Rat repair.

[DD1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Yet another distraction, 10.5 weeks old and his body from his chest to his hips are easily as long as my shoulders are wide, couldn't pass this guy up. His name is Cooper.

He is so adorable. Where did you get him? That's a great distraction to have.
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[Molberg]

All good stuff Mike... happy new year. Cooper will be covered in bondo dust before you know it

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Molberg

All good stuff Mike... happy new year. Cooper will be covered in bondo dust before you know it

Nice to hear from you Molberg! This guy is a handful right now.

We still have very cold temps here, I had hoped to be started on some in the garage metal repair to the fender and passenger door by now but I have been laden with the lung congestion crud for a couple weeks, don't want to risk breathing any crap for a while, plus my energy level is pretty low. eventually..

[First c10]

Hey Mike just thought I would check in. I hope all is well!

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by First c10

Hey Mike just thought I would check in. I hope all is well!

Thanks for checkin in!

My Rat weighs heavily on my mind daily and i know i got to get back to it soon, no progress yet this year but hope to change that soon, been a crazy winter. I refuse to be one of the guys that gives up mid project.

Cooper has about probably doubled in size too, growing fast!

[7dee2]

My youngest boy got a Lab pup for Christmas and it’s doubled in size also. Gotta luv a big dog!

[DD1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Yet another distraction, 10.5 weeks old and his body from his chest to his hips are easily as long as my shoulders are wide, couldn't pass this guy up. His name is Cooper.

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Thanks for checkin in!

My Rat weighs heavily on my mind daily and i know i got to get back to it soon, no progress yet this year but hope to change that soon, been a crazy winter. I refuse to be one of the guys that gives up mid project.

Cooper has about probably doubled in size too, growing fast!

Wow! He's a nice looking pup! I am sure you will be back at it soon. I still have some organizing and work to do in my garage, but it's been too damn cold.

Looking forward to updates!

[First c10]

Sounds great Mike you will be back at it soon. The weather should be getting better also.
I have a English springer that is 14-1/2 years old. She is getting around slow slow. Sucks but we all get older.

Dogs are truly mans best friend.

[BossH0G]

I agree dogs are truly mans best friend.

A dog is the only living thing on the planet that will love you more than it loves itself.

The thing about dogs are, they steal your heart, then they break it.

[swamp rat]

Anyone still remember me?? LOL!

The new pup is now 7 months and 70 lbs, still growing..

And this winter/spring has been one of the wettest ever, the going joke is it only rained twice this winter, once for 63 days and once for 48 days.... Its been wet! so I admittedly had shifted some of my priority's and been doing some fishing, steelhead and salmon in the rivers, plus I bought a pontoon boat and have been spending some of this rainy time on a couple lakes as well, rain gear is a must.

I left off on the rocker showing the bottom of the rocker didn't curl under like the original cab corner, the rear rocker flange needed a couple pie slices to allow me to move the bottom into place, to weld the pie cuts I ended up wrapping a tie down strap around it to pull the pie cuts together for welding.

Once satisfied I moved on to the cab corner, cut out the rust and grabbed my two cab corners, one a Tabco and the other I believe is a Tri Plus, took some pic's to show the differences, decided to cut a 3.5" X 2'5" chunk out of the Tabco, cut, twisted, trimmed to fit, and reshaped the flange next to the outer rocker, welded into place without near the shrinkage problems I had on the driver side.

reinstalled the outer rocker and test fit the door, door fit is not perfect but its not a show truck, the window frame being the worst of it. decided to weld it up and covered the bare metal with a temporary coat of primer (not shown).

[DD1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Anyone still remember me?? LOL!

The new pup is now 7 months and 70 lbs, still growing..

And this winter/spring has been one of the wettest ever, the going joke is it only rained twice this winter, once for 63 days and once for 48 days.... Its been wet! so I admittedly had shifted some of my priority's and been doing some fishing, steelhead and salmon in the rivers, plus I bought a pontoon boat and have been spending some of this rainy time on a couple lakes as well, rain gear is a must.

I left off on the rocker showing the bottom of the rocker didn't curl under like the original cab corner, the rear rocker flange needed a couple pie slices to allow me to move the bottom into place, to weld the pie cuts I ended up wrapping a tie down strap around it to pull the pie cuts together for welding.

Once satisfied I moved on to the cab corner, cut out the rust and grabbed my two cab corners, one a Tabco and the other I believe is a Tri Plus, took some pic's to show the differences, decided to cut a 3.5" X 2'5" chunk out of the Tabco, cut, twisted, trimmed to fit, and reshaped the flange next to the outer rocker, welded into place without near the shrinkage problems I had on the driver side.

reinstalled the outer rocker and test fit the door, door fit is not perfect but its not a show truck, the window frame being the worst of it. decided to weld it up and covered the bare metal with a temporary coat of primer (not shown).

Looks good!

I am not a fan of the Tabco cab corner. Wish I had gone with a different brand. Of course if I had used a different brand and had the same problem, I'd be saying "Wish I had gotten a Tabco part."

The top left pic is the rocker lined up to the cab corner? just trying to get the right perspective. I am going to have to do the same thing. Would not be surprised if I had the same problem.

So you made adjustments to the rocker, not the cab corner, right?

Your pic of the rocker installed is helpful. I now see exactly where I need to weld it.

Glad to see you back at it!

[rgunlock]

Looks like the rocker & corner turned out well Mike. Glad to see you're spending time on the truck again.

[mcbassin]

Nice progress, glad to see you back on the project. You bring back fond memories of rust repair on my truck.

[7dee2]

Nice work, sounds like you been having some fun!

[DWilbur]

Good to see your back at it. I got lucky with my cab corners. I did have to replace both rockers.

[Vic1947]

Hey Mike,
I know all about the weather up there. Years ago when we moved up there and lived on the East Side, there was an article in the paper gushing about the great summer they'd just had... 53 whole days of sunshine.

Looks like the rat made it thru the winter without any new tinworm, so hopefully you can pick right back up where you left off.

[swamp rat]

You know I have been on second shift for the last 10 years until about last February, I gotta admit the sun and the summer heat is taking a toll on me, I burn way to easy!

Got back at it a bit, the passenger fender naturally is a bit worse for wear than the driver side thanks to battery acid, but the cup is still good so decided to repair it. found some cracking and thinning spots and a couple holes needing filling along with the 3 main patches

[swamp rat]

The back of the fender needed some repair too but being as i'm terrible at fitting with tight gaps i decided to lay out a bit of a grid so I could keep track of where to bend the patch at to hopefully maintain the gap fitment, it worked out pretty good.

Will be chasing any remaining rust with the GEM rust converter.

[swamp rat]

I got a friend at work that told me he uses twisted wire cups to remove paint from body parts, he says it removes paint and does not remove the metal at all, can anyone give me an idea of what stiffness of wire I should use? he said it should be soft but I also know if its too soft I might just generate heat and not remove any paint. ??

[swamp rat]

Oh Cooper is now the same size as Max, A bit taller but not quite as thick, both at around 95 lbs, I may have said Max was 75 lbs a while back but I was mistaken.

[Vic1947]

Good work, Mike, keep plugging away and it'll be done before you know it.

[swamp rat]

Thanks Vic! I gotta admit this stuff does seem to grind along forever!

Sunday I hung my fender upright and started the application of the GEM rust converter along the back seam, oh and I did use the converter under the front upper patch before welding it in too. Then I cut out the cab bracing and took the time to vacuum and blow out the cab a bit, its still pretty dirty and will need a good wipe down later. Then I masked off the inside cab floor for paint, at which point I was reminded I never mudded the inner kick panel so about 6 applications of mud, some high build primer and much sanding dust later I'm now ready to K2 prime the inner part of the cab after scuffing the area with scotchbrite and wiping down with wax and grease remover.

[7dee2]

Very nice Mike, you are doing a great job!

[NONHOG]

Nice to see progress! Keep up the good work.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

Nice to see progress! Keep up the good work.

Yea I need to get my butt in gear again. Aside from cleaning out the work area so I can bring out the paint and supplies without contaminating everything I haven't got anything done since Sunday, I think I can lay a little primer tomorrow.