The Mater build...

As indicated in earlier posts, this is the build thread for my '56 S120 4x4.
I went onto various websites last winter looking for an old IH pickup. Initially I was looking for a mid 60's 4x4, preferably V8, manual trans, 3/4 ton, and not a lot of rust. It was this last bit that kept hanging me up... there wasn't much from '63 to about the end of production, that wasn't severely infected with rust bugs. So the search widened...any IH pickup would be considered. Craigslist in MT, WY, ID, CO and UT began to be looked at.
On the Denver area CL, and a bit later on WY state CL, the same pickup, with essentially the same story showed up. It was a 1956 IH 3/4T 4x4 with some modifications, but it was intriguing. Over the ensuing 4 months or so, it developed that I could arrange financing, and then actually buy the thing.
The pictures below are from both the Denver and WY CLs. Note the lack of traditional IH 6 bolt 1T wheels, on non-traditional IH axles. They're Dodge 3/4T axles. That was what caught my eye first, and made me look further. The tailgate shot is revealing: note the crack almost all the way across. Per the PO, the tailgate came loose and bounced hard against the bumper, bending and deforming it. For the next couple years it was ignored and allowed to flex and break almost 3/4s of the way across. That was the first big repair under my ownership. A couple days' worth of blacksmith bodywork got it usable. Look over the pictures and the next installment will be in a couple days.

Mike

Mine was rough even more so, 25years latter still pouring into it,

don't even want to think how much I have invested but the build has helped save my
sanity through the years so in that respect its been a great investment.
Now if I can make my wife see it that way.

Your truck looks good , have fun, look forward to more pics

Be safe

Steve

Thanks for the pics. I don't know if your speaker box is original IH or not, but those are more rare than the radio itself. Interesting story on the tailgate. The LRS external hinge cabs are some of the most solid that IH built. Even after all these years, most of the doors still open and close well. And the ones that don't often only need hinge pins and bushings.

Dean

The only problem I've had with the doors, besides the missing restraint, is the latches have gotten a bit sticky and hard to operate. A squirt of the penetrating oil we use here at the plant, Kroil, frees them right up. Once in a while, the windows take a notion to be balky, but that's due to needing the felts replaced. Hinges have had no issues at all.
Regarding the tailgate...it was SO floppy that when I got the truck home and tried using the tailgate a couple times, I realized I was only prolonging the agony, so I pulled it off and commenced The Great Tailgate Search on CL. Alas, I came up dry. A couple months of brainstorming ideas for replacement/repair brought me to the conclusion that it needed some serious help. Besides the crack, the hinge roll was loaded with rust-thru and the whole thing bent toward the rear besides. Bent about 1.5 inches...like something really big had rolled backwards at least once. Imagine the odds...
I ran sans tailgate for about 3 months while researching availability.
The final repair came about 6 weeks ago. I found some heavy conduit cut-offs that fit inside the roll, and came up with enough to run side to side between the hinge pins. Those were driven into the hinge roll (no easy task!), with the longest piece of conduit (about 30") going across the middle portion where the rust was worst. While I was driving, I had to persuade the bend back toward straight. Required some interesting language...and body contortions.
But the newly straight(-er) panel brought the warped sides and edges closer toward together. Some hammer, clamp and dolly work got the bent, broken edges fairly close, and I used a chunk of light U channel (split lengthwise) from an old bed frame to reinforce the edges. When I post pics of the tailgate, the discerning eye will note that one side has more rivets that the other...yeah, well...that would be where my last 1/8 drill bit broke before supper and after the hardware store had closed. The project came to an end about 6 rivets short of actual completion, and I've not got back to it to finish it. Perhaps later today...or not. Whatever.
BUT...now the tailgate is 1) heavier, 2) usable, 3) back in place on the truck, and now I'm left with finding ways to keep it in place when the chains come loose. Best I've found so far is using scaffolding clips, and let the chains hang until I need them to support the tailgate. But that is still a work-in-progress. The center hinge support won't fit, and I'm not going to force it. If I come across a good tailgate then it'll go back. At least this tailgate is usable until then.

Mike

And the speaker box: I've a feeling that belonged to the cab used for the roll-over repair. The radio delete plate is still there on the dash panel. And it has a spring loaded antenna on the RIGHT side of the cowl (with lead), AND a cover plug in the mirror-image place where an antenna should reside. But no radio. Zip, nada, keine davon!
Future pics will show some of the waves in the back of the cab, where repairs have been done and cab panels put under enormous stress. Something's not square with the world in my cab, and it's not the driver!
But it's these things that lead me to believe this cab isn't the one the truck left the factory with.

But that's another post, so I'll leave it for the future.

Mike

Left side. Note the break in rivets.

As promised, here's the tailgate repair.
1st, the left side. Note the rust bugs in the hinge roll. Why it's SO much worse on the left, I've no idea. The rust continues a couple inches into the right side and 'quits', seemingly. But that left side is really tender, and tried to tear while the conduit was being driven in; it's also where the outward bend was worst. The repair piece for the side is worth looking at. It's a piece of light channel from a bedframe, split length-wise down the middle. A slight bit of grinding/sanding with a tiger disc got the height right to fit the entire height of the 90 degree edge without allowing it to be too tall. The surfaces of the channel piece got a sanding on both surfaces that see the factory panel, to ensure they were as flat as they could be, to get a decently tight rivet joint.
The right side is where I started. Look at the top couple rows of rivets. See the heads on the 90 degree portion? That orientation puts the expanded portion into an interference fit with the box panel. I realized it early enough to correct it. the 3rd row is where I thought I'd try an offset type spacing, but it looked funky, and I went back to regular aircraft type spacing. That continued until the debacle of The Great Tailgate Repair running aground on the shoals of broken drill bits. About 10 rivets before the last bit broke, I realized I should've been using a spacing template rather my (aging) eye. Ah well!
The hinge roll had its reinforcement driven in place before the edge repairs started, because I needed the bottom stiff enough to withstand being twiddled with while doing the edges.
The hinge roll was driven in with a sacrificial piece of the same conduit, being used as a drift. Make sure it'll be long enough to get the first piece deep enough into the roll.
Anyone attempting this type repair needs to choose their patch pieces by metal gauge. Get it as close as you can, because too heavy (the normal tendency) causes more problems that it fixes.

Where are the pictures?

I can't get the pics to upload. Something about too large a file. It seems I've some work to do with the pics. I'll add them as edits to the post.

Mike

I had a tailgate that was folded in half like yours, I sold it on ePay a few years ago, got good $$ as it wasn't rusted out.

hard to tell from pic, but I think your speaker box is the same as the one in my 53 travelall, so maybe IH offered a few different styles?

You know how earlier I wrote that I thought the truck had been rebuilt in an earlier life?
Well, today while getting ready for the engine changeout, I noticed some numbers on the firewall. Just above the horn relay is '53' and just left and a bit lower of the nylon junction block, there's a '50'. Both are in yellow paint stick, as is commonly used in wrecking yards. I think at least the firewall and cowl are replacements. Heaven knows how much of the rest is.

Mike