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That is looking great! I think the project is really turning a corner. No longer looking like a worn down truck, instead it is a near finished project.  Your gained skills show.
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Aug 10, 2020 00:30
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jink posted:That is looking great! I think the project is really turning a corner. No longer looking like a worn down truck, instead it is a near finished project. Thanks! I've transitioned from "It's gonna get worse before it gets better" to "it's getting better" portion of the project. When I took the front valence and grille off was probably one of the last items to make it look worse. Now I just need my friend to get back around to help me with this hood and I can make another huge leap forward. I want to get the fenders put back together before I do any more painting. And by back together I mean, fully shimmed, bolted, hood attached. The right fender needs some love where I welded in a patch on the old fuel hole, and it's a little tweaked so it needs to be bolted in place before I bondo it at all. Also both fenders need some of the connections redone, which is a good side project for now.
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Aug 10, 2020 17:24
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Just want to vent on this task. Each day that I work on this project I do maybe 2-3 little things that I don't document or even forget that I did. I've had this hung if sheet metal with a rusted section on the table for months. I would move it and think about it, and forget it when I had the tools out to fix it, until now I actually had to do it because it's going on soon. There was just a small piece, 2x3 or so, that has another metal section screwed to it and dirt gets in and it was rusted clean through. It required, three cuts with the cutoff wheel, two tries at cutting a replacement section. Setup the brake and bend a lip on one side. Set up the welder and stich it up. Clean up the piece and prime with rust encspsulator. The whole thing took an hour, including setup and cleanup, and could have been done in a half hour probably if it was done with other metalworks. But it's done...ish. I will prime it again and paint black soon, which I'll probably put off and then do it in 20 minutes and laugh. It's hard to see the full size of this patch but an index card would shame it.  Also I finally picked up some cotter pins and actually completed the parking brake install. Whew! Edit: speaking of forgotten tasks I also got two snapped off screws on my toolbox latches out, and fabbed and welded on a bracket for the gas strut for the toolbox lid. And hosed it up so it didn't shut and had to cut it off and weld it on again. And polished the bumper and grille. StormDrain fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Aug 14, 2020 |
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Aug 14, 2020 00:28
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hahahaha. I've been there with projects. What starts as a productive afternoon turns into completing a single task with some hours of searching for a tool, organization things due to the wasted time, getting stuck with a bolt, beer breaks....  Can't have super productive days all the time... the small progress matters as well!
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Aug 14, 2020 22:34
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I put it together for the sake of looking good. I should have checked these hood hinge nuts, one broke off, and another was barely usable. I'll end up grabbing new bolts for these, they were a different size than most everything else, 3/8 rather than 5/16. A couple of them are kind of... Crispy. One broke off. I had the bright idea of breaking its neighbor and rounded off the welded in nut, no worse really, maybe better since it proves it's welded tight. I can spend the next few days on little side projects, maybe paint the lid? Anyway, here's a pic. 
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Aug 18, 2020 04:15
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StormDrain posted:I put it together for the sake of looking good. I should have checked these hood hinge nuts, one broke off, and another was barely usable. I'll end up grabbing new bolts for these, they were a different size than most everything else, 3/8 rather than 5/16. A couple of them are kind of... Crispy. One broke off. I had the bright idea of breaking its neighbor and rounded off the welded in nut, no worse really, maybe better since it proves it's welded tight.  THAT LOOKS GOOD!I can't wait to see more progress.
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Aug 20, 2020 03:10
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jink posted:
You're too kind. Today I cut up some fender skirts, and made an ebay order for little stuff, some plastic connectors for the skirts, new spring clips for the fuel tank venting system, and some vinyl tubing for the same. There are three vent lines and one return for each tank, and I got a little hap hazard with them when I experimented with fuel injection, so now it's time to pay the piper and run new lines. All for the best, easy to work on without fenders, so now is the time.  Thankfully the right and left are the same pattern. I trashed one original and cut a pair of these out. I'll pick up a leather punch tomorrow, the originals have slits that end in round holes. I remember that from engineering classes, it'll keep the slit from spreading. This was a two yard cut of masticated rubber, 3/32nds, from Detroit Muscle Technologies, good price and a good product, the same thickness as original and feels very durable. Also yesterday I put a little bondo on some rough and obvious spots on the toolboxes. If the original owner is looking down on me I'm sure he's having a laugh at that. There was two things I just couldn't live with. One was the latches he used on the top that were gate latches. I left some gouges removing those, now at least more smooth. The other was pitting on one of the bases that was very obvious. Later in the day I saw a nice white flatbed that has seen some poo poo and was rusty and pitted, and I admired it. Someday probably soon this will look like that again, but for one glorious moment it'll be decent looking.
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Aug 20, 2020 03:29
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Yeah this is really coming together! Very nice work.
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Aug 20, 2020 04:56
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Sep 5, 2020 03:24
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It’s amazing what a difference paint makes. Is that primer or final color?
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Sep 6, 2020 00:34
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Final color. Single stage GM Cameo White. I'm very happy with the tone. More orange peel than Tropicana but we'll get there. I did the toolboxes as well and I'm glad I gambled on white for the flatbed. Gonna try to get that knocked out here next. I've decided to rhino line the floor of the bed as well but gonna wait a minute on that.
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Sep 6, 2020 01:22
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StormDrain posted:Final color. Single stage GM Cameo White. I'm very happy with the tone. More orange peel than Tropicana but we'll get there. I did the toolboxes as well and I'm glad I gambled on white for the flatbed. Gonna try to get that knocked out here next. I've decided to rhino line the floor of the bed as well but gonna wait a minute on that.
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Sep 6, 2020 04:26
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Krakkles posted:I dig it. White bumper is slightly unconventional but I’m betting it’ll look nice. It's a service body aesthetic for sure. Here's what the kids call a glow up.  
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Sep 6, 2020 19:12
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Oh I remembered I have a buffer.
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Sep 7, 2020 05:23
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Looking great! I did like the weathered look with the stickers. Torn on 'what is better'!
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Sep 10, 2020 23:49
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jink posted:Looking great! You ain't wrong! If it weren't for the upcoming painting of the Galaxie I would have rode this rusty beast into the sunset. The original philosophy was "managed decline" although it could have been "slowed entropy". The other bright side besides looking good and skills learned is it did get me to address some nagging issues like this evap system, parking brake, and these window seals.
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Sep 11, 2020 17:13
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I'm still really jazzed about this white. The floor of the bed will get white bedliner, probably after it's on the truck again, since it's off the critical path.
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Sep 12, 2020 23:59
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That white looks really good on the bed and bumper. What's the color plan for the cab? There's a fairly nice looking 1967 1100 near me I'm half tempted to go look at.
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Sep 13, 2020 10:09
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NitroSpazzz posted:That white looks really good on the bed and bumper. What's the color plan for the cab? Orange! Do it! Or don't! It's fun in a frustrating way, that's for sure. I got a nice LMC trucks catalog that reminded me how much easier life could be with a truck from the big three. Wiring week. Long ago I added relays for the headlights, then later with the electric fuel pump another relay, and one for the now gone ECU. They were just mounted with tabs and using pre-wired relay connectors. They were fine, but all were screwed to the old inner fender, which is gone now. Seemed like a good time to clean it all up with a cohesive plan, and I found this great relay and fuse box from Online LED Store. It's branded their brand, and nice! Especially $20 nice. Spots for six relays and fuses, wire it all up yourself. I'm using three relay spots and one fuse for the tank selector switch. Currently waiting on an insulated stud for power distribution but otherwise, this is ready to roll. The pics don't show how much better it was since I neglected a photo of the other side. There used to be a trigger wire and a 12ga wire strung across the firewall, and the pigtail style relay connectors in the middle with varying colors and wire thicknesses, plus a little unprotected fuse distribution block using only two of 6 spots, and one loose fuse for the lights on the other side. Overall I'm pretty drat proud of this one, I did much better work than I ever have electrically. Things are loomed and secured, connections heat shrunk, and I left room for expansion. Before.  After with the cover off  After with the cover on 
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Sep 16, 2020 23:36
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With the lid painted its time to move down to the rest of the cab. I have no experience with a basecoat and clear coat, though. For the cab lid I was able to practice on the toolboxes and bed, but I didn't have that opportunity. I thought about prepping the spare hood or a fender, then I realized there is a section of the cab that gets mostly hidden. So my setup doesn't have enough oomph to shoot the heavy primer surfacer mixed directly. I tried the 1.4 and the 1.8 tip and neither atomized it enough, leaving a lumpy mess. I sanded it back down smooth and shot a thin coat with reducer in it.  This is a before shot. I didn't take an after of sanding. It looked like drat bedliner before. I sanded the flats pretty well but I didn't work too hard on the recesses. You'll see in the final product but this all gets hidden behind the bulkhead of the flatbed. The color coat went on real nice though. Even spray, atomized well. I mixed just enough for like 2.8 coats. I ran out right at the base of the cab, and you can see the tiger stripes from the second coat. I think I had the gun a little crooked. I went one pass where I did it in halves, which looked dark in the center and it realized I was spraying it too light. The second pass up and down, which had some striping to it. Third pass I stood in the center and used a wide fan for an overall evening, and it came out very even.  I sat around and clear coated it under floodlights, which I expected to be kinda woof but ended up fine! I think. I'm hoping this orange peel is just in the clear. Again, it's an opportunity for practice and I can sand it down and polish and see what I can do!  I'm pumped! I was nervous that the white would look too plain against the orange. It isn't. The orange matches what I had imagined.
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Sep 19, 2020 17:03
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Double post I forgot about this video. Also I neglected to mention I painted the lid last week. I was going to sand and polish it and post but got too excited for orange lol. https://i.imgur.com/G4cueWB.gifv StormDrain fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Sep 19, 2020 |
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Sep 19, 2020 17:10
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That’s a great color - really matches some of the original style for these. I love it!
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Sep 19, 2020 18:15
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Paint looks loving awesome, and now I really want one of those relay boxes as well.
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Sep 20, 2020 04:20
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IOwnCalculus posted:Paint looks loving awesome, and now I really want one of those relay boxes as well. Thanks both of you! Get one of those boxes I swear it's worth it. I crimped all my own connections and the relays and fuses clicked in satisfyingly, multiple times. I maybe forgot which fuses went to which relay and had to do a quick continuity test. Reviews mentioned that they wires aren't a tight seal through the silicone sleeves but a small wrap of heat shrink or electrical tape solved it.
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Sep 20, 2020 04:47
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That is a really good orange and it turned out great, will look really nice with the white bed and boxes.
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Sep 20, 2020 14:05
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Time for a shame job. After I hung the transfer case I eventually cleaned up and found these little bastards in an oil catch can. (the kind to use for oil changes).  Yeah. These needle bearings go in two places, I already checked and confirmed one of them was full so they go on the output shaft side. There's like 40 of them, and sure I thought they seemed to be loose but drat it I couldn't find anywhere that listed a quantity so... I thought I had them all. So off came this output shaft housing today. I've been putting this off for a while just because of how much work it was going to take. But it wasn't hard at all. Take off the drive shaft, pull the yoke, 8 bolts, some light taps and slide it off. Of course I tore the Gasket so I get to wait a few days to zip it back together.  I also found a little ding on the front fender that I bondo filled, and got de hardware to put the fender on, and tapped a new hole for it. Im going to get it running again with one tank installed just so I can face it forward in the driveway and make the painting easier.
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Sep 21, 2020 23:31
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I was waiting for a new gasket, so I tackled a 'while it's down' kinda job. This fan shroud has been in worse and worse shape every time it gets touched. All four mounting points are broken, and the top snapped in half. It was held up with duct tape to keep it from hitting the fan blades. New ones are $150 but I don't got $150 for this, I have time and $20 of sheet metal.  Sheet metal in hand and a bunch of youtubes and internet photos later, I had a plan. I needed a brake for this, probably 30" would be ideal. I still have a bunch of angle iron, and the Harbor Freight brake was just two pieces of angle iron, so I spent a couple hours making my own. Again, because I didn't have harbor freight brake money.   I just copied the design of the 18" brake as seen in the background of the photo, for hinges I lapped flat metal and overdrilled the outside holes and tapped the inside holes to use 1/4" bolts as hinge pins. It was terrible. The main issue, was I didn't bother cutting these 48" sections down to a reasonable size, and there was way too much deflection in the middle. A small 3/4" flange on this 22ga sheet metal was enough to bend the folding piece out by about a half inch. Thankfully, with enough force I was able to get everything bent up well, straight and even. And nothing broke! I kept having visions of my hinge pins snapping and launching myself over the workbench and smooshing a finger, so I was pretty cautious on where I applied force and braced and how I stood.  I cut out the fan hole, turned it into a box, made a top cover to match the factory design, cut out a couple sections to clear radiator hoses, cleaned it, and painted it.   Given the opportunity to make another, it'd probably look pretty good. This one looks fine from a distance, I made some dumb mistakes. It's fine. One side shifted a quarter of an inch and I welded it all off before I noticed. I didn't have the ambition to tear it back apart to fix it. It's square, it fits, and the fan hole size is the right size and in the right place. It's a winner to me. I was even smart enough to test fit and be sure that I could install the fan and the shroud and everything is clear. I also got in one gas tank as I had planned. Everything fit, my new hard steel line was in-line with the pickup tube too. I cleaned up the float mechanism and got... some kind of resistance range when I work the float. I swear these things are the worst, and if I didn't have two tanks I wouldn't even have one of them. The insurance of having a second tank full means I don't care as much about accuracy, but holy moly. If not for that I'd bolt a fuel cell to the frame. Also, not shown, a fresh shot of sealer and then filled in a few little holes (not weeps) with some strip-caulk. Better than nothing.  I also have blessed my driveway for a new place for oil leaks. I finally put oil in the transfer case now that the gasket arrived. Also in long overdue things, I've had this pump for about 5 years, and mounted it to the bucket of oil and used it for the first time. 5/5 would recommend over whatever I did last time, which was maybe a funnel and a lot of dripping.  Also while that was off and things were accessible, I pulled the speedometer cable and greased it. I also put the battery back in and did a function check of the lights. Success! Relays work as expected. The drivers side fender got mounted too, I only hit my hand once with the BFH. The alignment to the door is AWFUL. On the passenger side I beat it into place easier, but with the weatherstripping in place it's tough. I want to let the body flex a little and give it another shot, possibly shimming the front cab mounts up 1/8" or 3/16". I even had time today to mix up some more white paint and get a couple coats on the removable bed sides and tailgate. I'll give them a flip and hit the other side when they're cured.  That's it for now I guess! Feels like enough! Once this shroud dries up and goes on, along with the fan and upper rad hose, I can fire it up, turn it around and get. to. painting.
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Sep 27, 2020 01:06
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This project seems to simultaneously be getting more ambitious and closer to the finish line, a rarely seen and truly blessed combo.
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Sep 27, 2020 02:21
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Bettik posted:This project seems to simultaneously be getting That made me laugh out loud last night. The MO of this project was always function over form and shifting it over to form has influenced me to better quality work overall. I was always going to need to redo electrical but now I care that it looks nice. I totally forgot about this shroud and was going to prop it up but I couldn't stand to look at it. The parking brake cable would have gone unnoticed for much longer, probably until failure, if not for having the bed off. Some days I sigh and think about how it would be painted and done if not for the side quests it but it gets overruled with pride when I see something finished nicely.
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Sep 27, 2020 19:05
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Monday, it's a cool day. Check the forecast, Tuesday is sunny and warm, calm. Put gas in the truck (more gas, 2 gallons when parked on a slope was not enough). It starts! Drive around the block. Park head in centered in the driveway. Masking and tape. Some sanding. Cleaning. Tuesday, resume masking from 9am to 11am. Curse the wind, it's gentle enough to give me hope but strong enough I'm not going to start. By noon I had the truck cleaned with a solvent cleaner, all ready to paint. I kinda drug my feet a little waiting for the wind to die down, and about 1pm it did. Shot two coats of primer-surfacer, which was definitely needed since I sanded through the epoxy in a couple of spots and did a little body filler for rock chips. I had one sag and one area that was mottled, so I waited the full two hours so I could wet-sand everything. Basically just enough to take the nibs off of it and get it smoothish with 400 grit. Paint went perfectly. My neighbor came over to check in, teased me about using Metallic saying I must not be afraid of tiger striping. Which of course meant I had some bad ones after the second pass, but the third pass, at a distance and with great care came out very nicely. Probably an 8/10. I had to put a fourth drop coat on the hood but now it looks great. Ended up having to do the clearcoat by flood light and boy howdy do I not recommend that for anyone. I learned that I need to spray it heavier. but, being CLEAR and also DARK it was hard to see. At least I didn't get runs but it isn't as smooth as I wanted. I might scuff and put another couple coats on it to sand down later. OVERALL: Wow! I love it. Great color, great flake, looks bold on a boring truck body. Definitely looking forward to mounting the shiny parts back on it.    
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Sep 30, 2020 18:05
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Looks excellent. This is one of the most satisfying projects on AI right now.
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Sep 30, 2020 18:14
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You're doing all that in the open, not even an easy-up or anything? I loving love it (and it gives me hope for possibly DIY painting my own poo poo)
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Sep 30, 2020 18:24
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Dude, that's amazing. Good job! I've said this before, but  that color .
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Sep 30, 2020 18:26
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Thanks all of yas! IOwnCalculus posted:You're doing all that in the open, not even an easy-up or anything? I loving love it (and it gives me hope for possibly DIY painting my own poo poo) Haha you and my neighbor both. He didn't even know I had been painting outside because he couldn't smell it. I'm using a turbine sprayer so theres not a lot of overspray, and I wait until it's still, and wipe it down between stages. I did have to pick 3-4 bugs out of it. Thankfully Colorado doesn't have that many bugs. Also my standards are low, it's not going to be a mirror like concours paint. I just wanted even and shiny. The Galaxie (whoa remember that car?) I can do in the garage, and I'll take extreme care on it, block sanding between primer and base, block sanding base too if I need to.
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Sep 30, 2020 19:00
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Looking great! I love seeing the progress updates. Got yerself a creamsicle
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Sep 30, 2020 19:16
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drat that looks good.
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Sep 30, 2020 20:09
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Great colour. Can't believe you're doing this outside!
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Sep 30, 2020 20:20
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That color rules. Nice work!
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Sep 30, 2020 21:53
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It tugs at me a little, but there's no way I'm painting my Bonneville in the driveway. I'll stick to restoring metal lawn furniture & equipment & rattle-canning it. Looks just great, that color and the white top sells it. Can't wait to see it assembled either.
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Oct 1, 2020 03:03
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Not only is the color awesome, it came out amazing for an outdoor application. Great work
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Oct 1, 2020 04:19
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