International Harvester - Cab tear down

Taking all the bits and pieces off the cab can take as long as disassembling the rest of the truck!

Wiper mounts:

Steering column:

Glove box assembly:

Once I get the cab and box undone, the box floor will be the first major repair:

Stay tuned!

IHC truck tear down - continued!

Continuing the tear down.......

Removing the fenders - 10 rusted bolts per side. Requiring a LOT of heat, plus some cutting...

 Beefy 8-bolt hubs are bomb-proof!

Previous repairs - someone knew how to O-A weld!

Last time it was registered even I was young!

 Angle-iron on tailgate was welded on in order to accept a sheet of plywood.

 Now it has to come off.

Amazing the mice have not stripped this out!

Old filler popped out long ago...

Running boards are solid

Right fender was repaired several times - badly!

After the bolts were removed from the underside, the repairs where all cut away

Massive 12-stack leafs!

Top stacks are floaters!

Via www.E-tekRestorations.googlepages.com !

International Harvester TEARDOWN!

With most of the 100+ fasteners removed, the front clips begins to come away from the cab....

                         Little by little - with a lot of muscle and finesse (if I do say so myself - lol!)....

It comes away!

The GM Stovebolt-like straight-6 is easily accessible now.

But the engine's tear down will wait for another day, 

 the rest of today was spent tearing down the front clip. 

Using heat from the Oxy-Acetylene set-up, along with a variety of impact-tools, including the impact driver and impact wrench, the bits gave way, one by one.....

 Until I was physically exhausted - and the truck was lying - in pieces.  I win again.  ;)

Below  the grille insert on the bench, ready for final dis-assembly....

 Other than a few bent bits and some dings in the fenders, the metal is in damn good shape - for a  all 60 year old truck that sat beside a beach all its life. Next week I'll finish disassembling the cab and box and it'll all be ready to go to the sandblasters.

The front panel has a baffle attached that re-directs air to the rad. It'll come off to be prepped and be painted separately. I imagine it will look great black against the baby-blue truck.

Stay tuned for more teardown!

Early Ford & Mercury Trucks - Door Glass and Regulator replacement

Classic cars, like new ones,  deteriorate - and even more quickly when used! So, after a winter of letting the snow literally fly in through the open windows, I thought it high-time to replace both sides door glass, as well as overhaul and reset the regulators that served them.

Unlike in 1946, today one need look no further than Google for information on most anything - but this was not the case when I looked up how to remove and replace the door glass on this truck - or any early Ford truck for that matter. I could find no direct instruction on removing the glass and regulators, much less put them back in. That being the case, I hope my example here serves to educate and help others needing to do the same job....

The first operation was the removal of the door access panel, long with the handle that winds the window. The panel is easy - just 8 screws,

 The handle is a little trickier - but by pushing the spring-backed cover you can see a hole where a small pin resides, holding the handle to the winder. Pushing the pin out releases the handle, then the cover pops off behind it.



This is all to uncover the regulator mechanism, which is held onto the door by 6 screws.

With the glass pulled up and out the top, the regulator can be pulled out through the access hole.

                          And here's what years of lubrication - mixed with dirt - come out like:

                                                              Time for a clean up:

                One of the arms was also bent, so some vice and hammer action was warranted -

                                 As well, one of the retainers needed some tweaking -

The trick to re-installing the glass on these regulators lies in this one 3/8" nut. The nut releases a lock-arm that then allows the arms to come in close enough to fit between the tracks on the bottom of the glass channel:

With the glass dropped back in, the regulator arms are finagled, pried, pressed, beat and CUSSED into their receptors. Each took me over an hour to set properly.

Getting the glass in again is the SECOND-hardest part of the operation. I say 'second', because once you get the glass in the door, the hardest part is yet to come....but lets get the glass in first:

Rotate the glass and insert the fore-end first, down into the door. When the back of the glas is 3-4 inches below the door edge - and both ends are in the window guides - turn the glass, with a good amount of force, until it is leveled out. Once in and right side up, DON'T drop it! It's a bugger to get back out....don't ask how I know!

No photo's here because I was too busy being frustrated, cussing and moaning, 'bitching' the things together. But basically, wind the regulator arms so they come together under the window, then, pulling the springed-guide wheels back  - while winding the arms in and out to fit the guides into the channels - trying not to drop the glass while doing it, push each arm into its respective channel. At some point - sooner than later hopefully - you'll get the guides into their respective channels. Then wind the glass up a bit and remember to put the gear-retainer nut and bolt back on - so that the arms won't go too far and fall back out of the channel guides......

Once I got the springed-retainers into the channels - as above - I applied more grease on all the moving and sliding parts to ensure smooth(ish) operation.

With the cussing at an end and my finders bandaged, 

I closed up the access panels and cleaned the windows:

Sweet new, clear and operable windows - Awesome.