I have been pretty busy lately on everything but the shop truck. I got a few hours today to get the cab outside and throw some sand at it.
I got a quote from a local blasting company and the sound of $400 just about knocked me over. I decided to buy a few bags of sand and do it myself. There's always those that swear against sand blasting due to warpage of the sheet metal. Here's some advice....don't take it to a oil field sandblaster and you won't end up with warped sheet metal.
This cost me $30 worth of sand and $200 for a sandblaster pot that I bought 15 years ago. I have blasted 10 or more cars with it. It paid for itself after the first car I blasted.
I started welding up the holes in the firewall earlier this week. I still have a few to finish up. |
I have a grand total of $10 in my body dolly. It's a free pallet and some Harbor Freight wheels.
After a few hours of nasty blasting, the final results are pretty good. No bad previous body work or dobber welding to contend with.
This was a big truck cab, so a lot of the problems associated with the pickup cabs are missing on this one. The lower rocker panels are in decent shape, the back of the cab that usually gets rubbed thin, due to the bed front getting pushed into the cab is almost perfect.
Whatever this was bolted to, must have had a ride equivalent to a buck board. There are multiple fatigue cracks on the cabs mounting areas. I'll weld these up later this week.
The bracket stiffeners on the back of the cab have fatigued and broken loose at the bottom of the cab. These may be tricky to weld up. Space will be limited for a torch head.
I uncovered something written on the firewall during production. Not sure what it says. It looks like someones name, possibly. Kinda cool. I'll probably be mostly welding for the next few days. Nothing exciting.
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