Issues and goals: to design and fab a tilt nose
1. Much of the sheet metal in the nose is a very thin 22 ga.
2. Many edges were not hemmed by Stude. The hood trailing edge is, but little else.
3. Thus many edges are weak. Panels now need to be able to stand on their own. We plug welded on strips of 1/8” or 1/16” strap to bolster edges. This is especially true for the hood side panels. In many cases where the trailing edge of those panels bolt onto the bracket PN 648788, the thin metal has fatigued and split, another reason to reinforce the edges. Right angle bracket PN 648788 is no longer useable in a tiltnose situation so we removed it.
4. Once that bracket is gone, there is nothing to support the trailing edge of the side panels, which also have the weight of the fenders on them, especially if tilted. We fashioned a 'rack' system from 2 horizontal sections of 1” square tubing. Once fitted, there are 2 bolts each end to attach and stabilize the side panels. We will use 5/16 gr 8 bolts, with gr 8 nuts welded to the rack. In the case of the lower 'rail' of the rack we embedded a coupling nut into the sq. tubing to receive the bolts. The top 'rail' rests on the large shelf formed into the firewall.
5. The trailing edge of the fenders no longer have any support. The challenge is they sweep back over the A pillar. We are having a 1/4" plate arch plasma cut to match the fender arch for the last six bolt holes; this will support the rear of the fender. The alloy is A-572-50. I can make that auto-CAD file available if there is any interest.
6. The forward hole of the bumper bracket was the starting point for the hinge system. The bottom of the core support was cut off and boxed in. Special lateral brackets were fabbed, which are not yet fully welded in, to extend strength from the core support to the hinge area. We changed the lower bolt to the core to 7/16 for strength. Again will be all gr 8 when done. The radiator will have its own support fabbed to live just rear of the core support. The condenser will attach to the front of the radiator and live inside the core support but not be connected to it. New bumper brackets will be fabbed that will attach to the hinge system.
7. The inner fenders were sectioned, as they will ride with the tilt system.
8. The hood will open in the usual manner
9. We have vast experience MIG welding sheet metal. Anywhere we welded on the truck ('47) we felt that the steel was 'dirty', even the frame, as it spit and popped quite a bit on the usual 75-25 mix. I can only assume that the jumbled mess of various steels from the scrap drive during the war produced steel like this. The war department prolly did not care since they must have figured the life expectancy of military equipment was prolly 3 months as a pure guess. I assume these steels were left over from the war. Never have I welded dirtier steel. We did some research and learned that straight CO2 would be a better choice for dirty steel, and made the switch. WoW! What a difference, and it makes for cooler welding; once we switched we had no more burn thru on the thin 22 ga metal. We are using .023 Easy Grind wire.
10. The truck had taken a hit to the R front fender and A pillar long before we got it. The repair method of choice for that owner was 1" thick bondo, no exaggeration. All that had to be metal repaired in a proper workmanlike manner before we could even start.
11. None of this will show from the outside.
12. We retain the stock 170 in-line 6. We are warming it up per DiggerDave's suggestions, and we got an OD tranny from Ted. Have gotten some goodies from Vern, Gary, and Jim Wood. We are not building anything radical, but want to be able to jump on the highway and do some serious touring. Wheels will be stock with bias-looking WW radials. Brakes are converted to '63 Champ and will be behind modern vacuum master. Tube shocks. Grill will be chromed to resemble the Deluxe version of 1941. After dustless blasting and epoxy primer, color to be Baril baby blue with 3 coats of PPG 2021 clear on top, and lavender pinstripe. Visor will be installed.
13. We do all our own work here, and there are a great many more details to be worked out. At this point after many weeks we estimate so far 500 hrs in design, fab, and labor. We are also sure there are other ways to accomplish all this!
14. We will use linear actuators to do the tilting.
15. Our overriding concerns all along have not only been functionality, but to have the whole deal stay together when bouncing down the road on the USA infrastructure!
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