Whew big weekend..First let me preface this whole writeup by saying if you are one of my neighbors I am sorry...Truly sorry for all the car parts laying around my front yard, pressure washer noise all weekend, and the occasional swear word yelled loud enough to hear it 9 blocks away
Friday at lunch I stopped home and as directed by others on here I soaked the whole engine area frame down with "Rinso" oven cleaner from the dollar store. Being close enough to Mexico to spit over the border it seems everything in our Dollar stores is Hecho En Mexico or Hecho For Mexican Consumption. Not sure if this plays into my results or if my engine compartment was just that bad but I went through 6 cans of oven cleaner and another gallon of purple power to get to where I can actually see bolts again! Keep in mind it was in the 70's this weekend and virtually no humidity so anything that was sprayed down dried up fast so that may also have kept the stuff from doing its job.
Friday soaking
Saturday soaking
Final Results
Now if you can get past the millions of tiny grease boogers stuck to the driveway and consequently sticking to everyones shoes... getting tracked into the house I'd say it was a success! I would like to publicly say sorry to my wife however!
On to the next task of removing the bed. Hmmm I saw lots of pictures on here of guys removing their beds with an engine hoist easy right? Seemed no matter where I tried to lift from I couldn't get a "balanced" approach and was always too far this way or that. Well in the middle of my frustration who comes walking up? My good old neighbor who was curious about my project and just happens to stand 6'4" and built like the packers center Garth Gerhart. I asked him if he had a minute to help me lift this little ol bed off
Long story short he had no problem on his side but Im a very very very small man by comparison and we barely got it off...But we did get it off. When it comes time to put it back on I'm having the high school football team over for a barbecue.
Here it is off and in this photo you can also see the millions of tiny grease boogers all over my driveway:
Alright now I can work on the rear frame which was much easier than the front. With the exception of some old undercoating it came real clean with a wire wheel on my cordless drill and a quick degrease. I decided to go with Eastwoods rust encapsulator and then follow up with a few coats of Eastwoods satin black frame paint. Here is a before and after the rust encapsulator.
Before
Before I got going I noticed the passenger spring clamp on the rear was missing:
After (took the pic during the process.)
Ahhh is it Monday yet? Saturday night my Dad stopped over for a Scotch and water but before we got started I had him help me roll the bed up onto its side and proceeded to drink until my muscles didnt ache anymore.
Had some work to do Sunday morning to support my truck habit so before I left under the cover of darkness I soaked the entire bottom of the bed with purple power and upon arriving home I hit it with the pressure washer...Virtually nothing came off so I went inside to wake up my son and let him know it was time to work, donned a dust mask, and some goggles and proceeded to wire wheel for the next 4 hours. This photo was taked during the process:
Alright, everythings wire wheeled and degreased Im ready for some paint! I decided to just use good old Rustoleum satin black on the bottom of the bed hopefully I made the right decision. Here is my son applying the paint:
And the final product:
Some things I learned this weekend...
- Clean greasy parts of the truck someplace other than your main traffic area.
- It takes more than two of me to lift an 8' bed off a 1970 Chevrolet.
- Buy better dust masks.
- The pressure washer has a low oil shutdown. Always check the oil!
- The stuff that comes off of old trucks shouldn't get on the driveway, your face, or in your nose.
- You can never have enough spare batteries for your cordless drill.
- Im in way over my head