Getting my feet wet....

When I decided to do this project, I had no experience at restoring anything.  I had experience doing woodworking and doing home maintenance projects, but nothing automotive.  So it was a leap of faith that I could learn it as I went along.  When the truck arrived, I wanted to dive in, but knew that I couldn't do that until I had assembled a basic shop.  So, to feel like I was doing something, while saving money to assemble the shop, I decided to work on something small. Just see what I could do. The project that I choose was the air cleaner assembly that came on the truck plus a second air cleaner assembly that I found on one of my junkyard adventures.

I figured that this would be a straightforward sand it down, prime and paint job.  I also decided that I would not even try to repair minor dents or dings, as these were badges of honor after 60+ years of service.  So with that in mind here's how it went:


The following pics are of the base of the junkyard piece after using the Dremel with one of the sanding attachments.  Unfortunately, at the time I did not take any real before pics, but these are shortly after starting to show the differences.  You can also see from the dates in the pics, that I started the process a while ago and was slow to pick up steam.

These are of the lid of the junkyard piece in various states of progress.

Done sanding and rust removed.  Rust removal included a soak in Evap-O-Rust, which worked really well in areas where the Dremel couldn't reach.  On to a high build primer.

Done priming and a heat resistant gloss black paint. (Note: The lighting was different for the lid primer pics, which is why the colors look different.  The same primer was used on both sides.)

Reproduction decal applied.

Completed units.

Someday, I hope to have dual carbs installed on the engine with these air cleaner assemblies on top.  For now, they are done.