Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Muffler shmuffler who needs um. LOL

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Got the fenders primed, WHOO HOOOO! Off to the Goodguys.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Your primer looks better than most people's paint. You'd almost think you did that for a living or something...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You know what's funny, I DID it for a living but haven't primed at work for 20 years!

One thing that blows me away is how fast it becomes old hat. The first time I was priming one of these parts and I knew I was out of primer before it stopped spraying, buy the weight of the gun, that blew my mind, I had forgotten that would even happen.

I put a bunch of stuff for sale on eBay hopefully will sell it all so I can get my frame powdercoated without having to dip into the family money. That's one thing I have tried to do, sell off stuff I don't need to pay for stuff on my truck. I found out yesterday that my NOS 56 California license plates are worth about $500! WHOOOO HOOOO!
And my "Club plaques" I have had up on my garage wall for 25 years, just another thing to move when I go to Idaho, might as well sell them now and pay for something on the truck!

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Installed the check engine light, installed and arranged a bunch of the stuff in and around the dash. Ran my A/C ducting aND found a GM key that does not go to my truck.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Love the old plaques, super cool. Plates are worth there weight in gold. Must have for a classic car owner.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Plan was to warm up the shop and reprime some areas that i sanded through the primer. Mother nature didnt cooperate. Temps this morning were 23 and foggy, not the 34 and clear so the air would warm up to 50'ish so my heat source could get things warmed up and keep them there, it made 28 is as warm as it got today. Nothing happened

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I stripped the header panel on the bed today, I am BEAT, BEAT!

I had straightened both sides, the entire thing was covered, both sides, with bondo. Now mind you, maybe an 1/8" tops, it's not a lot, but over about 10 square feet! HOLY CRAP that was a lot of work.

I have to REALLY re-think stripping the bed sides, they are the same, I have to REALLY re-think this. I don't know what the heck the difference was, the fenders stripped pretty easy with paint stripper, bondo and all. But this part, I don't get it, the stuff laughed at the paint stripper!

Yep, I have to re-think this whole bed, crap.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You got some neat stuff !!!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I've started factoring in how long I'll probably live before I do tasks like that... (but I usually do what's best for the truck.)
:smoke:

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

drove it all weekend. the cold weather doesn't seem to bother it at all. doesn't miss a lick. tonight im going to try and get the hood sitting back on correctly and im having a door hinge issue. started running some beats to get my settings right for my firewall patch panel. got a few nice ones and then ran out of gas. figures right. I will get some gas tomorrow and continue

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I am torn, the bed sides look pretty good with just a little rust here and there. But it's all lacquer like the panel I did today. And lacquer doesn't protect that well, so this from panel did have some rust here and there. I plan on having it sand blasted too, even though I stripped it because there is a bunch that still needs to be blasted. I may do it here but it SUCKS.

I have even tossed around the idea of buying new, and that SUCKS because this is my bed, it looks real nice, if I left what was there and just fixed the rust here and there sand blasting and what not and then sand everything down thinner with 120 and epoxy primed the whole thing. It would save me a LOT of work over stripping it.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I just looked up the cost and I could have a whole bed for about $950 DAAAAAAMN that's hard to turn down! CRAP

The sand blasting of this stuff if I were to strip it would be around $300 at least. So now we are talking $650 or so with no work, where as the bed would be probably at least 20-40 hours to get it paint ready. That's a hell of a lot of five minutes a day!

CRAP

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

As I began to read your post I thought, I'd block it down til I hit metal, one coat hi solids primer, guide coat & block w/ P400, seal and shoot color. I shot over the original nitrocellulose lacquer with acrylic lacquer on my '55 Chevy sedan in 1981, and it looks GREAT today! Seriously. (Attached pic taken in 2011 when I did the 4 wheel disc brake conversion. It's an L.A. car w/ 61,000 miles on it - best sedan in Ohio! Many trophies, w/ triple trophies at the CCC regional in 1982...)

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

That's how it was done 35 years ago Bob, it's really pretty solid, other than the lacquer primer and paint on top of it and the spots here and there of rust. But also, what would I be leaving that I don't see under the primer or filler?

It's a tough one.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I rearranged the garage and covered up my toys...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You have a beautiful garage Mark, that's for sure.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I am feeling better, a bunch of my stuff is selling on ebay and I have my money to get the frame and other stuff powder coated, WHOOO HOOO! After Thanksgiving, it will get done. WHOOO HOOO!

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

If it's that well adhered, it ain't goin' nowhere - shoot over it! Heck, if you bought a Boyd Coddington or Chip Foose car it would have that much bondo. Trying to be better than Foose would tire anyone out, ha ha!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

But, but, but you can't look at your beautiful truck every day when it's all covered up!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Since all my wiring worked perfectly, I began the task of bundling it up and securing it. First step was mounting my dimmer switch to the floor, then enclosing exposed wires in split tubing.

For securing the wires I found these awesome little self-mounting zip ties. They are like a conventional zip tie but with a snap-fit mount at the base that plugs into a 1/4" hole - no clamp, screw or bolt required.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Oh I ain't trying to be better, OH HELL NO, I don't have a thing about Bondo. Crap, that bondo if even sorta done properly will out last all of us!

My big thing is the rust, I am going to spend some time with it and see. The front panel, pretty sure I am going to by a new one. Then I have to see about that tail gate, I did it nice 35 years ago but it has cracked some, we will see.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

...but if you see them every day with their clothes off you start to take them for granted... NOT!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I got the rest of the parking brake parts sandblasted, along with all four lower fender braces and will get them primed over the next few days.

I can't believe all the sand I wasted up until a few weeks ago when I started re-using it. I do all the blasting over a concrete area behind the garage, use something to block it, in this case an inner fender. I sweep it up, filter it through a screen clamped to the bucket with vice grips and wham, I am using it over and over and over!

Brian :)

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Today is still young but yesterday, hauled ~1,000 lbs of gravel up to the retaining wall I'm back filling. It creaks and pops a little under the load but goes, stops and steers just fine.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

At the muffler shop today, I got a complete exhaust system installed but I'm not happy with it. They installed the pipes much too high, running them too close to fuel and brake lines, wiring and the floors. Looks like I'm going to have to have a confrontation with them tomorrow. On the bright side, it sounds killer! But now I can hear all the other rattles!

Then when I got home my door bumpers were waiting in the mail. $3.99 from Jegs Ebay store with free shipping - what a deal! It took a few minutes to install them, cause I had to remove my striker plates, then reinstall and readjust.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Is that the truck in your Over My Head build thread?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

One of these days I'll figure how to post pics. Got the front end off the truck today. Ready to lift the cap off tomorrow. Found out that the front suspension has been messed with. The cross beam is not straight to the frame and one side is missing two leafs of the spring combination.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Got all the parking brake stuff ready to prime tomorrow morning.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I'm continuing to work on wiring, probably for about 3 hours a day on average. I've started by building up my relay panel on the bench because I don't want to be soldering under the dash any more than I have to

The American Autowire "Highway 22" kit is great, but I'm on my own lot of times because my circuits are not on their page. I've got 11 relays that they don't know about, for instance, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Now if I could actually settle on the wire colors BEFORE I pick up the soldering iron...

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

LOL, yes it does look a lot like mine!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

That's amazing!

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

You guys are bruthas from different muthas!

I got my five minutes in today before 7:30 AM. Got out to the garage and primed my parking brake linkage and a seat I repaired for my son. I left it with heat lamps on it and came home at lunch to put them out in the sun.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Are your all for the power windows like mine?

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Interesting, As a sailor, I was informed by a Mate that solder had "no place on a boat or a car." As an electrician, I questioned it but now understand. If done correctly, it will work. Unfortunately most do not do it correctly. Proper flux and tinning. Crimp connections are best for 12V. Solder can melt under load plus it will corrode.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I'm an electrical engineer with 43 years experience in industry, working in special machine assembly (like, installing 8 miles of wire in an engine transfer line for Oldsmobile Canada), electronic test, control assembly, control design, and dozens of other facets of the electronic industry. (Oh yeah, and 4 years as an Aviation Fire Control Tech, USS John F. Kennedy [Phantom II radar] as a sailor.) Never heard that. I guess you learn something new every day.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Like I said, I too am in the industry. Not sure on how accurate his wisdom is, but it made sense when he showed the consequences. I think that mostly it is on a boat in salt water but that follows thru to living in snow areas that salt the roads. Not that you would drive your truck in those conditions, but the principle remains.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

I just looked at a Holley EFI tech on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faLn-SjVfwY
He preferred crimps, but he was also selling high-dollar crimpers, so I dunno. I think it's all in the tooling, or, as you said, in the soldering methods. I also know there are a lot of solder flow circuit boards out there that work well in the 12 volt range and below. There is a also lot to be said for hi-tech crimping with great tooling, but most of us don't have that around the house.

Here's another video where the guy has tried both, likes soldering because of the way it looks, but says he's seen more fails with crimps.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0i3CAELaC8&t=190s
Note that butt crimps were used, and neanderthal pliers. Sooo...

IMHO, good practices make the difference, regardless of which way you go.

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Got out there and boxed up the parking brake parts for storage until assembly. Pulled apart the brake linkage bracket and pedal parts, think I am going to have them powder coated. But if I need something to do I will sand blast and epoxy prime pieces too to get something done.

Brian

Re: What did you do with your truck today, Part 3
 

Well that makes me happy to know that I think like someone who knows what they are doing!
As for the solder vs crimp, I have found many problems with crimped connections, and can't remember any with soldered connections.