Tony: I was giving serious consideration to sourcing metal tube radiator pipes UNTIL you mentioned the price! Bugger me, that's the cost of my first car....ish. Have a look at this s/s kit from Macs:
http://macsautoparts.com/early-v8-fo...0R3CHL1140489/
It's polished within an inch of it's life, but nothing a sandblaster wouldn't remove ASAP. The kit is for 42-48, and may be a better option than getting some made?
Todays debarcle
Thanks to bad weather, today was a let down. No painting could be done. Rained off & on all bloody day, with not even a patch of clear sky to apply a quick couple of coats and rush the parts inside again.......while laughing maniacally
They will wait until better opportunity presents.
Instead, I worked on the front mudflaps, and now have them ready for the upholsterers. The guys had a great & clever way to ensure the canvas layer over the upper plate stays in place and doesn't twist while tightening bolts to mudguard. Simple really, make all the holes a tight fit for an eyelet (think thats what it's called) to be tapped into place once the canvas is finished. In the above photo, you can see one of the eyelets that will be used, along with the two original door check-straps. I'm hoping the upholsterers will be able to find a good substitute for these hard, old ones.
Between rain squawls, I got a little further with the front end disassembly.
Took driver side hub off. Easy enough! Took out the brake shoes. Easy enough! Notice my brake shoes don't have the lining along the entire length of the shoe? Why is that?!?! The ebay ones are getting more and more attractive.
I
REALLY wasn't expecting the the major problem that I came across next.
Some berk has welded the brake backing plate to the steering body, in two places! Great welding. They really should be congratulated for that. Pity they chose to showcase their abilities on MY TRUCK! This discovery puts a HUGE barrier to the way I intended to work on these parts. I really can't sandblast backing plate safely while it is still attached to the other part. And if I don't get it off, painting the two parts together will be a nightmare too. To remove the 2x welds, I will need to buy a special air tool that can take burr bits, and spend christ knows how long removing the weld. The good news is that wheel bearing and cup look to be OK, and may not require replacing. Guess i'll sleep on the weld issue.
Finally, I got to prepare the pintle parts for paint, and made a trial fit to make sure the bolts would sit correctly. After removing a little metal on the spring set where pintle bolts pass by, everything lines up well.