Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

Yes this Clown act did get this side off by himself, it can be done fellars!

[Gregski]

so after dinner we pressed on and got the passenger side wheel housing off, this side is rusty but solid, man that metal is so thick, it is awesome good ol' AMERICAN steel, we may not need the donor for this side

[Gregski]

and then the unthinkable happened we ran out of beer, and we had to stop for the night, so here I am drinking my wifes' white wine as I type this, don't you dare judge me, or there won't be any future updates ~ JK

[rich weyand]

Originally Posted by Gregski

You my friend are the Dean of College of Truck Knowledge!

Well, I know what I know, and when I don't know I mostly keep my mouth shut, though I do get caught out once in a while.

Mostly it depends on whether or not I have had to do something on my own truck. If not, I only know what I've read.

Glad I got the info to you in time for you to use it!

[greg64]

Wow, lots of work done there! Are you going to paint the bedsides while it's all apart? And how are you going to re-weld the joints you ground out?

Believe it or not, my original bed floor looked worse than yours.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

Are you going to paint the bedsides while it's all apart?

I want to, but I may not be able to because we have to move to a new house, that's why I am fixing the bed so that Rusty can help us move. I will spray some SEM undercoating under the bed while it is off the truck, as well under the wheel wells. Then I plan on using some sort of bed liner to roll that on, on the inside of the bed. I kinda like the ruff farm truck look on the outside, I believe they call that Sleeper look, LOL

Originally Posted by greg64

And how are you going to re-weld the joints you ground out?

I may not weld them until I buy a welder (again) this time a Lincoln, Miller, or even a Hobart and not a Harbor Freight piece of junk. I had two different HF machines, their $100 dollar Flux Core only unit, which looked like pigeons pooped all over your work, and their $200 Flux/MIG combo which I ran as a MIG with a tank which specialized in burning holes in sheet metal even on the lowest settings. (I was trying to weld much thinner material, ie modern day car fenders etc... but still, it was terrible, me being part of the problem I'm sure)

Originally Posted by greg64

Believe it or not, my original bed floor looked worse than yours.

I bet, mine is pretty bad if I was to shine a light through it from underneath you would see a bazillion of other holes you do not see in the pics, trust me it is Swiss cheese at it's finest.

[KQQL IT]

I painted the bottom of my bed with some cheapo silver.
makes working underneath more pleasant.

[Jake Wade]

Wow, I would have tried to find another bed.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by KQQL IT

I painted the bottom of my bed with some cheapo silver.
makes working underneath more pleasant.

Interesting, maybe I should paint mine blue, so it feels like I am laying there starring at the sky, LOL

[Gregski]

picked up where we left off last night, on the passenger side we must unscrew the fuel tank filler tube from the side of the bed

[Gregski]

once again we cut off the rear post by the tailgate from the floor of the bed

[Gregski]

and thirty bolts later we got ourselves a flat bed, lol

[Gregski]

after using a wire brush on the threads of the eight long bolts that hold the bed to the frame and lubing them up, we used a cheater bar on the end of a ratchet for more leverage, that plus fines not gorilla tactics and we were able to unbolt them all

note the one super long bolt on the driver's side by the cab

[Gregski]

don't forget the tailight wiring harness before you go yankin' the bed floor off the truck

[Gregski]

and large bolts later we had ourselves a Dump Truck

[Gregski]

now we could remove the piece by the cab, again the whole point of taking it off piece by piece is so that one man doesn't have to lift 5,000 lbs

the bottom of the piece looks worse than it is, it is very solid, so a few minutes with a wire wheel and it should shine

[Gregski]

then it was just a matter of putting on some hefty gloves, standing up on the frame, and lifting the rusty bed floor off the frame and leaning it against the wall of the garage

[Gregski]

man I waited 10 months to see this, looks kinda funny Rusty with his pants off

[Gregski]

then it was time to have some fun !!!

... and bye bye

[Gregski]

other duties as required, (some say it's what I do best)

[Gregski]

ah yes, a clean canvas

[Gregski]

lets bring in the new patient...

for $40 bucks what did you expect, but I think we can make this turd shine, its a little wavy but it's solid

[Gregski]

time to meet the replacement twins

anybody know if there is a right and a left one, I think my original driver side one is passed it and the replacement one has a hole in it that the guy who sold it to me cut out for the trailer wiring harness

[Gregski]

just some wheel housings out in the pasture gettin' cleaned up

[greg64]

Hey, it's the return of Dusty.

You should slap some paint on that chassis while you have such good access. Might want to change the diff lube too, because it's easy with no bed in the way.