SkinnyG's '61 Apache

[SkinnyG]

GM18B from Rock Auto, '92 S10 Blazer. It's somewhat tall; I have a 4" raised bed floor.

[SkinnyG]

Scraping undercoating off in anticipation of hood repair:

[jkeating1]

I saw a video where they filled the floorboard up with dry ice. After the floorboard froze, they chipped the undercoating off in hard frozen chunks. I'm going to try that someday.

[SkinnyG]

I'm using a heat gun, it's coming up pretty easy. Gooey, but easy.

[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

I'm using a heat gun, it's coming up pretty easy. Gooey, but easy.

Yep i have to do this soon... not excited about it... lol

[SkinnyG]

While I've been scraping, I've been thinking: I pity the person who has to remove 2K Raptor bed liner to repair rust in the future.

I also think a lot about life while I do this; I can't handle a "mindless" task. Usually I have personal rants with myself about child-rearing, parenting, and the public school system.

[The Rocknrod]

It's therapeutic for sure.

[SkinnyG]

Spent some time learning the shrinking disc by dealing will the plethora of dents on the passenger side bed fender.

[SkinnyG]

Finished scraping the hood, and crafting a plan to repair the rust:



Crafted a plan for the fender flanges. I think I will repair the flange of the fender itself, using the reinforcement behind to help locate it, then remove what's left of the reinforcement and fabricate new ones. That way I can epoxy prime the join and reduce or at least slow down the return of the rust:





I should probably clean this up too:

[jkeating1]

Damn--for such solid fenders, they sure have ratty flanges

[SkinnyG]

Worked on hood patches. Blast tomorrow, epoxy prime, then fit the patches through the week.

[SkinnyG]

Blasted outside in the snow, patched, and epoxy primer:

[SkinnyG]

Had one of those days in the shop where absolutely every single possible thing that could be annoying or go wrong, went so in spades. Hard to describe my enthusiasm without the use of expletives. Awful day.

Having said that...

Back to the panhard, the rod ends, tube ends, and lock nuts came in:

[SkinnyG]

Rod ends are teflon-lined, and I will use some replacement tierod boots to try and keep crap out.

Rod ends will likely transmit more NVH, but will have no binding compared to the poly bushings, especially with a variable ride height on air.

[SkinnyG]

Hood patching:

[SkinnyG]

Latest video:

'61 Chevy Apache - Part 16: Panhard! - YouTube

[Duncan K]

Using the lathe for a tube notcher is a pretty cool trick!

[SkinnyG]

Not much done today. Familial responsibilities, then made some new 4° pinion shims for my '77 C10 daily out of steel, and tacked the last hood patch in before it was dinner.



Next patch tacked in place:

[caseyjones]

great fit on that patch panel!

[SkinnyG]

Rust holes all patched, warping minimized and finished enough for an acceptable skim of filler. Next to do: hood dents. Don't mind the duct tape on my welding helmet - I dropped the truck bed on it a while back.

[The Rocknrod]

Nice work.

[SkinnyG]

Fixed all the dents in the hood today. They weren't big dents, so they don't show up in pictures well. I have one "oil can" I need to get rid of tomorrow, and the hood will be ready for blasting and primer.

The fender patches are glaring at me.

[SkinnyG]

Tackled the one remaining "oil can" dent.

Kicked my butt for hours.

The portion of the hood that it's on, is slightly crowned. I can make it match the crown, but it oil cans. I can shrink it to stop it oil caning, but then it's flat and not crowned. I put some crown in it, and it oil cans. I shrink the oil can out and it's flat. Rinse and repeat. Not winning.

After HOURS of arguing, I did some shrinking on the bottom side and I now have it mostly the right shape, and not oil caning. It definitely moves a little freer than the other side, but it will hold its shape.

[88Stanger]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Tackled the one remaining "oil can" dent.

Kicked my butt for hours.

The portion of the hood that it's on, is slightly crowned. I can make it match the crown, but it oil cans. I can shrink it to stop it oil caning, but then it's flat and not crowned. I put some crown in it, and it oil cans. I shrink the oil can out and it's flat. Rinse and repeat. Not winning.

After HOURS of arguing, I did some shrinking on the bottom side and I now have it mostly the right shape, and not oil caning. It definitely moves a little freer than the other side, but it will hold its shape.

I was fighting this on my roof. that really sucks. hope i have it ok now. yours looks much better than mine I'm sure

[SkinnyG]

Nothing on the truck this week - had to do some spring yard work.

But I did spend some time improving my blast cabinet.

Previously, I added four 100W LED bulbs, and a shop-vac-hookah-pot out of a 20L pail.

Today I tried to improve a common problem in the operation itself:

The cabinet has a tendency to blast in spurts. Blast... nothing... blast... nothing... I've found if you run a really large nozzle and run very fine abrasive, it's not too bad. But I followed a few videos on YouTube about improving the blast action.

A Floor Plate is attached to the bottom hinged trap door, add a 3" long 1" NPT nipple, a 1" Pipe T with one end capped (for drain), then reduce to 3/4" NPT into another Pipe T, which reduces to a small ball valve (I used 3/8") out the top, and reduced to a 1/2" Hose Barb to feed the gun.