Chev HUP Help please
 

Does anyone have HUP/HUW pics or a HUP handy to checkout a body skin detail for me? I apparently didn't take sufficient notes when I took the rotten skin off mine.

What I need is detail for the cut outs in the ¾” bends where the lower panel folds around the vertical body frame at the rear side of the LH body door and again at the left side of the rear body door (they should be the same). The cut outs are to allow for the door latch and door aligning tongue. Both those bits are on my body frame so location is not a problem. I only need to know how big the cut outs are. The areas of interest are shown in red on the attached pics.

Sorry no dimensions but this is from an original example and will give you some idea.

Jon

Perfect!! I can sort it out from there. I couldn't tell from my rust marks how much clearance there was between the notches in the body panel and the door hardware.

Thank you!!

No problem, glad that I could help.

Jon

How are you welding the panels
 

Hi Bruce

How are you welding panels in position? Spot or plug weld?

If you are spot welding the problem I had get good welds of new sheet metal to the rusted and pitted angle iron frame was getting a good contact and hence good consistent welds. Cleaning up the angle iron at all the way along and treating it so that it will not start rusting again was my concern.

Couple of thoughts to duplicate the original welding.

• I put paint dots out to the side of the original weld locations
• Ground the angle iron surface to remove all rust
• At each weld location mig welded a 1/4 to 1/2 inch dot to bring the metal back smooth. The ground it flush to the surface of the angle iron this gives a really good surface to spot weld to.
• Paint the whole thing (both sides) with welding primer.
• Check your welding primer first to see how it spot welds some work really good and others not so good. (I'll find the name of the one that I've found that works.)
• Then using your paint dots out to the side weld the panel back in position. Yes the first time I did this I'd just primed over the dots and could not see them. Learned and put masking tape on before using the welding primer the next time.

When plug welding panels I've found that the same process works pretty good but adding 1/4 holes in the sheet metal edge.


Cheers Phil

Thanks for that Phil, it has been a worry. I may augment the spot welds with welds to the top and inside where they can't be seen. I used a sharpy marker to mark the channels on the inside face of the new skin and will use that to match the spot weld spacing on still visible on the channel. With that marked I can drill 1/4" holes for my 'spot welds'. In most places I think I can get a c-clamp (two would be better, one on each side) very close to the spot weld location to make sure I have close contact between the metal surfaces. I've considered 1/8" pop rivets if necessary to hold things together then removing them and patching the holes. I share your concern about having as much rust proof coating between the body channels and the skin as possible.

What's causing me a little bit of grief is I chose to keep the two upper rear panels where they go around the back corners. I'm having to slide the lower panel under the lip which I'm sure wasn't how they did it in 1944.

Weld through primer
 

Hi Bruce

Had to go out to the shop to get the name of the best weld primer I've found seems to work best for both mig and pinch/spot weld.

SEM 40783 Copperweld

As to sliding lower panel under upper, I use several ratchet straps to pull it tight to the body, and several more to pull it up under the upper lip.

Lot of photos of restoring my HUP on my site, quite a few large files at higher resolution at http://www.canadianmilitarypattern.c...Y%20PHOTOS.htm only problem the page takes for ever to load its one of those start it down loading then go get a cup of coffee.

Cheers Phil

Bruce,

I hope that these are ok.

Jon

Just one confirmation: is the entire height of the bracket 23-1/4" from the bottom of the bumper to the very top? If so it seems to match the 15cwt one (pic attached), the only difference being the bolt spacing on the bottom is different to allow for the thinner 5" HUP bumper.

Also, thanks to your door latch pic I was able to finish my HUW lower skin panels. Truly a job of measure twice, three or even four times to make sure you cut only once. If anybody needs to know, the steel size is 18 ga. 76-1/4" by 30-1/2" (overall) with a corner radius of 5" and 3/4" I.D. bends front and rear.

That's correct Bruce, that's the total height.

The panelling looks good, nice to see the vehicle coming together.

Jon

Looks great but get that body frame sandblasted. :whinge

Hi Bruce,

...take this photo of the LH side of my HUW by completing the help sent to you by Jonathan..

Attachment 101227

Funny guy. My sandblaster said he wouldn't do it when it was a humid +40 Celsius. I had it out for him when it was a mere 30C and he still wanted cooler. Snowflake.

Thanks Haridimos. It's great when you need help and can get questions answered so fast.

How is your HUW coming? Its previous owner was very helpful in sending me drawings and photographs. It is a very complete and original truck, you're lucky to have it.

While I am getting all my questions answered, there is one small thing you could check for me.

Can you tell me or send a pic of the rear dome light that is on the inside of the roof above the rear door. My roof in that area is so bad I can't make out where it was mounted. I have a pic of an early HUW (maybe the pilot model) that had the rear lamp on the right side wall behind the bin (and to the right of the back door instead of above it). I think they moved it because in that location it probably didn't give off much light.