1956 GMC panel truck - POS to RatRod in one year.........

Living the dream, MZ! I have similar fantasies about '50s era Willys wagons. This is why I hate the internet -- because it makes undertakings like this seem reasonable.

Haha, along the hippie girl magnet line, if you think rug burn on your knees is bad, wait until you get sanded-bed-liner burn on your knees. *Always* keep moving blankets in that truck!

I'm probably missing something, but I thought panel trucks were 'panel trucks' because of the wood panel flooring in the back?

I'd get some boards and finish em up nice and call it a day.

cool, this reminds me of my dads '48 Ford Panel that he has been restoring over the past 15 years. This past summer I spent 3 weeks at his place getting that thing road ready. Switched it over from 6V to 12V and rewired, replaced the water pumps, rebuilt the carb, fixed the breaks, installed an elect fuel pump, and a bunch of other little things. Took it out in 12 years and put 30 miles on it and its been setting ever since. The original 239 flathead V8 is a hoot to drive with the three speed. His is more of a factory rebuild though.

Yeah thats my job this summer and kinda looking forward to it cause it should finish it off nicely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panel_truck

Nope - "Panel" refers to the rear metal body not having windows down the side. All of the early pickups had the wooden strips with metal divider rear bed floors.

Suburbans of the day were the same body, only had windows and rear seats.

Let's not even delve into "sedan delivery" bodies yet......

-OH---------MY---------------------GAWD-!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(inserts link into favorites.....)


This could work out just fine. A quote from the site -

"rolling on another thin coat is easier than sanding down orange peel"

:eek1

Since we're on the topic, I'll try to dig up photos of my 66 Suburban and 52 Pontiac Canadian model sedan delivery. I lived in the back of that one for two months.

Bob,now MZ looks like he should have shag carpet,,,,and the mystery machine paint job,,but i don't think pulling chicks is his purpose for this ride.As a matter of fact he has a lovely wife,that as you can see,,is very easy going.
Now you guys gotta check out LineX's tactical applications!MZ,,,,,bullet proof????
www.linex.com

Time for a musical interlude

<EMBED src=http://www.youtube.com/v/jdUC_GU4hYw?version=3 width=640 height=390 type=application/x-shockwave-flash allowScriptAccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

Calling this a rat rod is kind of a disservice to the truck. What happened to the terms 'beater' or 'driver'. I think those fit better.
But it's your project and you can call it what you like.

You could use bed liner on the inside of the truck if you want or you could use Lizard Skin, or you could try this stuff. http://www.metalshield.com/index.html

Maybe you've allready got it done.

It's fun to watch though.

From this:



8 rolled coats of paint later, and some wet sanding:


A little polish:


And finish it up:


If you want to do it the easy way, just roll on several coats and call it a day.

This is what I got with no sanding and polishing:


The nice thing is it is cheap and easy, rust resistant, and durable as hell!

They have it in semi-glass and flat black as well.

Just a thought.

Jim

I like it. Can't wait to see the end result.

Saweet!

In...

My brother rolled the paint on his Camaro.

Very nice!

Looks nice, and it is very durable.

Jim

You're the second to suggest this, but I got to say in my defense, that I'm having to do more work on this truck than I originally planned to make it roadworthy. As a result, I'm fixing more than a "rat rod" might require.

But when you guys see the second rate body work I'm gonna do, it'll still qualify.

I'm building this thing to be a daily driver for me in the summer, I'm planning on putting some miles on it. It has to meet a certain standard to be able to do that.

I guess my "definition" of rat rod is not writing a $15,000 check to a body guy only to have to worry about where you park the friggin' thing, cause someone might put a ding in it.

nope, I'm pretty much up to the current state at this point.

Maybe we could make up some stickers.

So, work is always slow for me in January and February and I usually line up a project to occupy my time at the shop so I can be there to answer the phone and make more work.......

Today I busted into the drivers door.

The bottom of the door is all rusted out, including the lower hinge mount. You ain't never seen doors sag like these.



Rusty door - meet Mr. Whizzerwheel (not to bbe confused with the inmate of that name!)



This is the hinge box that needs to come out.



Spot weld cutters are cheap and wicked time savers.



It's outta here!



New one going in -



I'm plug welding through the door into the bracket inside here.



All welded in -





Now it's time for the door bottom to be replaced.



cut the new bottom to fit -



Stitch welding little by little. I rushed this a bit and there are some waves in the lower skin. Oh well.



all done



now the front needs a new lower skin -





I used a hammer to fold the edges of the new skin around the door shell. They make a tool for this, I haven't got one. Worked fine.



Hung it up for a test fit -



Fits pretty good -

I get to do it all again on the other front door, but I won't bore ya's with that.

One part a day, slow and steady wins the race.

Nice find! You don't see those old panel trucks anymore. The delivery doors were always a cool feature. Looks like you're doing a great job and getting it back together. I'm not one for a 100% restoration. Love the patina some rat rods have. Although you're already stripping the paint and going beyond rat rod. The self-leveling roll-on paint jobs are becoming more and more popular. They come out really good if you put the time in to prep it which looks like you already are doing. I hope you're going to reuse the stock steel wheels. I'd hate to see it one some modern aluminum wheels.

Oh and love that it's a GMC. Their grills had a lot more character then the Chevy's.

The stock wheels are rusty as hell, and right now, the plan is to get a set of new steelies in chrome w/plain baby moon hubcaps.

I would never dream of a modern alloy on this truck. If I had the original hubcaps, it would be cool, but I don't and I can get a set of new baby moon chromies for the same price as a set of re-pop OE style hubcaps.

I guess I'd just call that traditional.

To me a rat rod is something done by someone who doesn't really know what they're doing and ends up with a car that's barely road worthy.

Some one who writes a check for paint and billet and worries about where to park it is a gold chainer.

But defining all this crap is best done over beers in the garage after a day of panel beating. It doesn't really matter any way does it?

Carry on with the DA. I love/hate those things.