The Beautification Project Continues

(05/29/04) After much hassle and gnashing of teeth, I finally got the broken bolts out of the headlight buckets, the grill assembled and installed. I also got the new bumper installed...but ya see the center holes? They don't line up with the holes in the brackets. So I had to drill new holes to install the new bumper bolts. Speakin of which, did you know that AutoZone has stopped carrying bumper bolts? And that Checker only keeps 3 in stock? I finally went to a specialty place to get the bolts.

(05/31/04) Then I turned my attention to the rear of the truck. I'd gotten REAL tired of lookin at that ugly strap bumper. So I got rid of it. It took me most of a day to get the 4 bracket bolts out. Unlike almost all the other bolts on the truck which have broken or had to be ground out, these decided they they wanted to be unscrewed. VERY slowly...and with lots of PBlaster.

My niece Makyla was kind enough to volunteer to help with the primer. I tried to save the lettering on the tailgate by smearing Vasoline over it. That just made a mess. But I'm gonna replace the tailgate eventually anyway. So no big deal. I really appreciated Makyla's help. She was a very pleasant, capable helper. It made for a real nice afternoon's work.

After a little more priming, I got the bumper brackets on and the new bumper installed...along with the license plate and a couple of Finks in the back glass.

(06/02/04) I also got the whole right side primed. This is what distracted me from the rocker panel...as the picture shows, I hadn't gotten to it yet.

(06/05/04) After some discussion with a few folks on mailing lists, I decided to paint the inside of the bed the same red as the wheels. I this is all that I got done because I ran out of Zero-Rust...on Saturday night. It'll get done the following week.

And I made and installed a patch for the right side of the floorboard. Only one side left to do. And that was the end of the weekend.

(06/11/04) The right rear was the last side to be sanded and primed. It was also far and away the worst for the rust. So I ran a high speed grinder over the roughest spots, straightened out some of the dented sheet metal (didn't get it perfect, don't care) and then removed most of the rust and old paint with a dual-action sander and 100 grit pads.

This is the corner that was bent up. I used a porta-power to straighten things out from the inside. Close is good enough for me at this time.

Then I gave it a coupla coats of Zero-Rust. It almost looks presentable.

(06/13/04) I had a dream that the truck had straight pipes on it. I thought that might be a fun thing to do, especially since I'm gonna be gettin rid of the stock exhaust. When I cut the tailpipe out, this is what I found. NO MUFFLER! It had been running straight pipes all along! I spose that low-compression motor just doesn't make a lot of noise.

Here's the end of the pipe. It's a little bit louder this way, but not much. And that ain't very loud. You can see that I still need to repair the corner (actually both corners) of the cab before I call it done.

I put the front fender back on and decided to try on a set of gen-U-wine Dean Moon discs (prolly made in the 60s.) I kinda like 'em.

Then I primed and painted the inside of the bed a nice bright red.

The wood in the bed is totally shot, so I'm gonna have to cover it with plywood or some other low-tech solution. We'll see.

Here's how it sits as of 06/17/2004.

More to come.

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