I was dismantling a surplus Ford cab yesterday, and found something curious. I'm far from experienced with these vehicles overall, but I have pulled apart 4 or 5 cabs at least. When removing the frame that holds the two window apertures, I found that there is a shaped solid steel block that slides up into each side of the window panel frame, and allows additional strength to the three attachment bolts that hold the panel to cab frame. I had my hands full yesterday, but will photograph the part/s I'm talking and post them if anyone is interested.
You will note I mention
three bolts holding window frame to cab. Normally one of these bolts has shared duty of being one of the door hinge bolt locations, but not in this case. This cab is the one that takes the canvas covered doors, and there are NO hinges at all. The window frame isn't even one of the parts I was wanting to use. My motivation yesterday was to get the lower rear cab panel off for thorough inspection followed by sandblasting. Unfortunately (and I seem to be including that word in many posts!), that rear panel is in worse shape than I thought. I knew the steel sheeting was badly dented and has perforation corrosion in a number of places behind the lower angle iron section. I knew I wanted whomever gets the job of replacing the sheeting to avoid disturbing the door latching brackets. What I certainly did NOT know, is that the bottom piece of angle is so badly corroded that it has disappeared entirely in one area. Also, two of the diagonal bracing straps are rotten at bottom where they join the angle iron. Repairing the angle iron frame will be a big job. I do have a spare bit for that, but don't have any spares of the diagonal bracing straps. I feel another four-part trilogy coming on!
The main cab frame section seems to look OK, although I have no doubt all of the >65 bolts holding floor to frame will be reluctant to come away without some form or physical protest. This protest usually takes the form of bolt snapping, and for whatever reason, those bolts are commonly the ones that are very hardest to get to, for removing the caged nut!
With Bryce currently home, I'm only putting in token effort on truck, and that is timed for when Bryce is in town at the gym or catching up with old friends. All other times, spending time with him is most important thing. Bryce has said he will be happy to help me get the crank shaft into the flathead engine while he is here, and that will get done when he has free time.
One of the indoor jobs I have been working on, is to compile a list of stencil fonts and print them as a visual reference for selection in the future. I wanted something more than just a boring piece of board or card with some vinyl stuck to it....
so I bought a thin sheet of perspex and stuck as many as would fit. Stencil fonts were stuck onto one side, and the rear side sprayed in my truck green. If you REALLY wanted to be tricky, the stencils could have been cut in mirror image and applied to the side that would get sprayed later, giving a very nice effect. I didn't dare try that, because I wasn't sure how the paint would stick, and didntr wish to see the paint react with the vinyl material. Krylon is one of the better spray packs to use, because it actually melts into the perspex (or other plastic/s) and fuses together. I don't have any Krylon yet. Another good effect would have been to apply stencils, spray entire steet (same side), then VERY CAREFULLY remove all the vinyl lettering etc.. This gives freedom to then spray further color onto the perspex, and when viewed from the other side, it looks absolutely faultless. Once again, that wasn't something I wanted to do at this time, but have made many high quality signs for business and advertising, when I played around with vinyl signage in early 1990s. Go a step further, using a translucent set of spray colors, and you have yourself a simle to make light-box sign.
In future there will be more perspex sheets, to demonstrate some of the different effects that can be had. The RAEME logo and Winston Churchill portrait were cut from gloss white vinyl, and then the applicable white was applied onto flat black vinyl. The RAEME example shows white background retained, and logo becomes inverse. This is what you would want to do, if using the vinyl as a stencil mask. Obviously the background color would be applied (and let dry for 24hrs, or more) to the vehicle surface prior. Mr Churchills' portrait shares same Weeding of the white vinyl, but in this case the portrait lost it's impact entirely if the white 'positive' areas of vinyl would have been used instead. I printed two scenarios for Mr C. One as white image, with the only detail being the smaller areas of white only, and the second scenario as shown. When cut and displayed in the positive, where the subject would have been white on background of whatever..., my Wife didn't recognise who the subject was! When done the second way, he was immediately known. Funny how color can determine how we see something. E.g: Dazzle camo of ships. The second photo above, isn't very clear in subject, but if you look closely, you can see a small Invasion Star on left, without background color, and the other piece is one of my 9th Division identification signs. This one DOES have the flat black background. In this form, its a bit of micky mouse. I would expect all restorers would prefer to spray the black square onto the vehicle surface, then apply a stencil weeded vinyl mask over that, for spraying of the second color through. The stencil would then be removed entirely, leaving only two painted colors on the vehicle. No plastic retained at all!
This is my next night time project, to copy severar types of WWII minefield signs. In coming days I will work on assessing the portion of stencil Board that was kindly sent for evaluation. There is absolutely no doubt that that board will make excellent single use stencils, but I want to attempt turning this material into Oilboard stock, so it can be used over and over again. Im still comparing techniques that will give best result, but it is looking likely I will be applying a form of linseed oil to the board, in anywhere from one to three coats. Once fully 'blotted and dried' I think there is a reasonable chance of making oilboard stencils which are far cheaper that purchasing commercially available stock.