57th HEAVEN - RESTORATION

 A 1957 Chevrolet Model 3100 Standard 1/2 Ton Pickup Truck

Text & Pictures: gharris5@bellatlantic .net

The fenders were another "classic" surprise. When I bought the truck originally the owner said he had just gotten the two fenders from a friend who just finished them. They did look good. I didn't investigate any further based on the story. I thought they were the beginning of his restoration work. During the door and sill work, the sanding disk hit the fender and revealed thick body putty. The "uh oh's" rang out! With a little more probing we found these panels were crap underneath. The guy did a masterful job with bondo that of course didn't show up in the primer, but he had covered what appeared to be bullet holes, major rust through sections and the headlight areas were multi layered with every type and flavor of  patch kit you can imagine. There was some first class welding and reinforcement along with the misery so we decided to weld them up and keep them. Trust me the putty you see is only the skin to cover the welds.

Ok, But can you put it back together a year after you took it apart ?






As the parts went back on, the alignment process began, and more skin had to be added to bring mating surfaces to the same level. All lines were now straight between the hood the fenders the door and cab. It was really pretty close. We could begin to see the fruits of doing things right. It took over 6 months to get it right. There were allot of other jobs going on, so it sat idol for weeks at a time.

The yellow color of the fenders was from epoxy paint that goes on thick and can be sanded very smooth. I lost a couple layers of skin because of that stuff it is very hard.



You can see in this photo below where we went back and ripped out the sills we had in and put in totally new ones to match the door edge and the front fender.