Columbus..the 1957 IH 4x4..

[Advanced Design]

Nice work on the bed shortening. Came out well. And a backer is a good idea for the floor patches.

[mongocanfly]

thanks Doug. ..
we've got a iron worker at work so I'm going to take a scrap piece of bed floor and punch out some slugs to fit those holes..I tried holding a plug in place but I couldn't get to both sides to hold it level in the hole..so the backer is what I came up with..ill weld those plugs in when I flip the bed back over..

[mongocanfly]

got the rear cross sill and rear crossmember welded in today...nearly all the crossmember and sill spot welds were broke loose so I went ahead and pulled it all the way out and cleanded it all up...added a few coats of weld thru primer to it and welded it back in....I also added some "insurance" welds to the crossmember and sill..back half of bed shortening is done...on to the front. ..

[mongocanfly]

also got me a new miller digital elite welding hood...that thing is awsome..best hood I've every owned..in what else but camo!!!....now the deer can't see me when im welding..

and my old Milwaukee 4 1/2" grinder finally went up in smoke..to many cutoff discs....piece of junk only lasted about 25yrs...got me a beast now ..5" 13 amp dewalt..ill use it for my cutting discs..I've also got a dewalt 10amp that I run my flap disc on..

[mongocanfly]

started on the bed front today..I was gonna cut in the middle of the raised panel but when I put a staight edge on it they don't exactly match..they were about a 1/16 or so off...so I moved my cut line back to the corner radius..I think it'll be easier to blend that way..

[mongocanfly]

went ahead and cut the bed front off...I knew when I pulled the bed I had some rust issues there at the lower front corners (bed is upside down in pics while im working on it)..luckily the bed floor support is in good shape..I'm gonna cut out the whole section all the way across that has rust and spot weld holes in it and replace with new metal...got to pick up some 16ga for the repair...ill coat it good with weld thru primer and add seam sealer when I'm done...should last a long time
that floor support sandwiched against the bed front was a water trap...hopefully the seam sealer will stop that..

[Advanced Design]

Amazing there is so little rust. Good work there Greg.

My Miller helmet is now 15 years old. What do you like about the new one?

[mongocanfly]

thanks Doug. ..I knew these spots of rust would need fixing...there's also a spot below the fuel filler that'll need fixin..that's all I've found on the body that needs attention. ...while trying to remove the trans tunnel the other day I found a section of the tunnel by the shift levers that needs fixed...so I'm happy to have only these small repairs..

its funny if you look at the headboard of the bed where the spot welds are..and see where I ground over the spot welds ,you can see how far the metal is stretched out around the welds...had me scratching my head as to how that could happen...the only thing I can come up with is maybe water got trapped in there and then froze...pushing the metal out...I dunno...

on the helmet I've always had crappy helmets...never would spring for a good one...I finally did and luckily they have a $50 rebate so that helped..
I like everything about it..it feels better than my old one..more comfortable...pretty light weight. . and has a delay on it when you stop the weld..its got 4 arc sensors as well and a ton of settings...

[mongocanfly]

with all this work on the old IH I guess I needed a sign for my shop....although I can't hang it up just yet...

[mongocanfly]

worked on bed support today..both mounting pads were toast so I cut those spots out and got new metal welded in...

[mongocanfly]

got the rotted crap cut off the headboard. ..picked up a sheet of 16ga to repair this spot with..

[mongocanfly]

got the patch for the bed front cut and fitted...got it all tack welded in..still needs finish welded and ground..

[mongocanfly]

got a little more done today...got the bedfront patch welded in and cleaned up...drilled holes for spot welding to the bed support...its so cold I had to take the weld-thru primer and bed parts indoors to let them warm up a little before i sprayed it down...so now theyre ready to be welded together. .

[mongocanfly]

also started removing some crap the po welded into the bed corners...I can't argue that it might need something there to stiffen it up but I think I can come up with something a little better looking than this...

[mongocanfly]

in amongst all the other stuff I got going on I built a roof rack for my buddy's ranger. ..he's tickled with it and sent me these "action" shots of it. ..he was quoted over $2k for what i built him...i think ive got $200 in materials in it and he got it powdercoated for $250...so under $500 in it not counting labor and lights...used .083 wall 1 1/4" & 1" tubing and alum checkerplate for the "floor"....
same buddy that's letting me hide the IH project out at his shop....

[Advanced Design]

Nice work on the roof rack. The duck heads above the lights are a nice touch.

[mongocanfly]

thanks Doug. ..the duck heads are like a signature I put in things I've done for him in the past. ..

[72 tigger]

Nice project- will be following along

[mongocanfly]

couple of pics of the bed floor support welded back to the repaired bed front...got the water trap sealed up with 3m seam sealer..ready to weld the bed front back on..when I get it all welded back together and sand blasted ill run another bead of seam sealer all the way across the front bed floor to bed front gap..that should eliminate any future issues in this area...

[mongocanfly]

the front in process of being sewed back together....I might have gotten done with this today but a encounter with a sketchy bbq sandwich had me bent over double all afternoon...bought over that now...before and after pics.....

[mongocanfly]

got the front parts all welded up today...got a little more welding I want to do before I call it done but the beds real close to done ,but I ran out of welder gas..

[mongocanfly]

not much to report lately...just trying to get all the bed welding done so I can get it to the blaster and then in epoxy primer...
keep on finding broken spot welds...this crossmember was only held by 5 spot welds...the rest were broke loose...also had to fix some of the po's mess in bed floor...whatever they had bolted in the bed caused stress cracks in the bed floor and is probably responsible for the broken spotwelds...its just easier to remove and try to fix it right...also cut out a section of bed floor to fix the stress cracks...the bed floor will be line-x so it'll cover a lot of my fixings....

[Advanced Design]

Moving right along...and you are sure right on fixing it...pulling bed and all.

[mongocanfly]

yeah I'm about tired of fixing..I wasn't expecting to find this much stuff that needed fixing...but while I got it where I can work on it I might as well do it right....well...as right as I can...went ahead and got that crossmember welded back in...hopefully thats all I need to do underneath the bed...gotta check everthing one more time and if alls good i'll flip it over and finish up the topside welding...

[67ChevyRedneck]

You're doing great!

Just think of how much work the other truck would have been!!!