Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Yeah! Progress.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Excellent!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Now some tangible progress! But wait there's more! The rear wheel is at the wheel shop and they feel confident they can repair it. Fingers crossed!

More photos and information to follow.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

What did you use for a replacement panel?

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

indeed....what did you use as a panel!?!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I didn't get a chance to talk with the body tech but, the estimator said they cut some pieces from the long bed side panel to replace the worst spots and the rest they hammer and dollied out. She decided against replacing the whole panel with the bed side panel (As originally planned) as there were too many differences. I will post the differences after I get to talk with the tech.
There will be more photos for me to post once they get time to send them to me.

There are some other things I am having fixed while there. A couple of rust bubbles on the other quarterpanel and a crack in the paint on the front edge of the hood. The biggest item is where the windshield tech gouged the paint just under the lip of the seal and it bloomed in to a nice rust flower. (It only took 4 tries for them to get the windshield to quit leaking.) I hope it goes better this time as the windshield will have to come out to fix it.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

well it looks like it turned out great. nice to see some progress

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Thanks Kev. It was in the booth getting some green paint today!
White paint tomorrow. Windshield reinstalled on Wednesday or Thursday. I should be able to pick it up on Saturday.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Nice! I'm glad it's working out for you thus far.:metal:

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Well I wish it had gone my way on Saturday. Unfortunately I had to express my disappointment with the work done around the top wheel well. Fortunately the owner of the shop saw my side and the truck is back in the shop for some more work. And the wheel shop is also still working on the wheel.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Wow! I guess this is why I’ve been working on this exact spot on my truck for 3 years!

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I was okay with upper curve not being perfect (purple line) since the other side isn't perfect either. And the area in the yellow circle I could live with too but the rest was too much

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Wow!

Some excitement here since the last time I checked in. You have horrible luck my friend. ��

I hope the body shop takes care of you. I bet it’s been tough going without the WMB!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

And that luck keeps holding. Thursday the wheel shop called and said they finished the repairs but "The clear coat reacted with the existing paint on the wheel". After seeing the wheel I don't believe that. They had tint in the clear or used a dirty paint cup when they shot the clear. I've never seen such perfectly even blemish free paint reaction. The wheel is now kinda golden bronze colored.
To fix this I had to bring a front wheel in so they can remove the paint on both and try to match the color and then re-coated both wheels. That way if it doesn't come out perfect at least I will have two wheels that match on each side.
The upside is the repairs to the gouges came out really nice but, why is it always so hard.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Got the truck back! :ennyd:

It looks much better this time. I'm still waiting for the wheels at this point so haven't been driving it. It's got 4 different sized tires on it.:lol:

The next picture is interesting since it shows how well my POR15 coating worked. If anyone has looked at the first pages of the WMB repairs it shows how I sprayed POR15 into every void I could. I wish I could have been there when they opened up the quarter panel and seen first hand how it looked. I believe the line of uncoated metal on the very bottom was caused by that area being full of dirt and debris and the POR15 stuck to it and not the panels.

They found a rotten place (Inconceivable!) on the inner fender well and repaired it.

I had them pull the windshield and do some repairs to damage caused by previous windshield sealing attempts. Over all the window frame looked good. Previously when we got heavy rain the I would get water drips on the passenger side. This week we've had some pretty heavy rain and no leaks! :mm:

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

The body work looks much better now!

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good thing it had to go back or they wouldn't have seen that inner rot. blessing in disguise.

looks great

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Actually they caught that the first time but, I didn't get the photos until yesterday.
I also had them repair some rust bubbles on the other side. And repair paint chips on the front of the hood.
On the wheel repair the shop called and said it would be $1020. For the repair and re-coating both wheels. I told them the second wheel was on them and they would have to argue with the insurance company. So at the present I'm waiting for a call from someone on how that will get solved. If it goes on too long I may throw the snow tires on the WBM and start driving it.
The wheel shop only charged me $197 last time they repaired the wheel.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thank you.

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My body man said different clears come out different colors.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Happy New Year everyone! :ennyd::ennyd::ennyd::ennyd:
The holidays have been weird this year. The old lady got sick at work on the 22nd and they made her get Covid test. That took several days to get the results on so we spent Christmas in lock down. Test came back negative. Whew!
We've been having a long stretch of cold weather with some snow flurries every other day or so. Nothing more than an inch or two at a time fortunately it has been just warm enough in the afternoons to melt. It's been in the 20's at night which around here folks think is the end of the world. All of this leads to my New Year morning (Cue photo now). It's hard to tell from the picture but it appears that the glass is pushed out at the bottom. I believe there may have been water behind the mirror and when it froze last night it pushed out on the mirror and broke it.
I also got a package from member PJMoreland I am excited about, more to come on that

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

That's what makes this whole thing so frustrating. If the only thing you do is refinsh wheels there should be no confusion about what clear coat your using. It's not like they were shooting a coat of red pearlized clear to color match the red base color a 2012 Mazda 3 and then grabbed that pot by accident and shot the wheel. Then they have the audacity want to charge me to make it right. I will have to deal with them this week which I'm not looking forward to. Grrrrrrr. More New Year joy!

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Yesterday I believe I saw confirmation of the frozen water theory for my broken mirror.
It was a dry day and I had the WMB parked on an incline so the door wanted to swing open on its own. Once open I noticed water oozing from the cracked part of the glass.
I'm going to see the bright side and use this as an opportunity to get mirrors that don't vibrate at highway speeds. And hopefully those won't whistle as much either.

Now the question is whether to go with stainless or white replacements?

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I go over and help a friend install a rear-end in his GTO, an he pays me back by modifying the door handle on the WMB.
Fix or replace? That's today's question.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

This happened to mine as well, the fix was pretty easy and it's held up several years now. There are a couple metal tabs inside the handle that I bent back over to ensure the button didn't pop in too far, if I recall.

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That will work... sometimes.... Many times the pot metal tabs will break off when you try to re-bend them. There is a thread on here somewhere about repairing them permanently.

Edit: Here it is:

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=693760

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Thank you crakarjax and LockDoc. Knowledge is always appreciated.

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I have used JB Weld to repair broken tabs. Sorry no pictures

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No reason that shouldn't work good if you rough the parts up good. That stuff is tough as nails.

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I sealed up a hole in my gas tank with that stuff lol

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So many options thanks everyone.

I got a new mirror from NAPA and from the back side construction it looks less likely to vibrate. Lots more stiffening.
And freezing water was the culprit for the old one. Once I had it removed I shook it and discovered it is at least half full of water. $35 versus $13.
The new one and the old one with water inside weigh almost the same. It is a more expensive mirror but if the vibration goes away it will be worth it.
The new mirror has a 5/16 fine thread bolt so I had to drill the mount.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

I have a question about wheels on Suburbans. The current wheels are 15x8 with a 3.5 inch backspacing. That width and backspacing isn't available on any of the wheels I am looking at for replacements.
The question is has anyone had problems running 15x8's with a 4 inch backspacing?
The rear tires are 275-60-15 and the fronts are 275-60-15.
The front has 71-72 factory disk brake spindles and is lowered 2 inches and the rear axle is the wider 71-72 5 lug axle.
The rear fenderwells show signs of the tires rubbing occasionally.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Good things happening here. The insurance company stepped up and covered the wheel repairs. It took 3 weeks of back and forth with Wheel Doctor PDX. During that time they jacked the price up an additional $800. I'm not going to go through the whole tale but I will say that the claim adjustor did an over the top job to get things resolved. I'm never going through that again so I'm shopping for new wheels that are not out of production and/or more easily repaired.

I strongly encourage everyone to avoid Wheel Doctor PDX at all cost!

And thanks to LockDoc's information I got my door handle repaired. I tried to bend the tabs just to hold the new plate but every one I tried to bend broke immediately.

The new mirror I got at NAPA works well. With noticeably less vibration than the one on the passenger side. Time to go get a second one.

And as that wasn't enough the upholstery man said my seats would be ready next Friday! :ennyd:

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Good deal. Sounds like things are moving along.

Yeah, that pot metal stuff doesn't withstand much bending. I don't even try to re-bend them any more.

LockDoc

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Great news!

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Happy to hear you have some good news to report!

Thanks for relating your experience with that wheel shop. I have some 6 lug rally’s I want to get widened. Guess I won’t utilize them.

Can’t wait to see the interior work!

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

IThanks everyone! I'm excited too but, Friday came and went and now it's "Maybe this Friday". UHGGGGGGG! Oh well it's raining again so I'd be waiting for weather anyway.

Re: Working Man's Burbon
 

Finally the stars aligned and I started the steering box and pump replacement today. I suspected there would be some sketchy things from the PO that would have the be rectified and I wasn't disappointed.
I contacted Lares Corporation about identifying what box and pump were installed in the truck. They were a great help with to me. We exchanging at least dozen emails and at 6 phone calls. The outcome was the WMB has a mid-seventys box and and mid-eightys car pump. The pump likely came from the 85 El Camino 305 that was in the truck when I bought it.
One problem came from using the 80's pump with what looks to be a correct pump mount for a 67-72 meant the hard return line on the pump is angled wrong and caused the return hose to be pushed hard against the mount. The pump I ordered came with the hard line orientated differently hopefully this will allow the hose to be kink free.

The second issue was the adapter used to allow the flared end of the pressure hose to be installed to the o-ring style fitting on the pump. The PO used a brass 37* SAE adapter that they wrapped in Teflon tape and then torqued down to an extreme amount to get it to seal. (Photo #1)
I had hoped to take my pressure side hose down and have new hose crimped to hard lines but, during the struggle to remove the hose from the pump I put a twist in the hard line. DHOO! (Photo #2) Now I will have to try and find a complete new hose. :banghead:
I'm not sure but the female fitting on the pump end of the hose seems a bit odd. For some reason I'm thinking it usually is a male fitting. Hopefully I can get it sorted out at NAPA tomorrow.
The PO also failed to dimple the frame so the box didn't hit the frame. (Photo #3 & 4) Or maybe they did but not nearly enough, or the small dimple was a result of the pump being torqued down. We'll never know the truth.

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I used the heat and beat method to clearance the frame. It came out okay, but if I had had a different hammer it could have turned out nicer. And here I thought 12 hammers in the shop were enough.
To be sure the box no longer hit the frame I sprayed a quick coat of black paint on the frame (Photo #1) and then put a thin layer of anti-sieze on the box (Photo #2). With a couple of studs to locate the box correctly it was easy to see any place the box touched. In the photo the dimple looks like I used slag hammer to beat it into shape. I was using a flashlight to illuminate the frame for the first photo and some how it made every small divot look like a huge crater. It actually is much smoother in real life

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I am still debating modding the frame on my 68 to install power steering or using the fabbed bracket others have used for clearance. I am getting to old for the manual steering.