Just a short update: the truck has been stripped as far as it is going to be this time around. Niel Yeo has been popping in this week to help out......nice to have a young back around.
Some of the sheet metal has been painted already, same goes for the front axle assembly. The front half of the frame is being hand stripped of paint and grease, and will be given a coat of POR-15, then olive semi gloss applied to those areas that had the olive in the first place.
There is quite a frame patch on the right frame rail, and signs of previous cracking. Not the neatest of jobs, but it is part of the car's history so I will leave it as is.
Jack was telling me there is nothing for a rear main seal on these motors, and there should have been some shielding to direct the oil to the roadway. This car does not have it, and the wood shows it. Some of it is rotten from the oil soaking.
Wood is on order for the rear cargo box and it will be the original tongue and groove format. I am only replacing the outsides, and two planks over the wheels which support the outsides. The present wood will no longer support a screw with any amount of strength. I have ordered in all slot drive non-plated wood screws...there wasn't and won't be any Phillips or Robertson on this vehicle. However, for the actual Cadillac portion, I am going to cheat and install some furniture grade oak plywood for things like the firewall and the running boards. They get painted over or covered over with linoleum for the most part, and boards the original size (up to 18" width) just aren't available. I tried to buy some beautiful rosewood plywood, but when the guy heard I was going to paint 80% of it (under the hood would have remained stained) he refused to sell it to me.
All the original woods will be crated in prep for proper preservation and conservation measures to be taken over the next period. That is a little out of my field, so it will be a learning curve.
Some photos to see it as far as it is going this time around: