Summer break....

I haven't been able to get much done lately.  

I have been trying to get my garden in and the weather isn't cooperating.  Weirdest weather to date.  Snow and freezing temps in May.  
My daughter is in her Senior year and she graduated at the end of May.  We had prom to deal with and needless to say, the truck has taken a back seat.

Rules for dating my daughter....#1.  You can't.

So, Jr. came home from college and said he wanted to work on the shop truck.  Who am I to turn down free labor?  Well, technically I am paying for his college, food, lodging and transportation , so I guess it's not free after all. 

 So he was a sanding fool for about 6 hours.  We did a little bondo work and blocked it.  It is in decent shape for being 78 years old.  It still has it's share of dents and dings.

Spotted fever.......

So we decided to try something new.  I have been doing some research on different rust primers etc. and so this truck is going to be a test bed to try several different things.  The first is Rustoleum's rust primer.  I have found that it shares the same base components as some of the other name brand "Rust Preventers" according to the MSDS sheets.  

 The best thing it is $8 qt. at Wally World.

 The finish is a semi gloss and it lays down pretty smooth overall.

Jr's first solo shot at primering.  The funny thing is I cut my body work teeth on a 36 cab.  My dad did also.  It's genetic, I suppose.

 The action shot.....

Looks better already.  It still has a lot of hours of body work in it's future, but we have a good start.

TRYING TO GET A RISE

The cab is starting to come together.  I don't have a lot of free time, so I have been chipping away at it in the evenings.  I welded up all of the fatigue cracks and filled a few more holes.

 This is my rat rodder trap.  I put a PBR for bait under it and wait patiently....

The rear brace that is behind the fuel tank is pretty banged up.  It is supposed to be spot welded to the floor, but it is floating free.  I went ahead and removed it so I could straighten it.  I may have to build a new one.

 All straightened up.  Still not sure if I am going to use it.  I may build one a little more substantial.

 The  hat channels below the rear window are kinda jacked up.  Pieces are missing from years of vibrating.  These things can't be thicker than .020" steel.  I tacked it back in place to keep it out of the way.  I'll have to add some L brackets to help shore it up.

 The main difference between the pickup cabs and the big truck cabs is the fuel tank location.  The pickup tank is located under the rear of the bed, while the big truck is inside the cab.  It doubled as a seat riser.  A buddy of mine, Bruce, did this recently, so I am going to steal his idea.  He retained the tank, but removed the top of the tank and used it for storage.  It's a good place for my stereo amp and my powered subwoofer.

 I drilled four holes withe a hole saw to give me a starting point.  I used the sawzall to remove the lid.  I purged the tank with shop air for a few minutes to see if there were fuel fumes present.

 The shape of this tank was pretty amazing.  I felt bad about cutting it up for about.......10 seconds.  The baffles are spot welded in.  I underestimated the quality of the spot welds.  I tore a hole in it trying an air chisel.  Gonna hafta cut it just above the floor and grind the remainder out.

 The carnage after about an hour.  It's a pain, but it needs to be done, so I can make sure I can locate the critical pieces.  I hate having to rework stuff after it's done.

It still needs some clean up, but I ran out of sawzall blades and time.