[bobs409]

So once the upright part had paint, it was time to wet-sand and buff it. Better to do this now rather than on the truck. Once it passed my quality control check it was time to install it. I work alone and prefer it that way so sometimes I have to get creative. To get this thing back on, I used my engine crane just as I did to install the box. This upright piece is VERY heavy but the crane handled it well. I just raised it up and backed the truck under it. The arm didn’t extend far enough so I just got it to sit on top of the wheel wells (well padded so not to damage anything) to start and just slowly walked it forward into place. Some brand new fine thread grade 8 bolts completed this job. (pics #1 & 2)

Now it was time for a bit of fun! I was finally able to install those home made stickers I created way back in the beginning. I also got to install the revolving beacon, chrome flood lamps and brake lights. Looks pretty good, huh? I spent a great deal of time with the wiring for all of these using color coded wires of the correct gauge and carefully installed into flexible plastic loom. I love electrical work so taking the extra time to do it right comes naturally to me. (pic #3)

I’ve been sticking fairly faithful to staying original but just couldn’t resist adding brake lights on the top. This truck didn’t have them but it should have. These are brake and turn signals only, there is no parking bulb in these. They are red on the back and amber on the front. I also re-installed the 3 red marker lights in the middle. This is the original light fixture that I restored and installed back in the original location.

One of the parts that I’ve been dreading and knew would get put off until the very last minute is the boom due to all the ins and outs and hard to reach crevices. This piece had a lot of rust and as you can see, isn’t a very pleasurable piece to work on! It took about a full week to prep it for paint. The part that had paint left had A LOT of paint! It seems someone used a thick high build primer under that last paint job. I removed ALL of it down to bare metal but it was not an easy task due to the complex shape. For most of it, I had to resort to scraping it off with a razor blade locked into a vise-grip pliers as no sanding device really fit in. Whatever it takes I guess! Here it is all done with a couple coats of paint -(pic #4)