaped chunk and used a couple of large diameter hole cutters for the necessary holes.

Somewhere there is a horse with an uncomfortable stall

It is very heavy, but fits perfectly and is a good sound deadener. It will be many years before that wears out and so far it does not seem to be accumulating moisture underneath.

Ever avoid doing something because you knew it would be difficult? Yes, I'm talking about hooking up my fuel gauge. Gauge is good, sender works, wiring is brand new, but gauge does not work when all is connected? Me, too!

voltage reducer  - better than runtz

Long story short - make sure everything is properly grounded, gauge included. Works great now. Also, get the right sending unit. The resistance range is important (obviously).

Finishing up the interior with some funky fabric my wife bought for this project years ago. Home Depot plastic sheet cut to size, fabric glued with spray on headliner adhesive and the edges sewn with upholstery thread. I still need to make the headliner.

Add a set of hub caps and your vehicle instantly looks more finished

No pictures, but I hooked up the horn and my trailer hitch wiring.

Only the finishing touches left to do:

• headliner - need to copy out the old cardboard one using my fabric covered plastic method
• grill bars - i have the stainless ones, just need to clean them up
• dodge emblems - one in the front and one on each side of the hood

 I have been driving it around and it feels like a new truck. Ok, a low powered new truck, but everything is nice and tight, the steering feels good and my new braking system is extremely good. Time to get some good truck use out of it.

I am told that time and money have some sort of relationship. So far in my life this hypothetical connection has been elusive, but seeing what the haves choose to spend their dollars on reveals that in that realm there too exists a wide range in value systems and creativity. Wealth brings out the social activism gene, but starves all oxygen and nutrients from the social responsibility portion of the brain. When I get rich I hope I have the good sense to not pretend I deserve it, and I hope there is something good I can do for the world.

Tiny dogs or giant apple?

In the meantime, let's save some junk and find some squirrels!

Hagrid lives just down the road from me

So boring.

Truckpolstery and Interior Design

We are getting to the end of this project. The metal and mechanicals are mostly done, so it is time to put some effort into the softer parts.

Bucket seat - ha ha

I've been using the bucket seat to test drive around the yard, but I have two complete sets of bench seats that will fit. The seat bottom and back that I took out (and had been using since 1981) were in the truck when I got it. The bottom is original, but the back has had a bracket transplant. These would be the obvious choice for rehab, but I'm too sentimental about stuff to tear those seat covers off.

too good to change

I also have the seats from the California truck which look completely original, but are a little crusty from years in the desert.

bottom

back

Nothing to lose here. Time to fix them up a little.

Remember when a certain chain of clothing stores put antique trucks in all of their stores?

I liked the fact that they used real trucks. It made going to the mall a little more fun, but it also made me a little sad to see these great trucks relegated to immobile advertising displays. Where are they now?
There is another chain of clothing stores doing something similarly fun, but sad, with some great old machines.

I would bet that, with a few parts and a little effort, most of these machines would work perfectly. My 7th grade home economics classroom had about 20 of these classic Singer machines. Thanks to Mrs. Muriel Wild, all of them lasted many, many years and I got my sewing machine driver's license on one of them.
Skip forward just a few years and I'm ready to see if I've still got it. I have many yards of upholstery material from craigslist and an old Singer 503 "The Rocketeer" sewing machine from the local Habitat for Humanity store. So, with some good memories and some help from Youtube, I began to reupholster my seats.

Singer 503 "The Rocketeer"

The bench seat for this truck is pretty basic - one big cushion for the seat and one big cushion for the seat back. I have an old, vinyl seat cover that I used as the pattern for the bottom.

My upholstery material is not very truckish, but it seems sturdy and I have a ton of it in case things go wrong.

There are a lot of different experts on doing this, and I tried to do it well, but I'm sure there are better ways. It took some time to get all the old material out and to clean up the springs. On top of the springs I put a double layer of burlap, then a cut to size layer of 2"x24"x72" high density upholstery foam and then a layer of polyester batting. I pulled it all sort of tight and kept it together with some hog rings.

 Then I carefully pulled the new cover (triple stitched, of course) over the top and clipped it onto the frame (reusing the little clips I took off when disassembling at the start).

Final step: show off to whoever will pay attention to you.

The old cover for the back cushion was a little harder to decipher, but I did the same process for that.

 

Back cushion is done. Time to try them out in the truck.

before

After

I wish Mrs. Wild could see this.

As far as what to do with my other set of seats - how about indoor furniture? I do need an anniversary present.

Some scrap, some welding, some flat black paint and some time later:

Now I can continue to enjoy the comfort of a 1950 Dodge truck seat even while at home.

official testing committee

Truck seats smell good, but they are boring

this town is full of old Dodges

Next: door cards and headliner

Augtember truck

Almost done with my stake truck. Almost.
I've been almost done for a few months now. Getting the details the way I want them takes way more time than I would ever have estimated. When my Dad and I overhauled this truck back in 1981 I don't remember agonizing over the details like I am now. That's probably because he did all that stuff without me even realizing.
"What have you actually been working on?", I hear you ask. Well...

Custom mirror brackets circa 1981 - gotta clean these

Wiring, lots of wiring 

I even went a little crazy and had the metal parts of the stake sections sand blasted.

Beautiful, bare metal - how many hours with a wire wheel would this have been?

...and in primer

 This really saved a lot of time. It took less than a week to get everything painted and back together. The bed itself I rebuilt a couple of years ago (last things first!), but it needed 3 new boards.

3 new boards in the bed - thanks Clark!

For the wooden slats I have been saving some lumber since 1985. Anybody remember hurricane Gloria? Well it was a big deal in my hometown and it knocked down about half of the big pines behind my house. Enterprising people that we were, we had them cut up into some really nice lumber.  My memories of this are all coming back for 2 reasons:
        1 - I'm using some of that exact same lumber now.
        2 - I just found an old, undeveloped roll of film and sent it in to be developed. The pictures show a lot of the aftermath of the storm and how we cleaned it up. They also took on this great, old-timey look.

Gloria cleanup 1985 - yep, same truck, same girl. A couple of months earlier there used to be a lot of trees behind us. 

lumber from that same storm - cool

Putting it all together was quick and easy.

a few final cuts

feels like 1985 again

I also tackled the nerve wracking task of installing the glass. I used the old windows in the other truck, so all new glass (except for the 2 corner windows) and all new rubber is going in.

Do I still need these parking stickers?

No, definitely not.

What's in your driveway?

Like I said, still plenty to do, but almost there.

So much to see, you really need helpers.