59 Panelmania

[arturo7]

Finally got down to business today.



This is how I found her.






Here we go!






The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single bolt.

[arturo7]

I set up the camera to take a pic every 2 minutes. Might make a decent slide show. Here are a few of the shots.




Doors off





I don't think the guy was lyin' when he said the vehicle sat in a field for 10 years.





We spent a lot of time figuring out what to do next...

[arturo7]

Off comes the grill.





Right about this time a little wind kicked up. The breeze felt good, but it knocked over the tripod.





The umbrella didn't survive, and the tripod was tweeked. Fortunately, they broke the fall for the camera. Ronnie had a smoke whilst I stressed out over the gear.

[arturo7]

Unfortunately, the camera incident put a kabosh on the time lapse project. Here's the last action shot of the day.







6 hours, a gallon of water, and a plethora swear words later, the front end is gone. All in all, it went pretty smooth.

[Kim57]

Looks like a good start.
Hope you don't have to do it all outside.
Kim

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by arturo7

The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single bolt.

now your committed... to the asylum

looks like the day went well
cowl, corners and rockers look pretty good

[arturo7]

Would have had the body off today were it not for the dvmned Pitman arm. My buddy thought he had something to pull it in his shop but his gadget was too large. Does Harbor Freight carry pickle forks?

[arturo7]

Only outside until I drop the motor in. I'll do the wiring, brakes, motor bits, and whatnot in my garage.

[exoticmetalworx]

"We spent a lot of time figuring out what to do next..." i do it all the time

[shadow1967]

Great start! Love seeing others suffer and use a plethora swear words.

[arturo7]

Picked up a pickle fork at HF for the Pitman arm, but the business end wasn't wide enough. Went to a parts store and grabbed a Pitman arm puller and got it off. Should have went with the right tool the first time, but I figured the pickle would be a multi-tasker. Oh well what's another tool, right?

Pulled the steering column and removed the body bolts. Everything is ready to lift off the body. Just need to figure out how...

Temp was about 104 so I kept the day short.

[arturo7]

Had to grind out 2 of the body bolts. The only two of the project so far. The ATF/acetone solution works quite well.





Might rebuild the steering box while it's out of the truck.

[arturo7]

Got the body off. Now we're getting somewhere!


We used extensions on the forks, then 4x4's clamped down for a little more reach. Lifted it by the door frames.

[arturo7]

Set it on 4 HF horses, rated at 1,000 lbs each. 4x4s on top of the horses. Bolts through the frame, 4x's and horses. Should be sturdy enough to allow me to crawl around underneath to remove the bed wood and address some of the rust.

[Kim57]

Now you're making some progress.
Kim

[arturo7]

Progress has been slow. Kinda tough to make headway when you can only get to the vehicle on Saturday mornings. Only got in a couple hours today due to rain. I'll be glad when the project moves to my garage.



Finally removed the axles and suspension.





The only thing holding me back from the sand blaster are these jackarse pins in the rear hangers.

[_Ogre]

grab it between your finger and thumb and unscrew it.

[arturo7]

Uh oh...

Tried that but they seemed pretty solid. The front ones came out easy so I assumed these were pressed in. Unfortuntely, I didn't have the manual with me this morning.

Hope I didn't jack them up by beating on 'em...


Do I need to take the threaded insert out before blasting/coating?

[Sin7]

nice ! Keep chipping away at it

[arturo7]

Straightened out the frame horn yesterday. It's good to have a buddy with a machine shop. The hydraulic press made pretty quick work of the bending. We used pieces of aluminum stock as a buttress.

The result wasn't perfect, but it was pert' near. Forgot to take a pic of the result.

[arturo7]

Progress has been a bit slow, but I've just about got phase one wrapped up. These rat bastard pins on the rear hangers are the only things that are keeping me from getting the frame blasted and coated.

If I grab them with the vicegrips there is a little back and forth play but they absolutely will not unscrew. The pliers just can't get tight enough to hold. Any suggestions?

[arturo7]

Finally got the dvmned pins out. Using a blow torch did the trick.

Scraped off some bondo as well...

[arturo7]

Finally entered Phase 2 of the project, which is to say it's finally in my garage.


Took delivery of the powder coated frame today.





Disassembled the front suspension.





A self portrait titled, "Wrenchin'"





Also took some time to organize the sockets in my new tool case. Peg board and roofing nails with the points ground off. Used duct tape underneath to hold the nails in place.

[Kim57]

Cool.
I like the peg board idea.
Kim

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by Kim57

Cool.
I like the peg board idea.
Kim

Don't know, I kind of like the sound of mixing up the sockets as I search...but then my shop always looks like a 10# bag exploded in a 5# box anyway...