That tank came out really nice.

John, My wife gets on me about my garage, I would sweep it every time when I was done working for the day, she said why I don't do that in the house?
What can you say that wont start a fight LOL.

Next time you are off text me to see where I am.
Being it was warm the last week or so LP has been slow, 2 runs and I have been home by noon.
I don't know what this weather is going to bring.
Owner may not let the trucks out till streets are mostly clear so don't know if working Friday or not and if not may have to work Saturday.
Then if the govner lifts the HOS (hours of service) we get to drive as long as we can. Owner want only 18 hours max with 8 off IIRC but we know how that goes LOL
Dave ----

 

Dave you ever get busted with engine parts in the dishwasher? She didn't much care for that!
I guess with the cold weather there will be a lot of propane orders in the next few days. I am no longer able to work from home on Saturdays so that puts a kink into my Sundays and gives me one less hour to work outside. But if the weather is decent I will still try to get a couple of hours in.

 

In CT I had my own dish washer I could use for doing that.
It was an old portable job that had a leaky door seal so was retired to the garage, thing was I never got to use it for parts cleaning.

I went in 2 hours later than I normally do and was done by 12pm with my 2 loads, Rolesville (vary icy at 4am) & Carthage muddy as everything started to melt.
It is going to get warmer over the next few days, think 70 by Monday so don't know how busy it will be?
They did not say any thing about working this weekend so fingers crossed I don't have to so should be around.

That sucks about not working from home. Where is work at? I take it your days off are not together or weekends when others are around to help.
I have to go thru my parts bins and see what I have that you can use for your project.
I know I have some bed bolts (new & good used ones), fender braces, and got to be other things.
Think I will check tomorrow when its a little warmer so I can open the garage door for more room where I have them stacked.
When I have the care package together I will drop it off at the house.
Dave ----

 

Dave I work in Wake Forest. Well that's what they call it, I pass the sign that says entering Youngville right before reaching my building. It's right at 50 miles! My off nights are Thursday / Friday. I won't be able to work on the truck this Sunday, I have plans to bring my Mustang up to Garner in the afternoon. I'm hoping tomorrow I can get something done on the truck, maybe weld in the new cab corners or the rear bed crossmember. So much that needs to be done it seems overwhelming at time just getting started!

 

We have a cement plant we go to for a holding site for Argos that they call Wake Forest but to find it on the GPS it is Youngsville.

Days off gets hard to get help (from me any way) when my days are off but will see what we can do.
As for getting work done I know it can be overwhelming and why I say stick to the bed.
When it is to the point of paint you can step back and see that something got done.
If you work on the bed jump to cab then to motor back to ?? it looks like you got nothing done and the overwhelming feeling just piles on.
Ask me how I know when my whole truck was in parts all over the garage
That is why I did the cab first and had to break that down to little parts, drivers side floor & rocker then passengers side floor & rocker then cab corners.
The cab then went on the painted frame. I think I did the roof and back wall next then the drivers door and then the passengers door.
Before the noise went on for fitting I dropped the motor & trany in place. If I did not break it down to little projects it would still be in parts all over my garage.

What getting done to the Mustang or is it a show?
I got to get out and check my bins for you and do a trash run just too cold for me to get out LOL
Dave ----

 

had some more fun with the blasting cabinet...







cleaned off the battery box, the retainer for the battery tray which grabs onto one of the cross tubes.. and the swing arm for the back tire...







figured since they painted it originally with some rusty red colored primer id do the same thing.. Painted it with Red Oxide Primer..

 

One of my friends from work wanted an "old car" that they could use in a video, so we worked out a deal for me to bring my Mustang out tomorrow afternoon. It's a hip hop video I guess. I think it is just going to sit in a field with some screen shots at sunset, I don't have to drive it, or burn the tires down, or anything like that.

I used your bending brake today, I made a replacement panel for the lower part of the front section of the drivers side on the bed, plus I made a couple of those cab filler pieces. 90 degree lip on the bed panel, and then just a slight curve on the filler pieces, along with an edge from my flange tool. Still in black rust reformer right now, I'll take another pic later in the week when I paint them. Of course I'll need to do the cab corners before I mount them.

 

Looking good guys.

I like them filler panels.
I have a care bin to drop off. It has mostly bolts & nuts for the bed & running boards.
I don't know if the bed side bolts thru floor will be long enough being you are going with wood but I put them in the bin.

I came across the card board patterns I used for the bed side lips with the holes marked where they should go if going back to factory.
When I seen them it reminded me you should drill the holes and if you want squire them on the strip before they are welded because of the lower side panels front & rear you cant really get a drill in there to drill straight on. Where the wheel bump is is not an issue as you don't have a panel in the way.

I put in the fender braces but cant remember but I think they are from the style side but they may work.
And the 2 old factory tail lights less wires as I needed them, but maybe you can use them to make one for the missing light?
I do have a few of them trailer lights if you want to run a match on the other side? Just would not have a back up light but I have a thought on that I was going to use with them.
Dave ----

 

I have the front two supports, but neither of the rear supports. They look like it would be simple to fabricate but I guess until I get to that point I won't know for sure. You used supports from a styleside?
Regarding the tail lights, I was figuring something like this. More rectangular whereas the trailer lights are more square. These cost $20 and said for Jeep CJ but look pretty similar to me.

 

Spent the sunny days we had this weekend wire wheeling, priming amd painting a cheap brush guard I picked up for the sport Trac. Came off a northern truck and you can tell from the pitting it has, so not too concerned with not spending much to clean it up. Beats the heck out of buying a new one. Went to the shooting range to burn off some steam. Duke was trying to make snow angels, but he's so fat it's more like snow potatoes.

 

The guard is looking good.

Love the " Duke was trying to make snow angels, but he's so fat it's more like snow potatoes." and the picture
Dave ----

 

aww he wants his belly rubbed

 

Hope everyone is doing well. I have been working on the 4 wheeler more than anything. Got the wheel bearings in, tie rods, and new front axle shafts in. Changed the spark plug and ended up with a starting issue, also slow to take the gas. Turns out the spark plug I bought was a colder plug than the one it had. So I picked up the hotter plug and swapped it in. That's when I realized the plug wire had separated, and the wire was very loose inside the boot. So I ordered a new coil/wire that I hope to put on today. Then it should be ready to ride again hopefully.





Also finally messed with the mud truck a little. Got the stud girdles on, now just got to run through the valves and put the passenger side header back on, and bolt the intake and carb back on then we should be ready to fire it off.

 

Lately it seems it's either been cold or rainy. Haven't had much opportunity to get out and work on this blue project, but I finally found some time to tackle the cab corner on the passenger side. Now I need to go the drivers side, which is a bit worse. I'll also have to address rust in the door sill on both sides.


Seems to be a common problem with these trucks, rust in the cab corners.

I figured the best way to start was just to cut it open and go from there.

I found a couple of layers of metal bonded together with what seemed to be un-hardened bondo. Perhaps a poorly done previous repair?

Lot of crap came out!

I had to make a little patch to go in the corner so that I'd have something to weld my new corner to.

Well I never claimed to be a great welder!

Grinder cleaned it up quite a bit.

A coat of bondo and a little sanding, doesn't look half bad!

Coat of gray primer.

The paint is not a great match, but the truck will have to be repainted anyway, so this should do for now.

 

Its a good start.
When looking at the pictures it looked like that was patched before because of the other layer behind it.
Also what you call soft bondo might of been panel bond / glue.
You can see a hole in the rocker on the end. Once it is cleaned out really good and it is dry find a rubber / plastic plug to put in it.
Other wise water can come up thru it and keep everything wet and rust out again.

What type of paint is the blue?
I worry that it may not play nice with the normal auto paint come repaint time.
Dave ----