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You might want to hold off on the second color on the tailgate as tremclad/ rustoleum takes about 2 days to harden up enough to tape over without leaving marks or pealing the paint. Even blue tape over sticks to new paint. I did my truck 2 years ago in April outside thanks to 2 chinooks but had to redo a door due to tape sticking . Drove some neighbors nuts as I did the paint job on the street in front of my house , some neighbors were amazed that I had the ***** to do it. Lol
Good advice on the tape, I didn't think of that thanks. The girls in the apartment next door are pretty amazed by the entire thing. Especially because my apartment is full of over spray now oops!
I fired up the paint on the tailgate last night. Worked out well, had a little mishap with a cheap roller which was a bummer but it worked out in the end. A little pebbling and totally not a pro job but it will still be the best painted part on the truck! From 5 feet away it looks great. Here is what I did:
- Sanded with 80 in spots where the welds were
- Sanded all over with 600 grit
- Ignored the spots that I could have bondo'd
- Washed the whole thing down with rubbing alcohol
- 2 coats of high build primer
- 4-6 coats of paint with 15% diluted thinner probably 30 mins between coats at the maximum
- Let sit over night and now its out in the sun getting some warmth
It was super fun, done in my apartment living room. Can't stress enough that you have to ventilate as best you can. Paint thinner and beers is a cruel mistress if you don't ventilate. I have a piece of moulding on my old tailgate I would like to put on the new one. It doesn't seem to want to pop off, if anyone has any ideas about how best to approach this it would be great. Their aren't any screws or anything that I can see to unscrew to get it off. Thanks guys.
Hey Guys - just got home from the mechanic. Looks like TRUCK needs a new engine, currently the 300 CID 6. Rear main seal is shot and their is knock in bottom end and it burns a bit of oil. SO - my questions is can I put a modern straight six in it? Is that possible. I would love to get some fuel economy out of it and I like the 6. Also where might the best place to get a gently used engine from? Thanks in advance for any help.
You didn't happen to run synthetic oil in the old girl instead of running something like Shell Rotella, these old motors do not do well with the new oils. That motor is an easy unit to work on as you have a lot of room between the oil pan and the frame. You wouldn't be the first person to do a bearing swap in frame and replace the rear seal at the same time.
Theres a few guys that have put in modern 6 cylinder motors into these trucks, I dont think the inline 300 has changed the mounting points on the motor but you may have to double check to make sure that you can change your flywheel over should you find an motor that was set up for an automatic.
Hey all I wanted to give an update on the truck, she is doing real well. Had issues with the straight six so I swapped it out for an '86 351w and did a little build on it. Question: I'm having issues with the carb which is an '84 4180 600CFM with a vacuum secondary. Currently the secondaries aren't working because the vacuum mechanism needs a rebuild and a linkage to the secondaries. My question is should I be trying to hook up the secondaries or replace the carb? I have heard these carbs aren't the best. I'm looking for a mix of fuel economy (lol) and the ability to ripppppp
