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I didn't work on the 83 truck at all this week, but I made some progress on my 69. I got the door panels from my 1970 parts truck, they were in pretty good shape. I sanded them down as well I could, avoiding ruining the grain pattern they have in them. Then sprayed them with rustoleum primer, then color coated them with Dupli-Color emerald green. And when I clear coated them, they really popped! I went through the 4 pads I had and chose the best left and the best right and sprayed them with some black vinyl dye. Installed in truck and looks pretty good. I've never had interior door panels since I owned this truck (2004).
While I was at it, I cleaned the floor mat that I got from the parts truck as well. After pressure washing you could see it is in pretty bad shape, lots of nicks and tears, but overall it's 'better than nothing". I have a roll of leftover rubber flashing so I cut some pieces of that and attached it to the back using spray glue. Wasn't holding perfectly so I put some staples in around the edges. Anyway now at least wherever holes are, there is black rubber underneath. I had fabricate a winch to hoist my console up out of the way so I could install it. Glued down some leftover foil insulation I had in the shop and got the "new" mat in place. Much nicer than plain metal floor, something I've never had.
More work (not pictured), I replaced my stereo and my dash speaker. The stereo had been acting up, sometimes just stop playing music and the screen would scroll "Pioneer" over and over, then start working again. Sometimes it would scroll very fast between AM, FM, and USB, and then maybe it would start working again, or sometimes not work at all for more than an hour. Then when you turn the key off and start the truck again, it acted like nothing was wrong and start working again. So I got a new stereo from Wally World for $69, and my dash speaker was blown, I figured while I was in there might as well replace it (have to remove the glove box and the defroster tube to get your hand behind the radio, and the speaker is right above it anyway), so I salvaged the two 6" door speakers out of the 82 parts truck and installed one in the dash, and then shoved the other one up under the dash on top of the heater box, tie wrapped in place. Seems to work ok (I don't sit on the passenger side anyway so I'm not concerned with audio quality on that side, haha.
So now I got door panels, floor mat, and I'm jamming to my 80's tunes. Life is good!
About a month ago i replaced a bad ball joint on my f250, paid Wesley a visit to get it lined back up, bushing is seized, ordered a puller, some new camber bushings and getting an air hammer. Video I found shows thats how they remove them. Shouldn't be bad if they would just free up.
i worked on it again yesterday on my day off... i poured some water into the tank to see if the balance ports got blocked when i did the liner... lucky me... they didnt YAY!!!!..
then spent the rest of the day soda blasting and priming the remaining frame pieces that i could remove from the frame...
although come to think of it i dont think ive done the fork trees yet... matter fact i dont think ive seen them anywhere... will have to look through the boxes again...
primed up with more of the rusty red primer...
i didnt really care if i got the foot peg rubbers painted too or not... when theyre going to be painted black anyways... that or ill clean them off with thinner when im finished...
Dusty that old chainsaw looks like a fun project!
Sparky83, about soda blasting, what do you have to do afterwards to allow it for paint to stick? I've heard it messes with the pH of the surface so it has to be treated before painting?
I did some work on the 83 this week. First, this piece here, I am not sure what it's called, mounts to the frame in the front behind the bumper. I guess it protects the oil pan. Mine was bent up real bad, so I pulled the one off the parts truck, cleaned it up, and sprayed some black on it. Clean, sand, prime, and paint; good as new! Hard to see in this pic, but it's peeking out from underneath. I installed two eye bolts in it to make it easy to hook a chain too, in case it ever needs to be pulled.
Next, I started on the job of repairing the floor pans.
Believe it or not, this side is the "good" side! Cut out a couple of the worst spots. Judging from all the grime dust & funk on this nibbler, I'd say I have not used it in a very long time! The nibbler goes through the sheet metal I got from Dave like butter. Was easy to make my patch pieces. May not be perfect but it'll hold! No more Flintstones floor on the passenger side, will tackle the driver side next week.
Not all the pictures are showing up for me, slow network maybe as the hour glass it still moving over the pictures that are not up yet.
Looks good from what I am seeing.
That front pan / cross member gets bent on all the trucks. I think its easy to put a chain around and it is not that strong.
Just a FYI that front pan / cross member is different between trucks that have a front sway bar or don't as the bars frame bushings get bolted to it.
They say the 4x4 trucks get sway bars more than the 4x2 trucks did.
Dave ----
Dusty that old chainsaw looks like a fun project!
Sparky83, about soda blasting, what do you have to do afterwards to allow it for paint to stick? I've heard it messes with the pH of the surface so it has to be treated before painting?
i think it depends on what variant of soda blasting you use... way im using it is just like sand blasting but using baking soda instead... if your using the wet wash version (combines high pressure water with baking soda) it might.. cant say for sure there.. never done the wet version... ive not had to really do a thing to it when im done... just normal prep... i hit it with the blow gun to blow off the remaining baking soda from the crevices... and then i wipe it down with some lacquer thinner before i been hitting it with the primer... been sticking so far...
advantages to the soda blasting is it doesnt damage the underlying steel like regular sand blasting can.. biggest downside ive found to it though is you get more aerated dust inside the cabinet (stirred up easily) so visibility drops to nill quickly.. doesnt always sink down to the pickup tube so you gotta beat on the sides of the cabinet to get the material to drop back to the pickup... and takes longer to remove the paint because its softer than the sand...
Several months ago while I was underneath my truck working on the shifter linkage, I noticed that this crossmember had been cut in half and "repaired" with 2 pieces of 3/16 steel. At the time I wasn't sure why, and I had never noticed it before, but I had recently had the transmission replaced and assumed the mechanic had to remove this crossmember to let the tranny drop. So either it was already repaired previously and it just became noticeable after being cleaned up and reinstalled, or else my mechanic had trouble dropping it and cut in half to make removal easier.
After spending almost 4 hours working to drop the crossmember on my parts truck, I am definitely leaning towards this being cut by my mechanic.
I dropped my crossmember was not happy with what I found. It had been installed with 3/8 bolts instead of 7/16, and out of the 4 upper bolts (4 upper bolts mount to the frame, 4 lower bolts connect to the radius arm mount), 1 was missing, and 2 were only finger tight!
I gave the butchered crossmember to my friend Jared, he needed one that he could modify to run his exhaust through and did not want to cut up a good one.
Cleaned & painted the "new" to get it ready for install, nothing crazy, just some de-greaser, pressure washed, and rattle can black paint. Not going to use chintzy little bolts like the last guy, some some nice 7/16 Grade 8 flange bolts & lock nuts, this should tie my left & right radius arm mounts together securely.
Well I found out the hard way, this goes in a lot harder than it comes out (especially considering the old came out in 2 pieces). There is no way to get it in unless you drop the transmission crossmember first (it has to go in at an angle). So I jacked up the tranny and removed the mount and when I did, I found that the crossmember was bolted to the frame with 3/8 bolts! What the hell, was there a sale on 3/8 bolts somewhere? No matter, I will put it back in with the correct size hardware when I finish.
This crossmember was caked in grease and dirt! I'll try to clean it up real good before it goes back in.
Meanwhile I noticed that the rubber part of the transmission mount is all rotted and falling apart. You know, I have always heard that transmission fluid eats rubber, and this thing always leaks a little. I guess I will need to order a new one before putting everything back together.
Doesn't look like anything was holding this together. No matter, new one from Autozone only $8 and they had it the next day ready for me.
Rainy weather delayed me, but finally today I got the new trans mount installed and used 7/16 hardware on the crossmember.
You know when you're working on an old vehicle there's always a chance it will turn into something bigger than you planned, and in this case what I thought was going to be a simple crossmember replacement turned out to be two crossmembers, a new transmission mount, and 3 trips to the hardware store. But that just makes the satisfaction sweeter when the job is finally done.
Oh look. I have a reason to break quarantine.. darn..
Could drive by and chuck them out the window LOL
John, nice job on the little cross member replace.
So how long ago was the work done on the transmission and if not long ago what shop so I can steer clear.
Dave ----
Josh, I know we live kinda far apart. Do you think we'll be having monthly dinner meets again soon?
Dave this was early 2019, a little over a year ago. My mechanic has always done right by me and I'm not gonna throw him under the bus yet. His shop is in Benson right where Raleigh Rd meets 301, kinda catty-corner from the High School. I'm thinking his brother did this. My mechanic is Larry and his brother is Daryl, that reminds me of the Bob Newhart show in the 80's! I could be wrong but I want to mention it to him next time I am over at his shop.
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Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
Nice job on those door panels 
