66 4x4 my sons new project

[argonaut]

Progress has pretty much halted on Big Ugly. Instead he has been relegated to schlepping parts around for the little Seahorse.

Beauty and the Beast:

[duallyjams]

your starting a pretty nice collection

[RANDY COX]

I couldn't think of a more suitable parts hauler...

[Eric15chevys]

Man this is a cool build. It makes me want to put both my 84 454 one ton and 62 chevy together.

[argonaut]

Originally Posted by Eric15chevys

Man this is a cool build. It makes me want to put both my 84 454 one ton and 62 chevy together.

DO IT!!

[argonaut]

Okay guys, I have so many parts stocked up inside and outside of my garage, in prep for various projects on Big Ugly, that it is driving me crazy! I have three sets of doors and a pair of fenders on the side of the house. So I finally picked a set, did some minor body work and painted them 503 Light Green to match the cab. They'll go on the truck next weekend if I can manage to get a set of door hinges rebuilt with new bushings and pins this week. Oh, and I need to shorten the jeep-rear-door check links just slightly.





I don't have a large air compressor or a gun so I had some paint mixed and put into spray cans at Sherman Williams. Just a acrylic Polyurethane single stage. It actually came out decent. A little orange peel but what the hell, its a pickup made for working not sitting around looking pretty.

I have one can of paint left which should do the middle and two side cowl pieces next weekend.

['63GENIII]

Rattle cans? For real? That looks awesome Jason! I had no idea that you can get paint mixed and put into rattle cans.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by '63GENIII

Rattle cans? For real? That looks awesome Jason! I had no idea that you can get paint mixed and put into rattle cans.

You can go to a local auto paint store and purchase a gallon of your trucks stock paint, then they can put some of the paint (or all of it) into rattle cans for you. they said to me you had to buy a gallon anyway.

['63GENIII]

I wonder how long that would last as touch up paint.

[argonaut]

I had these cans made up over a year ago and just now used them. Everything was fine. I think this stuff is a 1K type that is more for touch up and spot repairs anyway. So we'll see how well it holds up.

NOw I just have to decide whether I'm going to rock the orange peel finish or spend an entire day getting hot and wet sanding and buffing... ugh

[argonaut]

Well, either the paint is crappy, or more likely there was some n00b user error. The paint hasn't hardened completely. I think it is because I painted on a cool afternoon an then it never really got warm all week. Anyway the paint is still a little "soft". Who knows if it will finish curing and harden up, but I'm going to use them anyway and see how it goes.

I also rebuilt a set of door hinges. Glad I saved a lot of them because it took 2 sets to get four good hinges that I could press the pins out of without damaging them. After I pressed the pins out image my surprise to find out that the original hinge pins are plastic!!! I think these are the only plastic parts on these old pickups. No wonder so many hinges are loosey goosey. I put bronze bushings and new pins in so now I'm ready to swap on the doors (hopefully) next weekend.

[argonaut]

Got the driver side door and fender mounted up tonight. Looks pretty good, at least in the dusk Better than the funky dark blue anyway. Here's a comparison:





These doors aren't perfect. They have rust in the bottoms, but they're no worse than the old ones. Plus the interior has a nice fawn patina to match the rest of the inside. Cool!

And let me tell you, it is SO MUCH EASIER to align the doors with the rebuilt hinges. No more slop.

Hopefully I'll have time to do the passenger side tomorrow. Then pull the three cowl pieces and the grill surround on Wednesday for paint.

['63GENIII]

Plastic pins? Go figure! We're the bronze bushings and steel pins a rebuild kit or did you come up with that? I can't wait for the day that my doors are aligned so they just close right. Nice work Jason. The paint looks awesome too!

[argonaut]

Yeah, those plastic bushings were a horrible design. I got the idea after I rebuilt the bushings in my 98 GMC (which I've since sold). I got the hinge rebuild kits from either Classic Industries or Trucks Shop, I can't remember which. I used my little harbor freight 12 ton press to push the old pins out and new ones in. Then I cut off the extra length with a cutoff wheel. A few of the pins were rusted to the hinges pretty badly, and there isn't much surface around the pin to support it without tilting. So I abandoned those since I had plenty of extras.

[vectorit]

Looks great!

[deejaaa1]

i see you asked about this and no one responded so i had a minute in Paint and came up with this:

same fender opening, front and rear.

[deejaaa1]

Originally Posted by deejaaa1

i see you asked about this and no one responded so i had a minute in Paint and came up with this:

same fender opening, front and rear.

i just reread my post and the pic didn't show. might not have enough post yet.
edit, weird, i see it now.

[argonaut]

Bolted up the passenger side door and fender tonight. So far so good. Need to put the all the window stuff in them when I have time.



The gaps between fenders and doors suck. gets wider at the bottom. I think I may need to through a shim under the front cab mounts, maybe a 3/16" thick piece of plate. Or alternatively bring the front down just a bit at the radiator support. What do you think?

[argonaut]

Originally Posted by deejaaa1

i see you asked about this and no one responded so i had a minute in Paint and came up with this:

same fender opening, front and rear.

Hmm, looks a little funky now that I see it. Maybe I've just gotten used to the little rear wheel well opening. Thanks for doing that though, deejaaa1, I appreciate it!

[argonaut]

Got a few more parts painted. Figured out how to control the spray speed and "weight" a little better to not get so much orange peel. My last can did run out early but i got everything at least covered. I'm pretty confident that if I had a real compressor and a decent gun that I could do a pretty legit paint job!



A few spots did get some weird bubbles in them. Not sure why. Maybe I was laying it on too heavy? Or maybe just the crappy rattle cans. Anyway, its good enough for this Big Ugly beast.



I'll let these rest for a day or so and then bolt 'em up on Saturday morning. Now it'll be down to only three colors!

[argonaut]

Took a couple pics of my front hitch while I have the front sheet metal off.
The rear hitch is pretty much the same but with longer side rails to handle larger moments from heavier tongue loads.

[argonaut]

Down to only three different body colors!

[ryanroo]

such an awesome looking truck! i am partial to the green myself

[derail]

Saw your rig at the show. Looked awesome! One of my favorites for sure.

['63GENIII]

Ok Jason.... I gotta ask. You may have posted it before but what kind of front axle are you running? Is that a Dodge with those hub locks? or am I missing the selector part in the pics? They look cool. How do they work?