Project "My Happy Mess"

[litew8]

Previous owner from 1991 mentioned this full width floor mat when I spoke to him the one time. That makes this [real] rubber floor mat 21yrs old! There's no shoe wear!

[litew8]

[litew8]

A ps rendition of what it should look like -





Pics below, my original mat was kept even though torn up.
De-greased and matched a piece against the dash and steering column.
The only known [by me] imagery of an authentic OEM [elusive] Sandalwood Rubber Floor Cover/Mat






Colors made up at the auto store.
The red outlines are failed attempts.
Green is what I settled for (may want a hint darker).
Everything else is true Sandalwood vinyl paint from the factory.






Unmasked the OEM vent windows and wiped clean
The chrome is nearly perfect still, 41 year old QUALITY
The rubber is still dark black and pliable! wow

[72KAY20]

Very very nice job litew8!! Can tell this one will be awesome.

[litew8]

Thanks man! A couple hours a day, things are looking better.
Funny how you don't realize something is nice, until you sandblast, paint and clean it.
Proud of my 41 year old chrome vent windows
Here's what today brought -






This is the "Ivory" paint sample (right side) for door panels, etc...
A dash of White (to brighten it up) was added -




And a couple more shots of my vent windows, sorry - I'm impressed too

[litew8]

Not much of an update other than we're starting to work on the cab.
We're not going to bring the whole thing down to bare metal, but maybe some.
Here's a pic of the entire floor covered with Hushmat, and today did some
wire wheeling to remove the old weatherstrip adhesive. Looks good underneath!









Should be able to get a lot more done this weekend.

[litew8]

Thanks hg Nice fab work on your latest repair!
--
Here are some pics of the window channel. Not very
exciting, just showing what I'm working with and how much rust is present.
It could be worse We think our window guy, a friend of The Fixer's, will be able to work with it OK.

Worst parts are the top corners. In between, along the top/bottom, are very clean!
Drip rails are very clean also.

Before shots -
















My ghetto masking job -




And after wire wheeling -













Planning on working a lot more this weekend. Thanks for looking!

[litew8]

Got a lot of paint removed over the weekend. The goal is to remove the paint
in corners so the rest can be hit with the DA later. We'll remove the remaining
paint and sand out scratches left by the wire wheel, all in one pass. I've done
more (today) since these shots were taken.






















Who knows what this is?




Tools used (also a 4" wire wheel) -

[tsnow678]

Originally Posted by litew8

Who knows what this is?

I am guessing a mini bike. Here is a link:

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=145850

[litew8]

Originally Posted by tsnow678

I am guessing a mini bike. Here is a link:
http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=145850

Not so mini
Though none (pgs 2 & 3) in that link are as complete.
It's The Fixer's. It will be getting cleaned up too.
Maybe throw it in the back of my 71'.

[litew8]

Well, it's nearly 70 degrees here today! I keep on changing the schedule.
Thought we'd hit the kick panels and door jams first, but the way things have
been going, I think we'll just wait and hit it all at once instead. The weather looks
to be getting better and better each week. Today, spent a few hours
working on the driver's door. Again, just cleaning up the corners, curves and groves,
later we'll hit the flat areas with the DA. I can almost smell the paint! or is that
the dust from grinding

Not bad, none of the rust has busted through entirely and should clean up nice.
The Fixer said we'll hit the rusty areas with a spot blaster later.

Before -














After -

[litew8]

Got the other bulb put into the blast cabinet.
Here's a shot of it and product placement.




400w equivalent (both) using only 84w!




Who can guess what this is?

[litew8]

edit: Go back and read what I wrote, calmly and slowly.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Now that the nay-say rambling is over (hopefully ), we'll continue on!

Reconditioned my fresh air vents today.
Drilled out the old rivets and replaced w/new, similar rivets.




After, I used the drill bit to make holes in the new insert for the new rivets.








The tool used to smack the rivets down into place.
Didn't get a picture of them finished, going to touch up with ZR first.




Product placement.






This explains it.

[litew8]

Finished up the fresh air vents with quick shots of ZR.




Pic of the doors, a little more done. Haven't had time (or space) to finish.




Misc.




Another hint:




Saving the best for last, I thought I'd let you all get to know my crew
better. Here are pics of The Fixer and the Pit Boss

The Fixer



The Pit Boss

[litew8]

Decided to pull the OEM replacement fender out.
Wanted to see what what underneath the paint.
Had a little surprise, but not too bad


Here's what I had to start with:






Then I stuck gold! not really, it's bondo




Looks like there was a dent that was hammered out -




And then on the other side, a little more. This looks like holes
for lower trim. The fender must have either been a donor before,
or whoever owned it got rid of the lower trim and welded up the holes.






Finished off for the day. Not bad for a couple hours worth of work

[litew8]

My typing is getting a little sloppy (above post).
That's what happens when I'm tired and in a rush. Oh well.

"Wanted to see what was"
"Then I struck gold!"

---------
Took the driver's side fender out today and cleaned it up.
Found a couple more little surprises, easy fixes.

Before I started, The Fixer and I finished converting the shop's
lighting. Same bulbs used as in the blast cabinet. We estimate he'll be
using one 1/2 less power now and has a brighter coverage than before.
We're not "going green" because we think that's for sissies

2,400w [equivalent] candle power (cp)!
He had 12 4' florescent light fixtures, dual bulbs.

The Fixer finishing up -






Driver's fender in 80 degree weather! booyah!














Here are the areas that will need some attention later on.
Expect a little tutorial on how to use/apply bondo.

[litew8]

Got the driver's door cleaned up some more. Tip: How to get sunburned in March,
grind a 71' Chevy pickup door down to metal, at noon, under the sun.

Couple pics of the driver's door -
Since this door was previously stripped (uneven paint) and there was small, noticeable signs
of surface rust around the center, I took the paint off completely to verify it's condition.
Not bad, very small areas of surface rust... will clean up easily.






Misc.
My sister's (Patty from the Bronx) car floor mat




Who knows what this is? Hint, K&N isn't related.

[bcutt]

Its an electric driven pump to supply clean air to respirators, made by Bullard...

[litew8]

Correct! A Bullard Free-Air electric pump to be exact. Oil-less so they do not produce carbon monoxide, oil vapor or oil mist. Doesn't need CO monitors, temperature alarms, airline filters, or complicated calibration equipment.

AIR FLOW: 10 cfm at 5 psig. Supplies air to one, or two workers wearing continuous-flow,
supplied-air half or full face mask respirators, or one worker wearing a continuous-flow,
supplied-air hood or helmet style respirator.

Open drip-proof motor drive, for use in clean, dry areas.
Inlet Filter: Medium efficiency, keeps particles larger than 25 microns out of the air supply.
Inlet filter can be extended up to 300 feet from the pump
Outlet Filter: Carbofine with activated carbon
Weight: 49 lbs.
Dimensions: 8” wide x 16.3” long x 13.5” high.

Was a demo unit, got at 1/2 price. I believe it to be industrial grade.
Do you know anything about these bcutt?

[mightymouse]

hey litew8 , looking good .

[litew8]

Since the majority of work is done to the doors and fenders, I decided to spend
some time tackling the front end panel. Besides the tailgate, it's the last large
panel to clean up.

God help us all, I'm glad I don't have to do all this to the bedsides.

Here's what we have to start with. Outlined are the two worst areas needing
attention. They're dents. At one time early on, I thought about leaving them
for character - but we'll clean them up instead.




The factory grease pen markings. Sad to see them go
They were never seen anyway since they face the back of the cab,
and at least I've got pictures to archive the find.






OK, back to work -








Uncovered a little something special. If you ever want to know if your
front end panel is OE, look for this stamping on both ends of the panel.
I can't make out what it is, if it's symbol or two numbers. They're the same
on either end. If I remember right, my doors have this too. I think I took pics,
I'll have to look later.




Finishing up for the day, got all I need done, done.

[litew8]

Correction: I misspoke about the lighting earlier.

"2,400w [equivalent] candle power (cp)!
He had 12 4' florescent light fixtures, dual bulbs."

Actually, he had 15 4' florescent light fixtures, dual bulbs (30 total),
and was replaced with 15 DayLight florescents. They produce a very Nice, natural light.



3,000w [equivalent] candle power!
He says at night, the garage "glows" like National Lampoons Christmas Vacation house.

[litew8]

A little more info on the pump. Being a demo unit, The Fixer says it
would have been used during sales presentations, etc... Not a unit that sat
on the shelf. They'd most likely demonstrate it's low maintenance and show
how to disassemble to replace the carbon vanes after they've worn. In the
picture below, you can see the 4 carbon vanes. Looking to the ones directly
to the left and top, you can see how they don't sit flush with the drum,
indicating very little wear. I'd imagine they'd wear completely down to near
nothing if allowed. A rep. for the company, when asked, said she had, recently, a
customer needing repair after 15 years of use!

Since it isn't going to be used constantly, we should be good for a LONG while

4 carbon vanes shown. Centrifugal force pushes them to the outer wall,
which I think then pushes air out through to the low pressure air line, out the mask.
I also got GREAT deals on masks. May post them later.




Needs a little cleaning









Misc. hint #3

[litew8]

Brand New $400 Professional Full-Face Airline Respirator Masks.
I scored for $50/$100! One to be used as a backup.

You cannot find this one anymore!
From 1995, brand new, never used Got it from an aviation outfit.




Brand new, never used.
This one retails for $3/400! Got for $50 bucks!




They connect to this 1/2, low pressure hose that connects to
the Bullard Free-Air pump -





Did a little more cleaning on the driver's door today. Not a lot, just cleaning
up the little I missed the other day. Tomorrow, maybe hit the pass. door a
little more. We're not in any rush, so it's easy going. Besides, I'm the only
one doing the grunt work so far








Okay, no more hints. Here's the 1965 Harley-Davidson M50 Scooter!
Made in Italy, which I think the plant is still in use today.






Here's what it should look like restored:

50cc 2-Stroke by Aermacchi



-----
I know none of the sanding/grinding pics are exciting and everyone wants
to see PAINT! We're getting there

[litew8]

1965 aermacchi harley davidson M50 restored by...