After a good soak and a pressure wash
It was so frigging cold the water froze on top of the thing before I could leather it off, thank god I was wearing my fetching yellow marigolds!
It appears that it was painted cream when it left the factory (it was supplied new by a company in Lake Hopatcong, New jersey!) and it has gone through to the white gel coat in places so its a bit mottled. It still needs a good polish and wax although longer term I may well get it painted again, maybe colour coded to match the truck. I may need to hire a polisher for a weekend or buy a cheap one.
I managed to get the tailgate off, the hinge is two interlocking bits of ally channel and its held on with a small pop rivet in the middle so I drilled that out and it then slid it off sideways. The struts are not gas but basically two bits of tube that slide into each other with a bloody great big spring up the middle. One is seized solid where the two tubes have rusted together but once Ive figured out how to get it off the bottom mount I'll soak it in some deox-c rust remover for a couple of days and hopefully that'll free it up enough so I can get it moving again, coat of paint and some grease and jobs a good un. I stuck that end up on some axle stands so I could get underneath it to work and the bloody spring whacked me right on the forehead when it flew out, god knows how I get them back together! The locking mechanism is rusted solid so I need to get it apart and de-rust it and then source a new locking T Handle and inside handle. Its dead simple though, just a crank that shifts two steel rods out to lock behind the door frame. Then I just need to persuade the glass back into the seal and silicone up a small gap in the seal and the tailgate will be done.
Its got a built in light and both of the sliding side windows move freely and have pretty much intact mosquito screens. I need then to flip the whole thing upside down so I can hack out the strips of wood from underneath and glass new ones in. This is what the thing sits on on top of the bed rails. I'll also put a rubber seal along it too. The plan is possibly to upholster the inside longer term to stop condensation and make it warmer and maybe glass in some extra lights and speaker pods. Might have to get some curtain rails from JustKampers.com The truck bed will be allowed to dry out and then I plan to strip, sand and varnish the wooden bed floor, de-rust and paint the rubbing strips and then maybe ply line and upholster the sides and carpet the floor. I might even build in some cupboards and electrical points.
Project Love shack is up and running! (Not sure my wife approves of the name!)