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Last night I finished grinding loose rust of the back half of the frame and sprayed 2 coats of Phix rust dissolver. It's starting to look pretty good and since today will be warmer, I'll drive it over and wash the frame off really good one last time before starting rust treatment. I ordered Eastwood rust encapsulator primer and 3X Eastwood chassis black paint.
Also took off the spare tire carrier setup, going to do a bed mounted spare and the factory one was rusted so bad all the bolts started breaking and the lowering cable was froze in the housing.
I've researched quite a bit over the last year on different lifts and have decided to go with a 4crawler.com body lift. I love a lifted look on these trucks but don't necessarily want to go all out modifying my suspension. Too many conflicting reports for me on the ball joint spacer and damage to UCA, not wanting to do drop brackets of any kind, so I've settled on a 2" body lift. Really all I'm after is looks, get a 32" tire under there with some space above it and drive-ability. This truck won't see anything more off road than maybe a farm ditch once or twice a year, ha ha.
For rust repair I'm starting on the bed. Like mentioned before I have no experience with body work, so I'm doing alot of Youtube videos and reading articles on the net. The truck was rear ended a few years ago in a parking lot and insurance replaced the bed with a new one. However the P/O never put any bedliner or rust protection on. The truck sat for just over a year before I got it and had alot of leaves collected on one side, that helped rust form. It put a small hole in the bed which only got worse while I drove it this last year. I started grinding the paint off to determine how far I needed to cut and have a basic outline. I'll start cutting the rusted section off, then work on forming a replacement piece.
Last edited by Blownchevelle68; 01-30-2018 at 08:37 AM.
Bad section cut out and started forming new piece. Bought a new Hobart mig welder setup yesterday and spent couple hours putting it together and learning that I need more practice in welding! Ha ha. Will get more scrap metal this week and practice before working on replacement pieces.
Frame is cleankng up good and making improvements each time. Today will be the last day I spend power washing and hope to start priming the frame this week.
I wasn't real happy with the first piece of metal i had cut out for the bed, so I took cardboard and cut the shape out a little better, picked up some 18ga steel and made a new piece which fits much better.
1st coat of Eastwood chassis black 3X on now, will be hitting it a 2nd time tonight. Painted a little of the suspension as well, mainly just to protect it at this point. All of that will be coming off for better prep work and new suspension hardware this summer.
Last edited by Blownchevelle68; 02-05-2018 at 08:10 AM.
Not the prettiest of welds but learning as I go. New pieces formed and welded in. If I had it to do all over again, I would have overlapped the edges by 1/2" and welded in from there. But it's in there and not going anywhere. I finished it off by applying 3M seam sealer and primed. The bed will get Line-X coating once the paint work is done. There are a couple sections of the underside bed support rails that need sprayed with rust encapsulator otherwise it's in good shape.
Next up is the drivers side floor. Sucks that it rusted so bad here, as all the other pans are literally untouched. Started testing the floor with a hammer to see what was soft and what was just surface rust. I got to it all just in time as most of it is surface. I trimmed out the bad sections, sprayed it with Phix rust solution and let it set overnight. It removed quite a bit of the surface rust and left a protective zinc coating.
The one body bolt/bushing area was rusted bad enough it broke on the bottom side when trying to remove it. Ended up cutting the head of the bolt off inside the cab and drilled out the remaining bolt section. All around the body mount area feels solid. I'll spray down both the inside and outside with rust encapsulator once I get the sheet metal cut and tacked in. The seam along the floor pan where it meets the cab deteriorated in the seam sealer area. So I've also chipped that out and will replace.
Not sure what I'll end up coating the floor with but would like something that leaves a rubber lining so if water gets in there again, it doesn't cause this issue.
Last edited by Blownchevelle68; 02-11-2018 at 08:26 AM.
More rust removal last night, found a sort of weep hole that formed on the driver side inner fender/support area, just above the seam that runs along the cab/upper firewall area. Starting to believe this all has been caused by a leaking lower windshield or possibly how the water traveled down the front fender and back into the seam area. Also starting to think this slowly occured while the truck sat for a year or so and continuous water running in this area degraded the seam seal and allowed it to pool inside the truck under the carpet.
At any rate, I cut out 2 replacement pieces of metal last night, tonight will get them shaped and trial fit. Will be spraying more rust encapsulator on the small remaining section that needs sealed off, then rubberized floor coating going down across entire floor pan section, followed by sound deadener.
Last edited by Blownchevelle68; 02-13-2018 at 09:58 AM.
Started painting the floor with a rust barrier paint, does not look real pretty and not sure how effective it will be, but again it's getting sound barrier put down before carpet, so I'm mainly looking for something to resist rusting if water gets through again.
Some Eastwood chassis black on the inner fender area.
Piecing the floor together. Started welding most of it but found a couple area's that are thin, so will be using 3M panel bond adhesive to finish it off.
Removed the rear seats and side panels. Found a nest from a mud wasp behind the back wall seat. Wonder how long he was in there?!
Last edited by Blownchevelle68; 02-18-2018 at 09:33 AM.
Sanding down the hood-few areas where rock chips had gotten through primer and started surface rust. Floor and firewall fixed. Not real pretty, but functional. Seam sealed everything inside and out, primed and painted.
Took door panels off and cleaned all the years of gravel road dust from the inside of door. Will take door handle off and window trim next for sanding and prep
Finally finished sanding tonight-truck will be sent to body shop next week for cab corners, rockers and paint. I have the box at home and will strip paint off it next.
Looking good. I was researching a while back on body welding and tutorial recommended making round corners to help prevent warpage on outer sheet metal. Not really a concern for what you're doing. But what good would I be if I didn't chime in
Looking good. I was researching a while back on body welding and tutorial recommended making round corners to help prevent warpage on outer sheet metal. Not really a concern for what you're doing. But what good would I be if I didn't chime in
I intended on doing the cab corners myself but as this project took shape, originally starting out as a low $$ build and then progressing to what it is now, I figured I should let a professional do the sheet metal replacement on the outside, where I would see it every day! ha ha. It would drive me nuts if I saw a problem area that was caused by me.
01-30-2018, 08:30 AM
