Project: Over My Head

[yossarian19]

Managed to get a little closer on painting & reassembling the front end.
I have to paint the top & bottom grill pieces, crimp on my wiring quick-connects (for headlight / turn signals) and reassemble.
While I've got the body work off, though, I'm thinking about going back over some welds on the engine cross member.
To do that, I'd have to remove the manifolds.
If I'm going to do that, why not put a set of Summit short tube headers on there?
and so it goes.
At this pace, I'll have it reassembled by... Thanksgiving? Christmas?
Maybe I'll put those headers on my Christmas list.

[dmack91]

Every little bit gets you closer. Tough finding time when kids come into the picture - priorities change (as they should). How is Clay doing?

[yossarian19]

Thanks for asking.
Clay is doing quite well. He's got a better head of hair than I do at this point and weighs in around 14 lbs @ 6 weeks old. Got him wearing 3-6 month old clothes already. Sleep is a commodity around the house but that's just par for the course.
Deciding to do what i can on the welding without opening up a can of worms. I will at some point want to put headers & intake on it, make things look nice - but I really want to drive the darn thing again, too, and projects are starting to take a while.

[dmack91]

They do grow fast. Mine are 21 and 22 now.

I like the idea of getting it driving for now. The more things you try to improve on now, the longer it will take, especially with a little one to keep track of. It is easy to get too far behind and just stop.

My vote is to get it driving for now, accumulate the parts you will need for one project, then hammer away at that piece until you can drive it again for a while. Repeat.

[yossarian19]

I was all set to watch an episode of The Sopranos with the wife when Clay started fussing. Shawna got him to sleep and cashed it in herself, leaving me awake.
So a little progress got made.

This is in-process of getting the grill to fit over the electric fan I wedged in front of the radiator. It also had me thinking about running the truck without fenders because it looks strange and mean.
After test fitting, I determined that a 1/2" notch cut out of the back of the grill would get me clear of the fan. You can see that I should have worn my eyeglasses under the goggles, but hey, this isn't a show truck.


I've now started 80% of the million point five 5/16" bolts holding the front bodywork together. I don't know where they all went, but it's time to go buy some more 5/16" bolts and washers. Once I've got everything loosely assembled I'll zap it all home with the air ratchet (small one), reconnect the forward lighting and have some fun with it again.

[yossarian19]

It's back together, lights all working, grill (finally) installed & clears the fan.
Drove a lap of the neighborhood in the rain earlier today. Cackled like a madman.
Love this truck (again)

[Kim57]

Glad it's all coming together for you.
Kim

[dmack91]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

Drove a lap of the neighborhood in the rain earlier today. Cackled like a madman.
Love this truck (again)

I will have to live vicariously through you for now. My F1 has 6" of snow on it that is now being preserved by freezing rain. And the 68, which my son now owns, is disassembled and being made into a short box.

Enjoy.

[Mjminino]

Ya know, for someone who started this project and didn't know a damn, you did one helluvah job and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your build. I am extremely interested in a swap but know nothing about it and don't know where to even start. Props on finally getting it to drive and kudos on the kid. Before long before long he'll be out there with you like mine is! "Dad my hands are dirty, but that's okay they're like yours and its suppose to happen when you work in the garage.

[yossarian19]

Thanks, and way to go on getting your little one to get her hands dirty! Very cool. I'm really looking forward to that myself.

I just finished my school semester so at least I'm now down to 2 jobs and 1 baby boy. This hasn't left a lot of ambition for the truck, but I pulled the bench seat out and delivered it to the upholstery guy. I should be getting a call some day soon.

Before I reinstall I have some sheet metal to patch over the old gas line ports in the floor. I should also prime & paint the headliner area, which is rusting. Ideally I'd remove it all to bare shiny metal but I'm afraid I'll see the ceiling in the garage before I see that...

[yossarian19]

More sheet metal patches and some cleaning happened.
As it turns out, the floor of the truck is a different color than I'd been able to see before. No joke - I thought it was a uniform rusty brown. Turns out there is clean, good-condition OEM gray paint under there. It took me:
Two small screwdrivers
One putty knife
Both angle grinders (7" cup & 4 1/2" straight wire)
The sandblaster (siphon type, doubles as soapy water blaster)
Three scotch brite pads
One scrub brush
A bucket of Simple Green
and a 7/32" hole drilled into each rear cab corner for drainage.

I'll get pictures next time I'm in the garage but for now, believe me when I saw the mud in the cab corners was incredible.

Maybe another half hour of cleaning & rinsing and I'll be ready to prime & line the floor of the cab.

Putting carpet off for now. Wife is more excited about buying a house than hot-rodding. Go figure.

[Mjminino]

Ewwwwwe :LOL:

[yossarian19]

Got the baby put to sleep and vegged out for a little, then wiped down the gas tank / back interior wall of the cab & painted it with sound deadener / rust proofer. Am now thoroughly tired - but glad I put a little time in.

[Mjminino]

What product?

[yossarian19]

I used 3M's #544 DynaTron / Dyna Pro under coating. I used it in the wheel wells of my old Jeep and it works nicely. It doesn't provide a very hard / scratch resistant finish but it brushes and rolls on easily enough. Meant to be sprayed but the warnings on the back of the can, combined with not having a paint sprayer, made me think "why don't I *not* aerosolize this stuff in my garage"
It's meant more as a rust-proofing than a sound deadener but it does both and is $50-something a gallon.

[Mjminino]

Yea the legit stuff is very pricey. Lizardskin is like 500$

[yossarian19]

OK, I've finally got a couple pics of what I've been up to lately.
Here you can see that I've got 3M's goop over the back wall, under the gas tank area & under the seat area. This neck of the woods is "done" - sealed & good enough. It wasn't rusted, it was just filthy. The space heater is keeping the cab warm enough for the paint to dry - it's been mid-30s overnight and c-c-c-cold while I'm working.

This is what I'm thinking as an accent behind the seat. I'll probably chamfer the corners of the board before I put it up and see how it looks. I don't think I'll actually be able to see it behind the seat but hey, more cedar. May as well continue the visual theme, I suppose. Here, it's held up by hand just off-camera. Thoughts?

From the seat mounting hump forward, I'm less sure of what I want to do. This is where the rust starts. It doesn't go through anywhere, thankfully. I figure I can either get another quart of Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer, I can brush / sand all the rust down to shiny metal or I can use POR-15. Only a couple holes to fill in on the toe board where screws / bolts used to go through. The column & brake pedal holes could use some more finish before I paint around them, though, and this is another point where I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I suppose the options are "Spend money" and "Don't"


It's not a whole heap of progress but I'm happy with it overall. I mean, "Baby's First Christmas" doesn't have the ring of productivity around it, y'know? Aaaand, the upholstery shop is theoretically getting the bench seat back to me this afternoon, so I'm glad I got the metal around / behind it painted. Carpet... someday later.

[Kim57]

Your floor looks real solid. I had to replace the front half of mine.
Kim

[Mjminino]

are you familiar with Por-15? if you do use it just make sure to use the metal prep and wash thoroughly.

[yossarian19]

I wound up stopping at the hardware store for some paint supplies, including Rustoleum primer. I'm taking the rust down to shiny metal and in some patches OE paint.
The 57 year old paint left under the surface rust is ridiculously hard. Wire wheel on a 7" grinder makes ever-so-slow progress, sand blaster needs a lot more air compressor behind it, paint stripper wheel works but needs a 1/2" Milwaukee, really, instead of a 3/8 B&D (where the heck is my DeWault, anyway?)
I still got about 1/3 the floor cleaned & primed before the baby woke up again, though, and have some ideas about how to tackle the rest.

[DransportGarage]

Originally Posted by yossarian19

I wound up stopping at the hardware store for some paint supplies, including Rustoleum primer. I'm taking the rust down to shiny metal and in some patches OE paint.
The 57 year old paint left under the surface rust is ridiculously hard. Wire wheel on a 7" grinder makes ever-so-slow progress, sand blaster needs a lot more air compressor behind it, paint stripper wheel works but needs a 1/2" Milwaukee, really, instead of a 3/8 B&D (where the heck is my DeWault, anyway?)
I still got about 1/3 the floor cleaned & primed before the baby woke up again, though, and have some ideas about how to tackle the rest.

Good choice on the Rustoleum. That stuff works great for the price after a good wire brushing, especially under the carpet where it won't show. No need to over-do it on the brushing -- getting the loose stuff is all that's needed. Spray is OK, but brushed is best for your app.

[yossarian19]

Glad to hear it, because I put some more of it down today. I went a little overboard, maybe, and found that a flap wheel on the 4 1/2" grinder worked wonders on getting rid of the surface rust. Big billowing clouds of rust & very old paint flew off. Within 30 seconds, I had a dust mask on & a fan sucking the dust away from me & blowing it out of the cab. It worked wonders.
Junk removed, I banged a few bent sections around the transmission access panel back into shape. Nothing fancy, just a ball-peen hammer and some ear protection.
Now ~ 2/3 done with the floor pan. I've got to come up with some sheet metal thin enough to use tin snips but thick enough that I can weld it with a 2-speed flux core welder. From there, it's cutting out some shapes to cover the brake pedal pass-through area (had to enlarge the hole to make the new pedal work) and a removable cover for the column area. Once those are done, I can paint the toe board.
The firewall is a whole other story, and I'm not touching it until I'm 100% happy with how and where all the wiring goes through.
Anyway, here's where I left it for this afternoon...

[Mjminino]

I am going to por 15 in the cab floor and underneath. then scuff it up and undercoat it with something that way the rust is neutralized by the por15 and then undercoat will help with the scratch proofing and everything

[Kim57]

Looking good.
Kim

[suicidoors]

the truck is looking great! I'm also working on a 57 you have some good ideas going. the bed looks super nice!