Disassembling, any tips?

[LEEVON]

I'm finally ready to disassemble the body of my '50 3100, looking for any tips, tool recommendations, etc. My goal is to remove all of the sheet metal, I will be using the cab for mock-up and storing the rest.

The bed is easy enough to remove, it's those rusty clutch bolts holding the fenders on that I'm worried about. The hood is a no-brainer but the front fenders also have basically rust blobs for bolts. Am I going to end up grinding/cutting every single bolt? Are the inner fenders and core support difficult to get to?

I have these tools at my disposal:

4.5" grinder w/ cut-off wheels
air cut-off tool
air sawzall (small)
air hammer
misc hand tools

NO torch.


Thanks

[steve53]

put all the bolts and junk you take off in labeled ziplock bags. you will thank yourself many times later

[4DSEVEN]

You will be fine for most everything with those tools. Although a cutting torch is handy.

Alot of the bolts will snap which make things easy too.

Don't throw anything away until your truck is put back together.

The truck comes apart fairly easy as there wasn't much to them in those days.

Good luck with your project.

[chevyrestoguy]

Get a can of PB Blaster or other rust penetrant and shoot the bolts with it a few days before you decide to pull it apart. Sometimes, no matter what you spray on the bolt, it won't come loose and will break off. But, often times a good spray with PB Blaster makes a huge difference.

Get an air ratchet if you don't have one yet. Some of those bolts are in tight places, and an air ratchet can keep you from skinning your knuckles on sharp, rusty metal. Plus, when the bolts rust, it'll take a lot of force to get them to unthread, and an air ratchet makes quick work of those.

Take pictures as you go, they'll come in handy when you reassemble.

Another trick: If the doors and hood fit nicely now, try this. Using a small drill bit, drill an inconspicuous hole at the hinge points, preferably out of sight. When you reassemble, it'll make the alignment so much easier because you'll get everything lined up, and with the same size drill bit you used, flip it around and use the shank of it as an alignment pin, run the bolts down, and you'll eliminate 99% of the hassle of aligning doors and hoods.

[BlueJeep]

Though I have air tools, a torch, and a plasma cutter - disassembling mine involved 1/2" ratchet, 4.5" cutoff wheels, and mechanics gloves. I tried to break my bolts off to make it quicker, especially where the fenders meet the cowl. You'll be fine with what you have.

[63 & 64 Bowties]

Someone started a thread in the General Discussion area about penetrating oils. A machinist group did a study and found out the best by far for freeing up rusted bolts was a mixture of 50% ATF and 50% Acetone. You'll have to put it in a all metal can since acetone melts plastic. But, I've tried it and it seems to beat the heck out of PB Blaster, which I thought was close to magic before I tried this mixture.

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by steve53

put all the bolts and junk you take off in labeled ziplock bags. you will thank yourself many times later

Amen. I took my truck a part in 1998. Every set of fasteners went into a bag with a detailed description of what it was for and any other comments like "two missing" or "treads stripped on third from front". Now that I assembling it is nice to compare the new hardware with the old and reuse what I can. Also the comments about taking lots of photos is good, take detailed disassembly ones withs notes. Make sure you make hard copies. I had two cam corder tapes of my disassembly that I could not view and did not get on a vhs tape when my camcorder got dunked. Luckily my kids got a used one that I am going to use to transfer it.

Hide your cutting torch. I don't even own one. I took my truck apart with hand tools and a die grinder for bolts and rivets that would not break off.

[dan76]

Or just get a hand oiler. Last time I was in HF they had'em for about 6 bucks.