Truck Resto Rant

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September 10th, 2014 at 9:06:22 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
I'm gonna do it. AZ convinced me that I should keep this truck, so I gotta make it last. I'm gonna paint it.

That means I'll need somewhere to vent my anger, so here we go =)

All things considered and for how much I bitch, it's not half bad. It turns 10 this year; by this time my Dodge already had holes in the bed. Much of this looks to be pretty easy and straightforward. But what isn't continues to build a to-do list that grows every time I think of it.

Everything in the front and on the top is largely spotless. I got some dings and scratches, but nothing I have to do any work on. Sand it rough and shoot it. Boom, done. The rest, well, that's why I'm here.

All 4 doors have the rot. Fortunately I attacked it early so it's not terrible, but one door is clean through. I'm either gonna have to grind it out and bondo it or cut it out and replace it. It doesn't appear to be complicated, but it's gonna be a hell of a time sink.

The rocker panels are nearly flawless. Surprise to say the only attention they need is to have the door latches removed and have those sandblasted (up and running yet, AZD?). There's not a lick of rust on them and will only need to be sanded rough.

The front fenders have been blasted on the rear bottom from road debris. It's rusted, but it's just pitted. There's no penetration or flake. A bit of grinding should have them both done up in an hour.

The cab, the hood? Both perfect. Sand rough and shoot.

The bed might be the killer. Both the hinges for the tailgate are pretty rough. They'll clean up, but they ruined the gate and the bed. Both areas where the connections lie are gonna need some serious attention. There's a goodish dent where I hit a tree. I'll be able to spot weld and bang that out pretty easy, and bondo will take care of the rest. Simple, but long. The underside of the bed will also need attention, as it's pretty beat up and flaky.

So... painting a truck. I'm gonna paint my daily driver using the skills I got over the course of a day a month ago while still using it as a daily driver.

Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
September 10th, 2014 at 9:28:30 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
OK, first step was the gameplan, which I largely covered above. Once I identified what I needed to do, I set about breaking it up so I can still drive the thing. I'm not hauling anything but hockey gear now, so first comes the bed.

I want to do this right, not the piss poor "wash and shoot" job you get at Maaco. Wheel wells, underside, it's all gotta be done. I need to get this thing sealed up so it doesn't rot out from under me. So, first things first, get the bumper off.

It's pretty straightforward, just completely irritating. I hate standard bolts, and that's all this is. It's also cramped, allowing only one or two clicks of the ratchet at a time. No room for power tools, so each nut takes 10 minutes to get off. And there's 12 of them ><

I got the bumper and its brackets off after an hour had passed. I've already removed, sanded, grinded, and painted this thing 3 times, but still the rust returns. These parts are going to, by far, take the most work to get paintable. I'm just hoping some quality automotive enamel finally allows this repair to set, because I'm sick of wasting an entire day on it every single year.

Next comes the bed. Unhook the rear wiring harness, disconnect the fuel filler neck, and just 8 large bolts hold it on. Easy peasy in practice, a right pain in the ass in NY. All of these bolts are rusted. I've seen worse, but it's pretty ragged up there. Every pull of the air tool sends ancient rust, dust, and salt from 10 winters ago showering all over me. I can actually handle that, but a recent defeat at the hands of Ash's lug nuts are giving me great concern that I'll be able to break these free. If so, I'll consider myself lucky. If not... I'll have serious problems doing this project.

So far I only got to two of them. Both resisted the impact at first. I then shot them with PB and began running the impact in alternate directions, shaking the bolts back and forth. On the two I tried, this broke them both free. At this point it started raining and I quit. I sure hope the other six go the same way.

I plan to get those bolts in the morning. If so, I'll back the truck into the garage, swing some straps, and lift it off the frame using the bottom chord of the roof trusses ( the price of working alone, but we do what we have to). If it works, I can get to sanding, grinding, pulling, and filling the bed, getting it ready to shoot.

We shall see. I'm just winging it, and even winging it seems like a hell of a lot of work. This should be fun?
Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
September 10th, 2014 at 9:51:07 PM permalink
petroglyph
Member since: Aug 3, 2014
Threads: 25
Posts: 6227
None of this may help but the heart is there.

The last truck I had 19 years I had to leave on the island, it was a 1980 with the bed off of a 1995, not real pretty but held ok.

Up there people will actually do to a new vehicle this. Go get a couple gallons of that heavy bed liner and roll it on the rig half way up the sides.

If you tape it like you would a house paint job and strip it off when done and the lines are strait it looks pretty good, well to a neandertahl anyway. When people get done making fun of you they go away secretly admiring your savvy.

Lastly, my wife had one of those old Toyota landcruisers, the old rock crawling indestructible ones. It had so many rust holes in it, it would barely hold out the wind and just made a lot of noise going down the road. She went and got some of that expanding foam that comes in aerosol cans and squirted several cans worth in all the holes, sealed it right up. She then painted it with rustoleum.

She made me so proud!

Ps, do you heat those nuts up with a torch first to expand them so they break easier, like too tight lugs?
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury. GW
September 10th, 2014 at 10:17:57 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
Pop's truck is currently like that. He lost both front fenders to a 70mph thruway jaunt, and the bed is nothing but Rhino Liner. All the metal's gone, just the liner is left. You can push a finger through it.

It's a 1998 Dodge ><

Quote: petroglyph

Ps, do you heat those nuts up with a torch first to expand them so they break easier, like too tight lugs?


Seized nuts and bolts have been the bane of my existence ever since I first picked up a wrench; to this day I have no cure-all or easy fix.

I've twisted lugs right out of the rim. My race car is currently "un-lowered" because I heated the shock tower nut so much it got soft and I stripped it clean smooth. Breaker bars, torches, impacts, hammers, mallets, I try it all. Not a one is "The One". They all suck just as much as the next lol.

Partly it's my fault. My tools are much like me; good at many things, great at none. My air hose was obtained to give the most versatility. Nailing boards in the bathroom, tiles to the roof, working on my car in the front yard, it could do it all. But to do so it needed to be very long and very thin. That's not good for power, and on the rare tough nut, I falter. The hose flex takes too much pressure. Much like an old garden hose, that first squirt is full power, but then it drops considerable. I have my 90psi impact cranked up to 155 and it still can't get everything.

The best (subjective) method I have now is the rock. Hit it with the impact one way, then back the other. Just keep rocking it and mash up all those rust particles. Hit it with PB and let it soak into your new cracks. It's probably the most time consuming, but I'm getting too old to be cranking my guts out trying to break something free.

I've never had heat work like on TV. I can think of exactly one nut I got off after heat, and I've tried it often.

Breaker bar is a perfectly literal name. It almost always works; with a big enough level you can move the world. But that root, "break". It'll break it free, but it's as liable to just break it.

The way this thing is put together, the impact is my only option. It's up way too high to get a hammer and way too high to get any cranking pressure on it. Hopefully rocking will work on the last six just as it has the first two.

As an aside, my race car contained a lot of that foam. Some nut job stuffed it, shaved it, and bondo'd over it. It's been a pain in my ass since I bought the car lol. I'll be cutting that out this winter, sure to be ranted about in my racing thread lol.
Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
September 10th, 2014 at 10:59:49 PM permalink
petroglyph
Member since: Aug 3, 2014
Threads: 25
Posts: 6227
I had a guy finally loan me his needle gun and plasma cutter. That was pretty amazing.

A torch to the nut especially on a ten hole bud nut [18 wheeler talk] has almost always helped. I agree the longer the cheater bar the more likely something will give, that and only using 6 point sockets on the tough ones. I see what you are saying here, if it's rusted bad it's fused. The big wheels were just tight, the last guy usually tightened them with a once inch air gun.

In the electrical business we had a saying "corrosion is our friend". Not so much working on a guys own wheels though. It works round the clock.

Nice work on the Rhino coat!

No harm meant but I'm glad somebody else out there figured out spray foam is an automotive tool. lol
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury. GW
September 10th, 2014 at 11:57:06 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
Hopefully it's not fused, and I don't think they are. I'm just basing this off the condition of the other stuff I see. I suppose even if I found them locked tight, a purchase of a fatter and shorter air line would solve that problem. I just don't wanna do that =p

To be honest, I'm mostly "whatever" on filler foam. My troubles with Dynomat sort of put things into perspective, and I can't be mad at anything I can remove with my fingers. I guess it's just the offense at the laziness. I mean, the car was a true ricer, but you could tell that great pain had been taken to make it what it was. Sure, it had a gaudy body kit on it, but the kit was blended. 100% of the body was covered in some bit of bondo, so someone filled and sanded that whole car. Not a dent or ding on it. The paint was done thorough enough to include the jambs, the inside of the hood, and even the engine compartment. The Dynamat covered every square inch of the interior, and was securely on the steel; someone had taken that interior out.

So to go to those great lengths, then to piss in a bit of foam and glop the bondo in the rear, it just clashes. Hurts my head =p

The salt issue here in NY just chaps my ass. Now that my race car has been broken free of it all, a brake change if I'm in a hurry takes 12 minutes. Sitting at home smoking and drinking a beer, maybe half an hour. To do the same thing on my girl's car which hasn't been apart in 5 years took 2 hours. 5 lug nuts and 2 bolts. 2 hours. I couldn't even do the other side as even the 3lb mallet and a breaker bar couldn't break the nuts free.

I just hate it. When I come to power, no salt shall again fall on NY roads. It's one of the many platforms I'll be running on the coming years. Stay tuned...
Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
September 11th, 2014 at 3:21:27 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Face


It's pretty straightforward, just completely irritating. I hate standard bolts, and that's all this is. It's also cramped, allowing only one or two clicks of the ratchet at a time. No room for power tools, so each nut takes 10 minutes to get off. And there's 12 of them ><


Since I am partly responsible here I should chime in :-) Isn't there a special tool for this? Seems you should be able to either use an air tool if you can so you can just keep twisting or the dealer may have a purpose built wrench available. Just a thought for when she goes back on.

Quote:
We shall see. I'm just winging it, and even winging it seems like a hell of a lot of work. This should be fun?


I winged remodeling my house. Manliness dictates giving it a try, and when you figure it out and get it done you can proudly say you did.
The President is a fink.
September 11th, 2014 at 8:17:07 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
I recall some long ago post about firearms. Now with my memory the post might have been yesterday but I think it was longer ago than that.

It was something about how "specialized and distant" we have become in society. Fish, poultry and meat are items that come from a supermarket in saran-wrapped cardboard, not from slaughterhouses, neighbors or even ourselves. This was supposedly related to why when someone starts shooting up the neighborhood we dial 911 rather than grab our favorite firearm and go put a bullet thru his head.

You may ask what that firearms post has to do with painting a truck, welding, creating a race car, etc. but it is more a matter of lifestyle. Sure it takes some time, some space, some knowledge and some tools to do some things, but its not all that restricted.

Its easier to set up a car repair project in a residential area than a slaughter house if only because a few bottles of booze gifted to the neighbors will take care of automobile noise complaints more cheaply than a few thousand such bottles needed to take care of slaughter house complaints.

Sure computer programs can give you a buy/lease decision point and from a certain viewpoint painting a rusting piece of junk does not make sense but there is, I'm sure, a certain sense of satisfaction to getting the job done on one's own.

Recently a man who had spent much of his life as a welder took early retirement by building his own work/party boat. He would be sailing the Tropics but intended to do more than than just sail from one Booze Bar to the next, he would keep putting his welding skills to good use and well as his beer drinking skills so as to enjoy the Post 40 phase of his life.

Perhaps its my being imprisoned in the boondocks of Florida that makes me think of such things but its always the weirdos who restore old cars, design airplanes, refurbish railroad depots, re-rig sailboats, turn rusted iron into mills, etc. who enjoy their retirement years. Its the kids who come out of Florida youth camps that I wonder if they will ever make it to their forties or fifties. I've seen letters provided by parole officers where the kids admit all they want is sex and drugs all day and laugh at these programs where the state is trying to get them a job. They don't want skinned knuckles or frustrating rusted nuts, just a pound of weed. One look at their file and you know the next entry after "GTA--Youth Camp" will be "GTA--Prison".

Its the same way with the older people too. After the social worker visits and funding squabbles die down, you get some old man who is watching one of three channels on a relic of a tv set all day long as he sits in an over-heated trailer, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes while he is "waitin' on death". The social workers can get him cable, the funding is often there to get him a better air conditioner.... but there is nothing that can be done to turn him into a welder, artist, furniture restorer, bicycle mechanic, photographer or the like. He just watches better programs at cooler temperatures while smoking cigarettes and drinking beer all day.

So perhaps its not just in hunting, fishing, butchering and dressing of game that we get too distant from responsibility and too isolated from ordeals. Perhaps in other areas of life people are just becoming redundant cogs and losing the ability to be anything else? So whatever it is: building a race car, painting some old heap, ... bring it on. It seems to be what distinguishes those who shoot up the whole neighborhood from those who go out and put an end to the guy shooting up the whole neighborhood. It also seems to be the difference between those who take a week to die and those who take fifteen years to die.
September 11th, 2014 at 9:51:14 AM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
Quote: AZDuffman
Since I am partly responsible here I should chime in :-) Isn't there a special tool for this? Seems you should be able to either use an air tool if you can so you can just keep twisting or the dealer may have a purpose built wrench available. Just a thought for when she goes back on.


I doubt it. At least for the body, everything is pretty rudimentary. Everything in the back is nothing but a 3/4" socket, save for two stupid Torx bolts to get the fuel filler neck off. For the bumper, the one bracket has been cut hollow, allowing the passage of a tool through it to reach the bolts. I can get an air ratchet to it, but once you add on the length for the coupler and the bit of hose too close to the tool to bend, it doesn't clear the frame/fender/bumper bracket. I'm sure GM has a stubby little factory ratchet to get up there, but it's nothing I've ever seen in a store.

Quote: AZD
I winged remodeling my house. Manliness dictates giving it a try, and when you figure it out and get it done you can proudly say you did.


Yeah, that is certainly part of it, at least the part that helps me tolerate the hassles. Weirdly, it reminds me a lot of getting high. Introspection has shown me my true addiction, which is simply escapism. I crave it, and will go to great lengths to find it. Stuff like this gives it to me, and is crazy productive to boot. I dread starting it; I'm procrastinating here on DT right now. But once I start, my brain latches on, tunes out, and before I know it 8 hours have passed.

It's gonna be a challenge. At least on my race car I could toss bolts, slop weld mistakes, and hammer what needed to be hammered. But this here has more value, is actually the key to all value. I gotta do it good and gotta do it right. Here's to manliness =)

Quote: Fleastiff

You may ask what that firearms post has to do with painting a truck, welding, creating a race car, etc. but it is more a matter of lifestyle. Sure it takes some time, some space, some knowledge and some tools to do some things, but its not all that restricted.


I remember that post well, and do more than my fair share of lamenting the present discardable society. In trying to live as I preach, I'm finding more and more reasons to continue on that path.

I mean, to work long enough to afford this job from a shop would take a good 60 hours of pay. 60 hours and I get my product, a cheap product which will likely last only as long as a cheap product does. If I can do it in less than 60 hours, take the time and care one does when working for himself, and get skills and pride in doing so, why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't anyone?

This is my new attempt at happiness. There's something about doing for one's self that's just so attractive. And who better to do a job than the one who cares about it the most?

I even see it amongst my friends. They span all walks of life, from potheads to Sheriffs, from $30k a year to six figures plus. And the ones who seem to have fuller lives are the ones who do for themselves. Those that work a 9-5 to afford whatever Time Warner says they need just seem hollow. The Sheriff is a miserable bastard (a prerequisite for the job, I'm sure), but he's an absolute blast to be around because he makes things happen. We're heading to Richmond at the end of the month to pick up a '70 Challenger R/T, a car he says is "mine". Now THAT would make a good thread =)
Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
September 11th, 2014 at 8:19:28 PM permalink
Face
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 61
Posts: 3941
I'm finding this a lot like sport. The decision to begin has been made, but that's not The Decision. The Decision comes later, when it's too late. That point when you've chosen a path that is above your abilities and you have to make a choice - Rise and become better, or Panic and receive pain.

I dunno if that's profound; it's just one of the random things I think about when trying to think about anything but the miserable thing I'm doing =p

Here's the before pictures as we get started...







You can see, mostly on the driver's side, the gnarly bits starting at the bottom of the doors and the new stuff starting on the wheel wells. All of it has been sanded and painted before, so at least it's not rampant. But those doors especially are gonna be a big time sink. There's also a goodish dent on the passenger bed from when I hit the tree in my yard. Other than the door, that's gonna be one of the biggest challenges to get right.

The last 6 bolts of the bed came out as easy or easier than I hoped. 8 bolts, 2 more for the filler neck, 2 plugs for lights, and it should come right off. Mostly it did, and the disconnection went smooth. The removal was a bit tougher.

I thought I need only support it off the chord and drive out from under it. But the bed wouldn't clear the tires, requiring it to be lifted over a foot. With just ratchet straps and my own two hands, that was more time consuming than hoped. It was a case of ratcheting up one corner 2", loosening, tightening, and ratcheting up the next corner 2", loosening, tightening, and ratcheting up the next corner 2"... round and round we went. If I had a dude here, it's a 20 second job. As it was it took 45 minutes =p

But after that, removal went smooth. I drove right out from under it easy and spent another 45 minutes power washing and aqua blasting the frame. TONS of sand up there, so salt is with it. Every second just eating away the frame. Bah.

That done it was time to work on the bed. Lowering it went spookily smooth. The friction in the ratchet was perfect to allow a 1cm/sec drop with no input from me. Just pinching the strap with two fingers was enough for me to get it to stop to adjust other things. Dropping it was a no drama issue, done in 5 minutes.

So far, most is well. I did break my light assembly lens. Some idiot decided that since I lost ONE BOLT out of the assembly, they'll run 2 self tapping screws through the bed and assembly to make sure it's on tight. I mean, wtf? So thinking it was just snug due to the change in geometry from hitting the tree, I pried it and broke it. Dumb.

The other issue is the dent. It involves the body line, so rather than being able to use it to get it glass smooth, I'll have to rebuild it. That's gonna be more a pain than I care to deal with, so the dent will be lessened but still apparent =p

I managed to get the dent semi filled and have sanded the entire outside. That unfortunately feels like the easy part. Lots of rust to rid myself of underneath, and how am I supposed to get under it, or in the bed? A mystery I haven't yet solved.

It was a good day but I've way too far to go. I sure hope the bed is the worst of this ><









Be bold and risk defeat, or be cautious and encourage it.
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