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This composite photo shows the new trim panels
all installed. Nice huh? The rusty-colored squares on the wall are paint
shadows of the side access plates, made when the side panels were yet
to be assembled.
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30 July 2000 The inside trim panels, all sanded and painted, sat in the garage for a week or so before I had the time to try to install them. It took a little hammering. Apparently, the top part of the Beast had some impact damage to it, and it bent the rearmost bow. I actually believe you can see some of the damage in one of the 1983 pictures.
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| Left cargo door after filler, sanding, and painting. | Right cargo door after filler, sanding, and painting. |
Still, the trim fits perfectly, and looks great. However, having this stripe of clean primer-colored metal running around the inside really brings up the relative funkiness of the rest of the interior.
So I started doing the interior body work. I was agonizing over whether to start on the dash and work my way back or at the rear and work my way forward. The rear-first approach won-- less dismantling, and it'll give me a chance to get a feel for sanding and priming before getting to the dashboard area, which I want to come out as perfectly as possible.
To this end, I started gooping on the bondo to the rear doors. They came out rather nice. The doors weren't in bad shape to start with, but they had drill holes and crunched parts and a lot of little dents. They responded eventually to a lot of earnest sanding. I'm putting a shout out now to Steve's Used Tools in Santa Cruz, where I picked up a slightly used DeWalt random orbit sander. Damn thing works great!
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| I went after the right side first, as it was not as rusty. Note the pie magnets have returned. | On the left side, I tried to get a bit deeper with the sanding. I'm pleased with the results! |
I first tried out the sander on the outside of the truck. I've been noticing lately the rust marks on the sides have been getting more pronounced. It's time for some remedial de-rusting to the outside of the truck as well.
7 August 2000 Something else David Miller and I discussed on that fateful evening in Saratoga is the fact he has seen diecast models of the Task Force Panel Delivery. I indicated I'd love to have one. God bless him, he actually sent one to me!
The reason I'd never seen one before is that I'm guessing they're mostly made for promotional purposes. It's an Ertl Collectibles 1957 Chevy Suburban, a 1/25 scale diecast coin bank imprinted with the O'Reilly Auto Parts logo (stock # H813). I assume these are available only in the many, many fine O'Reilly Auto Parts stores in the Great Plains and Texas. Never even heard of 'em-- Out here in California Kragen and Pep Boys are the big auto parts players. Apparently this particular diecast is available as a Suburban or Panel Delivery, and either as a coin bank or not a coin bank.
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The box the Ertl Collectable diecast came in. Obviously,
Panels and Suburbans are interchangeable even at 1/25 scale.
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The diecast truck in it's original O'Reilly's Auto
Parts livery. Is "Second in a series" the company's motto?
Note the oval side spears and hood wind splits.
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The diecast shell, after stripping. Spooky how
much it looks like The Beast in it's current state...
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The same, after priming and painting. This is the
second go with the green paint-- the first time I used automotive primer.
Big mistake!
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The "Donor Vehicle"-- the AMT / Ertl
'55 Cameo plastic kit.
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Now actually possessing this cool little deal I knew I had a chance to preview how my rebuild project will finish out, in miniature form. Sure, it's a diversion from the real work, but what the hell?
All right, I want to turn a carmine red 1957 to an ocean green 1956. The first thing I did was take the shell off the base and goop on a bunch of CitriStrip, a pleasant-smelling paint remover, and let it work overnight. While that was going on I went to a hobby store for paint. I was originally going to make the '56 grill bars out of sheet plastic and fake the side spears but I found a plastic model of a 1955 Cameo of the same 1/25 scale as the diecast. It became the "Donor Vehicle." (For those out there who are too busy having real lives to memorize GM body trim details from 40 years ago: the side spears and grill are almost identical on both the 1955.2 and 1956 trucks, and the hood ornaments are the same on both 1956 and 1957 models) I still may assemble the Cameo kit, but I'll just end up dousing it with lighter fluid and setting a firecracker off in it in the backyard like I used to do when I was a kid.
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The Ertl Panel Delivery, now a 1956, sporting the
colors the real one will when the rebuild is done. Note the coin bank
key, clearly visible under the rear where the spare should be.
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Anyway ,the next morning I cleaned the rest of the paint off the diecast shell and fished the Dremel out of the closet. I used it to grind off the windsplits and oval side spears. With the drill attachment, I drilled out the handles on the doors, making them a little more realistic-looking. Adding a little Bondo to the hood and plugging the coin slot in the back, I primed, masked and painted it the green and white combo I'm shooting for.
After fashioning the door taillight out of plastic and filler and the visor out of a strip of brass, I reassembled it. I simply cut the center out of the '57 grill and wedged the Cameo's '55 grill into the hole-- it's doesn't look quite the same as the real thing due to some scaling variations, but at that scale it's hard to tell. A little detail painting, some glued-on parts and even my own scaled-down vintage plates, I gotta admit it came out looking great! I was even able to glue on the round mirror from the Cameo kit to the top of the left door as a peep mirror. About the only thing I screwed up was the windshield-- I got some paint on it, and when I tried to clean it off it just got worse. Actually, it looks remarkably like the one I have right now.
18 August 2000 I've been asked by folks living outside the O'Reilly Auto Parts Empire how to get one of the diecast Panel Deliveries. A few long-distance calls later, I think I have the ordering methodology down:
1. Use this O'Reilly Auto Parts link to get to their website.
2. Ignore all their online ordering
features. Apparently, they refuse to sell the diecast online or by phone.
3. Use the store locator feature to find a store. It really doesn't matter
which store-- there are hundreds from Illinois to Texas. I suppose the store
nearest you is best, to save a few cents shipping. I called stores in Austin,
Texas and Springfield and both had them in stock.
4. Call the store you chose. Bear in mind they're all in the Central Time
Zone.
5. Ask for a diecast truck, part #1957-2. It only costs $10! (That's $14.75
Canadian!)
6. This is the tricky part: convince them to ship it to you. The guy I talked
to in the O'Reilly in Austin said there is a procedure for shipping, but he
wasn't sure what it was. I'm sure they ship parts to rural or farm-bound folks
all the time, so it shouldn't be that difficult.
ALTERNATIVE: Ask a friend or relative (or if you're the bold type, a random stranger) who lives within driving distance of an O'Reilly's Auto Parts to pick one up and ship it to you.
20 August 2000 The date of the Summer Turlock Auto Swap Meet and Car Corral. I went to this on Superbowl Sunday and it was pretty cool. This time, Karen came with me. We got to the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds at 11:30 a.m. and people were packing up to leave. Apparently, the Summer Swap Meet starts at 6 a.m. (!) and finishes up just after noon, when the normal seasonal temperature of 105° is reached. Well, that sucks, especially since it only got to about 85° that day.
The trip was kind of a bust: I still found no fog lights or a spotlight, but I did get a set of beautiful repro 1955-1956 hubcaps from The Truck Shop for a very decent price. However, they don't fit the rims I have. The current rims are superficially the right type, 16" 6-bolt stock rims, but I think they're from the mid-1960s, the same era as the current larger caps. I also picked up, very cheap, a chrome1956 hood bird. It's exceptionally cool, and only has a small amount of pitting, but I'm getting the sinking feeling it's meant for Chevy sedans. The truck hood birds are wider and styled differently. Anybody out there want it?
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Tom's '56 Panel Delivery. Remarkably rust-free,
as far as I can tell.
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This Month's Special Guest! From the shores of serene Wasilla Lake, nestled in the scenic Matanuska Valley beneath the majestic Chugach Mountains, we hear from Tom, proud resident of Wasilla, Alaska, avowed "Bus Nut" and owner of a '56 Panel. He's got a bit of work ahead of him, if the photo is any indication. Tom is no stranger to the whole rebuilding process, however: check out his Website for more evidence!