2022 at the Hammond Barn

[Grant Bowker]

The dropsides are now firmly welded to their hinges and the bars the tailgate latches pass through are also welded. The hinge rods for tailgate and dropsides have been cross drilled for the securing cotter pins. The washers for the cotter pins on the hinge rods are a non standard size (at least for current Canadian common practice) so the appropriate size OD washer was drilled out to fit the hinge rods. Hooks were fabricated to hold the forward ends of the dropside in the upright position. (still "as fabricated" and needing to be trimmed for length). In case you are wondering - the large "left" and "right" labels were to stop us from trying to install the dropsides on the wrong sides of the truck. They had been made to be very close to the same but we didn't want to make trouble for ourselves switching them accidentally after making minor tweaks to make each fit in place...

Remaining fabrications: attach the "capstan style" tarp hold downs to the body with copper rivets (sourced, just need a few hits with the rivet gun...) Fabricate and install the tailgate hooks. Install the internal braces on the headboard. All jobs that will take a while and not jump out as huge progress...