New to me 1948 Desoto Custom Coupe

[Los_Control]

I think you are doing fine. My truck is my first project vehicle also. Like you I had to practice and learn to spray with a HPLV gun. And teach my self to weld on other projects, before I felt comfortable welding on the truck exterior panels.

 

I have been working on my truck since 2018. there was a full year one time I never had a chance to work on it.

Then this year life got in the way and it was 8 months I did not have time to work on it. I started to work on it a month ago .... then my wife car has been a pita and have to work on it again. .... Think I finally found the issue and fixed it yesterday .... nice Sunday drive today to see if it is fixed.

Then can get back to work on the truck.

 

At least I did get the interior stripped out and ready to prep for paint .... hoping to finish painting before the weather turns to cold for it.

Maybe it will be ready to hit the road next spring ..... just keep giving it whatever time you can and eventually will get there.

 

 

 

 

 

[Art Bailey]

21 hours ago, Los_Control said:

I think you are doing fine. My truck is my first project vehicle also. Like you I had to practice and learn to spray with a HPLV gun. And teach my self to weld on other projects, before I felt comfortable welding on the truck exterior panels.

 

I have been working on my truck since 2018. there was a full year one time I never had a chance to work on it.

Then this year life got in the way and it was 8 months I did not have time to work on it. I started to work on it a month ago .... then my wife car has been a pita and have to work on it again. .... Think I finally found the issue and fixed it yesterday .... nice Sunday drive today to see if it is fixed.

Then can get back to work on the truck.

 

At least I did get the interior stripped out and ready to prep for paint .... hoping to finish painting before the weather turns to cold for it.

Maybe it will be ready to hit the road next spring ..... just keep giving it whatever time you can and eventually will get there.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words, man! Just found your build thread, I dig those pilothouse pickups so much! Looking forward to following along. I'm almost feeling confident to weld on the DeSoto, I've got a few welded repairs around the house that have held up well, and a few more on the list to prove to myself I can be trusted. The graduation project is a '62 Buick fender I picked up on FB marketplace...smashed dents into it, got some metal to replace, if I can make it look like a fender again, I'll be ready. 

Edited October 21 by Art Bailey

[Los_Control]

4 hours ago, Art Bailey said:

I'm almost feeling confident to weld on the DeSoto

Looks like most of your repairs will be covered up and never seen .... you will be fine.

 

Watch that confidence though, will get you in trouble every time  

 

Most of my welding was also covered, floor pan .... I had a patch on the back of the cab that is hidden with the bed installed .....I had several holes in the doors from different mirrors installed over the years ... I had 2 patches on the front fenders that are highly visible. I was worried about those.

 

By the time I got through with everything else I felt really confident ... I jumped on those 2 highly visible patches and got them welded in place in a couple hours.

 

I was just too confident and did the repairs too fast.

My welding is fine, there is only a small amount of filler on the weld ... no filler covering the patch.

 

My body skills suck though .... hard to tell in the photo, the patch needed a bigger roll to it, it has some but it looks flat when looking at it in person there is something going on there but hard to say what.

Any pilothouse truck owner knows, they all need a patch there ... others will not know.

 

I'm fine with it, it is a solid patch welded in properly .... just not the right shape .... That was over confidence .... I was too worried about welding, did not give enough concern on the panel shaping .... we all learn.

You can learn a new job at 53, you can learn fabrication .... Seems I always learn most from past mistakes though.

[Dan Hiebert]

Glad to see you're still at it!  One thing that is always overlooked when working on old cars, especially bringing one back from the dead, is more of a virtue than a skill...and that's patience.  (Although in some lines of work, patience can indeed be a skill.)  When I finally decided to teach myself to weld for bodywork, I just jumped right into a car project (cheated a bit - it was my brother-in-law's car, not mine), but I started with the places that would not be visible and worked my way into the visible places.  As bad as the car was, it gave me lots practice to get pretty good by the time I needed to weld on outside panels, and the confidence to weld on our old Dodge.  The steering box won't be as hard as you may think.  Repair kits (bushings, races, bearings, seals, etc.) are available.  Hardest part when I did mine was getting the old bearing races out.  Keep at it!  We've had our D24 for 33 years now...still isn't done.  

[Art Bailey]

5 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Watch that confidence though, will get you in trouble every time  

 

Ha! Almost, I said, almost! At some point, though, you have to swagger in there and pretend you know what you're doing, or it'll never get done. Honestly, I can't even see where the repair is in the pic you posted, looks great to me. You know where it is, though, and what it should look like, and yeah, I'll be driving myself crazy if I have stuff visible that I didn't quite get right. The welding isn't the only thing that worries me, it's also the panel beating and alignment. There's a bunch of stuff on my car that someone brutalized into fitting...it's pretty ugly. The left door was misaligned, needed to be moved forward about 3/16 of an inch to close properly, but instead, someone creased over the left edge a little. Front fenders are all out of whack, and there's that collision damage. 

5 hours ago, Dan Hiebert said:

One thing that is always overlooked when working on old cars, especially bringing one back from the dead, is more of a virtue than a skill...and that's patience.

 

Agreed...trying to pace myself and take my time. It's helpful that my garage is a quiet place where no one bothers me and I can talk to myself without getting funny looks, and swear profusely when necessary. And unlike the family minivan, I don't need the DeSoto by 8am the next day to get to work. It'll be done when it's done. Thanks for the note, it's helpful to hear from fellow travellers who've been there already!

Edited October 22 by Art Bailey

[Los_Control]

Just for giggles, many here on the forum recommend Fitzee to learn to do repairs properly.

I also like to watch Dan on DD speed shop ..... Self proclaimed "not a how to channel, A how to get it done channel"

 

This car he is currently working on is total garbage and should be scrap metal .... It is fun to watch him suffer and work his way through all the obstacles that stand in front of him .... I learn a lot of good tricks from watching him work.

I'm not suggesting he is the king of body work, more the opposite.

 

But I have watched him from the beginning a few years ago (4-5) He has brought worse cars then this back to life and to be honest .... when he went to offer them up for sale, they all sold in hours not days.

He has a unconventional way of getting there .... but he does it all from home with basic tools like the rest of us.

 

 

[Dave72dt]

I watch Dan and I wouldn't call it a how to show either.  Some of what he does is just brutal to watch but it's effective for what he wants out of it.  I'd like to see him take it up a notch to where the person buying it doesn't have to undo his repairs to get a long lasting good repair accomplished.  Fitzee does it a bit better.  He breaks a repair down into simple steps and techniques.  If you want to see a craftsman, take a look at Carters Auto Restyling welds and dent repairs.  He's a bit of an odd duck but he knows metal finishing.

Edited October 22 by Dave72dt

[Art Bailey]

I enjoy watching those guys, and Halfass Kustoms. My go-to guys, though, are Coldwarmotors (though Scott modestly insists he's an "amateur." Anyone who can splice together 3 '60 Furies and make them look like one perfect car has me fooled. I've marveled at watching him bash out a complicated patch panel using a dogmeat ball peen hammer and a stump), Wray Schelin, Karl Fisher at Make It Kustom, and Carter Auto Restyling. Wray, Karl and Kyle Carter are really gifted teachers, extremely good at explaining the mysteries of getting metal to do what you want it to. Years of watching CWM has lowered my tolerance for poorly fitted panels, which would've made it a lot easier to just toss a couple spools of wire and some brake parts at my project and drive it. 

Edited October 22 by Art Bailey