Pieces

[Palf70Step]

It is definitely not show quality, but the bed is sold again and should hold up the rest of my life. A before and after shot of the front corner area.

[bad6772]

man you have got alot of things done , good work. was wondering what did you use to remove the bed, as far as a lifting device? i know they make something but it looked as if you used a 2x4s and chains?

[krue]

Looks good Bill, may head down your way soon to check it out.

[Palf70Step]

Originally Posted by bad6772

man you have got alot of things done , good work. was wondering what did you use to remove the bed, as far as a lifting device? i know they make something but it looked as if you used a 2x4s and chains?

Pretty much. It's some 2x4's with bed (the kind you sleep in, not truck) frame rails as the cross pieces.

Originally Posted by krue

Looks good Bill, may head down your way soon to check it out.

Sounds good. Is your's alive yet?

[krue]

Somewhat, now I have tuning issues.

[Palf70Step]

Got the bed painted in Eastwood today. I tried to finish painting the inside of the bed with the leftover silver, but ran short, so it's a bit patchy on the inside. Shot the outside and remaining portion of the inside with good ole black Eastwood. I'm not sure whether it was the heat, my gun, or just me but my second coat didn't flow very well. It will be all sanded and primed later, I just wanted the bare metal covered so the rust would take over, like it started too, with all our wonderful humidity.

I have one little patch to do on the drivers panel behind the rear wheel, then I'll be painting the underside of the bed.

[Palf70Step]

By the way, first picture is what it was a 10:00 this morning (in the shade no less). Probably why painting the bed was such a pain today. I know I sure did sweat a lot (understatement for sure ). Inside the shop was at 100 also, I didn't want to check later in the afternoon, I was afraid of what it would say.

While the bed was drying I started, routing the fuel lines for the blazer tank. I figured it would be a lot easier with the bed off. Of course I couldn't find all my 3/8"s fuel line, so I'll have to grab some more and bend the front half. I plan on an inline fuel filter just behind the cab. I think I am going to build an insulated heat shield also to try and keep the heat away from the area where I want to put the fuel filter.

Anyways, not much else.

[Palf70Step]

Spent alot of time cleaning the shop and working some other hony do, bt I was able to work on this. ! had to patch and rebuild this section of the bed just behind the driver's side rear tire.
I kept forgetting to bring my camera to the shop during the work so I had to improvise the before shot. This is the shot of what I found while stripping the bed of 8 million layers of paint and bondo. It turned out to be a bit worse than what this picture shows.
It was slow going as I didn't have a patch panel (never thought to check if one existed either Cut out the metal, made a piece to weld in. It was a bit awkward to me cause the piece had to have two contours rolled into the piece. The wheel lip also had some rust and disintegrated some during the welding in of my patch. I had to go back and build up some metal so I could get the lip correct ( or close). I have been fussin' on it a while, but today I got to do the finish sanding on the section and it came out pretty good. Just need to touch it up with some primer, then I can seal and paint the underside of the bed before I put it back on the frame.

[Palf70Step]

Some sweatin with the oldie. Got some stuff done last night and today. I did some more sanding and primed the patch area of the bed last night. While that was drying, I finished cleaning up the underside of the bed, so I could paint it.

Then I finished up the fuel line and filter. I made a home made filter older out of a hose clamp bolted to the front of the frame. I'll either cut the end off shorter, or find a smaller clamp later.

This morning I shot the underside of the bed. It's just Rustolium, but it should help it hold up. This is after the first coat. I shot one more layer after this picture. I also did the underside of the wheel tubs with bed liner. I forgot to take a photo of that.

While the bed was drying I swapped out the 69's driver's front fender for the original one from the 70. Turns out the 69 fender was a whole lot of bondo covering who knows what. I had already stripped and patched my 70's a while back. I'll just need to finish smoothing out the filler I had to use.

Time for the bed to go on.

[Palf70Step]

Bed is secured temporarily, shift the truck around in the shop. Dang thing needs to get running soon. It is HEAVY pushing it around on those dollies.

Removed the core support to hopefully do my last bit of patching on the truck.

It was eatin up in the usuals spot under the battery, as well as banged up. I cut off the bad metal, straightened out and cleaned the thing. I just hope the EPA didn't see the huge oil slick coming off it. Little oven cleaner and Castrol puruple cleaner, pressure washer and no more grunge. Tomorrow I'll clean off the rust and hopefully get the patch dopne for that area.

Last shot, I just felt like shooting the engine. Some day it will fire

[Boog]

Hey Bill. It sure does help to put the bed and fenders back on it every now and then to help ya keep focused. Tire dollies are nice but I prefer to move mine around under it's own power when I can. It gives me a chance to fire it up and run it for a while.

[Palf70Step]

Today started on making a patch for the core support. I evened up the cut as best I could and then made a patch from an old piece of hood. Scribed and bent the angles for it. Slowly tacked it into place. It's not exact, but it will serve it's purpose. It feels as strong as the other side, so I think it will hold out. Now just to clean it up for some Eastwood and paint.

[Palf70Step]

Covered all the lower areas with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator, hopefully that will hold any further deteriation. Shot some Rustolium on one side and on the core support corner brackets. Ran out of paint, so I'll finish painting the rest of the support tomorrow maybe.

The passenger inner fender was worse than what I originally thought (wish I had kept the new one I had now ) I decided I will try and patch it once I get the core support back in and can test fit it. I have a beat up drivers side inner that I think I can get to mate up. Too cheap to buy a new one I guess. Anyways, broke out the wire brush on the grinder and cleaned all the undercoating off the inner fender so I can play with it more later.

I also found the fan shroud, so before I got all cleaned up I decided to wash the years of crud off it before I fit it with the electric fan.

Time to goof off with the youngun now.

[Palf70Step]

Little more progress today. I finished painting the core support and later installed it in the truck.

I finished cleaning and painted my fan shroud. I'll be modifying it to fit the electric fan from a Gran Cherokee.

Cleaned and painted the radiator brackets and a few other little things.

Right now she almost looks like a truck again.

[68chevy68]

Looks like its comin along nicely. Keep up the good work.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Lookin' great Bill. Finish up the engine, some black seude, and it'll be time to ride

[krue]

Looking great Bill!

[Palf70Step]

I worked on my fan shroud and electric fan mock up today. As was mentioned in another thread from the board, the fan from a 2000 V8 Grand Cherokee fits in the stock shroud with a few mods.

My truck was originally a 6, and I put in the 4 core radiator and got this shroud from a friend, so I wasn't sure how everything would mate up. I wanted to make sure the fan wouldn't hit, nor be too far from the radiator. It appears everything will work just fine. I don't know the real difference between a AC & non-AC shroud, but this one came off a factory AC truck.

Notched the bottom to allow one of the tabs to slide in. Drilled two holes to bolt the other tabs in, then notched the edge for the wiring to go through.

Pretty simple. I wedged a thick washer and tie wrapped it to the bottom tab to make sure it was snug fit in the shroud

Then it was a simple matter of bolting it to the factory mounting holes (once I found where I put the bolts.. )

Fits in nice. From what others have said, I shouldn't have any flow issues once I get the truck wired and fired up.

[Palf70Step]

I also worked on my door and panel alignment some today. The drivers' door had been patched before and whoever did it didn't do it very straight. I had to massage it back some and then tack weld the skin edges together.

I did learn that mixing parts from all sorts of trucks makes alignment of body panels a real pain in the posterior. I am going to have to go back an tweak some more things to get the gaps right on the front of the driver's door.

I'll have to see if I got some more room to move the fender back, other wise I'll need to weld in a filler on the rocker/fender. It's getting closer and the differences in the surface colors make it a bit worse than what it is, but I want it looking better.

[Palf70Step]

The rear of the door is not too bad. I am going to have to add a little bead at the bottom of the door to make it straight and match up. The upper part of the door seems to be pretty close also.

Oh well, little tweaks. I don't think I will have as much problems with the passenger side. It seems to slip right in, but I'll work on that fine tuning later.

Put the old grill on just so i could have a picture of it semi looking like a truck. Now she rests till tomorrow, and some more fine tuning.

[Palf70Step]

Tinkered around today with the passenger side door & fender alignment. Sometime these things are just a pain in the &^%, which meant I got it better than the driver side, but still not satisfied with the overall fit. Decided to go play Hot Wheels with the son rather than smash the doors with a big hammer.

[Boog]

I know what you're going through Bill. I don't have the patience I used to and sometimes the little things can really get me. Thankfully we don't depend on these trucks for our daily transportation so we can close the door on it and come back some other time and try it again.

[Palf70Step]

Well, time to hack things up. Decided to do the cutout for the AC vents, which I eventually hope to install in her.

I used the Vintage Air templates, but adjusted the passenger and drive side ones a hair so the entire vent will lie flat. Them I used my dremel to out the middle one. I may have to trim the center one a hair, but I didn't have a vent to trial fit it, but I will by next weekend. Smooth everything our and sprayed some primer on it.

[Palf70Step]

Next was to figure out the holes for my new custom from the junkyard visors

They are from an Explorer, have the lighted vanity mirrors and the secondary visor. A little measuring and a few holes drilled, waaaa laaa. new visors. While I was there I also drilled the hole for the wiring for the rear view mirror. It's a lighted with compass & stuff from a Tahoe/Suburban.

I have to tack in the holes from the old visors as well as do some cutting and fabbing to mount a dome light from a 97 extended cab C1500 in place of the original dome. Who knows, there may be some paint flying on the interior before too long. Now off to help a board member with an electrical issue.

[krue]

Looks good Bill.