Well, its been awhile and some of you have been following my progress so
here goes.. After having the frame, front and rear ends, brake system, and
every detail associated with the frame complete, I decided to tear down the
engine. The head came back Friday completely rebuilt and now I am awaiting
the engine shops completion of the block. I had to have them acid dip the
block and then re-babbit the piston rods.
While waiting for the engine project to get going, I repaired the passenger
side door remote by taking it apart (since it broke I had to break out the
welder and repair the damage), then replacing the spring. I also repaired
the drivers door hinge by replacing the springs and drilling out the pivot
pin and replacing it. I have inventoried the truck parts and have everything
I need with two exceptions.. the bell housing cover and the driver side cab
mount washer. All parts have been blasted and primered so I have parts all
over the place awaiting paint. The last painful item was sandblasting ALL
hardware.. nuts bolts washers springs and all the small parts. This was very
time consuming but I feel necessary. I ruined two needlenose pliers (holding
the parts they disintegrated) but after a week the job was done. There are
more nuts and bolts to that truck than you can imagine! I have personally
inspected each one from various angles!
Since I was not impressed with the job the Dry Strip company did with all
the sheet metal, I have set me up a sandblasting site in the lot next door
and have proceeded to sandblast all the sheetmetal all over again. The
difference is absurd. If I had it to do all over again, I would NOT have
wasted $650 taking it to a professional dry strip place. Especially since
you can do it yourself so nicely. I spread a 10x12 foot tarp on the ground,
secured it and then put two sawhorses on it, trucked in 10 bags of #1 silica
sand, ran my air compressor hose over to the site, connected my little
siphon blaster and I was in business. It is NOT annoying at all! The finer
sand does a really wonderful job without being too abrasive and I can re-use
what falls on the tarp which is surprisinly most of it. I get NO clogs or
problems with the blaster and its doing the job I wanted in the first place.
I have both front fenders and the seat frame done already and even tho it
takes about 4 hours per piece to do it right, its so worth it. There is no
trace of paint, rust or dirt. All is perfectly down to the bare metal.
There is MUCH left to do in the preparation of the fenders and other sheet
metal. I purchased a Lincoln SP175+ Mig welder and am taking lessons so I
can do this myself. So far I have repaired a few small items and am
practicing on scrap for the bigger jobs. I will prevail. This is so much fun
learning all of this. I have never done this sort of work before but am able
to do a better job than the pros for a few reasons... I am very picky (to a
fault) and leave nothing to chance. I have no preconcieved notions on how to
do things, so I am more creative with my solutions. All the pro's who come
to look at my project are impressed so I feel really good about things. I
get comments ALOT like "WHY go to all that trouble?" Most who see the
project think I'm crazy. Then there are those who ask the very legitimate
question of "what are you gonna do with it when you are through?". It'll be
too pretty to hit the pavement, so I dunno. Its not the destination.. its
the journey so I dont think about it.
One issue that I constantly fight with is the all out BAD quality of the
work I get when I send out for things.. like the Dry Strip job.. that
company is recommended by any body shop in the area.. so what this tells me
is that quality of work is acceptable and there are gazillions of vehicles
out there with dirt, rust and damage just sanded and painted over and
forgotten. So, what may LOOK like a vintage and beautiful vehicle is only a
few years away from looking like a clearasil commercial. I got the head back
from the engine shop and the head is still dirty and rusty. They power
sprayed it to clean. That is NOT good enough for me. The engine will be
returned with the same problem. The automotive industry as a whole have no
respect for the necessity of perfectly clean (to the pores) on anything.
This is not a problem had I thought things thru... I should have blasted the
head, then taken it to the head shop.. same with the engine block. I will do
that next time. Meanwhile, cleaning those parts with solvent is something I
am not looking forward to. The moral of the story is.. do it ALL yourself.
Take nothing to anyone else.. if you are anal like me, you wont like the
result. I know i need an attitude adjustment, but as a business owner, I run
into poor workmanship about 90% more often these days in just about every
facet of life. Anyhow.. I am getting another load of pics developed this
week and will put them up on the web in the next few weeks. Thanks for all
the help and input everyone.. I would be lost without this list and the good
people on it. An oasis in the middle of the desert is seems.
Deve
50 3100
49 3600
www.speedprint.com/Deves50/index.html
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