Taking It Apart

As you can see, there is a smattering of sheet metal items scattered about that have been removed from the car, including doors and fenders. The radiator was sent out to a local shop for rodding/boiling and repair of 2 pin-holes, and the gas tank was resealed. The main body of the car, along with all of the doors, fenders and the hood, were stripped down to the primer utilizing a single-edged razor blade. Sounds nerve-tingling (like fingernails on a chalkboard), but it actually worked extremely well in removing the old coats of paint. If you will note the fenders in the background, they are being supported by a folded-up ping-pong table that the boys no longer used. It proved to be the perfect stand for the fenders, as it was just above shoulder height, and I had perfect reach to all but the very top of the fenders in removing the paint.

There was quite a bit of "smoothing out" work necessary on the upper hatch. Although there were no rust-through spots on the outer skin, there were many ripples and dents in it, along with a couple of holes that had welded nuts placed in them for assisting in pulling the trotter-track apparatus that was attached to this car. Because of really lousy design engineering at the lower part of the hatch, this area on all '49-'50 Travelers have rust problems. There is quite a bit of rust evident in this picture from water setting under the weather stripping. Some of this problem was taken care of by welding in small strips of metal. The rest was taken care of by "modifying" the design slightly with a cut-off wheel.

One of the most important things in doing a restoration is labeling all of the parts taken off so you have somewhat of an idea of what goes where when you put it back together. As evidenced in the picture to the right, I have "bagged" all nuts, bolts, screws and other small items in sealable plastic bags that can be written on. These bags are readily available in many sizes, from very small for a couple of screws or bolts to the gallon size, from any office supply store. One thing I found out early-on, though, was do not write on them in erasable markers! Having them bagged was quite handy, not only in securing storage for the items over the 3 1/2 years it took for the restoration, but also in allowing me to know just exactly what was needed for re-installation. Any bolts/screws that were damaged or broken during the removal process were noted on a written note inside each bag, so that when I started putting things back together, I knew exactly what needed to be replaced prior to actually beginning the re-installation on each particular item. The larger items had information marked on an attached piece of tape as to what the item was (or came off of), and any special notes (like it needs to be installed before something else goes on, or can't be installed until something else is installed prior.)