Restoring Ham's '48 Willys - A Bright Shiny Spot

We're still working issues - there has been a persistent oil leak at the front of the pan. This truck needs to be house broken - leaving little puddles here and there isn't allowed. We found a stripped out thread in a nut plate at the front of the pan that wouldn't pull down the pan against the gasket. The bolt bottomed on the block and seemed to be tight, but not really. So - we fixed that! Hopefully, no more puddles.

Then, Saturday after Thanksgiving - the old turkey got a holiday present.

The front bumper came back from the plater. If you look at the attached photo, you see the condition of the front bumper (there isn't a rear bumper on a truck) when it came out of the barn. Look at the right front. That end is about six inches closer to the tire than the left side. That's where Mrs. Coatney ran into the pine tree at the Cub Scout cookout about 1957 or '58. I had originally intended to leave it as it was, just because of how it got that way, but I waffled and decided not only to rechrome the bumper, but to straighten it.

We opened the package from the bumper shop, which is located in Brainerd, MN - up in the cold country.

WOW!.

Aw Maaahhnnnn! (My grandkids would be proud of that whine...)

If you look at the rear of the bumper, you can see where they used their tooling to iron out the wrinkles and bends. But, from the front - even I cannot find the place it was bent. WOW!

The chrome job is fan-dern-tastic! There is no question, it wasn't this good out of the factory (A comment - the paint is better than factory too, finishes are just that much better today). The rear of the bumper is a great chrome job too - just not buffed out and polished like the front side.

WOW. I'm as close to speechless as I get. Look at the picture and you'll see where we started. I'll wait to post a picture until it's mounted...

Seats are done, the interior guy wants the truck to finish it up. I guess it has to run now!