1961 e-pup work in progress aka Snuffleupagus

econopoor wrote:I like the progress you're making. The wheel arch looks great. Unfortunately the quality makes you have to do a ton more work to put them in. The way you did it was the best. Glad to see you put the effort into it.

The nose on these are what makes them. When they are straight they look great. Bondo'd up and they look like a prize fighter after 12 rounds. That little lip just above the grill is very noticeable when is not there. The body line through the headlight bezels is just as noticeable. Another is the reveal line around the headlight grills. I love a straight nose. It's the signature of our trucks. Good luck on your restore. It looks like it is in very capable hands.

Duane in Tennessee

Thanks! It'll be worth all the hassle in the end.

The Eastwood body lead kit came in!


I had been wanting to buy a body lead/solder (whatever you prefer to call it) for quite some time. Last weekend, just as I was expecting, Brad came up with the rad idea to french the antenna. Someone had moved the antenna from the nose of the truck to just behind the driver on the corner of the bed rail. We welded in a little slug for that hole and I cringed as I watched Brad start drilling into the nose of the truck with a uni-bit. After some tweaking, welding, and grinding, the antenna leans perfect with the angles of the cab. Knowing the truck was going to be bare metal for the car show, I really had some motivation to buy a leading kit!!

Here's the current state of the french:


I was going to work on it yesterday, but for some reason, all those beers from the night before did not help my motivation. I'll post up pics once I'm done learning how to lead.

Very Very cool so far. You can send yer friends up to me if ya want, I need all the help I can get!!!

jimthefred wrote:Very Very cool so far. You can send yer friends up to me if ya want, I need all the help I can get!!!

Haha I'll see what I can do! They require a lot of alcohol

Worked on soldering the frenched antenna this past Friday. I didn't do too bad for a first timer but I will have to go back and re-do it. This stuff is super tricky. It should get smoother and easier with practice.

Here's what happened to MOST of the stick


Here's what stuck to the truck


After working it most of the way with the vixen file, I hit it with a DA (yes, I wore the proper PPE)


When I was laying the lead, I noticed it wasn't sticking to just below and to the right of the hole. Either I didn't have enough tinning butter in that area, or I got it too hot, burning it off. Here's where I used a pick to show where it didn't stick. It peels up with ease, just up to where the lead has proper adhesion. You can also see the weld where the lead didn't stick


Here's the before and after. It looks better in the picture than it does in person. It's definitely low where I filed off the stuff that didn't stick.


I'll have to remove all the lead, re-tin the whole section, and be extra careful to watch the heat. Oh well, I need the practice anyway!

That's a better first attempt than I would have. Looking good.

Yup! Leads very tricky! I worked for a guy who cut his teeth in bodywork slingin lead. He made it look easy and I made a mess! youre lookin good though, Keep at it!

Practice will get you there. Keep up the good work and you will persevere!

Looking good indeed. Keep at it...we have faith in ya.

Bruce67Econoline wrote:That's a better first attempt than I would have. Looking good.

jimthefred wrote:Yup! Leads very tricky! I worked for a guy who cut his teeth in bodywork slingin lead. He made it look easy and I made a mess! youre lookin good though, Keep at it!

vanny wrote:Practice will get you there. Keep up the good work and you will persevere!

Big W wrote:Looking good indeed. Keep at it...we have faith in ya.

Thanks guys!

I haven't taken the time to do anymore lead work. There's still some blue paint and bondo on this thing that has to be gone by the show, so I've been sanding and sanding and sanding. Next vehicle I get, I'm gonna spend the money to have it media blasted haha. Here's a progress pic.



As of now, I still have to sand the roof, around the rear window, tailgate, roll pan, and some other small areas. As little bit of paint that's left to remove, I'm STILL finding a ton of body filler everywhere!! I'm still thankful that it's not covering a ton of rust though!

I finally got all of the body filler out of the truck, now that everything in my garage has a nice protective layer of bondo.

Here's a little snippet of the front passenger corner:


The rear pan was slap full of it too:


I forgot to get a pic of the replacement roll pan. A friend of mine half ass made one on his slip roll and I'm not certain I'm gonna use it, so I just put it in with a few tacks. It actually doesn't look bad, but I have to give it time and see if I notice something wrong with it.

If someone knows of a company that makes a one piece window conversion kit, let me know!!


The night before the show.


I totally forgot to take pics of the truck at the show so I snapped this one as the night was winding down.

The truck received a ton of attention and Brad's bike in the back got even more!
This is a fully custom 81 ironhead. I can't begin to explain all the little one off pieces Brad made for it, but I will say that it's one badass bike.


After most everyone was gone, I decided to do a burnout. Not the best decision I ever made, but it was fun while it lasted!



After consuming too much alcohol, we had to leave the combo outside in the dew overnight. That combined with hands and forearms all over the truck at the show (it happens), there's a nice rusty patina that I'll have to sand back off. We pulled over in a little town on the way home to snap a pic of them.


Next up will be some steering work. Snuffle dances all over the road and is down right sketchy to drive haha.

Glad you had a good time! Did Brad forget a seat on that badass bike or is that why you call it Bad Ass???

I hope those weren't new tires when you did the burnout!

Looks great! How bout more pictures of the bike!!

vanny wrote:Glad you had a good time! Did Brad forget a seat on that badass bike or is that why you call it Bad Ass???

I hope those weren't new tires when you did the burnout!

He's still in the building process on the bike. The seat will be next haha. Yes, that was a brand new tire. Luckily it's a cheap $35 tire, so it wasn't too big of a loss.

jimthefred wrote:Looks great! How bout more pictures of the bike!!

Thanks! I had full intentions of doing a formal photo shoot on the bike this weekend but it just didn't work out that way. I'm gonna do my best to do a shoot before he paints it (and after, because he's a bad ass painter!). I'm sure there are pics of it from the show floating around on the web but people don't use hashtags so it's near impossible to find em haha.

Truck looks Good!
I hear ya about spending the money for media blasting!

uante wrote:Truck looks Good!
I hear ya about spending the money for media blasting!

Thank you! Yeah, I'll definitely include that in the budget when I buy another resto project.

Well, the econoline is being put on the back burner for a while. Events happened to get me the money to allow me to get back on my 41 Chevy coupe that's been on the back burner for a few years. I'll patch up the rusty and damaged spots on the pickup, sand her back down and get a coat of epoxy on it so I can pull it outside when needed. I'm sure I'll piddle with it here and there, but my concentration will be on the 41. I'll keep updating when I do anything to pickup though.