A bit of progress this week! I've replaced all of the internal door seals and installed new glass. The windows now roll up and down, and actually keep the weather out. I've installed the rear glass but didn't have the right glazing, so that will have to come out again but it's quite easy.
It took two full days to get the windshield frame apart. All the heat and oil in the world would not make it happen, so I had to resort to a jeweler's saw and cut through the internal link. Now I have to bore the pieces out of there somehow, which will surely take another two days of solid work. Fabricating new ones will be very easy once the old ones are out, and I can make improvements to water drainage at the same time with no modifications to the frame or cab. For now I've set the new glass in place so at least the cats can't get in. Along with a bit more cleaning up, it's starting to look ok!
![1939 Ford V8 Pickup](./download/file.php?id=1984&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- 1939 Ford V8 Pickup
- truck.jpg (42.17 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
![Wheel cleaned up and hub cap painted black](./download/file.php?id=1985&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Wheel cleaned up and hub cap painted black
- wheel.jpg (30.21 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
![Glass installed](./download/file.php?id=1986&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Glass installed
- glass.jpg (36.73 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
Last thing I did was to paint the interior door panels. I painted them the same dark green as the grill, and I like it so much that I think we will keep the green on green combo. Dark on contrasting parts like dashboard, door panels, grill, running boards, hub caps etc. The greens look similar in the photo but they are actually completely different shades.
![Door panel painted](./download/file.php?id=1987&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Door panel painted
- door.jpg (44.65 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
One really neat thing I came across was behind the driver's door panel. Someone at the factory wrote "Grey" on the door with a grease marker of some sort and it's still there! The puzzling thing is why it's written on top of the grey paint. Maybe so a color blind assembly man didn't put the wrong color door on a truck? Or maybe the primer was grey as well, but how would they paint only part of the inner door? It's a mystery but still fun.
!["Grey"](./download/file.php?id=1988&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- "Grey"
- grey.jpg (35.83 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
Did a bit more automotive archaeology as well. I discovered an old service tag on the door jam from an oil and lube job in 1967. It was the last service the truck had before being garaged for 43 years, and was performed at a garage in Altadena.
If anyone has a good method to safely remove a crusty old tag like this, please let me know!
![Service tag](./download/file.php?id=1990&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Service tag
- tag.jpg (47.51 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
A cool thing to spot was on the driver's door glass. At the lower rear edge was a Ford logo with "1 39" on it, meaning the glass was manufactured in January 1939, the same year the truck was made. Anyone good at glass cutting so I can save it?
![Door glass logo](./download/file.php?id=1989&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Door glass logo
- logo.jpg (31.81 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
One more fun item was an old Richfield map from 1959 I found in the truck. I uncovered it a while back and left it there, and unfortunately it was so brittle that many of the pages have since fallen apart. I saved what I could, and very carefully laminated them. I've attached some small sections of a couple pages. I loved seeing places that no longer exist, like Dairy valley and Friendly Hills. The 405 freeway was about three miles long through West LA. There was nothing to the east of Disneyland, and Interstate 5 was actually the 101. Route 66 was still in use and marked clearly on the map all the way from Santa Monica through the Cajon Pass. The 118 was Devonshire Blvd and Route 99 (now San Fernando Blvd) was still active. I love this stuff!
If anyone wants a higher resolution scan of any area of the map (it covers most of LA and Orange Counties) let me know.
![Map](./download/file.php?id=1991&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Map
- map1.jpg (61.02 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
![Map](./download/file.php?id=1992&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Map
- map2.jpg (71.3 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
![Map](./download/file.php?id=1993&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Map
- map3.jpg (70.15 KiB) Viewed 11148 times
![Map](./download/file.php?id=1994&sid=721c700ac12992e3f73959c382661bbd)
- Map
- map4.jpg (63.7 KiB) Viewed 11148 times