Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Ready to paint



The entire tub is under primer now and it is ready for paint.



After sanding the bed, which was no easy task from what I gather given all of the scrapes and scratches over the years, it was primed as well.



The lip around the doorway turned out nicely. There is no trace of the rust that was there before.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Primed



After completing all of the work with the body filler, the guys primed all of the new metal and have it nearly ready to prime the rest of it and start painting.



The right rocker panel is all that must be completed before the whole tub is under primer. There was a bad rust spot along the top edge of the rocker panel in the lip of the doorway. This was ground down, converted and then filled, a process that slowed down the works a bit, but since that piece of metal is not available and would have had to be fashioned by hand, it was worth taking the time to save.



Trevor also welded shut a hole that once made room for the radio antenna by placing a piece of copper on the back side of the hold and welding the hole shut. The weld won't bond to the copper, so it filled in the nearly inch-wide hole.

I don't plan on having a radio in my truck, though they were offered for the first time in 1973. These trucks were delivered without radios and the dealers installed them. There was a recess in the dash to accommodate a radio and the wiring was integrated into the harness, but they came with a blanking plate made of plastic where the radio fits into the dash. The antennas had to be installed as well. Most were placed on the passenger side, but the dealer who sold mine placed it on the driver's side.

Someone along the way was dissatisfied with the factory AM radio and sawed out the hole to make room for a larger, aftermarket radio. Welding all of those saw marks would be a tricky fix, so I opted to go without the radio. I like the idea of not having a radio anyway.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Preparing to prime



Trevor has everything rust-proofed and sealed up and is working to polish the metal and to apply body filler.



The left rocker panel is already been nworked over with body filler and he is making his way around to the other side.




The ScotchBrite pad really polished up the raw steel and got it ready for the filler. Soon, it will be under primer. You can see the green etching primer in the bed already along the seams between the wheel wells and the quarter panel.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006

Three sides around a square



With all of the new metal in, we started to check the fit of the rear doors and drilled all of the necessary holes for the hinges.



The welds for the rocker panel still need to be gound down and then Trevor can start rust-proofing the cavity in the rocker and those beneath the tub.



The driver's door is in need of some work. Rust has settled in at the seams along the top sill so they must be welded to reinforce them. Toyota still makes the lower half of the door, but these are fairly rust-free so we want to save them.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Speaking of Trevor...



This is Trevor who will be doing all of the welding for my truck. He's very good at it; much better than I'll ever be.



He's removed the right quarter and rocker panels and is patching the wheel well and doing some rust removal before installing the new quarter and rocker.



One of the most amazing things so far is the repair job that was done on the hood. At some point, the hood flew up and struck the brow of the top, putting a nasty crease across the hood. A man who owns a paintless dent repair fixed this in a matter of hours in return for some needed space to work on a project. I thought this hood was destined for the scrap heap and am so glad to have it fixed so well. There is so little filler in this, it should be fine, even with the vibrations and heat from the engine.