That's sick for a drive way job. Nice daddy's girl is helping too! That always makes it special.

 

Some quick answers:

Yep, FLH as in HD. I got the '77 HD the same year as the '79 F350 - 1998. I am partial to shovels and older. Had a '47 knuck in boxes that I sold to get my oldest her car. I told her when I am old and a pain in the ***, she just has to deal with it because I gave up the knuck for her...

The flange/spot weld/seam sealed patch install was not really much more work than flange/plug welding that I had done on other vehicles in the past. Only time will tell if it holds up better...

The whole truck, is going to be sealed up with "Rusfree" rustproofing underneath. Our local paint shop sells it. I will try and do a better job on taking some pictures during the process. I used the same stuff on the '79 to help make it last as long as it did.

As far as the paint - I put about 6oz of mineral spirits and 22oz of paint in the quart cup of the old Binks gun. It sprayed pretty good with the siphon gun at that ratio on a warm day (upper 70s, low 80s). I will definately take a close up of the paint sheen once the bed is back on. It's no where near as nice as base/clear, so no point on kidding yourself. Having sprayed some acrylic enamel back in the late '80s and early '90s on a couple cars, I do think it compares to those old single stage paints. If you are contemplating using Rustoleum or Valspar tractor paint, just have realistic expectations. This is a firewood/ snowplow truck for me and there was no point in spending 500 dollars on base/clear urethane that will ultimately get skinned up on the logging roads around here hauling firewood.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and interest in my old project. All input is appreciated.

 

Keep us posted!!

 

Do yourself a favor and SKIP the undercoating. It just retains mositure and rots things out.


Spend a a couple hours power washing the complete underside of the truck, let is dry a week then POR15 the underside of the truck. Pay special attention to the inside pocket of the rear wheel wells, Pocket in bed side below taillight, front cab mounts,inside supercab corners,front cab mounts, inside front fenders and rad support. I have been doing rust repair for a long time and I have yet to fin anything that compares to POR

Then you daughter will be able to use the truck to haul her kids around 20 years down the road

 

x2 on what brad said^^^^^^^^

 

Amazing all the interest in the paint. I think unless you are building a show truck it's worth considering. The amount of debris in it from doing it outside was buggin' me (pun intended). So my dad helped me wet sand it with 1200 grit wet/dry paper. Then I polished it with 1500 grit compound and a wool pad. Last was machine glaze compound and a sponge pad. Got the whole thing wet sanded and about 1/2 of it buffed. Also got the underneath of the bed powerwashed, but the rain is preventing me from getting any farther on the bed.

While Jackson was an OK prez, I prefer Franklin. But hey, times are tough...

After 1500 grit compound:


After machine glaze:


As far as sealing the thing up underneath. It has already been pressure washed, wire wheeled, rust converter applied and painted. The only exception being the front axle and springs because the leafs are sagging a bit and I have a D60 at my brother's house that will hopefully make it in before winter. But the clock is ticking on that deal...

I do agree that undercoating can actually be detrimental. But the rust proofing I am partial to is a completely different material. It's a waxy/sticky compound that never really sets up. I believe it did a great job of slowing the rot down on my '79 for the nearly 13 years I had it.

 

nice paint job

 

Looks great. Got any more pics of the truck?

 

Thank you very much for the up close pictures of the paint, you did an amazing job, specially with such a cheaply priced paint!

I think (Im speaking for myself especially) the interest in the paint has alot to do with the very reasonable looking job that guys are doing with the tremclad/rustoleum paints, for very little money.

I LOVE these kinds of builds!

 

preppypyro, You "speaketh" for me too ... That is exactly what I was thinking. There has been a lot of comments Pro & Con on these paint jobs.

77flh, Jackson looks great, Franklin looks Awesome. From your experience in doing this paint job, is there anything you would or would not do?
And Guy,,,,,,, you did do an amazing job.

 

The high quality reflection of that bill indicates that it may be counterfeit, send it along to me for further testing.

 

Thanks for the compliment. The bigest thing I would change is to try and keep from doing it when the sun is really beating down on it. The side of the truck that was facing the sun dried really fast and had more orange peal than the other side. It sanded out, but was more work getting it smooth. Taking a lunch break now and then going to get back at it...

 

Has anyone checked out this paint job thread ?
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-this-out.html

 

Spent a lot of time in the garage this weekend, no pictures of a complete truck yet , but here's what I got -

The grill had chrome pealing off it. While this would normally not bother me, the truck looks pretty good and the sad shape of the grill was pulling it all down. This grill is cracked in several places, but I didn't want to fork out the $$ for a replacement just yet. Just trying to make this piece look respectable for the short term...:


I debated about what to paint it with and wondering what would stick to that cheesy plastic chrome? The bedliner stuff I used stuck to everything, even the stuff I didn't want it to. Problem solved:


I think it looks OK assembled, at least for being a cheapo fix for pealing chrome:


Rustproofed the underside of the bed with this stuff:


Looks decent, I think. Still need to re-install the plastic splash aprons in the wheel wells though:


This picture sucks, but it is the back side of the new cab corners (looking through one of the holes in the inner body panel by the rear seat). That white stuff is the seam sealer and you can sort of tell where the spot welds were. Gonna spray rust proof in there and try and help preserve the patch:


Used the extension tube that came with the gun to get the inside of the cab mounts and back side of the new cab corners:




This truck had a flatbed on it at some time in it's life and the factory step bumper was put back on with some really badly engineered home made mounts. I fabbed up some very stout mounts from 3 inch channel but didn't bother to make the angular pieces that go to the outer sides of the bumper. Instead, I opted to put some extra reverse lights where those bumper bolts once resided (after a little cutting and grinding). If someone rearends me on the outside edge of the bumper and wrecks the bed, I will just try and get their insurance to pay for a new dump bed :

 

The bedliner must make that grill look stout! Gotta get a better pic of it one of these days.