Restoration: Dodge—Part 11
Our resident truck restorer is trying to get the weather to behave so he can paint the finish coat on the cab before fitting the front and rear windscreens
.gif)
Getting over the ‘Christmas hump’ is always a bit of a problem because of all of the breaks in our working life that are forced upon us with all the family and social gatherings.
This year (in Auckland at least), the lousy weather has made it particularly difficult to get anything done, especially when it comes to painting trucks that are being worked on outside.
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out where this month’s instalment is heading, does it?
I see a pile of excuses on the horizon. Having had a story to tell over the past couple of months of a trip around the lower part of the North Island to collect a cab full of goodies to turn the current restoration from a 70’s model Commer into a 1980’s Dodge gave me plenty to cover for Part 9 in November 2022.
 |
|
‘Sit-in’ prior to removal from donor cab
|
For Part 10, the remainder of December was taken care of by the rather large task of dismantling the cab and placing dozens upon dozens of parts, nuts, bolts, and screws into meaningful piles before the stuff could be cleaned, painted, and made ready for use when the time comes.
While the work carried out in the last paragraph might’ve only taken a few minutes or so to place on paper, it took an awful lot longer to get the job done.
Highs and lows
I mentioned in last month’s issue that the donor cab produced a lot more goodies than I’d anticipated, two of which were a more modern driver’s seat and a laminated windscreen that had a pretty tinted strip along the top.
I was quite ecstatic initially with the extra finds but recently have been brought back down to earth when I discovered that the screen has started to delaminate on one corner, making it unusable, and the seat is incomplete.
While a tinted, laminated windscreen would’ve been a nice-to-have, in the final analysis, it probably won’t matter too much, as the finished product is going to be fitted with an exterior sun visor and a stoneguard, which came courtesy of Simon Coombes — the guy I purchased the truck from. Thanks, Simon, if you happen to be reading this.
The RG Series driver’s seats explained
 |
|
Sit-on vs sit-in seats
|
There are two models of driver’s seat fitted to these trucks. They’re often described as the earlier one that you sit ‘on’ and the newer one that you sit ‘in’.
As my cab is an earlier model, it was fitted with the one you sit on and was structurally sound but naturally had worn upholstery, which would’ve had to be replaced in any event.
I’d figured that it wasn’t likely that I’d ever find one of the newer ‘sit-in’ seats for my truck, so off my old ‘sit-on’ went to the upholsters to be given a new lease on life.
 |
|
‘Sit on’ test fitted
|
Given that the truck had been retro-fitted with a passenger seat out of a Japanese car, I’d hoped that eventually, we’d find a proper Commer/Dodge seat (they were pretty much the same across the range), so I asked the upholsterer to buy enough fabric to do the entire job.
About that time my mate Noel Galloway called to say he’d found a cab with a set of seats including a ‘sit-in’ driver’s seat, I received a call to say my newly upholstered ‘sit-on’ was ready for collection and of course, payment. ‘Just my kind of luck’, I thought.
However, after removing the newer model seat from the donor cab and stripping the upholstery, I found that the frame was not only damaged but was also incomplete.
While the structural damage is fairly easy to repair, even for someone of my limited ability, I think I’d be lucky to find yet another seat that’s completely intact.
The upshot of all of this is that a call has been made to use the original driver’s seat, given that it’s already upholstered and looking good, while we wait to see if something better comes up as time goes by.
Honestly, not as much time has been thrown at the project this month, but things are still progressing in the right direction, albeit a little slowly. In fact, I realised while writing this that this will be the first issue in two months in which I can show any photos of the actual truck being restored.
Unused new parts
While out and about, I came across a passenger’s door and a right-hand mudguard recently, both of which had never been on a truck. At first, the find seemed like it was a good one even though I’d already finish-coated the original guard on the underside and primed the topside.
Given that considerable time had been spent repairing the original unit, it seemed pointless going over old ground, so the new one has been placed in the spares department.
As for the door, for reasons way too convoluted to explain here, we went with the original one as well.
Paint progress
 |
|
The dooors as removed from the restoration cab
|
Panel work on the inside of the cab is now almost complete and has had a finish coat of white Dulon. There’s a removable panel that fits over the gear lever to cover the engine, which still needs a bit of prep and a coat of paint.
Once I finish that, it will put the lid (literally) on the inside of the cab as far as the panels go. At least I think it will, as it seems like each time it looks like we’ve finished a portion of the job, something else pops its head up over the parapet.
A classic case presented itself recently while I was rummaging through the spare parts room. In one corner sat the exterior sun visor and stoneguard that I mentioned earlier in the story.
Both of these items will need to be fitted to the cab before it gets painted, something I’d entirely forgotten about. Jeremy Tagg from Bespoke Auto Glass and I have been planning to fit the front and rear screens in the next couple of weeks, which means I need to have the cab painted before then.
We will need three fine days in a row to achieve that, so the discovery of the need to have the stoneguard and sun visor fitted first was a most unwelcome one.
This Auckland weather (have I mentioned the weather before?) is placing a damper on proceedings, so I’m hoping against hope that we have some real progress to report next month, although, I’m not holding my breath at this stage.
Find new and used heavy machinery for sale in NZ
Keep up to date in the industry by signing up to Deals on Wheels' free newsletter or liking us on Facebook.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
-(1).jpg)
