Wampus Cat

[cwcarpenter98]

The transmission looks great! Makes me wish I had painted mine before I swapped it in. Live and learn

[Low Elco]

Great looking work here, thanks for the writeup!

[TxCajun]

Shop Improvements

I think I finally have all of the paint stripping, rust repair, and metal massaging done on the cab so it just needs a final light sanding and apply epoxy primer. However, its been too hot and humid for painting, so I've been working on some shop improvements.

I finished the bottom 4 feet of all of the walls with "R" panel corrugated metal, and the next 4 feet with tongue-and-groove 3/4" sheathing plywood with insulation behind all of the panels. I also added plywood on top of the 8 foot beam level to make 16" shelves all around. The underside of the metal roof is spray foam insulated, so I just need to finish the top 2 feet or so of wall to have finished, insulated walls all the way around.
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[TxCajun]

Shop Improvements (continued)

I bought a Harbor Freight abrasive blast cabinet late last year on sale. I read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos regarding improvements so I did the following:
1. Added polyurethane sealant to all joints while assembling the cabinet.
2. Reworked the screen floor to sit lower in the cabinet.
3. Added a dust baffle to the air inlet.
4. Replaced the supplied LED bar light with two flood lights. Added switches on the side of the cabinet for the lights and for switched receptacles for powering the shop vac.
5. Purchased a cyclone dust separator and grafted it to a 5 gallon bucket.
6. Built a plywood platform on casters to hold the cabinet and the cyclone dust collector. This also raises the cabinet for ergonomics since I'm 6'2". Casters will allow me to move it around the shop or to the outside covered work area.
7. Replaced the supplied material pick up tube with a vortex material feed valve so the gun will siphon media from the bottom of the cabinet.
8. Added an air pressure regulator for the abrasive gun.
9. Added an air line in to the cabinet for a blow gun for cleaning media off of parts.
10. Added permanently mounted screws and knurled thumb nuts to the top for ease of removing and replacing the window glass. And while I was at it, added a stiffener brace to the inside of the cabinet top.

A lot of the sources recommend adding a foot valve for controlling the air to the abrasive gun and upgrading the gun but I haven't done that yet. So far I've used it to clean up a few truck brackets and it is working pretty good.
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[The Rocknrod]

Wow, nice work on the blast cabinet.

[88Stanger]

Damn, Great write up on the cabinet, gonna use this! I have that same cabinet ....

[TxCajun]

Rocknrod, 88Stanger,

Thanks for the encouraging words on the blast cabinet.

After Googling "Harbor Freight Blast Cabinet modifications" and checking out videos/articles on what other people did, I tried to incorporate the best of the ideas.

It turned out really well; I almost hated to start using it and get it dirty.

[justa dumb hick]

Is that a TR250 in the background? What year? It looks very straight and clean. Certainly seems your automotive interests cover the entire range of the spectrum.
And thanks for sharing so many of your brilliant concepts and solutions!

[TxCajun]

Originally Posted by justa dumb hick

Is that a TR250 in the background? What year? It looks very straight and clean. Certainly seems your automotive interests cover the entire range of the spectrum.
And thanks for sharing so many of your brilliant concepts and solutions!

That's a 1964 Triumph TR4 in the background, and it's fenders are on the wall. It doesn't have any significant body damage but it does have a lot of rust in the fenders and rocker panels. More rust than expected since it was from the Dallas area but it was parked in outside storage since the 90's with a rotten top.
I bought it about six years ago, I've rebuilt it mechanically, and and I'm now working on the rust/body issues.
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[TxCajun]

Shop Improvements (continued)

The corrugated roll up door on the shop is about 10'3" tall and 12' wide. There were big gaps around the sides and at the top there is a gap/opening of about 2"; lots of room for air, dust, and critters to get in.

I bought a 12' x 12' Brush Seal Kit with 3" Brushes from https://jacorinc.com/ for about $200 including shipping to Texas.
This kit consists of:

(2) 3″ Medium-Duty Brush x 1″ 45deg Holder x 8′ Long (Sides)

(2) 3″ Medium-Duty Brush x 1″ 45deg Holder x 4′ Long (Sides)

(1) 3″ Medium-Duty Brush x 1″ Straight Holder x 8′ Long (Top)

(1) 3″ Medium-Duty Brush x 1″ Straight Holder x 4′ Long (Top)

(1) Package of 1/8″ x 3/4″Lg self-tapping and drilling fasteners

Jacor Inc provides pretty good installation instructions with the kit, and also have some good installation videos on their website.

It took about 3 to 4 hours of labor to install this kit. The biggest effort is pre-drilling the holes in the steel building trim and support channels for the attachment screws, spaced about one every foot.

The brush seals add a little bit of drag to raising and lowering the door, but make a great seal.

[aggie91]

Nice upgrades to the shop and to the blast cabinet.

[TxCajun]

Shop Improvements (continued)

Metal Bending Brake Modifications

I bought one of the Harbor Freight 30 inch sheet metal brakes a few years ago and have used it to make the upper rocker patches (see post 56 and 57 above), the A pillar drip rail replacements (see post 89 and 90 above), and a few other patch panels. However, the brake as purchased requires the use of a number of C clamps to hold the clamping bar, plus the clamping bar still slides around when bending sheet metal.

I looked around on the web for articles and videos for improving these brakes, and the one I liked best is a YouTube video “Harbor Freight sheet metal break” by 52drj. I didn’t copy this YouTube design but used it as a starting point in thinking through my modifications.

I made a brace for the top clamping bar from 1 ½” x 1/8” thick steel angle scrap that I had on hand and skip welded this to the top clamping bar. The brace runs all the way to the ends of the clamping bar for stiffness but is modified on the ends to allow clamping bolts to pass through to the top of the clamping plate. I fabricated a handle from ¼” diameter rod for use in lifting the clamping bar while inserting material.

After mocking up the part in cardboard, I fabricated the brackets on the ends from 2” square x 1/8” thick steel tubing that I had leftover from a trailer hitch modification . The upper clamping bolts on the ends are 5/8-16 Grade 5 bolts. The handles on the clamping bolts are ¼ steel rod which operate like the handles on a C Clamp.

The horizontal bolts that hold the clamping bar in place and prevent it from sliding backward are 3/8-16 Grade 5 bolts. An extra nut is added to lock the bolt in place once the upper clamping bar is in position.

When finished with the modifications, I bolted the metal brake assembly to a piece of wood using carriage bolts so that I can hang it on the wall in the shop when not in use, but the assembly can easily be clamped to my workbench when needed.

All fabrication was done with a hand-held grinder with cut-off discs, a belt sander, a drill press, and a MIG welder.

Ready for fabricating the next C10 or TR4 parts.
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[88Stanger]

I like this!

[justa dumb hick]

Although it's only been a few weeks, do you have any results on the brush seals? I am also fighting the corrugated roll-up door gap situation. I've been stuffing the gaps with fabric softener sheets, but once the fragrance is gone, the mice come a'running. I can get most of the bastards with my water-bucket mouse trap fairly quickly, but once the water evaporates they overrun the place.

Yesterday I was trying to close the gaps by realigning the side rails. While rolling the door up and down, checking the gaps, I noted a rather flat Gopher/Bull snake dangling lifelessly from the door about halfway up- on the inside! Poor guy musta followed the mice in there and somehow got hung up on the door. Anyhow- lotsa rattlesnakes in Arizona, and one of them could be next, so improvements are in order.

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions?

[TxCajun]

justa,

Regarding you question about the roll-up door brush seals, I'm very happy with them with regards to keeping out wildlife, breezes, dirt, etc.

The door already had a good seal along the bottom, but the sides and top were pretty open. I haven't had any of our local rattle or coral snakes wander in, but before installing the brush seals I did have a couple birds come in through the top opening and couldn't find their way out.

The brush seals are so dense, and do such a good job of blocking the gaps that I don't even get much light around the edges. We had a power failure one afternoon last weekend, and it was so dark in the shop (no windows) that I was lucky that I had my phone flashlight in my pocket so that I could find my way out. :-)
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[TxCajun]

Tailgate Trunnions

The tailgate trunnions on the truck were badly worn, actually an oval shape with about a 1/16” difference in axis so the tailgate had a lot of play. When I was considering some of the aftermarket trunnions a few months ago, they seemed to be out of stock for fleetsides.

In looking around, I found that the outside of a 1” schedule 40 PVC pipe coupling is about a perfect fit to slide in to the pocket on the end of the tailgate. Using my band saw, I sliced a coupling to make a few “bushings” the right lengths to fit in to those tailgate pockets.

Then, I mounted each of the old trunnions on the end of a bolt, chucked it in the drill press, started spinning it, and used a grinder to size it down so that it would fit inside the “bushing” made from the PVC coupling.

After that, I cleaned up the parts, added a little paint, and mounted the tailgate using a little white lithium grease on the “bushings”.

PVC is not the ideal material for this “bushing” but I was able to make two of the “bushings” from a $1.50 coupling so they are cheap to replace if they wear or crack.

The tailgate fits nicely, no slop at the pivot points, and goes up and down quietly. I was trying to eliminate the slop because I want to try to adapt S10 latching hardware next.
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[88Stanger]

Now this is great!

[TxCajun]

S10 Tailgate Latches Part 1

I had initially thought that I would keep the original tailgate chains, but I like the look of other 60’s C10s that I’ve seen without chains, and thinking about possible paint damage, I’ve decided to go chainless.

I looked around on this forum and was inspired by a few pictures of conversions using 1990’s S10 latches posted by members 502tripower and 64shortbed in threads about tailgate latch options. The price of these parts fit my budget; I pulled a set of ’98 S10 latches, cables, and actuator rods at the local Wrench-A-Part for $12 and found a used 67-71 F100 or 66-77 Bronco tailgate handle on eBay for about $20.

I started by removing the chain hardware, however, I found that the chain eyelet on the tailgate would not come off when the bolts were removed. I made horizontal cuts through the chain eyelet body, trying not to go into the tailgate sheet metal. Once the cuts were made, I used a hammer and chisel to remove the pieces. This part was apparently welded to the tailgate end flange from the backside prior to assembly of the tailgate sheet metal. On both sides of my tailgate, there were two spot/plug welds above and below the mounting hole.

After getting the chain eyelet body out of the way, I smoothed out this area using a grinding wheel and a flap disc.
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[aggie91]

nothing wrong with a bit of ingenuity to solve a problem. Like you said, for $1.50 and a little bit of time, they are easy to replace should they break or wear out.

[The Rocknrod]

Very nice work on that tailgate.

[Duncan K]

Nice job! I really like that install, very clean. I might have to look into this for mine. I don't like the idea of paint damage from the chains

[joesscamaro]

That looks like it turned out great! Good work and creativity!

[aggie91]

Great work on the tailgate latches. I'll have to file this idea away for future reference.

[88Stanger]

damn fine job on these mods!!!

[TxCajun]

Thanks for all of the encouraging words on the tailgate!

The next thing I've been working on is stripping the bed exterior panels for paint. On the bed and on the tailgate, I've found some significant "bondo'd-up" dents in the double wall areas where I can't access the back side for hammer and dolly work. I decided to try making a slide hammer and then MIG welding on some studs or in some cases 16ga plates for pulling on the dents.

I had an old 2lb hammer head that I thought I might drill and use for the "slide" weight, but I abandoned that idea after I broke off a drill bit in the hammer head. Instead, I found a 2lb slide weight on eBay for $10.

I fashioned that weight plus some 5/8 rod, a 5/8 threaded bolt, some shock absorber washers, a threaded coupling, a hook, and an oak tree branch in to this slide hammer. The hook on the end is a threaded weldment so it can be removed to install other end pieces if I need other shapes on the end.

Haven't tried it yet, still stripping paint.
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