1956 International Harvester S120 re-assembly

With the truck painted inside and out (and partially color sanded), it's finally time to tackle the re-assembly of all the bits and pieces. Although I'm still waiting on the rebuilt engine, re-rimmed wheels  and tires and re-upholstered seat set, I can get to all those peripheral parts in the interior, a well as the lighting, electrical, door glass and chrome. This is the reward for all those hours welding, hammering, sanding and sanding...and sanding....

Every itme going back is prepped and coated in either POR15 Semi-gloss, or Eastwood's Chassis Black which is a very Gloss Black.

The vent glass frame was painted in chassis black. Very nice stuff it is.

The heater box, motor and central mix-box was tested and installed next.

Windhsheild wiper motor was installed next.

One of the last items needing paint was the gas tank. As it was originally galvanized metal, I wanted to go with a silver hue, which luckily was one of the colors of the POR15 palette...

Unfortunately, the jar I had stored the leftover product in had a bit of an air-leak and - as I've talked at length in previous posts about the incredible hardening nature of this single stage urethane paint -  you'll know that this generally means premature hardening and issues with long term usage...

Sure enough, screw drivers and ice picks would not penetrate the hardened upper most layer:

It looked like it was still liquid further down into the jar, so I drilled a 1/2" hole

 into the top 1\2" hardened layer to get to the usable part below.

After a full coat it looked fantastic and will look 'show' 

once hung in it's original location under the running board.

               Stay tuned for more re-assembly on both the '56 IH 4x4 and the '72 Datsun 240Z!

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International Harvest 120 Series Rust work - July 2016

BACK AT IT!!

After a somewhat extended absence due to a little illness (mostly lazy-itis), we're back in the E-tek Shop making sweet sweet metal-magic! Follow along while we get this beautiful 56 International truck back to its glory days:

^ With the box out of the way, the frame and cab where cleaned up again and the paint, mud and dirt stripping continued. Only a couple small patches left and the cab will be ready for filler and paint prep.

One of these final rust spots was cut out, a cardboard template made to fit:and new metal made to replace it:....

^ Cardboard template

^ Cut, cut, cut...

^ Transferred to 18G sheet steel...

^ The same was done for an inner piece, just requiring a little

 more finesse and metal shaping....

^ And with the inner piece inserted, the top piece is finalized to fit.

Back on the box, the back edges where metal-finished (no filler) 

and the underside was welded together with the sides...

^ These holes had to go

^ And so they did. Note the partially metal-finished section on the left...

 ^The new floor will MAKE the truck!

1956 International Restoration 120 Series: the beautification process begins

The large body panels and shell were not sandblasted - due to the damage that can happen, so I carefully stripped the original paint form the areas needing repairs to start.

The top of the cab had a large dent that was never properly repaired, just filled.

Of course it's double-walled on the inside, which explains the lack of effort in the original  repair

Passenger lower door will have new metal spliced in - 

Let the SPARKS fly!

Under the cab the transfer case was still packed with a cement-like mud substance - which took nearly an hour to remove :(  Below you can see the area the sand- blaster couldn't penetrate.

International Harvester 122 series restoration

Summer in beautiful Saskatoon is a time for outdoor fun, hanging with the kids, festivals of every sort and of course, time to enjoy the cars that can only be enjoyed in the summer-time!

But, even with all the fun-in-the-sun, it's not like work in the E-tek Rod Shop grinds to a halt. I've been plugging away at tearing down the International Harvester, the Comet Caliente and even managed to get the 240Z off the rotisserie and continued tweaking on the 1968 Camaro.

Of course with all that extra activity, something has to take a back seat - right? Of course - and what has suffered is my blog postings! Who wants to spend time on the computer with all of that other stuff to do?! So, my apologies for getting so far behind in the posting of my work, but let's catch everyone up here:

After removing most of the body, including fenders, hood, inner fenders, running boards and the rear fenders and tailgate, it was time to tackle the engine and tranny....



....which you'd think would be fairly straightforward....but in a 1956 IH 4x4....it was not to be so....

The front mounts, no problem:

But the rear mounts - under the bell-housing of sorts - where a bear to remove...

Largely due to the way the trans mounts in the cab,

 including a toe-pan and several cross members being in the way- 

The 3-speed gear box was separated from the bell-housing....

Then - with a ton of pulling, prising, yanking and hammerin'..... finally.... out she came!

Then I hooked up the Pullz-all to the tranny and yanked it in the opposite direction, setting it on its own trolley to be pulled apart and inspected later:

The 4-wheel drive linkage attaches to the levers you see here (now flipped upside down):

The right tool for the job (steering arm nut) -

And here she is - the 227 Torque monster straight - 6. First produced by American Motors, they also sold their straight-sixes to International Harvester for powering International's "Light Line" of trucks, as well as their Scouts and Travellalls.

But before I can tear into the engine, the body - including the cab, what's left of the box, the fenders and inners, tailgate as well as the frame and suspension components, will have to be sent off to the sandblaster. And I can't wait to see them back - as clean as the day they left the foundry! And so everything was loaded up and the entire mess was loaded onto a flatdeck  hauler from AstroTowing.

Via www.E-tekRestorations.googlepages.com !