E361T Progress - NEW PROJECT!

[oldspwr]

Have no fear Emery, most of it is melted by now...

Tom

[Brockway700]

awwwwwwww we only got 3/4 of an inch here!

[brockway74]

I have to admit, guys, I'm a little envious. We never see anything like that anymore. I swear, we used to when I was younger, about once a year. I wouldn't like the power outage part, though. Tom, you're going to have to post some more progress pictures to get us back on track, but this seems to have been a fun topic for several of us.

[Huskiedrive361]

Real tough life too much sun and missing snow!!!! Live up here for one winter and you'll figure what we mean. Stan

[oldspwr]

Here are some more progress pics from this past weekend. We had my little guy’s 3rd birthday party on Saturday so we only spent Sunday in the garage. So I decided to start working on the pass. side rear corner pillar. I’m not sure what happened, maybe the stack bracket was pushed up into it, but you can see that whatever hit it pushed it right over the gusset...



So I spent a few minutes with the hammer and dolly and pushed as much out as possible. It actually cracked the weld on the gusset on the inside, so I wanted to massage everything back as close to its original shape as possible.



I then cut the bad section out with the cutoff wheel...



The corners are actually 16 gauge (in lieu of 18 ga like the rest of the truck), so I sheered a small piece from some scrap I had laying around. Then I clamped it to a piece of 6” pipe and rolled it to match the contour. That’s why I kept the piece long...



So after fitting and trimming the piece, I welded it in place. I clean up my welds first with a 3/16” thick 3” dia. Cut off wheel (which keeps the heat down...), and then a 80 grit flapper wheel on an angle grinder (which is very aggressive and generates a lot of heat so you have to be careful), and then 80 grit on the DA. Here’s the finished product. I need to redrill the hole for the grab handle.



While I was working on that, my Dad was tearing down a dash I bought from the junkyard a few years back. It was in a 68 N361 (the same truck that I got the doors for my 155W from). Our dash was originally woodgrain and this one is green hammertone. This dash is in better shape (since it has less extra holes drilled in it...) so we will probably use this one. We are thinking about using woodgrain again, but probably a lighter wood, similar to the BEST Brockway that was at Macungie under Pfal’s tent. Here’s a before pick of the dash...



My Dad then cleaned up the ID plates, switches, knobs, etc. from both trucks so we could pick out the nicest to use...



Well that’s it for now... Our goal is to have the entire cab sandblasted by Thanksgiving. We’re looking forward to spending ‚ Black Friday in the garage

Tom

[oldspwr]

This past week I started working on the section above the passenger door, where the roof attaches. Here is what it looked like after I hit it with the wire brush on the drill..



Since I had to cut the section out, I was worried about losing the original shape. So before cutting it out, I took a piece of 1/8” flat stock and formed it to the contour, then drilled holes in it to attach it. (same holes as drip rail...)

Here’s pic of the piece screwed on after I cut the section out...



Again using the shrinker stretcher, I made a new piece out of 16 gauge...



Here it is after I welded it in...



On Saturday I started working on a section of the driver side, where the windshield gasket goes over to hold in the corner section. The gasket must have trapped water here so I decided to cut it out and replace it. Here is what I started with...



I started off with making a cardboard template of the pass. side and then comparing it to the driver side.



Welded in...



My son Tommy was in the garage on Saturday for a few hours. So he grabbed a file and decided to help out



There are 16 gauge angles that were welded to the fire wall that were used to hold insulation in place. There was a lot of rust behind them so I decided to cut them out. I’ll replace them with new after the cab in sandblasted and primered.



Here is what was left of them...



Here is what we struggled with yesterday. On my last post I noted that the pass. rear corner post was hit. What I didn’t realize is that it actually bent the whole post in. Using a 4’ level, I quickly realized that it would need to be straightened out before I went any further. You can see the gap on the top verses the middle...



So I pulled out the port-a-power and tried to push it back into it’s original shape. I put just a little pressure on it when I realized that I needed to cut the gusset on the bottom.



When we bought the truck in 2004, one of the first things I did was replace the floor and main sections that run from post to post. Unfortunately I didn’t brace the cab well enough and shortly after that I realized it wasn’t square. I should have tacked some diagonal braces in to prevent things from moving, but you live and you learn. I know better next time. So I had to cut through the gusset I already welded. Not fun, but with the help of a sawzall and a new blade, I was able to slice through it (as close to the floor as possible.) More on this problem later...

While I was cutting away, my Dad was working on removing the undercoating on the inside of the doors. We are going to have the doors sandblasted so I wanted all the rubber stuff off. The heat gun and a putty knife took care of the undercoating...



Then finally last night I decided the holes in the roof where the old marker lights were. We are using the bullet style (in lieu of the Yankee style).

Before...



After...



That’s it for now...

Tom

[dbaldwinjr]

1st class job Tom. I finally got time to read the entire posting. You and your Dad do good work.

[oldspwr]

Thanks Dane, we appreciate it!

This past week I spent some more time on the pass. rear post. It still had a bow into it so we decided to pull out the port-a-power again and push it a little farther. My friend Mike who helped with the body & paint on the 155W stopped by and helped out. We wound up pushing a little too far and bent it out... So we used a ratchet strap and pulled it back in place.



When everything was said and done, it lined right up where I wanted it.



I mentioned before that I replaced the floors back in ‘04 when we first got the truck. I also mentioned that I had to cut the gusset to get the cab back in square again... After a lot of cutting, here is what I wound up with...





This past weekend our goal was to get the cab ready for sandblasting. I had a small list of things to do, including repairing some stripped door hinge holes. Two holes on the bottom driver side were stripped so I welded them shut, redrilled and then tapped them with 5/16x24...



Stan mentioned that he usually fills the holes for the front drip rails and I wasn’t very happy with the way my lined up, so I filled all those holes. After the door hinges are adjusted and set, I will redrill them in the right locations...



I also wanted to have the dash panel sandblasted since it is a little too long for my booth. It fit really tight so I trimmed a small amount from both sides. This will prevent the paint from getting scratched when I reinstall it...



I then moved on to the rear panel again and finished up some welding and grinding that needed to be done...



So by the end of the day we had everything loaded up. We put all the loose parts in the back of my Dad’s truck and put the cab on my snowmobile trailer.





So if all goes well, it will be sandblasted and primered by the end of the day. That’s it for now!

Tom

[Emery Johnston]

Tom, You're moving right along! Tom#1 seems to be the resident expert on dash removal, do you think he'd come to Charlotte and take my 260 dash out for me? I could promise him better weather and all the BBQ he could eat! BTW I sure envy you having your garage a few steps from the house, I'm working outdoors, 15 miles away!!!

Emery

[oldspwr]

Emery...

I'm sure you could convince my Dad to go where ever the weather is nice

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! So for the holiday, here is a special holiday installment

Back when my Dad bought the truck in 2004, I replaced the entire floor. Here is what I started with...





One thing I noticed was that there was no brace for the pass. seat. Our truck came with a wooden stool for a pass. seat so I guess it didn't matter, but I felt I should add one. So I cut the old structure out and replaced with 2" channel, and added an additional brace for the pass. seat.

Here is the new structure installed...





I also made new floor boards out of 14 gauge sheet metal. Here are a few pics of the new sections...





More to follow in the next post...

[oldspwr]

I took this past Friday off so I could have nice long weekend with the holiday. On my last post we had the cab and parts loaded up and ready to go to the sandblaster. My Dad took the parts there Monday morning but the guy was backed up with work and didn't get to it. I spoke with him later in the afternoon and he said' he would probably be able to finish it on Wed. So I decided to start working on the pass. door. This door was probably the nicest out of all the doors I had (including my 155W) but there was still a lot of rust under the leading edge.

Here is what I started with...



I always lay down masking tape on whatever I working on to make measurements, etc. In this case I used it to make my cut line as well as the location of the hinges. This will help later on...



So using a 3" cutoff wheel I cut out the section out. You can see how the rust built up and buckled the sheet metal...



I cleaned it up with a wire brush on a drill to see what I was working with. You can see that the 16 gauge strip under the leading edge also needed to be replaced.



So I cleaned up the inner structure of the door the best I could and gave it a quick coat of weld through primer. Then I welded the new piece in place, using a 3/8" thick piece of flat stock behind it to keep it from warping.



After it was welded on, I cut out the sections for the hinges. I cut them at least 1/16" wider on both sides of the hinges. I like a little wiggle room for the hinges. This especially helps after everything is painted and you go to reinstall it (helps keep the paint from chipping, etc...)



Then I moved on to the actual door skin. So I cut a piece of 18 gauge and bent it in the brake to fit over the 16 gauge section I just welded on.



After some trimming, I held it in place with some sheet metal clamps from Eastwood.




After a few tack welds...



After finishing the welding and then grinding the welds smooth, I flipped the door over and proceeded to hammer the edge over. Remember that the brake will only take it to 120 degrees or so, so you have to finish bending with a hammer and dolly. I saw Bill Hines do this once on TV when he was chopping a 50 Merc This would be similar to if you just re-skinning the door.



After that, I flipped it back right side up and cut out the hinge pockets again. I also cleaned up the upper hinge pocket.



More to follow...

[oldspwr]

We finally got the call right after lunch on Friday that the parts were done at the sandblaster. So we took a ride over to Hamlin to pick everything up...



Fortunately the roads were dry so we didn’t need to tarp the cab up. So we came right back to the garage after a quick pit stop for some coffees. Most of the sand got blown off on the trip home buy we went through all the nooks and crannies before bringing it in the garage.



After that, we backed the trailer in the garage and quickly unloaded the cab (to save the heat...)



We then hung all the parts up to get everything ready for primer. I really need to take some time and fabricate a long jig with holes in it that would make things easier to hang.



On Saturday my buddy Mike came over to help out with the primer. This time were are using Transtar self etching primer in lieu of Dupont. Same stuff but more reasonable. This primer really bites into the metal and I like using it on old metal. We also decided to use my HVLP gun (DeVilbiss Finish Line III) in lieu of Mike’s conventional gun (Sharp 715?). Mike’s gun really lays paint down nice but also puts a lot in the air. The HVLP gun worked fairly well so we will try to use it more in the future...





Earlier in the day my Dad was working on some other parts for the cab, including some cowl pieces and the steering wheel / column assembly...





On Sunday morning we pulled out all the floor pieces I made a while back.



I wanted to get the floor installed and trial fit the new seats. Here’s the floor boards installed...



The hired help started to get restless so I had to make a quick run and pick up a Happy Meal.



After lunch we finished up the floor and set a seat inside. I made a quick adapter to hook up the air compressor to the air line on the seat. We quickly found out that both the supply and delivery lines were cut, somehow damaged during shipping. So after replacing both lines we put the seat in place to see how the height looked. Looks like we will need small riser, probably 2” tall...



That’s it for now!

Tom

[Huskiedrive361]

Tom - looking really good! Think you'll make Corland '09 ? Would you mind sharing the cost to have the cab, back panel and roof skin blasted? I would really like to have mine done and am wondering if it would be worth my while to bring it down. There is no one in my area doing blasting of items larger that what can fit in a cabinet. Thanks! Stan

[oldspwr]

Hi Stan...

Thanks for the comments! It was under $300 to do the the cab, rear cab panel, roof, dash panel, and (3) brackets that are under the dash. The black beauty sand is around $25 a bag and I'm sure he used a few bags, so we felt his number was more than reasonable.

Tom

[oldspwr]

This past week I worked on the driver side door, seats and hood. We’ll start with the door...

The 5/16x24 phillips headed machine screws that are used for the door hinges are always a problem. They are usually rusted fast and the heads are easy to strip. We bought an impact screw driver that you hit with a hammer, and that usually does the trick. My Dad started to remove these screws and had all of them removed but one. When he turned his back, that last screw broke and the door came crashing down!!! Fortunately he didn’t get hurt but the door did! (I like to remind him on occasion about how he dropped the door )

Here was the end result of the crash...



So we decided to eye things up and see how we could remove the dent...



We figured the best way to remove the dent was with a dent puller (old school slide hammer) Here’s Mike eyeing the door up...



After the dent was pulled, we flipped the door over to see how we could get at it with a hammer and dolly. The bottom section was pretty rusty...



So I grabbed the 3“ cutoff wheel and cut out as much as I could...



With both the slide hammer and then the hammer and dolly, Mike was able to straighten the dent right out. After Mike finished with the dolly work, I started to make a new section to replace it. I had to do this to both doors on my 155W, so having to do only one door on this truck was a treat...

I started with a piece of 16 gauge, traced the existing pattern on it, and then drilled the drain holes.





Here is the new piece tacked in place...



After some more welding and grinding, I was finally done...



We then moved on to the seats. There isn’t a lot of head room in these cabs so we decided to used Bostrom 905 seats with a low profile base. So we had to make some risers so that the seat wouldn’t have too much air in it to get the right ride height. After some measuring, we decided to go with 2‚”. I had some 2” C channel left over so I cut out 4 pieces and drilled the mounting holes...



I bolted them to the driver side seat and then set it in place. Hopefully 2”is the right dimension, but we may have to adjust after the steering column is back in...



While I was working on the seat risers, my Dad started working on the hood.



The hood was in decent shape but there were a few issues with it. The mount that holds lift support on the passenger section was broke, and some repaired it with a block of wood and a quick braze.





So I started to repair this section of hood but didn’t get too far... More on that later. So here is what we are working towards: When we picked up the cab at the sandblaster, he said he works all winter long as long as snow isn’t in the air. So I figured I better get another load of parts ready. I would like to finish all the sheet metal, so we need to finish the doors, hood and grill shell.

That’s it for now!

Tom

[oldspwr]

As I mentioned in my last post, we wanted to mount the mirror arms but had to consider the location of the Farr air cleaner. So I decided I to dig out the Farr and mount in on the cab. This truck originally had a round Cyclopac but we liked the Farr better. Here is the air cleaner I located:



Someone had modified the brackets considerably but I felt it was still salvageable. So after a lot of cutting and grinding, here is what I wound up with...





These pics are from a few years ago. At that time, I didn’t have some of the original brackets since whoever used it before had welded the a flat plate on it. I knew George M. had one on his truck so we took a ride over to his garage to check it out and take some measurements. George had a spare mounting setup that he let me borrow...



I picked up a piece of aluminum for the flat plate and some 2” C channel for the vertical brackets. As luck would have it, I could only find one of the C channel brackets I made.



We spent one night just looking for it, and then I dawned on me: the only way to find something you lost is to replace it. So I decided to make another one (I made two anyway) Since the time I made the brackets the first time, I was able to pick up a late 50’s Bridgeport mill. I have really just been using it as a drill press so I was ready to use an end mill to make the slotted adjustment holes...



After I was done with the vertical brackets we mounted it back on the truck...



After it was mounted I realized that I was had a wrong support bracket and need to either located one or fabricate one. (the one sitting on top of the air cleaner...) But at least now we could hang the doors.

I ordered new pins from Big Flats Rivet but wanted to sandblast all the hinges before hanging the doors. So I laid them out and marked each one with a center punch...¶



We put a quick coat of self etching primer on them and hung them up in the boiler room to dry...



After struggling with some Christmas lights yesterday, I figured I better move on to something else. So we decided to continue working on the passenger side of the hood. If you remember, someone had used a block of wood to repair a broken support. I was able to fix the support so we filled the holes that were drilled through the hood. The edge of the hood was also buggered up so I cleaned it up with hammer and dolly and then a long sanding board with some 80...



The original hinge mount was cracked at one time and someone brazed it. Unfortunately the mount was straight so I decided to grind out the braze to correct it. Here is what I started with...





We could see that the hood was bowed, but knew that it should be kept straight once the center hinge was slid on. But just to make sure, we clamped a piece of 2” angle iron underneath and then another piece or 1” angle iron to keep the hinge part straight. With everything in place, I re-welded all the cracked welds...



After all was said and done, my Dad verified it was straight with his laser straight line of sight...



So that was it for this past weekend, but I do have a few‚ Ray H. was kind enough to send me a pic of when the truck was at Cook Brothers garage, right after they purchased several Brockways from Sears Oil...



My Dad also found this pic the other day on 35mm. This was taken after we brought it home and spent a few days cleaning and polishing.. Doesn’t look too bad!!!



That’s it for now...

[KMR1]

You are really doing nice work. Hope to see it next year in Cortland. When I look at my 361 cab and I look at what it could look like with the work you have put into it, I second guess looking for a good used one. How many hours do you think you and your father have put into the restoration at this point?

[oldspwr]

Hi KMR1.. Thanks for the comments. It's hard to say how many hours we spent on the cab. I don't keep track of my time. It's hard if not almost impossible to find a nice rust free cab so I didn't mind repairing this one. So here is another update...

During this past week we spent a night or two working on the hood. It’s a butterfly hood and both sections had their share of small cracks. I guess this is common for these hood since a few other trucks I have looked at were cracked in the same areas. Most of the cracks were small and under ¾” in length. Here is an example of one we fixed. I welded it from behind and didn’t grind the weld down since it wouldn’tt interfere with anything...



The crack ground out...



And welded up...



Here was another spot that was messed up on the hood. I believe the hood latch was messed up and wore the hood away in this spot.



The hood is 18 gauge so I cut a small piece, folded it over in the brake and tacked it in place...



After finishing welding and grinding...



This past weekend we spent some time on the Farr air cleaner again. One of the brackets I located came from the junkyard and it was twisted. So I spent some time straightening it out and taking the twist out of it.



I wasn’t sure if it was the correct bracket, but Stan was kind enough to grab a tape measure and call me to compare some measurements. After all was said it done, it appears that it is the correct bracket. So we mounted the Farr back on the truck. We wanted to use SS mirror arms from a Mack R model, but I was concerned they might hit the air cleaner. But after mocking them up on the door, it looks like we clear by a mile.



After we determined the mirror arms would work, we realized that the diagonal brace would have to be shortened to work with the Brockway doors. Not a big deal, but I wanted to make sure I flattened the tube out correctly without cracking it, etc. So I decided to make a small jig that I could use in the press. So I used some 1/4” plate, a few 3/8” bolts to use as locater pins, to come up with this...



Here is the finished tool...



Then I tried it out on one of the bars...



Here is the end result...



I then drilled the new hole I needed, made the correct bend, and then re-radiused the end.



The factory mirror arms mounting holes are in different locations, so we filled then and redrilled the correct ones. I used a 5/16” bolt as a plug for the top holes. After I plug welded the hole, I the cut the remainder of the bolt off with the cutoff wheel, and then grind the bolt flush.





That’s it for now! I hope everyone has a nice holiday and gets lots of truck parts under the tree!

[diamondmike]

Hi Tom and thanks for the updates on your project. I hope to see your trucks in person someday. Who knows, I may show up at Cortland with my own???

[brockway74]

Hey, Tom. I haven't heard from you in a while about the 361 project. Have you had to take a break or am I missing it in some other section on the board?