I am retired. Threw my hardhat into the dumpster six years ago. Yes, I have been hitting it pretty hard. My pace is not sustainable. Though retired from the daily grind, I still have other responsibilities.

 

Today I decided to remove the Ziebart from the door jambs. I'm going to paint the interior which means doors all way around. Haven't decided on a color but am leaning toward a one part solid color.

Anyway, the Ziebart doesn't give up easily. All parties recommend mineral spirits. EDIT: I later discovered that gasoline works really well at dissolving the Ziebart. I suppose no one recommended it because of the dangers any time you use gas. I believe mineral spirits might work if you had six months to wait for the coating to soften. I found that if I scraped every bit off, down to the last atom sized particle, you could get the mineral spirits to help with the wipe clean. Tedious work getting the coating out of all the nooks and crannies.

 

You are not going back with the factory color?
If so it is a single stage, no clear coat, and it lasted all this time so why not go with it again?
I bet it will be treated better now after all this work than it has it's whole life.
I know mine is as it has spent vary little time outside over night since it got back on the road but has seen a lot of rain so far.
Dave ----

 

Tired of blue. Especially the interior. There is a crack to repair in the dash pad so it will end up being painted. The door panels are in need of refinishing. The door arm rests are bad and the replacement black ones cost one third of the colored ones that probably don't match anyway.

​​​​Nothing is set in stone yet. But I am feeling a dark gray truck right now.

 

On my truck I went back with the factory colors as it was just easier for me.
As for the interior mine saw painted black by a PO and not vary good. I also bought a parts truck for its red interior and took the best of both trucks to go into mine.
I wanted the plastic to look close to new and all 1 color so I went with SEM color coat on all the plastic panels. I think they came out pretty good.
The door panels I only did a quick repair and a few coats of SEM. I run out and did not want to waste any more as I want to replace them down the road so you can see thin places.
I have new black sun visors I need to color coat and install but its been to cold to paint.
On the dash pad I used a plastic cover you can get from the venders and after I fitted it I also sprayed it with SEM to match the other panels in the truck.
Dash frame painted with SEM

Here you can see the pad cover is darker than the dash as it has not been fitted or painted with SEM

cover fitted and painted


Before I installed anything of the interior I painted it like the roof, back wall, the door tops & jambs, etc. so all that would look new.


I do hear you on getting tired of the same old color.
If you did not want to redo the interior color you could keep it if in good shape, do the dark gray / silver on the outside with the blue down the center where I have the white and that would tie every thing together.

A buddy I am helping has a truck that is white with dark blue in the center and when you open the doors the jambs & interior is the dark blue.
I thought it strange being the truck is white but you could do the same thing with the blue & gray or just do the gray outside and blue inside.
You are doing a great job
Dave ----

 

I missed the part where you got a dash cover (Coverlay?) The last I remember was you were trying several different repair strategies on the parts you had. My dash pad has only one crack plus the speaker grille. I am not dead set on repairing mine. I would definitely consider a cover.

I can also see a contrasting color down the sides.

Doors

Fenders

 

Did you repaint the red cab? How did you prep it? Primer?

I would like to think I can get by with a simple scuff. Epoxy primer and then color.

 

I did try 2different times to repair a pad but failed both times but I have a new plan I will give a try when it gets a little warmer and have time.
I will start a post when I do the 3rd try.

On the inside of the cab & fenders I scuffed them. Cab I used a green scotch pad and soapy water. It add tooth for paint to stick and if any oil the soap should wash it off.
No primer inside the cab other than were I welded up some screw holes on the back wall. I also did not use any primer on the inside of the fenders.
I did replace part of the fire wall to install AC and I use primer on it, the under side of the hood and the outside of the body, cab & bed.

I used old school primer, lacquer, none of this fancy epoxy primer or even a high fill primer. I used fine grit paper before I did the primer so I did not have any heavy sanding marks.
I did shoot the light gray primer that the hood is in over the full cab & bed before painting so I would half a 1 color base for the color to go over.



I also did the final sanding wet with 600 paper before painting. All paint was a single stage with hardener.


Dave ----

 

There are a lot of good dash pad repair videos on youtube these days. I've watched this one several times, they get really good results.

 

I am going to give that way a try when it gets a little warmer but I cant see going really smooth like he did and then adding texture?
I can see getting the low places even but why not leave a little texture before adding maybe a little more texture to make it look even?
Dave ----

 

I watched this when you linked it before. The guy is talented at the work he does on the dash and is also a very good video maker.

 

I like look every where, be it all the areas in FTE or the web (Youtube) to get ideals for how to fix, improve something or how I may want to "customize" something.
Like the duel tanks on my flare side, fog / driving lights in the front bumper and floating bumpers that dad told me they did this back in the 50's.
Then other times you just have to go down your own road like I did on the metal ribbed floor in place of wood on a flare side.

Just today I seen cool cup holders using 3" metal header collector gaskets, some spacers (could use tubing) and long screws.
He had a smaller square metal gasket with the same spacers & screws he used to hold his smokes or phone or ?.
I will have to get a picture the next time I see the truck.

The good thing is it is YOUR truck and you should build it how YOU like it not how others tell you to build it.
If that was the case everyone would be driving the same thing.
Dave ----

 

Good advice. I keep a folder on my computer and in my bookmarks tab of ideas and stuff I'm going to do. I have a folder dedicated to just pictures of nice trucks I've seen online showing different paint combinations and trim packages, bumpers, brush guards and other mods people have done of the outside. Got another one of just pictures of engines(mostly straight sixes) with different paint combos. If you want to see some nice custom stuff, take a look at big blackie's build if you haven't seen it in awhile. That console is a work of art. Plus I think that's the one with the custom stitched vinyl on the dash. I've tossed around the idea of building a wooden dash pad for my truck. Solid wood mind you, not veneer. Maybe walnut? I wish I was around the site ten years ago, seems like there was a pretty good group then that are gone now, lot of great ideas and parts hoarders. When I find those old threads I save them. Need to start saving the pictures from them before they get lost forever like a lot of them have. Big Blackie - https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...the-build.html

 

On fuel tanks, I'm thinking the opposite. I would like to eliminate a tank. It's a pain to keep the fuel fresh. I use a lot of Stabil and Sea Foam. I drive it so little that I never fill up anymore. Also, when I pulled the bed I discovered a manufacturer's flaw in the rear tank plumbing. (the rear tank is the one I would like to keep) One fuel line is kinked. This may be the fueling issue I have had for some time. Engine starves for fuel and you just flip the dash switch to the front tank. The larger of the two fuel lines (I have supply and return in my EFI truck) is the one that's kinked. I've been meaning to start a separate thread on this defect.

 

Going to just leave one out, or upgrade to the 38 gallon rear?