Project "My Happy Mess"

[litew8]

You know what would make me happy? If the owner of that shop came in
here (he says he knows a lot of guys here when I mentioned the site to him)
and was willing to own up to the bad work AND my messed up windshield -
and credit me 3 hours of labor and pay to replace my windshield.
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The Fixer "fixing" the undesirable.

Three thin coats of this -




Hardener added -





Each coat thinly applied, let dry, then sanded. I forget, but at least 1/4
or more of what was applied gets REMOVED. Small amounts. Not for
certain if it's always policy to apply three coats, but I think he had to in
this case to conceal the dents they made. We did pull the gas tank out and
hammered the driver's side dents out, and the pass. side we got the bow
to correct. I took lots of pictures, hope I get them all in the correct order.

First coat -















Pass. side. Notice the fix my Brother made to that hole on the
pass. side rocker. He put a piece of metal on the backside of the rocker
and welded it in. Hit it a few times more on the front, then ground down.




Sanding -










Second coat -
















Sanding of second coat -






Third coat, not yet sanded -

[litew8]

Remember this picture from November of last year?

Inverted picture -



That's right - those little black spots are pieces of metal melted into
the inside of my windshield from cutting/grinding and not covering the glass
first. Found after I brought my truck home from the body shop. My window
guy actually noticed them.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Took the trim and old rubber seal off of the windshield the other day.
Not too stiff, not sure it's reusable. Board member Keith mentioned a process
he had heard of that supposedly can restore them. Consist of 5 gal bucket,
dish soap and Tide. Let rubber seal soak for 1 to 2 weeks. When removed
it supposedly is like new again. I'm considering trying it out just for the
heck of it, BUT - when we took my seal off - another seal/seam on the
inside pulled out (separately). It doesn't look like it tore out and seems
like it is standalone. Maybe it went around the glass itself before being
inserted into the main seal?

Old putty on seal. Mainly found on the sides -




Removing the Custom Deluxe trim -




Here's the separate piece of rubber we pulled out. It went all the way
around, but didn't feel like it was apart of the main seal. It was shinny too,
kind of looked like adhesive backed so that it'd stick to the glass, or the main seal itself?

See it on the inside, right -

[litew8]

Passenger's door. This was the replacement door I got. It had a large
dent in the top right/inside of it. To fix it, we cut off that section on my
original, rusted out door - before we donated it to the scrap yard.

Instead of using the entire length of the piece we cut off previously,
The Fixer decided it'd be easier, and quicker - to cut it in half and
just replace the dent itself.

































A little more touching up and it'll be like new.

[litew8]

Fitting of the doors after removing all that crap bondo.
Here's the tool we used to gap them -














I think these were Number stamps on the driver's door -




Check this one out,




Pass. door -




Number on the rear sill/cross member for the bed.
The one beneath the tailgate.

[litew8]

Misc. pics

One for the Pit Boss




Something cool, someone's daily driver -






Replaced the inlet/outlet filters on the free air pump.








Nos door handles I bought. Mine were getting bad.
A comparison, old vs. new. The boxes for these are stamped 1999 and 2000.
They weigh the same, stampings are different.

Old on the right -


Old


New (there's a Chevy emblem stamped in there - top/left next to the circle)



Check this out. We noticed it while comparing. My brother actually
noticed it - someone went into this handle and put wire inside
to hold it together. It must have busted during its lifetime?

[Low Elco]

Much more bueno, Senor! Looks just like when I did mine. Glad it's shaping up well.

[litew8]

Megan Fox needs no introduction

[litew8]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Much more bueno, Senor! Looks just like when I did mine. Glad it's shaping up well.

Thanks man! You're more than welcome to load up the truck to drive
on over here and use our blast cabinet.

P.S. And no habla espanol. Capito Italiano Signore.

[litew8]

Earlier we removed the gas tank to repair the dents that shop made.








Nice original paint underneath -






Found some NOS rear wheel tubs.
Thanks to ART'S CLASSIC TRUCK PARTS, INDIANOLA, IA!
He can be found on Craigslist Des Moines. It's where I got
my replacement pass. door too.

I was fortunate to find these. I had ordered aftermarket ones
a few weeks ago - only to find out the lip on the backside was
missing on one, and both tubs had creases on the ends. Not cool.
I didn't want to mess with trying to order another pair of aftermarket
and hope they were good - since only one or two manufactures
actually stamp these, odd are everyone has creases.








Started sanding on the cab, paint removes easily -








Cleaned up the cowl area more -




Cleaned up the fresh air pump. There was a little surface rust formed -




When I first got the pump, the pressure gauge wouldn't register.
I figured it was due to the over-sized K&N inlet filter the PO had put on.
I replaced it with the original filter made for the pump, and now I'm registering
10psi, normal. It can be reduced down if needed.




Cleaned up the cowl panel a little more today. We are aiming for Monday to prime,
and Tuesday to paint some. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for looking!

[Low Elco]

Originally Posted by litew8

Thanks man! You're more than welcome to load up the truck to drive
on over here and use our blast cabinet.

P.S. And no habla espanol. Capito Italiano Signore.

Appreciare de offreaire, needo del nada. Inspired by your post, bought my own! Even conned Mama into having the house cover it! Looka me go-a! See Yeller thread for details.

[litew8]

Prego. Didn't see any pics of that cabinet in your thread. What brand?
Let me know if you want a link to the "Solution" that will make it so you don't
have to change your Mylar glass protecting sheets. I was only able to find
ONE source on the internet that sold what I was looking for, nobody locally.

-----------
Prodotto placement, quality -

[Low Elco]

Haven't assembled it yet. It's a harbor freight 40 lb. cab, the freestanding one. Not supercool but it'll git er done! Please tack on the link for the solution, I'm tryin to hotrod it up a bit before its assembled.
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[litew8]

PM sent.

[Dieselwrencher]

Litew8 sorry to see your bad deal with WCC. Last year when you started this I asked where the work was being done and you didn't really want to say. I was hoping it wasn't them. Sorry man. I know of a guy who just sued WCC. This person took them a completely repainted black 1981 Camaro and all WCC had to do was reassemble it. They chipped the doors/fenders, scraped and chipped the window openings, installed the head light buckets in the wrong sides and cracked them, it goes on and on. Basically they ruined a $4500 or more paint job and charged the guy $3000 for assembly. The owner took them to court and got some compensation back from the judge. You may go that route. I learned a while ago to not do any more business from him after I got shafted on some non rust free parts that were supposed to be rust free. It was just a big circle you know what.

On another note, I have a pretty nice OE windshield from my Longhorn that has a small rock chip you can have if you want it.

[litew8]

Thanks Ryan. It wasn't the body shop you asked about, it was where I took the truck to get sandblasted. I didn't want to mention the sandblaster's company name because during one of my visits, someone mentioned how the EPA was coming down hard on their type of work. I wasn't certain what she meant and I didn't want to mention their name because of that uncertainty, just in case. I also know their family personally. When I asked her if I could post their name w/the pictures, she gave me an uncertain look. She may have been old enough to not have fully understand what I had asked But they are REALLY COOL people to have worked with. And I was serious, they probably don't need the extra work - I think they run a million dollar company comfortably.

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As for WCC, I considered taking them to small claims to try and recoup. Options aren't off of the table. The damage to my windshield really pissed me off when I found out. It isn't something that you can see easily, that's why I didn't catch it right away - that and my windshield was dusty. But realizing metal was melted into the glass really sucked. Trying to clean it with a paper towel just tears up the paper towel. I could put it up against a white wall to expose it better for pictures. I figured I'd just buy another one, but I appreciate your kind gesture man!

[Dieselwrencher]

Oh, ok you're right on the questioning. It's a hard pill to swallow either way. At least you were able to get it repaired like it should have been. It's crazy the claims WCC makes when they have rides at shows. I learned a while ago that any of the vehicles they had at shows and such, the body work was done at other shops. Why would that be? Hopefully too many more locals, or any one else for that matter, don't get bit by these clowns any more!

For the glass look up Bucklyn glass in Baxter and Art's truck parts in Indianola for your gasket. Art is a great guy and stands behind what he sells and he sells precision gaskets. I have them with trim in my truck and they fit very nicely.

[litew8]

Very cool. When I bought the NOS rear wheelhousings from Art's Classic Truck Parts, Indianola IA - I went ahead and bought a Precision windshield seal too. Just in case the one I have doesn't work out like I had hoped. Not sure that inner rubber strip we pulled out from inside of the old seal is replaceable. I figured buying one from Art would be good insurance.

Art just finished installing a wood show deck in his blue truck and it looks very nice.
Thanks for the lead on the windshield, not sure how my Brother's window guy is going to deal with it or if my Brother gets a discount or not. He did say they were fairly easy to come by. We're still waiting to get a call back from him to ask about that strip we took out if he knows something.

[litew8]

Shooting the cab w/primer today

[Low Elco]

Go go go!
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[litew8]

Spoke too soon Shooting the cab w/primer tomorrow!
Forgot I had an appointment to deal with.
Masked off doors/window openings today.
Got pics will post later.

[Dieselwrencher]

Cool deal on that show floor. He keeps telling me I should put one in my truck, and maybe I will for going to shows. We'll see. Are you excited to get your cab in primer? I bet you are!

[litew8]

Anxious to get the whole truck finished I'm growing tired of working on it. That sounds bad, but for real - in 2 1/2 months, it'll be one year. Damn winter months! Who knows, maybe by the time Independence Day rolls around I'll be able to hit some shows Who's all going

[litew8]

Tools used to smack dents out of driver's cab corner. We couldn't get it entirely "flat",
which is why you can tell we used a little more bondo on it than we did the passenger's
side in the pics below. If they hadn't of done such a sh!tty job, there could have been
even less. The bigger reason was probably due to warping of the metal and then them
smacking it to try and correct it, and them not taking the gas tank out. FAIL




Finished












The Fixer's engineering. Masked off window/door openings
with cardboard (were large boxes). Back window was the escape route -
paper was used instead.














Another stamp found, who knows where from?

[Low Elco]

You got further than I did- found more dents and gouges! Got em fixed, down for the next 4 days. Good progress!
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[doubleb's69]

I had a guy who bought parts from me tell me he and his brother bought a 454 that supposedly ran when pulled and ran great from WCC They got it home and pulled the intake and the engine had blew up so hard it broke the lifter valley. They took it right back and he said that the owner yelled at them and told them it was worthless now and that he actually threw the money they paid for the engine back in their faces. I have also heard other horror stories and will stay away.

Any how the truck is looking great. Not that it matters but I'm glad you left the striping under the hood.