My J-4500

[Crankyolman]

Today was a nice dry sunny day so I pushed the bed outside and set about priming and undercoating the bottom side. That went real well



It's now fully protected on the bottom side. While I had it upside down it was easier to take care of the rockers so I sanded those down so that part will be ready to prime when the time comes. It's now safely back in the garage where as soon as it's fully dry I will once again flip it back over, than push it back outside tomorrow and hopefully finish sanding it down and get the primer on it.

[Crankyolman]

I'm moving right along on this little project.



Today was sunny and bordering on hot. I managed to get the bed flipped upright and back on the cart without too many problems. Then I rolled it outside along with my air compressor and split my time between working on the bed and cleaning and mowing the back yard. I managed to get the left side stripped





then moved on to the front. The front of the bed is fairly beat up particularly along the bottom like many of these beds tend to get.

In the picture you can tell the high spots which have no paint Vs the low spots which do.


I was alternating between beating the dents back out and sanding when my wife came out and told me it was getting too late to work and the neighbors would like a little piece and quiet so I quit for the day. I don't really expect to get this part completely perfect but it is already looking much better that it did.


For the record the neighbors have been very supportive of my efforts, even the mail man stopped to talk to me about it today



Plans for tomorrow are to get more of the yard done and finish stripping and prepping the bed and hopefully get some primer on it. While stripping the side I found a few high and low spots that had to be addressed, nothing big but one small holdup there is my quarter sheet palm sander, that I have been using to sand bondo, broke so the bondo sanding is all being done by hand and Harbor freight sandpaper sucks and my right shoulder has a couple of bones with no cartilage between them so sanding is taking a little while because if I do too much of that particular movement it becomes very painful.

[Crankyolman]

I finally finished stripping the bed today I only ran into one little issue. While stripping I noticed the welded joint at the forward corner of the bed was badly cracked.






Then I checked the other side and found the same thing only not quite as bad



So I grabbed the welder and made a quick repair bead and the bed is now ready for primer. I had planned on priming today but something came up and I ran out of time so hopefully I can get that done tomorrow morning before any rain moves in.


I also managed to get a third of the back yard done. It's not easy mowing down waist high grass and weeds with a cordless weed wacker but it's coming along.

[Crankyolman]

I got up this morning at the crack of 8(ish) eager to get the bed primed before the rain came this afternoon. While wiping down the bed I found another minor dent I had missed and had to fix that real quick. Then I set to work priming. The guy I borrowed the paint gun from couldn't find the lid and said he never uses it. I'm not a big fan of that so I ordered a coupe lids off Amazon but they haven't yet been delivered. So I decided to try to do it his way and use it open top.


I'm sure you have an idea where this is going


Things were going OK until I painted the inside of the bed rail, then as I raised the gun above the rail to get it out of the bed I also raised it above my head... That's when I felt the cold splash of epoxy primer on top of my head, face, arm and chest I had to close my left eye to keep it out and used up what was left in the gun then grabbed the can of acetone I had sitting there for clean up and ran inside. Basically I took an acetone shower and surprisingly managed to get most of it out of my hair, face and beard.



I then went back to work and while looking for something else found some gloves I had gotten for painting and came up with the idea of using one of those as a lid which actually worked






I then managed to get the rest shot without incident.









So the bed is now just a little wet sanding away from being ready to paint


I don't like this paint gun, it makes me really miss my old Binks 62.

[Crankyolman]

I can't believe it's been 10 days since I have updated this thread but I've been very busy and had to go back to a regular work week last week.

I'm still sanding on the bed but I got the fenders painted and began wet sanding them. Priming the fenders went a lot better than the bed and I got the gun to lay the primer on fairly smooth so they won't need that much sanding work.

The weather is being a bit unpredictable, even for the weather people, they can't seem to get anything right which makes planning a problem but I'm pressing on with whatever I can.

Of course my habit of doing goofy things is kind of slowing me down. Ever since I began working on the header panel it's been bothering me that the lower panel has dirt, rocks, debris and rust in it so I decided I better remove it, de-rust it and see exactly what needs done rather than just treat and coat it like I was considering. After all I've done so much to the truck at this point and never want to do it again so I may as well do it right regardless of the amount of time it takes.

Well, the original header panel is being a pain to remove. The bolts were very rusty and at risk of breaking so I have been soaking them in penetrating oil for a week now in preparation for removing. That actually went well except I'm having trouble reaching the one behind the steering gearbox. I think I just need to bring home a longer wrench from work and I'll be able to get it. In truth I should pull the steering gearbox and take it down to Redhead and have them rebuild it while the truck is down because it's leaking but my annual budget for the truck is so far back in the rear view mirror I can't even see it any more. So that is going to have to wait.

In the mean time I started looking at the '69 header panel I had sitting around that I was thinking about using as a wall hanging. A while back I was considering swapping them but changed my mind. At that time SOLSAKS and I discussed me sending him the header but I talked him out of it because it has rust problems and I felt it wasn't worth even the cost of the shipping it would take to sent it to him.

Anyway, I'm working on getting the original header off, sanding on various parts and start thinking that maybe that header is salvageable after all. I really shouldn't be allowed to think some times . So I start looking at the header, remove it from the core support and Yep It's pretty bad. There is rust between the top and bottom panels that are spot welded together







and a lot of holes in the bottom panel










but I've gained a lot of knowledge about rust removal and rebuilding this stuff in the past couple years so decided I might just tackle it.


So first thing, I did was take it to work to make sure there weren't any other major problems. The first problem was pretty minor. It seems that in '69 the radiator was mounted about 2 inches further back than on the '72






That was easy enough to fix by making the cutout match the '72 cutout


Then I proceeded to strip the paint off. There was a fairly minor dent I had to beat out but that was it as far as the top section



There was only a small dent that needed taken out so it seemed like I was good to go on the next step, the acid bath.

[Crankyolman]

So I made up a "tub" out of 4x4s and plastic, set the header in it, boiled 15 gallons of water, added 15 cups of citric acid and poured it in the tub.



Then wrapped it up to keep the heat in



and let it sit for 24hrs then took it out and pressure washed it.


This removed all the rust and revealed just how bad the rust had been












At this point it should have just become a wall hanging again but only slightly daunted I decided to press on and took it in to work so I could work on it in my free time.


Now the real work began. I brought in the inner fenders that I had removed from the bed to use as repair panels and set to work figuring out just how to deal with this.


I didn't want to remove so much metal at one time that things would shift so I began with the center section. I figured out the patch panel first



Then cut out the bad metal that it would be replacing



Underneath it was nice and solid



So I then tacked the repair panel into place



Next was the section to the right of that which included some angles and went all the way to the end of the panel



I fabbed a new patch leaving the stiffening ridges out because I think this metal is so thick it really isn't necessary and I tacked that in place



Then a little patch where the 2 panels meet that was a fairly complicated shape



Then on to the right side I cut out the rest of the center section that needed replaced and a 6 inch square section to the far left



Fabbed up the patches for those



and tacked them in place



That finished all the tacks


Then I set to work with the TIG doing the full welds on all the patches. The TIG takes a lot longer than the MIG but gives a nicer weld and I still don't have the MIG working right. I got about 3/4s of that done before I ran out of time so I will have to finish that up Friday or Saturday. I also need to fabricate and add some drains which should also happen this week.

[Crankyolman]

Yesterday I managed to finish welding up the header panel.



Then I made up some drain covers



Made some drain holes and welded the covers on



Now all that's left is to remove the bit of flash rusting and whatever wasn't fully submerged in the acid bath and it will be ready for priming and painting.


I also brought home my longest 1/2" wrench so hopefully I can get that last bolt out of the original header and see if I want to give that one an acid bath as well and fix whatever problems that reveals.

[Crankyolman]

Yesterday I got the original header off and soaking in an acid bath. I checked it a little while ago. Most of the rust is gone but there was still enough that it needed a longer soak so I put it back in, wrapped it up and will let it go another day.



The '69 header is complete, cleaned up and ready for primer and paint.



Today's plans are to wet sand one of the fenders and that's about it.

[ddversatile]

Great progress!

[Crankyolman]

Great progress!

Thank you. It's going slower than I had hoped but I try to do something every day so eventually I will get it finished.

[Crankyolman]

So, here is yesterday's progress.


I took the '72 header out of the acid and power washed it and blew it dry with compressed air. I have to say the original under coat did a hell of a job protecting it over the years. Most of it is still there and in good shape even after the acid bath.



The only big problem was the lower left corner.






Given everything I did to the other one this one was a piece of cake. First step was to make a paper template, then fab a new corner piece, then cut out the damage and trim the new piece to fit



Then weld it in place




I found a few more minor issues with some other areas that just needed some welding to fix and that was it. Now I need to strip off the old paint and grind down a few welds and it will be ready for treating and priming.



As it looks right now the original header will be the best of the two. What I'm considering is painting both of them, using the '72 and hanging the '69 on a wall along with the spare tailgate in case something ever happens and I need to swap them out in the future. Perhaps that's just the hoarder in me but it never hurts to be prepared.

[Crankyolman]

I made a little more progress yesterday. I got the front of the '72 header stripped.



I found a few more minor things that needed welded, one area needed a small patch made up and welded in.



Hopefully tonight I will get the back side and bottom prepped so any body filler that is needed can get done and I can get everything in primer.

[Crankyolman]

Well The header is finished and ready for a little light body filler



I spent yesterday afternoon working on the front bumper pieces which are not in very good shape. My thinking was to strip them down to bare steel and paint body color or possibly spray chrome and probably look for a good chrome bumper later.



Stripping the bumper pieces has not been going very fast. The chrome itself strips off fairly easily, in fact on one of the pieces I can just take a razor blade and peel the chrome up in big strips leaving behind some really nice looking brushed nickle. If the whole bumper looked like that I would be quite happy but I also have rust to deal with.



Once the chrome is off it takes forever to get all of the nickle off so I have decided it's on there good enough that once it's painted I won't have to worry about it peeling off.

[Crankyolman]

Sunday was my last day at work for at least a month, possibly 2 so I set myself daily goals to try to keep myself motivated to get things finished. Every day I plan on

#1) Working on the house, yard or shed to get them finished
#2) Work on the truck until it's finished
#3) Work on learning a computer program I've been trying to learn for the past 8 years.


I'm sure there are other things that will get added as need arises but that's my basic plan. There are also some exceptions to the plan like on days when we have to spend most of the day running around shopping and doing things like that. On those days the list doesn't apply.



So beginning on the first of the month I put my plan into action by taking my wife to one of the local casinos before we did our weekly shopping. Every day since I have worked on the truck and the yard.



My back yard was in pretty bad shape, the grass and weeds had gotten chest high and I had to tackle it all with a Kobalt 18v cordless weed wacker. I have to say of all the weed wackers I've owned over the years this one is probably the best I've ever owned in spite of it being battery powered. Weed wacking your way through chest high grass and weeds is slow going but on and off over the course of a few days I managed to find my back yard once again I even managed to get all the morning glories off my blueberry plants.


As far as the truck I continue working on that as well. I now have all the filler done on the header panels and they are ready for high build primer and both front fenders are fully wet sanded and ready for the final primer and paint. The '72 header required a lot more filler work than the '69 because it had a lot more factory flaws that needed addressed. The '69 only needed one small area where there was a dent that I beat out that needed just a tiny bit of filler.

[Crankyolman]

Today I had planned on moving the truck and setting up the paint booth tents but after sitting for nearly 2 months the battery was so dead it wouldn't even unlock the doors. So I jump started it off the escape and let it run for a while, then hooked the battery charger up. I knew I should have had the charger hooked up a long time ago but failed to do so. Hopefully the battery is OK because returning it to Wal-Mart would be a huge hassle right now.


I did managed to get the headers primed



But while priming them I found some pin holes on the '69


I'm rather disappointment that I didn't see them while I was welding up the rest of it or stripping the paint off but I guess I will just have to weld them up or cut them out and weld in a new patch...or maybe just give up on it until after the truck is back together because it is slowing down progress.


I also finished wet sanding the right side of the bed so that side is now ready for paint.



I was hoping to get more done but the yard still needed worked on, then thunderstorms came through and I quit working for the night.


So next is wet sand the '72 header and think about the '69, finish wet sanding the bed, wet sand the cowl grill and see if the weather will cooperate so I can set up the paint booth and get all the removed parts painted, then move the truck into the booth and start on what's left.


Damn that seems like a lot to do!