Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on the under side of the hood. I ended up using urethane caulking on mine similar to what is used on windshields but for body seams. I was really happy with the results plus it was cheap.
That's an awfully nice welder you scored.....Keep up the good work.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very nice work on the under side of the hood. I ended up using urethane caulking on mine similar to what is used on windshields but for body seams. I was really happy with the results plus it was cheap.
That's an awfully nice welder you scored.....Keep up the good work.

Thanks, Mike. Today I took a temporary break from the hood project. Bit the bullet and ordered a 3M applicator, some seam sealer and panel adhesive off of eBay. Figured it had to be more convenient than running back and forth to the store. I'll use the urethane seam sealer to tidy up a few spots under the hood and seal up gaps in the floor / firewall / bed and etc. Adhesive to glue the riser to the hood.

Meanwhile, I finished prepping the wheels for paint and started masking. If the lying a$$ed weatherman is to be believed, there's a couple of nice days around the corner and I want to be ready to squirt some primer and paint. I'd really like to get the chassis rolling again. Also setup to drill and tap holes around the perimeter of the center caps. They slip into the large hole in the wheels and will use allen set screws to retain them. I've got several items I'm building that will need to be anodized. Since the shop has a minimum charge, I always try to gather up anything and everything that needs to go.

[jeh]

Just got caught back up on your build, everything is looking great.

[Hogshooter]

Wow, I spent the weeks spare time reading your build and the work you have done is amazing. I teach Auto Collision in Broken Arrow Oklahoma and have used the bonding adhesive you used on your roof the stuff is awesome, but you should heat the panel after it is applied or it will shrink the first time it gets hot in the sun. Found this out by using it to glue a piece of sheetmetal behind a hole in a roof. We filled it then primed and blocked and after the bake cycle there was a tell tale ring around the hole. It may not be a problem where you used it since it is a seam. I also like the foam you used I filled cavities in my pillars in my 69 Camaro and it helped with noise. We call it NVH reduction or noise harmonics and vibration. The hardware stuff will distort panels as well as hold moisture, the NVH foam expands to fill a void then just gets more dense rather than pushing outwards. Just my 2 cents.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jeh

Just got caught back up on your build, everything is looking great.

Originally Posted by Hogshooter

Wow, I spent the weeks spare time reading your build and the work you have done is amazing. I teach Auto Collision in Broken Arrow Oklahoma and have used the bonding adhesive you used on your roof the stuff is awesome, but you should heat the panel after it is applied or it will shrink the first time it gets hot in the sun. Found this out by using it to glue a piece of sheetmetal behind a hole in a roof. We filled it then primed and blocked and after the bake cycle there was a tell tale ring around the hole. It may not be a problem where you used it since it is a seam. I also like the foam you used I filled cavities in my pillars in my 69 Camaro and it helped with noise. We call it NVH reduction or noise harmonics and vibration. The hardware stuff will distort panels as well as hold moisture, the NVH foam expands to fill a void then just gets more dense rather than pushing outwards. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the advice on the adhesive for sure. I've seen similar effects when repairing Corvettes. It's almost impossible to repair small areas on them without eventually seeing a telltale. I've always felt that when bonding two materials together that have different coefficients of expansion, you're going to see some dislocation after heat/cool cycles. I've had decent results using Featherfill or Slick Sand (catalyzed polyester) as a high build sealer. It's tough enough to help minimize the tells around the edges. The best solution would be to weld the pieces together, but I don't have that level of skill. As Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations." Worst case scenario is: if this fails, they sell replacement hoods.

[swamp rat]

There was a thread on here the other day where a vender (cant remember who) was saying that the replacement hoods are way off and he wouldn't sell them anymore, showed some pictures of the curvature along the sides next to the fenders as well as the length on the nose.

Now that said i'm sure if someone could get over the issues of the re-man hood it would be you!

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

There was a thread on here the other day where a vender (cant remember who) was saying that the replacement hoods are way off and he wouldn't sell them anymore, showed some pictures of the curvature along the sides next to the fenders as well as the length on the nose. Now that said i'm sure if someone could get over the issues of the re-man hood it would be you!

He's correct, Mike. I bought a repro cowl induction hood for my last truck and it had the rolled edges, although the nose length wasn't an issue. The dies for most of these parts must be slap wore out by now. All you can do is hammer, slice, weld, grind and slather on the plastic filler.

Speaking of the hood, I finally had to buckle down and do the rust treatment I'd been avoiding. It's not really so bad, just stinks and requires some elbow grease. I use Gem Rust Killer, and like a lot of similar products, it's essentially phosphoric acid which converts the iron oxide to ferric phosphate. The pros are: 1) It's easy to apply. I just mist it on the surface from a plastic spray bottle and lightly scrub with Scotchbrite (be sure to use hand protection), 2) It will hold off surface rust for a very long time as long as you don't touch the metal with your bare skin. The salt and oil secretions will draw moisture and voila! handprints pop out like mushrooms in spring. The downsides are: 1) It should be thoroughly flushed off the surface with water and dried good before applying epoxy primer. If you don't plan to primer for a while and want to leave the phosphate as a corrosion barrier, you'll need to re-apply the rust killer and flush right before you prime. 2) It also eats concrete and leaves a white residue everywhere a drop of it lands.

That said, it does a good job converting the rust lurking at the bottom of minute surface pits. Deeper pockets may have specks of the black ferric phosphate that resist even aggressive scrubbing. Patience and multiple treatments will get the worst of it out, but I've never had the tiny amounts of residue "pop" or do anything stupid when dried properly and epoxy primed before bodywork and paint.

While waiting for the rust killer to work its magic, I drilled and tapped the holes in the center caps for the set screws. One step closer to hauling parts to the anodizer.

[sduckworth13]

Nice work Vic on the hood, it cleaned up real nice.

[jlsanborn]

Hat's off to the rust killer!! I feel like such a hack when I read your posts. You know, like I'm doing it sloppy and my paint is going to bubble and peel a year after it's done.

[swamp rat]

See, i knew you would have an answer on that hood..

I did use Phosphoric acid on my drive train on my K20, but the bottle didn't say to rinse it off, well, unless i didn't read the whole bottle? LOL! So i let it dry over night then painted. I found that in my case its pretty easy to scratch a layer off when your wrenching on stuff later.

Of you look back a page or 3 on my build you will find a post i did on my seat tracks, i used Muratic acid and it literally ate the rust to bare metal, but a word of caution, this is super nasty stuff, need an acid vapor respirator and only outdoors, did i say this stuff is nasty?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Nice work Vic on the hood, it cleaned up real nice.

Thanks, Scott. Roof on yours is looking great too!

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

Hat's off to the rust killer!! I feel like such a hack when I read your posts. You know, like I'm doing it sloppy and my paint is going to bubble and peel a year after it's done.

Hey, John, if you'd seen some of the stuff I've hacked over the years, you'd wonder how I ever manage to crank out anything respectable.

Originally Posted by swamp rat

I did use Phosphoric acid on my drive train on my K20, but the bottle didn't say to rinse it off, well, unless i didn't read the whole bottle? LOL! So i let it dry over night then painted. I found that in my case its pretty easy to scratch a layer off when your wrenching on stuff later.

If you look back a page or 3 on my build you will find a post i did on my seat tracks, i used Muratic acid and it literally ate the rust to bare metal, but a word of caution, this is super nasty stuff, need an acid vapor respirator and only outdoors, did i say this stuff is nasty?

If you believe the vendors that sell rust killer products, Mike, they say you can paint right over it. However, the guys I buy my primers from say in no uncertain terms the metal must be rinsed thoroughly. When I mentioned how hard it is to get the metal dry without a light sheen of surface oxidation, they said, "Don't worry about that, the epoxy will bite right thru it, but not the phosphate." As for the muriatic acid, you're correct, it's really nasty stuff. Best to wear good protection and work outside as you suggested.

[Vic1947]

For a while now, I've been pondering whether to build a flush mount bed cover out of aluminum sheet. Finally decided to shelve that idea for the time being and just go ahead and get a prefab cover. I installed Truxedo covers on a couple of trucks in the past and really liked the convenience. Turns out they manufacture their low profile cover for our trucks. So I ordered up one recently. I've known all along there was a slight bow to the bedsides. Both the new one and the side I shortened had the same curve. When I mocked up the Truxedo rails that clamp to the bed, sure enough there was enough gap in the middle to rain on my parade. So today, before I blow apart the bed to start bodywork, I thought I'd see if I could remove at least some of the curve.

With the bedsides bolted down, I needed to spread the tops at the back about 3/4". So I dusted off my old port-a-power that I probably haven't used in over 20 years. Naturally, it was reluctant to wake from a deep slumber. When I did finally get it to move, the trapped air was giving me fits. In the process of bleeding it, I sprayed hydraulic fluid all over me, the bench, the floor, the freshly cleaned wheels I'm planning to paint this week and just about everything in sight. Cleaned up the bench and tools, changed clothes and got back on task. The port-a-power didn't even grunt moving the tops of the bedsides out to the required dimension. At this point, I clamped some short lengths of 1" square tube to the middle of the top rails. Used my body clamps to hook on and the come-along to draw the middle together. Had to reposition the tubing and clamps one time each, but in the end, the bow in both sides was pretty much gone.

Full Disclosure: On the driver side, I ended up with a very shallow divot up near where the bedside rolls over to the flat rail area. Won't be any deal to remove, just wanted to point out that moving that much metal is not without consequences.

[sduckworth13]

Thanks Vic. The bedsides look great. Your made transforming the long bed and moving the inner panels of the bedside look easy.

[jeh]

Vic, I really like how you always go the extra step. Most people, including myself, would say "oh well that's close enough". You are doing a fine job on everything!

[gdavis]

bed post repair plug looks great.

[swamp rat]

Reading your post about the hydraulic mess just reminded me that when i have these little glitches from time to time i'm not alone. Great work on the bed, that would have made me a bit nervous.

[Low Elco]

Bed came out looking nice! Hope we both get lucky and get to sling a little primer/paint this week!

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on everything Vic! So the centercaps are going to lock on the inside of the wheel with 3 set screws? Clever design.
Keep the pictures coming.

[jlsanborn]

Bedsides look WAY better! Way to use the noodle (and more cool tools!). I spent the first years of my career doing industrial fluid power and have had my share of "oil shots". A little bit goes a long ways don't it?

[Xeen]

Such attention to detail, great work on the bedsides Vic, they look dead straight now!

[Vic1947]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys! Just a short post today. My brother brought a partly seized single stage compressor over and everything took a backseat while we tore it down, dressed the rods and crank and reassembled it. He's working on a job up here in KC and needed it tonight!

I disassembled the bed today and was working on the last bit of welding and grinding where I grafted in the wheel arch patch when Scott called and said he was off work and offered help if I needed it. Heck yeah! So he came over and we got the bed partly reassembled on the chassis. I needed to see what I was facing with the fuel filler tube, but it looks like a 14" straight piece of 2" rubber fuel hose would work just fine. I'll finish grinding the weld on the bedside tomorrow and begin prepping for some epoxy. I'm behind my self imposed schedule, but it looks like from here on out, we'll have more nice days than nasty, so maybe I can catch up a bit ...or not.

[bguild]

Looks like the fuel neck will work great. I will be around this wed through Friday if you need help moving parts around while painting etc.. Just give me a ring. I owe you some of my time for all the help you have been giving me lately.

[Dean'smeanmachine]

now thats some awsome progress, keep at it

[snipescastle2]

Vic,
Your work amazes me, I wish I had your level of talent! I finally met Scott the other day, it was kind of funny how it came about though....I was answering a craigslist ad for a front bumper, and he kind of put it together by my name and phone number....talk about small world.....any how, great work and I'm sure I can speak for everyone here, we'll be watching the progress, it's inspiration to all of us! Good work!
Ben

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by snipescastle2

Vic,
Your work amazes me, I wish I had your level of talent! I finally met Scott the other day, it was kind of funny how it came about though....I was answering a craigslist ad for a front bumper, and he kind of put it together by my name and phone number....talk about small world.....any how, great work and I'm sure I can speak for everyone here, we'll be watching the progress, it's inspiration to all of us! Good work!
Ben

Thanks, Ben. Not much CRLS progress lately, I'm afraid. However, I did finally finish the job on the mill/lathe and sent all the parts to Houston for CNC work I can't do. Massive cleanup ensued and the shop is finally tidied up and tools stashed in their rightful locations. When last I posted, I'd mocked up the bed on the chassis and that's where it's sat ever since. I did make it to auto parts and acquired the fuel filler hoses I needed, just haven't checked the fit yet.

I very much want to get the tires and wheels back on, so I revisited the rims after accidentally splashing them with hydraulic fluid a while back. A quick cleanup and a few minutes in the blast cabinet and they were ready for final prep and masking. I'd purchased a POR15 product meant for clearing over bare aluminum. It requires the use of an etching solution for best adhesion. I followed the instructions and let it sit for two minutes and then rinsed off. All I can say is ...it sure didn't work very well. For whatever reason, it leached something out of the pores that stained the surface in a number of places. No amount of scrubbing with soap and water would remove it. So back in the blast cabinet it went. At this point, I was thoroughly disgusted. I've spent a huge amount of time on these rims and they just keep looking worse. So I stepped back and rethought the plan. I'd already dropped off the center caps at the anodizing shop with instructions to matte etch and clear anodize them. I convinced myself that having an aluminum center cap and aluminum outer rim with a painted wheel center might look a bit like a bullseye. So I took the easy way out and shot rally silver paint on the entire surface. Looks nice and clean and is repairable if needed. Should go just fine with the caps. Now on to bigger and better things.