Drained the water from the cooling system and flushed the system as it had a little rust and refilled with anti-freeze with hope it will stop the rusting.

I picked up longer bolts for the bottom of the condenser & center brace of the grille mount as the factory ones were to short after I had to use spacers to fit the condenser in.
Went looking for driving lights to fit the front bumper but did not find anything I liked or in the size I need. Going to try some places after the holiday.

Also hope my brother put the last bit of body filler on the hood so it can setup a few days before I sand it down.
In prepping for the hood sanding my shop air had a leaking PSI regulator so I had to run a bypass pipe and the system is up and running as it should.
Dave ----

 

Did a little tinkering in the garage to day.
I wanted to find the AC hoses as I have not seen them since I pulled the parts truck apart back in Dec of 2015.
Found them all then the fun was to figure out how they went till I looked at the York compressor and saw the lines come in on the side.

In looking for the hoses I found the radiator over flow rubber hose but was a little short to fit right.
So I found some 5/16" metal brake line, bent it to fit over the radiator shroud using the rubber hose at either end.
I wanted to run the metal line longer but it had some rust on the outside and when bending is cracked so it was cut short.

I also looked over the over flow tanks I have. the one mounted is clean but the top is was loose and warped. The other was dirty inside and had paint all over it.
Went with the clean one, used a heat gun and got the top straight and fits somewhat tight. May use a clear sealer to make sure the washer fluid & coolant don't mix.

I also tried to straighten one of the front bumpers using a bottle jack and the weight of the truck ....... did not work so going to have to come up with another plan.
May try taking it to work and see if I can use the press as I think it is outside.
Then again I may just use them as practice pieces for the lights I want to add and then get a painted one for $100 to cut for the lights to use? No I will not paint it got another plan for chrome.

I am running out of things to tinker with so I don't have to do the rest of the body work.
Dave ----

 

Yesterday I got up early to work on the truck and never made it out to the garage but I looked up parts for the AC.
I want to run the Sanden FS6 compressor used on the 83 up trucks. I found you can get hoses to fit the compressor and can get the compressor but ......
Always a but ..... the compressor does not come with hose manifolds. I spent a few hours with the parts CD and found the part numbers
suction E1AZ 19E583-A
discharge E1AZ 19E582-A Think they come with the bolts & gaskets.

I got up early to work on the truck and this time made it out to the garage.
I finished stripping the paint & rust off the tail gate using a angle die grinder and a bunch of Roloc discs.
Once clean I did a little hammer & dolly work where I could. Some of the gate is 2 panels thick or the rolled top & bottom so I left the dents in them as they are not that bad.

I then treated the gate to a spraying of Oxy-gone acid and a green sanding pad to work it in. Used a sponge and water to wipe the acid off and shop air to dry as it was flash rusting.
Hit the gate and the rear bed roll pan, body work was done a long time ago, with a degreaser before priming as I did not want the gate to rust. I also hit the gate hinges with sand paper and a shot of primer.
To get the gate out of the way I mounted it back on the truck. This was easy by myself, the gate was hanging from the rafters with 2 straps so I slid 1 end of the gate on a hinge then got the other side up in place and bolted that hinge into place. I think this way may also work for mounting the hood by myself when the time comes.

Before I installed the tail gate I pulled the chains and started soaking them in Evap-O-Rust. Once I am happy with them I think they will need a coat of silver paint to look good.
My brother when here for Christmas said to use bike tire tube to cover the chain to keep it from hurting the bed body so will have to pick up a tube one day.

The last thing I did was removed the brackets off the rear bumper as I need to weld up some holes the PO's put in to mount the plate in a few different places and they had a heavy channel beam to reinforce for a bumper hitch the truck had. I mounted the brackets to the truck so I would not loose them but they will need to be pulled, cleaned and painted before a bumper can be installed.

Just have the hood that I hope has the last coat of filler on it, a small dent in a fender to fix and the 2 rear fenders to finish prepping for primer and I think it should be ready for paint!
Dave ----

 

Dave, I am looking forward to seeing it all one color!!

 

Scott, 1 color would be nice but it will be two tone like this one (picture found on the web).

Fathers day tee shirt from my son.

I am going to try and paint the bed over the winter on warm days. It will be painted apart so I can get paint in all areas.
Dave ----

 

Two tone is even better!!

 

Repair to the HVAC vacuum can. To do the repair I pulled the bracket off.
This is after 2 glass coatings & paint sorry no before pictures.
About the 11:00 is where I added the wire to fill the gap.

Hole was at 7:00

This was the bottom when it was mounted in the truck. The mount was installed off from where it was.
I only did the glass where the pin holes were.


Chains after Evap-O Rust and painting.

With the rubber bike tube installed.

And yes I used a hole punch and added a hole in the middle of the cover to let water drain out as the 2 open ends point up.
Dave ----

 

Dave, you can get stainless chains, I did.....

 

And chrome but it is a budget thing.
I have gone way WAY over budget for what this truck should have been.
A truck to run the trash to the dump on weekends and maybe to work a few days.
I had the paint and the tube was under $5 but as you know $5 here and $10 there will make you broke!

For the vacuum can I could have hit the JY if I had the time but I had the glass rosin so it was just a little time.
Dave ----

 

Dave, you know the first step to beating this "onion skin" addiction, (reso of trucks)…. is to admit this is going to be a "Sunday cruisin', Ice cream gettin' show off truck...

 

Dave,
Looking good. I still have yet to make it out to your place to check out the progress. I will before it's done!!!

 

I got to much time & money into this truck to be a "Sunday cruisin', Ice cream gettin' show off truck" only!
It will be used more than just on Sundays and for Ice Cream but I will be showing it off!

Thanks Josh. Since the beginning of the holidays I have only worked maybe 3 days. If I had my sh** together it should of had paint on it. I still have a little more body work left. 1 rear fender & a small dent in a front fender I must have missed.
Dave ----

 

I hate body work! It is closer to paint! I hate body work!
I had no work today again so the plan was to get the hood in primer. That was the plan yesterday also but only turned on the lights and never made it back out because I hate body work!
With a lot of time on a flat board air sander and by hand with a flat board we got her done and in primer. I hate body work!

Being I was on a roll and not knowing the time I pulled the right rear fender off the bed, I only had 2 nuts holding it on. I had to finish sanding it to prep for primer and I got that done also.
Because the left rear fender has the 2 fuel filler hoses & doors I would have to undo before I can pull the fender off and was running out of time is why it was not done.


The hood has some pin holes and I think the fender did also so I need to find my glazing putty as I am not using a high build primer.
Did I tell you I hate body work!?
Dave ----

 

Do you hate body work?

 

YES! I have had more than enough days to get the body work done and the truck in primer and either was on the forums or finding something else to work on.
Yes I hate body work LOL
Have to see how I feel tomorrow after work but getting up at 2am takes it's toll.
Dave ----