Project "Booger"

[jlsanborn]

Sounds tuff! Nice job!

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Sounds good!

Wearing shorts in the vid- you suck. Just sayin'.

Thanks man..I may suck but Im still the one wearing shorts!

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Sounds tuff! Nice job!

Thank you sir..I'm afraid it may sound a little too tuff. Might have to tone it down a bit later on but for now my neighbors still think it sounds cool..LOL

[Bomp]

Tough soundin' truck.

Like how the camera gets shivers when you gun it.

[jlsanborn]

Turning those tailpipes down might help a little. Maybe some sound deadener in the cab too. I think it has a nice note to it

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by Bomp

Tough soundin' truck.

Like how the camera gets shivers when you gun it.

I had my phone sitting on the base of my sons basketball hoop...High tech tripod

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Turning those tailpipes down might help a little. Maybe some sound deadener in the cab too. I think it has a nice note to it

I like the note too we'll see what happens in the future. Have some sound deadener coming from another board member we'll see what that does. Kind of hard to judge sound when your sitting in an empty cab with no windows or doors..LOL

[americanthunder]

Alright moving forward again tonight after the transmission issue. Decided to finish up my wiring this afternoon for the lights. Got the rear lighting wiring run and all appears to work except the turn signals. Just on constant and real dim. Could it be the flasher or is the test light not enough? Also the interior light never shuts off I assume thats why the po never replaced the bulb. Thats probably the switch.

Next up was cleaning up the replacement fenders. A few of the mounting points had cracks so I needed to break out my handy little welder and my sub par welding skills and fixem up. Here is a pic of my limited skills

Before



After



I tacked it some more after taking this pic but forgot to take another one.

When cleaning up the passenger fender it had some rot below the battery..Not too bad but its gonna require some attention. Spent the last hour sipping scotch staring at ol booger and forming a plan for the next few weeks...Life is good

[jlsanborn]

Life IS good ain't it man! Especially round 80 and 20% humidity
Before you chase any wiring down make sure your grounds are solid. Elco can chime in here as he's as grounded as the Pope (the old one) on Boppa's ride. Keep playin with that welder! My eyes have gone to hell and the Boy welds sheet metal better than I can these days. Go HOT and ZAP, ZAP, ZAP! Overlap each tack by at least 50%. Skip around until everyting is in place then connect the dots. Use the rock to take it as flush as you can then get a flapper wheel on it. Use the rock to get all the extra filler you layed on there back off, then the flapper will slick it down like it wasn't even there to begin with. You're doing awesome!
So we can all tell you're skirting around the invevitable.....BODY WORK. Get solid in your mind what you want out of the deal then decide if its gonna be you that does it. Then understand that it's going to go a lot farther than you planned. I started out "hey this thing is solid! Scuff and shoot man!"..... 12 months later I'm still shooting primer and realizing what an amateur I am. STILL, it's going to be WAY nicer than I could've afforded to farm it out for and I'll be super pleased with the results. I'd encourage you to get started on that, it's TORTURE!

[jlsanborn]

Oh, and we'll need report on that sound deadener! I know where you're shopping and I'm anxious to pull the trigger too, just no where near ready yet, need paint bux! I'm mostly curious about the adhesion aspect. It looks like a good deal!

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Life IS good ain't it man! Especially round 80 and 20% humidity
Before you chase any wiring down make sure your grounds are solid. Elco can chime in here as he's as grounded as the Pope (the old one) on Boppa's ride. Keep playin with that welder! My eyes have gone to hell and the Boy welds sheet metal better than I can these days. Go HOT and ZAP, ZAP, ZAP! Overlap each tack by at least 50%. Skip around until everyting is in place then connect the dots. Use the rock to take it as flush as you can then get a flapper wheel on it. Use the rock to get all the extra filler you layed on there back off, then the flapper will slick it down like it wasn't even there to begin with. You're doing awesome!
So we can all tell you're skirting around the invevitable.....BODY WORK. Get solid in your mind what you want out of the deal then decide if its gonna be you that does it. Then understand that it's going to go a lot farther than you planned. I started out "hey this thing is solid! Scuff and shoot man!"..... 12 months later I'm still shooting primer and realizing what an amateur I am. STILL, it's going to be WAY nicer than I could've afforded to farm it out for and I'll be super pleased with the results. I'd encourage you to get started on that, it's TORTURE!

Bodywork? Who me? Man I gotta say I can turn a wrench, but bodywork is a pain in my lower back region. The interior is sanded and half primed. The cab is smoothed out and Im shot. Im to the point now where I think the interior is my next course of action, then finish fitting all the body panels back up THEN I'll make the choice as to whether Im gonna finish the ride or if Im gonna get off and let someone else take the trip. I recently met a small body guy near me that has turned out some incredible cars and is pretty reasonable. Initially I thought no brainer, he can do it but that little voice in the back of my mind keeps telling me I can do it which I know I can. Besides the benefits of larger muscles I'd have the satisfaction of saying i did it all myself At this point its gonna be my shop truck for a while so its gonna get used like a truck then handed off to a 16 year old kid so Im still torn on how far I want to take old booger...Time will tell....

[Low Elco]

On Boppa's ride.... Well, the stereo still ain't hooked up, put it that way. I've 'bout lost my religion on that deal. As soon as we can get it out, (lots of snow, rain and runoff here) We're gonna have stereo day and figger it out one way or the other. I used 4ga. welding cable from TSC, to sanded areas on the body, frame, bed, Core support, and block. Then bolted them in with nylocks and encased it all in dielectric grease. it ain't gonna be for lack of tryin!

Bodywork ain't hard. At all. But it's a LOT of hard work. I'm getting to where I really enjoy the metal work aspect a lot. You just have to do the proper steps fully. A lot of it is mindset. Meh mindset gets meh results. I'm GONNA do this and it's GONNA look good and it's GONNA be right, you get good (85-90%) results. Don't sweat that last bit either. That last bit is where Skill and Technique and fancy fancy come in. But, stuff's gonna happen, and the last bit is only noticeable at fancy fancy level by guys who really know their stuff, and there's no end to that game. A 75% job will have regular folks and car guys bothering you at gas stations. Your stuff looks great so far.

John, git ta sandin'!

Sorry about the hijack!

Ps- Peel n seal from Lowes works AWESOME.

[americanthunder]

A little update..Haven't wrenched on ol booger in a few weeks. Had the in laws in town and between shuttling them around and work I've been quite busy. I did manage to piece together a Sanden 508 Compressor, the QB sanden head, and a new style POA valve to round out the mechanicals. Here is a everything installed:





Now that its all in I gotta re-route the heater hose

I Started sanding the bed until my arms ached and called it a weekend. Should hopefully be back in it full swing this weekend.

[americanthunder]

Well guys I've been busy as heck at work lately so ol boog has taken a back seat to work. I have however been sanding and sanding and sanding in all my spare time! Yesterday I decided to mock things up a little bit before booger goes off to paint and proceed to spend the last 10 waking hours trying to figure out why the driver side fender catches the door at the top and the passenger is hitting the bottom. Here is a pic of the driver side.

From a distance gaps look good except the top of the fender where it meets the door:



Here is a close up



If you recall this truck had what appeared to be some fairly minor damage to the front drivers side but that doesnt explain the left. When I got the truck the driver door caught the fender when opening but the passenger side lined up great. I cant seem to get any movement out of either fender forward/reverse up/down. None of the bolts are tight so there has to be an old bodymans trick or something here Do I need to break out the BFH and whack it? Haha Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[jlsanborn]

I'm for sure no expert and will probably face the same drama you are with the alignment / gaps. I think though, that you'll want to focus on the door first then fit the fender to the door. Looks good tho!

[jlsanborn]

Did you put new body mounts under Booger? What about the radiator support mounts?

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

I'm for sure no expert and will probably face the same drama you are with the alignment / gaps. I think though, that you'll want to focus on the door first then fit the fender to the door. Looks good tho!

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Did you put new body mounts under Booger? What about the radiator support mounts?

Yes I replaced all the mounts on the cab and core support which in my late night battle with ol boog seems to be where the problem is coming from. If I remove the rubber out of the driver side core support it lines right up which means???? Beats me. Its almost like the cab needs to come up on the front driver corner slightly and the core support down. Opposite is true on the passenger side. I'm beginning to wonder if that impact from the deer by the PO has anything to do with this. The passenger side before the tear down was fine however now its off which is probably the new bushings as the old ones were toast. I've read Lo Elco and a few others alignment strategies so Im gonna spend my day today trying it again. Its gonna line up before the weekend is over!

Anyone know if I should be doing this with the inner fenders installed or install them last? Cant seem to find the information anywhere.

[Palf70Step]

They make shims for the cab mounts. That will probably take take of the issue.

[woodwright]

Hey, are you getting my PM's?
Posted via Mobile Device

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

They make shims for the cab mounts. That will probably take take of the issue.

Thanks I ended up using some body shims that I didnt need in the fenders. Lines up pretty good now.

Originally Posted by woodwright

Hey, are you getting my PM's?
Posted via Mobile Device

Let me check I haven't had any notifications that I know of.

[americanthunder]

3 DAYS OF SANDING, Body Panel Alignment and A Surprise = Hell

Well things let up at work a bit this last week so I figured I'd dedicate my time to what everyones favorite job is, sanding and aligning body panels. I started previously with aligning the panels and narrowed the problem down to two things. The frame is not straight/level but in my do it yourselfer measuring it is within spec and the inner fenders were fighting me. In old boogs previous brushes with other vehicles and a deer that I know of it not only damaged the fenders, bumper and grill but it also took its toll on the inner fenders.I had straightened them by eye as best i could but I looks like I may be in the market for a straight set of inners. In any case without them installed I was able to get the gaps set decent by removing the inners and installing a left over body shim under the driver front body mount and passenger side of the core support Moving on...

Saturday morning 6AM a box of self stick 80 grit, durablocks, and a mountain dew time to get sanding. All I can say is there has got to be a better way. This this old paint is tough. Since boog had been painted once (probably in one of his previous collisions) the top layer of paint/primer came off with alot of elbow grease but the original paint/primer is like steel. I've decided to leave whats left of the factory stuff when Im finished. It aint going anywhere. Sun started going down around 6:30 so I started to pack it in. At that point the neighbors started to arrive. I guess it was the sanding, swearing, and banging of sheet metal that finally got their attention. So I ended the day sipping on a scotch and showing off my progress to the neighbors.

Sunday morning 7AM (A little later because yesterday killed me). Jumped in ol boog and turned the key to back out of the garage to wake the neighbors. Started right up, ran for a few seconds, then died. Since I still had the clear fuel filter in the engine bay I took a look and it was bone try. Thinking a big glob of sludge and worked loose someplace I pulled the "pre" filter I had installed just off the tank. Blew a little air through it (love the taste of gas in the morning) and it seemed ok. The clear filter under the hood looked really dirty so I made a quick trip over to O'reilly's and grabbed a couple of new filters. Turned the key still no gas. Ok must be the filter sock so I pulled the sending unit from the tank but it was nice and clean. Its now 10AM and Im dreading that last remaining part the fuel pump. I pulled the pump worked it manually and it seemed to be fine and it was brand new so It can't be that right? Maybe it just slipped off the rod or something? Reinstalled it THREE times and still nothing. Time to walk away.....Decided to grab my son and throw the hood on only to notice hood I picked up had been welded a few times at the hinge mounts and was cracked and missing one of the inner nuts for mounting....Time to walk away again.

Went for a drive to the other side of the world to do a little pre-monday work and clear my head but I could only think about why I couldnt get any fuel. On my way back I grabbed another new fuel pump, got home, and installed it. Within 5 seconds ol boog was purring like a kitten. Lesson here is even new parts can/will fail. Just glad I wasn't out driving 30 miles away from home. 2 o'clock in the afternoon back to sanding!

Only having one panel left, the passenger bed side I knew there was going to be surprises waiting for me under there because all the cracking and sure enough the entire upper bed side had a nice layer of body filler so I grabbed the die grinder and went to town removing the old, loose stuff. All in all not too bad but a fair amount of filler. Started to get late in the afternoon, going out to dinner but here's some pics of the progress this weekend:







I know there is still more to do I'll be after it this week!

On a side note, I've been experimenting with some paint. I know Im gonna get bashed by some but I really got inspired by the shop truck/faux patina thread. Since old boog is gonna be put into service as my driver / work truck for my maintenance business and eventually have a logo on the side I really like the aged used but not abused look. I think I have narrowed down a look I like by experimenting on an old fender:



Close up



I know I was gonna stick with the stock green but I like white. Especially in Arizona. Going to experiment with a few different colors before I paint but its at least a proof of concept

[Low Elco]

Hope it helped! Looks like good progress!

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Hope it helped! Looks like good progress!

Thank you sir..Your writeup helped a ton..Headed out to sand again...ugh

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by americanthunder

3 DAYS OF SANDING, Body Panel Alignment and A Surprise = Hell

Well things let up at work a bit this last week so I figured I'd dedicate my time to what everyones favorite job is, sanding and aligning body panels. I started previously with aligning the panels and narrowed the problem down to two things. The frame is not straight/level but in my do it yourselfer measuring it is within spec and the inner fenders were fighting me. In old boogs previous brushes with other vehicles and a deer that I know of it not only damaged the fenders, bumper and grill but it also took its toll on the inner fenders.I had straightened them by eye as best i could but I looks like I may be in the market for a straight set of inners. In any case without them installed I was able to get the gaps set decent by removing the inners and installing a left over body shim under the driver front body mount and passenger side of the core support Moving on...

Saturday morning 6AM a box of self stick 80 grit, durablocks, and a mountain dew time to get sanding. All I can say is there has got to be a better way. This this old paint is tough. Since boog had been painted once (probably in one of his previous collisions) the top layer of paint/primer came off with alot of elbow grease but the original paint/primer is like steel. I've decided to leave whats left of the factory stuff when Im finished. It aint going anywhere. Sun started going down around 6:30 so I started to pack it in. At that point the neighbors started to arrive. I guess it was the sanding, swearing, and banging of sheet metal that finally got their attention. So I ended the day sipping on a scotch and showing off my progress to the neighbors.

Sunday morning 7AM (A little later because yesterday killed me). Jumped in ol boog and turned the key to back out of the garage to wake the neighbors. Started right up, ran for a few seconds, then died. Since I still had the clear fuel filter in the engine bay I took a look and it was bone try. Thinking a big glob of sludge and worked loose someplace I pulled the "pre" filter I had installed just off the tank. Blew a little air through it (love the taste of gas in the morning) and it seemed ok. The clear filter under the hood looked really dirty so I made a quick trip over to O'reilly's and grabbed a couple of new filters. Turned the key still no gas. Ok must be the filter sock so I pulled the sending unit from the tank but it was nice and clean. Its now 10AM and Im dreading that last remaining part the fuel pump. I pulled the pump worked it manually and it seemed to be fine and it was brand new so It can't be that right? Maybe it just slipped off the rod or something? Reinstalled it THREE times and still nothing. Time to walk away.....Decided to grab my son and throw the hood on only to notice hood I picked up had been welded a few times at the hinge mounts and was cracked and missing one of the inner nuts for mounting....Time to walk away again.

Went for a drive to the other side of the world to do a little pre-monday work and clear my head but I could only think about why I couldnt get any fuel. On my way back I grabbed another new fuel pump, got home, and installed it. Within 5 seconds ol boog was purring like a kitten. Lesson here is even new parts can/will fail. Just glad I wasn't out driving 30 miles away from home. 2 o'clock in the afternoon back to sanding!

Only having one panel left, the passenger bed side I knew there was going to be surprises waiting for me under there because all the cracking and sure enough the entire upper bed side had a nice layer of body filler so I grabbed the die grinder and went to town removing the old, loose stuff. All in all not too bad but a fair amount of filler. Started to get late in the afternoon, going out to dinner but here's some pics of the progress this weekend:







I know there is still more to do I'll be after it this week!

On a side note, I've been experimenting with some paint. I know Im gonna get bashed by some but I really got inspired by the shop truck/faux patina thread. Since old boog is gonna be put into service as my driver / work truck for my maintenance business and eventually have a logo on the side I really like the aged used but not abused look. I think I have narrowed down a look I like by experimenting on an old fender:



Close up



I know I was gonna stick with the stock green but I like white. Especially in Arizona. Going to experiment with a few different colors before I paint but its at least a proof of concept

at least the sanding is done as it looks from here.

[Bomp]

For all the mishaps in Boogs former life and smackin' the deer he looks pretty straight for the most part.
Thanks for the write up cause I get stuck on little things that take all day to get worked out too. Makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one.

[Hardesty454]

You have made great progress. I love that its a father son project. Motor and engine bay look phenomenal to me. Can wait to see the rest of the build!!!

[americanthunder]

Originally Posted by gdavis

at least the sanding is done as it looks from here.

Heres what I've learned about sanding..First buy LOTS and LOTS of sandpaper and then buy extra. Second, doing it by hand will try your patience and give you sore shoulders, back and knees no matter what age you are. And finally sanding is never done. Just when I think Im done I find another spot that needs sanding!

Originally Posted by Hardesty454

You have made great progress. I love that its a father son project. Motor and engine bay look phenomenal to me. Can wait to see the rest of the build!!!

Thanks for the compliments. I think my son got burned out after the first few weeks There is this strange pattern of needing to do his homework when its time to do the hard stuff..Hmmmm. Good news is he got all A's and B's this last quarter which makes me a proud poppa. He still asks me "how much more is there to do?". If anything, the lesson I hope the truck teaches him is nothing comes easy in this world and you gotta fight for every bit of it.

Originally Posted by Bomp

For all the mishaps in Boogs former life and smackin' the deer he looks pretty straight for the most part.
Thanks for the write up cause I get stuck on little things that take all day to get worked out too. Makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one.

Yep boogs coming out pretty straight and I think in the end a pretty sharp truck. Definitely had a fair share of work and bangin into stuff. Oh man dont get me started on the little stuff. My years of building motorcycles and diesel trucks have taught me they'll eat up 90% of your time and show up when you least expect them!