Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

Well I've been thinking about replacing my perfectly good chrome side mirrors with some black rectangular ones, now I appreciate chromes durability, but I aint no fan of shinny things on my truck, you know what they say, chrome won't get you home but black will get you back...

and so we found ourselves this beautiful 1986 Dodge Ram 50 and stripped its ears off

[Gregski]

not bad for $10 bucks with that coupon discount

[Gregski]

here's how the two mirrors compare

[Gregski]

we came home after work and just had to try them on for size, the holes are close but off by about 1/4 inch

[Gregski]

we mounted one mirror with one screw for mock up, what do you all think?

[enaberif]

1) Do your wing windows work?
2) Can you actually see out of those?

I often found even the dumbo mirrors could block the view at times. Those look even smaller and to close to the doors.

[UKNOWME]

Different but I don't think they look right.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by enaberif

1) Do your wing windows work?
2) Can you actually see out of those?

I often found even the dumbo mirrors could block the view at times. Those look even smaller and to close to the doors.

You are good my friend, it did seem too close to the door. Of course I have not driver the truck yet, but the wing window pillar already seemed in the way, hey can't blame a man for trying.

[68Timber]

The dumbo mirror's don't get much love but it's still a big mirror with decent view and "correct". You can get a white set and paint them to match.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Don't bondo them... Just use more JB weld and it will cure like metal and look 100x once you've sanded it all down good.

Well the Tribe has spoken, we'll be using JB Weld.

So we hit O'Really's and picked up a jumbo tube of the stuff, $20 bucks for the 5 oz tubes instead of the little 1 oz tubes

[Gregski]

after changing into some work clothes we threw the dash on our [ahem] mobile work bench and mixed the white stuff with the black stuff 50 fifty like the recipie tells us to

now I must say, this stuff was difficult to work with, I don't know if I did something wrong but the goop was runny, not like water, but slowly shifting, it got to the point where I couldn't work on the dash in the vertical position but had to lay it horizontally or the goop would glide away

now as I type this post, I recall AutoZone had the fast drying type aka the J-B Kwik (dries in 6 minutes), but I thought who the heck needs that, I got time, ha ha

[Gregski]

i know the rule of body work is the less bondo you use the less you'll have to sand, but at this point I didn't care how much I would have to sand, I just wanted those stupid round holes to disappear - know what I'm sayin

I was beginning to wonder if 65* F maybe was too cold to applicate this product, I don't know, seemed warm enuff

just showing you how much goop we had left, this may be a two step process, goop some on, sand it off, goop some more on until the holes are completely full and then sand it off again

[enaberif]

You need to treat JB Weld just like bondo.

The dark stuff is essentially the metal part and the white stuff is the catalyst. Depending on how fast you want it to set you can add more or less white stuff.

Who much white will make it harden too fast though.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by enaberif

You need to treat JB Weld just like bondo.

The dark stuff is essentially the metal part and the white stuff is the catalyst. Depending on how fast you want it to set you can add more or less white stuff.

Who much white will make it harden too fast though.

Thank you for the tip, does the ratio effect its strength I wonder? Like for example is the 50 black/50 white mix stronger than the 25 black/75 white mix?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Thank you for the tip, does the ratio effect its strength I wonder? Like for example is the 50 black/50 white mix stronger than the 25 black/75 white mix?

My thought process was always the faster it hardens the more brittle it could be so I've always tried to mix it just slightly under like 75/25 instead where its not so runny or weird but still dries plenty hard.

[rich weyand]

I love the stuff. Runny initially, but it starts thickening pretty quick, and you can manipulate it all the way to where it is like clay. It will run though if left "other than horizontal" even when it is pretty thick. If you have the hole you are filling horizontal, and you put enough to fill the hole, even as a glop in the middle, it will flatten itself out. I let it dry overnight before putting the thing vertical, or it will ooze out even hours after applied.

I discovered some cheese cloth in my drivers floor pan under the point of the wing vent where water drips. I will probably skin it with JBWeld, but I will apply painters tape to the underside to keep it from oozing out of the holes until it cures.

[Crcrft78]

For the last two days I have been reading this thread, its great. This is like the "GO TO" thread for your project. You do a little bit of everything and anyone looking for help is bound to find it in this thread.

[rusty76]

Agreed ^^^^

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Crcrft78

For the last two days I have been reading this thread, its great. This is like the "GO TO" thread for your project. You do a little bit of everything and anyone looking for help is bound to find it in this thread.

Thanks bud, there's more to come.

[Gregski]

I'm sure you at one time found yourself jumping from one thing to another one project to another when working on your Pick Ups. Well I feel like that's happened to me so it's time to make a list of what we have going on here before we go crazy:

1. As you all know October was the National Lower Your Truck Month (ok, I just made that up), but The Greg was trying to lower his truck but hit a snag when the McGauphy's front coil springs sagged more than expected.

2. So he, being out of money for the month, decided to do the Mad Dash. Remember our budget is around $300 bones per month. Well after stripping the dash to bare metal and JB Welding it, we had to wait for things to dry and for the textured paint we ordered.

3. So the knucklehead went out and bought a Tinted Slider Rear Window. But did he install it, no sirie bob, he had no money for the new rubber seal, so what did he end up doing?

4. He went out and bought a seat, well technically Seat Cushions. OK, awesome and got the seat done? Negative Ghost Rider, he had no money for the seat vynil covers! So then what did he do?

5. Well naturally he bought some new used side mirrors! Great, so we can check that off the list? Not so fast McFly, we did not like them, they are too small, can't see nothin out of them, going to buy new aftermarket ones instead!!!

SAY WHAT! This does not sound like our Greg!

[UKNOWME]

So after all the negatives how about some positive updates. Besides you're positive you are out of cash!

[sic_F44]

i love this build, been following for months! Finally got back on my build because of you. Keep it coming

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by UKNOWME

So after all the negatives how about some positive updates. Besides you're positive you are out of cash!

LOL, yep, so here we go, using my November truck budget ordered some 2" drop front coil springs from LMC truck and some 2" leaf spring hangers for the rear... and today the package arrived

I said this before and I'll point it out again, LMC Truck needs to send their shipping and receiving folks to Packaging 101 class, come on man!!! Yes those two small boxes are what was inside that huge box that a grown man could fit into.

[Gregski]

Are you kidding me?

Did LMC Truck just really send me mcgauphys front coil springs?

The exact same part number ones and everything!!!

I even called them and asked if they could tell me what brand their coil springs were and the lady said she did not have that information!!!

I even emailed McGauphys and asked them why their leaf spring hangers cost more than LMC Truck ones and was told because LMC Truck does not sell McGauphys parts!!!

Not cool man!!!

[arky78]

I've been following your build awhile, lots of great ideas. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more.