I am moving slow on this one but at least I am still moving.
Pulled the fuel cell. Noticed that it doesn't have a fuel gauge set up like the one I put in the 55 Chevy Truck.
Unbolted the bed from the frame and slid it back.
Someone fabricated these tabs for mounting the bed:
One of the back tabs was broken off at the weld:
Removed the perimeter bed to deck mounting bolts and the wheel wells. You can see the rubber spacers I put in to hold the bed in place after removing the wood.
The paint on the inside of the bed actually looks better than anything else on the truck.
Back to stripping the cab:
1962 Chevy Pickup
1968 Coronet R/T
ACTS 16:31 |
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Settled In
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:11 pm Location: Cleveland/Fort Myers Beach, FL Country: USA |
Looks like another epic project! Keep up the good work. I love those old trucks, and am anxious to see what you and the owner come up with.
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Removed the bed from the truck and set it on saw horses.
Still some work to be done on the rear of the cab. Getting set up to weld the broken fuel cell mount. This actually broke off at the frame rail and not the weld. Starting to push on these projects hoping to get them finished up by March. 1968 Coronet R/T
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Pulled a ton of dents out of this tailgate and its starting to shape up now on this side. The areas with pencil marks still need a bit more attention:
Welded up the broken mount: Turns out there were more holes in this window frame area than I thought. There were two more under the little strip of filler at the top of the dent: Cleaned the filler out and started welding up the holes. Half way done here: Started working on a patch to the holes near the mirror mounting location: Formed the patch and then traced the outline on the metal. Cut inside the line with my cut off wheel and will weld the patch in. Then weld up the small hole to the right. Hard to believe anyone would fill this gap with body filler and call it good but they did. I'll post more pictures tomorrow when I finish this up. 1968 Coronet R/T
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Top Contributor
Posts: 6234
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:17 pm Location: Pahrump NV. Country: USA |
Jim
I been using 2" Masking tape to make My Patch Templates. Cover Hole with tape and push down hard on cut lines to make lines on the Tape cut tape to Hard line lay on metal Scribe it out then Cut and trim makes for a Tighter fighting Patch with less trimming. works great on the small stuff. Also I am experimenting with a Step drill bit and a Hole Punch to cut patches. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... tent=42039 http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... tent=41476 I got one of these recently a whole lot cheaper than this one pictured, It came with 1/2" punch Planning on Buying more of the Punches & Dies soon makes nice clean Plugs with a dimple in the center. Planning on cutting damage out of Panels with the step drill then putting in plugs cut with the Hole punches to make nice gap free plugs perfect for welding with the Tig or Gas. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roper-Whitney-N ... Swo0JWGh2I Dennis B.
A&P Mechanic, FCC General radio Telephone Operator Line Maintenance A&P Mechanic and MOC Tech specialist. |
Updated photo links.
My plan to finish this truck by March were changed when finishing the 55 Chevy became a priority. 1968 Coronet R/T
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That works great for patching small holes, but it is important to drill a nice round hole, and the step drill does that. The hole needs to be 1/64th larger than the hole plug, then hammer on the dimple backed up by a dolly to tighten the plug in the hole. I have also used this when welding if I blow though in a weak area of thin sheet metal. |
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Getting back on this truck.
The Tailgate was a mess when it arrived with paint cracking: Again we see the heavy filler used: Stripped it all to bare metal, pulled and hammered dents, skimmed with filler, shot 3 coats of Tamco DTM build primer, applied guide coat and block sanded. Repeated the primer application and sanding, then guide coated and wet sanded with 600. Then shot 3 coats of ********** Dark Red base followed by 3 coats of Tamco Glamour Clear, sanded and one more coat of Tamco with an ounce of ********** Retarder. Here it is as sprayed: The following is a color comparison to the truck's interior door panel in Corvette Rally Red (according to the owner): The ********** is a shade darker but I don't know how many coats the last painter used on the interior door panel so a true comparison is difficult. 1968 Coronet R/T
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Looks Great. Just for my information, what's the purpose of adding retarder???
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It slows the evaporation of solvent down allowing the last coat of clear to melt into the previous coats.
This works even better on flat surfaces but you have to be careful not to get runs by putting the last coat on too heavy. Here was my first attempt on the 1990 Miata (this is as sprayed): 1968 Coronet R/T
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