I'm not 100% sure, but I'll have to look around. Haven't really paid much attention, do you have a picture of what your talking about? I've had a very long day and am sort of confused.

 

Post 2893, page 193.

Aaaaand, we're three pages away from breaking 200.

 

Thank you, Jim. I know mine don't look nothing like that from the outside, but it's been a while since I looked at them and will check tomorrow. Seems like the rubber would soak up water?

 

Rubber is not absorbent Matthew, but it does hold water against the frame 'horns'.

Here in the Northeast (as opposed to the Northwet) they use a lot of salt -and now MagChloride - on the ice and snow.
When that gets dissolved in slush, it will find it's way into anywhere the water goes.

 

Jim, my son refers to what they use in WV and MD as "Nuclear grade salt".

 

Even El Guapo, as rust free as it is, had rusted radiator core supports. Bronco Graveyard has the laser cut plugs to repair the rusted away hexagon cutouts. They are much thicker than original and should last for years.

Don't think that because everything looks good on the surface, that there is not some hidden rust, because on these old trucks, there is. Doing what Gary and I are doing, complete dissassembly of every nut and bolt is the only way to find it all and eliminate it.

 

Jim - Thanks for taking up the cudgel for me.

Dad's truck was rarely, if ever, used on slushy roads. Kansas doesn't usually have more than a day or two of them each year and Dad didn't like to get out on those days unless absolutely necessary. So the truck led a pretty sheltered life and still had rust. The wheel arches on the bed were gone and had already been Bondo'd some time in the past. And the cab floor was ruined due to water coming in past an improperly installed transmission cover. Then there was the rust in the mounts, but luckily only the core support horns had to be repaired.

Brownie came from the same little town in Kansas and had roughly the same rust problems with the wheel arches. However he didn't have rusty floors, partially because he didn't have a removable transmission cover so there was no way the factory could mess that up. But, he did have dampness in the firewall sound blanket, so apparently had a leak there. As for the mounts, I haven't pulled them apart so don't know what shape the frame is in, but would expect to have to repair them if I were to use the frame.

 

I don't know how rust free my floor is, but I know it is very rust free, I peeled back the rubber floor mat on the passenger side and it looked like new when I was re installing the interior panels, the underside of the truck for the floor also looks like new. Someday I'm going to pull the floor mat out and put new insulation in, so then I can get a real good idea of what it looks like.

 

Got most of the things done today to be ready for Marshall tomorrow afternoon. Let's see: Mounted Brownie's cab on the rotisserie; rolled Brownie's frame behind the shop, put it on jack stands, and removed the wheels; rolled the cab & rotisserie out of the shop and into the grass; rolled Dad's frame/cab/bed into the shop and put it on the lift; swapped Brownie's tires onto Dad's frame so's there are no worries while blasting, painting, etc; rolled Dad's out of the shop and the cab/rotisserie back in as the rotisserie isn't painted and it might rain; media blasted and primed the door hinges and bolts. Whew! That was a 12 hour day.

But, it didn't go quite as smoothly as the above would suggest, and the defugalty was with the rotisserie. Turns out the plans I got off the internet don't quite work for a pickup cab as the center of gravity of a cab is much higher than that of a car. Given that the L-arms need to be taller to get the pivot point of the rotisserie close to the CoG so the thing will be reasonably balanced. Otherwise when you try to spin it the thing may take off and do you or it some damage.

Since the rear mounts for the cab are higher than the front mounts I was able to use the original L-arms. But, as shown in the first picture, I had to make slightly larger arms for the front. It took a while to cut the material, including the gussets, and do the welding, measuring, and drilling. But, it turned out great. One person can easily move the rig around as well as rotate the cab. However, when you tighten down the 5/8" bolts that serve as the brakes the thing won't rotate. But, the proof is in the pudding so we'll see how it works out for Marshall. Although, I'm pretty sure it is going to work well as he's already said he wants me to build one for him.

Anyway, he's coming tomorrow for all the stuff, inc Dad's rolling frame/cab/bed, Brownie's cab on the rotisserie, the hinges, bolts, and lots more stuff that I can't even remember right now. However, he's hired a guy to load it and take it over. Turns out his wife, who is studying to be a lawyer, asked him if the things he's getting are replaceable. He said "Hmmm, probably not." And she said "Hire it done by someone with insurance." Glad he listens to her.

 

What about in the afternoon??

Well done, Gary.
Have a few truck-free days till it becomes fun again

 

Gary, I may have missed it , but did Marshal ever get with you and decide how much room he needed to be able to work on the rotisserie? I am asking because the part fastened to the back of the cab looks like a tight area.

 

Ken - I know you are kidding but as it turned out the first item, "mount Brownie's cab on the rotisserie", took most of the day. It wasn't until about 3:00 that I started rolling things around. As for having truck-free days, I told my wife last night that my body had filed suit against me for abuse and had gotten a restraining order such that I can't go within 10 yards of the shop. But seriously, I am going to take some time off to just enjoy life and spend time with my wife doing things we want to do, together. Then, when I do get back to the truck in a month or so I'll start by cleaning the shop and putting away the huge, HUGE mess of parts and baggies that are everywhere.

Good question. I just posted this in WHYDTYTT, but should have posted it here:I should add that Marshall came over after I got the cab mounted and inspected the rotisserie. He was pleased, saying there is plenty of room to do what he needs to do. And he thought my gussets on the joints, which he had asked for, were serious over-kill. In fact, he likes it so much he wants me to build one for him. I told him to use this one and let's see what changes need to be made for the next one. But, as I think about it I really don't have a need for the rotisserie beyond doing the Super Bee, so maybe I'll sell this one to him, although I'll probably put the hydraulics on it before using it again.

 

Gary, that's a pretty strange looking Bison on that.

 

You should have seen it before I Photoshop'd it. For some reason FTE insists that some of my pictures are upside down, and it did on those. So the one that has the cab upside down had it right side up - but the sky was sorta in the wrong place. Took me a second to realize what had happened. All I have to do is open/save the picture in Photoshop and all is well. (My guess is that PS is smart enough to read some tag that the iPhone puts on the picture that gives the orientation and fixes it.)

A bit ago a roll-back left w/the cab/rotisserie combo, and will be back in a bit for the frame/cab/bed combo. I'm going over to the shop then to get some pics.

 

Ok, I believe Marshall has everything he needs for a while. As you can see in the first shot we loaded Dad's "truck" up on the roll-back and took it over to his shop. So now he has that plus Brownie's cab, along with the bed, fenders, doors, and tail gate. Plus he has all the fasteners and bushings he might need in order to join them all together.

Then he showed me some of the work he's doing. The second picture shows the passenger's side wheel well lip. I told him to wait a bit on that and I would order in the patch panel. (Matt - Expect a PM re a bit of sheet metal.) The third picture shows what he's dealing with on the wheel wells inside the bed, and the fourth picture shows how he's beat the dents out since that one looked like the other one before he started. And the fifth shot shows the driver's side bed rail, which was the better side. But, he's already got the passenger's side done and although it was worse it turned out well. However, it is just in primer so isn't photogenic.

However, he does have some things that ARE photogenic, like the fenders and tail gate. They sure look good! And, he isn't done as he still has to sand them with 2500 grit and then buff them. They look so good in fact the roll-back driver said he's going to follow this restoration as he's a huge Ford pickup fan and loves this era.

And, we also agreed on more of the plan. He's going to have a guy come over and media-blast the cab, bed, and frame. Then he's going to use an etching primer on the frame and cover it with Chassis Black. Then he's going to paint the cab and bed. He says that is going to be a 14-hour day as he won't leave any metal un-painted overnight.

And, for the roof he's going to use a long soda straw on his urethane foam can and reach up into the area between the panels to put a little bit in several places to bond the two panels together. He'll try this on the cab we aren't going to use to prove that it doesn't bulge the outer panel, but we are sure it won't. However, it should significantly stiffen the outer panel and, thereby, reduce the vibrations that must be coming right through to the ears.