So yesterday I finally got around to getting colour back on it.


And it looked good…





Until it didn’t…


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Lookin good! Now to hand sand all of it lol


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I know right…not looking too forward to this.

The good news is it’s about 55 right now so nice and cool to do it.
It’s also raining, so no rush.
Can’t paint in the rain.

Big step forward tonight.

Primer is on.
One drop of sweat…hope it doesn’t mess it up.
Not holding my breath tho. Likely will need to touch that spot up.


A proper masking job this time around.




And primer.






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Looking good Shawn.
Someone else is givin’er pretty hard too.

A big undertaking on your own.
Well done sir!

Good golly man!
You sound like my kin!
A rusty cab corner somehow means the fuel tank is dropped and the windshield is coming out.
I'm keeping in mind that some of the interior has already been gutted
You're next to completely rebuilding this thing in a few weeks...!
Psycho!!!

Right…

To be fair the fuel tank drop at this point is twofold.

1 - gives me access to the frame rails to clean up and coat.
2 - was coming out regardless while the bed was off to swap in the 62 gallon S&B setting out back of the house currently.

The interior above the carpet is nearly completely gone you are correct.

I think you said stupid wrong, but I can accept psycho an an equivalent alternative.

Now if only I had more than twelve days to complete it…gonna be a hard push coming in the next week.


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I refocused on the cab.


Stone chips…
Lots
And
Lots
Of
Them

Talked to my windshield guy. This trim is in the way.
It comes with new windshield. Whew.
Out with a razor knife and gone with the trim.


So once again full send with the sander.
Ground out the rust t as far as the 120 grit would take me.


Then coated the works with some sort of rust converter in a can.
Now to let stuff dry out.

FWIW, this isn’t hard.
Just hard to begin the full send on cutting/sanding etc.


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Inflatable booth?

Nah, one of those party tent things.
13 x 26 or there about.
Full sides and ends.

Well a bit of an update.
Lather ronse repeat continues.

Passenger side welded up now.
Thunderstorm set in this afternoon and put a halt to me getting to bodywork.

Cab is ready.



Since it was raining I pulled the shocks off the back.
Have new hardware for them. Had to put in some ground down grade five bolts when I changed the shocks. Old bolts were done.
Then started some sound deadening.

Got the back of the cab done now. The 3 am callout is catching up now. So short day today. Only 12-13 hours. Lol.

With any luck tomorrow the sun shines most of the day and I’ll have the bodywork done and maybe some primer on.


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As I switched the truck around to do the passenger side one of my buddies sends me this meme.



I laughed pretty hard…

Then sent him this picture.

 

And he laighed pretty hard.
Only difference is tires basically.

So all tore down and passenger side commenced.
I should have taken an on the truck picture.
This is why you change the full rocker.
If you think a slip on is good enough you had better be cleaning up to sell.



It’s totally ugly and upside down. But you’d want to believe a slip on would fix you up.


Nope.
That is very heavy corrosion to the door jambs basically. Not fit to weld to for sure.

So I spent the evening derusting via flap wheel, sandblaster and skin.
Passenger side prepped to start the rebuild tomorrow.
Mama coming home from the south today(with any luck) so I’ll be repositioning her to the lake tonight.

Oh, and for all y’all hearing about or living with the Forrest fire smoke. We’re there too.


This does not show it nearly as thick as I see it.
But it’s another beautifu day in the great not currently white north.

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I’ve been forced into a corner which is the main drive. Aside from not having my truck.
19 July 2023 come hell of high water a trailer load of stuff will be heading south behind me.

The sheet metal place killed my timeline. Was nearly two months to get.

And yeah, when I go, I really go.
I grew up not poor but not well off on a farm.
Looking at the world now that work ethic is hard to find these days.
By 14 I was building road worthy trailers to haul farm equipment on.
By 16 I was rebuilding engines for vehicles and equipment.
I had a torch in one hand and a welder in the other so to speak.
So fabricating and repairing is in my blood and my blood is usually on it too. Lol.

Plan is to have cab done by end of weekend ready for paint.
Need to do Nor-cal Nic fender tuck while I’m in here.
Fenders and hood from donor don’t need a lot.
Box has a couple days prep left.

All goes well by next weekend I could be painting.
Will hinge on the frame cleanup out back as well our union staff may be beginning labour action this weekend. Puts me on call if it does go, so may distract my time from work.

Aggressive schedule yes, but like you said, winter is coming

Then recruited help to pull doors.
Saw a couple videos where guys dropped them and broke glass…so nope I can get help.


I gutted out a bunch of interior in the rain this morning. Loads of Killmat going on a lot of the cab.

Took the front fender off as it needed to to get all the rocker. That’s a pain in the butt. New rocker out to test fit and mark out.


And commence the cuttin.


All the dirt and rust and dust….

Out with the air hammer and chiseled off the rocker.
Done for today lots of fitting and cleaning to do.
Sandblasting next up on the inner rocker. Then final fit and weld er up of the outer.


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Spent the day at the lake.
Caught a few walleye for another day and came home to start rippin and tearin into the rockers and cab corners. So part of that is the removal of front fenders…

Yikes!

Good thing the donor had good ones. Whew…

The rust.
The lack of staying on top of this. Lol.
And maybe it’s it you that’s our resident rust-o-phobic.

I do know you probably have spent more time already cleaning on your new ride than I have on this one. And some of that is why I’m here.

Trigger warning for those named Dave.

Seems it happens on Iphone most. If you DL to PC then open, save and post you shoulbe good.

These were downloaded to PC…
Had stupid iPhone for years and still can’t take a picture the right way.

Well, I have yet to look at the anti-stop brake module but am pressing forward on the bodywork.

So last night it all started back up.
First had to put the battery back into the donor...yes, battery...
Had to boost truck at marina a week or so ago, all that week it seemed to be turning over slower and slower.
In any case, swapped out batteries, charged the ones and found one to hold 13 volts, the other 10...
So, the good one is in the donor, the old one will go for salvage.

Got the driveway re-arranged for space for parts and off came the topper. (First time since new, me and two other guys for simplicity)
Then dropped the spare and removed the eight bed bolts.
They came out with essentially no fuss and onto the fuel filler neck.
Well, they twisted out of the plastic, and voila the fill neck was off.
Last was the electrical. Well, there's a beauty of a terminal junction on these old girls, but the bumper was impeding my access.
Hadn't planned to remove it, but all the muck, gunk and 350k of crud needed cleaned out so I didn't break stuff.
Off came the bumper, quick spray with water and all the connections quicky came off.

Tonight, me and three guys will walk the bed onto the sawhorses pictured to the right and I'll be able to get at the frame for a well needed cleanup.
Other activities will ensue as well on the less seen parts.

Did you get the bags with jounce bumpers inside?
At zero psi the ones I have hammer like a freight train.
Might explain some of the harsh. But don’t think all of it.

Thais is a really unfortunate situation for you.

Wow, I’m a little over 1k miles from Winnipeg so you really are in the sticks as I’m looking at a map! I do have contacts with several major dismantlers down here and get good pricing so if I can help let me know.

Shawn, I’ll keep this in mind.
I had to act on this this year or it would get too far to save IMO.
I’d be after a reasonable long box crew cab frame.
Likely still need a Texas box however.
I’d want a good one for sure.
Frame can be cleaned up, and most likely better than my current save for Michigan Illinois salt belt ones.

Northern Manitoba.
700 odd miles north of Winnipeg.

No not really.
It’s my way to get to wherever that would be.
I just need to plan a vacation and do it.
The other part that may or may not be public knowledge here is I’d like to long box it too.
So I’m not putting 100% in any particular direction just yet. 
If I can find a 25 or 3500 long box frame that is worth it’s salt that’s a game changer.
Had a bead on one relatively local but it had been SAS’d by a hack.
No good.
So yeah, I’m just gonna limp it along for now.

Yeah I sure do. This will buy me a couple years maybe even a bit beyond.
I need a road trip.
Between customs shipping and taxes and duties I just can’t do it.
Triples the cost at least.
Just need to stop the world for a few weeks to make time. Lol.

A little clean up inside the panels with scrapers, wire brush and sprayed some rust oleum primer to buy me some years.

Then the grinder to clean up some steel.




The repeated tedious test fits.

And starting to glue it back together.

Lots of dots…
And not the normal DOT this site is familiar with. Lol.

Done for the evening.
Only a few hours in so far.


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Beautiful country Shawn.
Lots of fun Charles.

And I may have did a thing tonight.
All my panels and parts finally arrived. 
More to come. But it will be a while.

Spring is finally upon us here.
Boat ready to go, dock ready to go, ice is likely gone.
Was out this morning and it was moving out.
Should be good to go now.
But, I’m in the middle of a mess in the driveway.
One side in one to go. And all the work still to come.

Are these blocks sleeved?
If so there is the answer.
Unfortunate that it’s this way.

Otherwise then oversized and a bore in its future.

Most likely won’t be an issue for you. But.

Have the same one on my work truck.
Front bolts that attach it continually came loose.
Like nuts fell off wiggling around on the box.
The multiple latches kept it onthe box however.
Was bumping the back window as how I noticed most recently.

20k miles only on the truck.

Keep an eye but likely due to the 20 miles of washboard to and from daily.
As a side note I do like it otherwise other the dust it vacuums in off the road.