Re: Rat repair.
 

I've been buying them from TP Tools, but there are cheaper sources like this one. Just be sure the size matches your window. Probably won't be exact, but I just mask the edges with 3/4" masking tape anyway. For example, my viewing area is about 10.75 x 22.75 and the film sheets I use are 10 x 21.5. Close enough for me.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Flatbeds are kool! Thinking I'm the wrong person to give advise on this one. :lol:

Re: Rat repair.
 

Been making some progress, have about 90% of my motion back in the shoulder, still doing PT and dealing with being sore from that too, My Dr appt is next week, I'm hoping to be released back to work with no restriction, we'll see but i am still not officially cleared to do any lifting pushing or pulling with my Bicep..

So the past 3 or so weeks i did what i could with the Blast cabinet being a one armed bandit to slowly using the left arm when possible. The Tacoma Company upgrade kit didn't show up until yesterday and today, they have been back ordered about a month or better, I guess these kits are pretty popular! Here's some progress picks, Naturally when you get a F/F product there is always some damage, just cant seem to get away from it, I was able to flatten the front crease to where you can barely see it then used my flange twister tools to straighten the rest to an acceptable level.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Talking to Mike at Tacoma Company and watching the sometimes over informational video's i knew there were a few mods needed to be made, the factory intake port on the back panel needed to become the exit port, reason being blasting with the nozzle in the right hand most of the sand is directed to the left side of the cabinet so this minimizes the amount of dust and sand that will enter the exhaust port, also the top of the inner rear duct is sealed off as it also created a easy path for crap to be sucked out of the cabinet, both the cabinet section and lower hopper are assembled and all the joints are now sealed with Loctite Pro Line S30. The quick change window kit uses Nutcerts because H/F got cheap and isn't welding nuts on the back of the viewing panel, plus the slots do not match the holes in the plastic cover well, the trick is to install the plastic cover on the inside and get as many bolts thru it as possible then scribe around the screw heads to find the proper hole center, then use a small round file to carefully enlarge the holes to fit the nutcerts. At this point the inner screen is cut down to sit about 3" below the top of the hopper, and the new inlet holes are drilled and grommets installed. Note: Blast cabinet is sitting on its back for Nut cert install.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Marked and drilled the trap door for the new mixing valve, the hole was a little small so i used a drum sander to open it up a bit for a tight fit, then installed.
The light kit is also installed. I also fabbed a inlet duct using my cheapo H/F break forming tool, its pop riveted in place facing to the front of the cabinet and down at a 45* angle per Tacoma Company's spec creating a cross flow. Nice light bulb huh? The upgrade kit packaging was not harmed in shipping nor was the box the bulbs came in from China, that leaves a Factory defect..... One thing i have come to realize is that the Chinese must be in general a very narrow build physically, the holes for the gloves are about 2-3" narrower than my shoulders, I have a feeling someday i may cut out the front panel and flange the cabinet and make a piece with wider holes for the gloves!, of course that would require a bonding adhesive.

Re: Rat repair.
 

Good news on the shoulder and nice work on the cabinet.

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Awesome as usual swamp rat.



"Today's Budweiser is tomorrow's Ford'' :lol:

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Mods look great, Mike. You dusting parts with it yet?

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Yet again i am not getting notifications in my email about posts here, BossHOG and Vic sorry for the delay in replying.

I also called Mike and sent him pictures of the damaged light bulb, he sent me a new one free of charge, wrapped it up and put it in the center of the media i purchased, it made the trip just fine.

In the old 4" inlet hole (which is now the outlet) on back of the cabinet comes with a rubber grommet and a cheap plastic plug, for the old outlet on the side (which is now the inlet) has a different sized hose adapter of roughly 2 1/4", i drilled a 2 1/4" hole in the 4" plug and screwed the outlet adapter to it using double stick tape between them for a good seal, to attach this to the cabinet i decided to install more Nutcerts around the hole and sealed the plug to the cab with foam insulating tape. the connection is a 2 1/4" PVC elbow with a reducer in the vacuum end, both ends had to be heated and resized to fit the vacuum hose and cabinet adapter. In the new inlet a simple piece of sheet metal and a magnet is used for an adjustable air gate.

While waiting for my media to arrive in the mean time i still had the air supply to tackle. I had to add new pipe T and quick disconnect to my air manifold and following with the recommendation from The Tacoma Company i made sure to not any restrictions smaller than 3/8" ID, i found a Flexzilla 1/2X50' hose at Tractor supply on sale for $44 This is a polymer hose that's good for 300# PSI, thinner wall than a Goodyear rubber hose so i think it would fit well on your 3/8" hose real. the ID fittings were 3/8" I took it home and promptly discovered that the ends were made with Aluminum.... Yea i'm used to brass and over tightened and broke one of the ends so i took the hose to the local Hydraulic hose maker and had brass ends put in it, turns out they stock the same hose in bulk if i need more. Heres an Ebay link

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Legacy-Flexz...441284&vxp=mtr

I searched around for a small vacuum to use and thru Youtube i heard someone say you didn't need a huge shop vac, so i opted for a sears 5 Gal 5 HP unit that comes with a wall hanging bracket on sale for $100, i chose it because with space being an issue i wanted to be able to fit it within the cabinet footprint, also being a wall mount unit it has 2 hoses which is needed for the extra connection to the home made Cyclone dust separator, the Grey piece is a 90 degree electrical PVC conduit, i carefully cut the hole so it would be a snug fit, cut the inner end then placed 2 screws on the inner end to hold it snug and sealed it with the same tube of Loctite sealant i used on the hopper, on the lid i cut 2 reinforcement circles out of a piece of wafer board i had laying around, added the loctite sealant to each circle and after i glued the coupler to the pipe which sandwiched the wafer board circles i used clamps on the circles and let it set up. All the PVC fittings had to be heated with a Burnz O Matic torch and then shoved over the vacuum hose ends and resized, this process works really well for a good fit. I also made a base to set it on with casters so i can move it as necessary in my very cramped garage footprint. I also cut a thin sheet of aluminum to fit the inner door to cover the molded holes in it, i double sticked it in place and sealed the edges with a few layers of sticky back aluminum tape i have had laying around for many years. One last mod i did was to tale a $7 piece of gutter sponge which is very similar to fuel cell foam and i cut a couple pieces to put in the inlet and exhaust channels to hopefully help with media containment, it seems to help a little but not sure of it was worth the effort.

http://www.sears.com/craftsman-remot...1&blockType=G1

The project is finished and i couldn't be happier, I didn't use the stock H/F parts so i have no comparison but it works well and it only requires 5# of media so you use it until it breaks down and then load new stuff. I did a test run with the washer bottle bracket, so far no leaks anywhere. The test showed that my vortex bucket seems to work well.

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Thanks for sharing it looks pretty slick Mike, I really like how it's self contained and movable. :smoke:

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Looks great, Mike. I also used a 5 gal Sears vacuum and it works great, maybe too great as I've had to modify the dust separator a few time to cut down on the media loss. Your bucket looks like it should do the trick. You'll be amazed at the stuff you find to blast now that you're set up. You probably already know this since you've done a lot of research, but the #1 mistake people make is putting greasy parts in one of these. It will contaminate the media in a heartbeat. That's why I have my solvent tank right next to the blast cabinet. After degreasing and drying with the air hose, the part goes directly into the cabinet. Happy blasting!

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Thanks guys, i certainly had enough time to think about how to build this thing while healing from the surgery. Vic if your fighting too much vacuum I have a suggestion which I'm going to try soon, H.F sells a router speed control, on amazon its called a fan speed control, or amazon also has a cheaper lamp dimmer version that may work, i think i have one of these in a drawer somewhere so i'll give it a try.

http://www.harborfreight.com/router-...rol-43060.html

https://www.amazon.com/Lutron-TT-300...393JMV3EG&th=1

I have an all clear to return to work with no restriction next Monday, still doing PT trying to get that last bit of movement back (its being stubborn) While i know i need to go back this has kinda gave me a taste of retirement, Humm. :)

I fired up the Rat today and got her turned around and back under the cover so i can start the other side, darned if i'm too short! no more running board and no Nerf bars installed yet, If i would have installed a 2" lift instead of a 4" i could get my foot on top of the sill plate! The wife and i were joking about me needing a small plastic step with a rope attached that I'll have to pull thru the window after i climb in ..... Um.... No! Had to sit on a milk crate and had no mirrors but i got it done ok, I think the Rat was thanking me for firing her back up again!

Here's today's progress, got the passenger outer rocker off to see what I'm up against, I'll be darned of that lower A pillar don't look pretty darned nice! I still need to check it with an ice pick tho. Now I'm wondering if i decide the lower A pillar is good I'm thinking its going to be much harder to replace the floor and inner kick panel patches with the A pillar in the way.

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Nice progress on the Swamp Rat. Digging the blaster vacuum! Cool idea.

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Hey this side doesn't look to bad.

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Glad your back at it!! I am going to make something like that for my Blaster!!

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Thanks for the compliments guys!

More progress today, got the passenger fender and inner fender off today, I forgot you have to pull the radiator out of the way to get to the 3 inner battery bracket bolts, I was able to get it done without dumping the coolant but I know I need to do it anyway soon to work on the heater box.

The cab may look better on this side (not by much) but the fender is another story, I think I may have pushed some battery acid around with the water hose some years back cause do I have some rust pitting!

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After the pic's I blasted a bit more, then cut out some rot. The outer cup actually looks to be solid, there are a couple pin holes in the lip. But some rust through in the lower rear part.

MY biggest concern is the upper part by the bolt holes, see the last post, there are about 7-8 small holes in the area where it is double walled, not sure if its worth trying to cut a bit of the top layer out and lay in a patch or just spot weld the pin holes.

Now with some rot out of the way I can blast a little more tomorrow.

So I had a thought, does anybody know if coal slag blast media (from tractor supply) will kill grass?? Yea fine time to ask LOL!

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Glad to see you are back at it. How's the shoulder doing? You can't possibly be 100% yet, can you? I had less work done on mine and it took me longer to get back to normal, or as close to normal as possible.

What's wrong with your heater box? If you need another one, I think I have a couple to spare, assuming it's a non-a/c cab.

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No not 100% yet, still have some range of motion limitations due to the rotator being too tight, still not as strong as before yet, but gaining ground, feeling good about going back to work without restriction next Monday.

As per the heater box I keep hearing story's about it being a mouse haven so I want to give it a good looking over and check the core ect. And check for any cab rust that may be inside as a precaution. I also hear that the AC motor spins a bit faster than the non AC unit so I want to test that out, I have a working AC motor sitting in the garage complete with metal squirrel cage fan, I read somewhere that non AC uses a plastic one but not sure.

Low and behold I found a couple mouse droppings on the top rail of the bed today, so I may have to booby trap the place with peanut butter and 5 gallon buckets of water!

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Went to PT again today, then people are sadists! LOL! couple that with drilling spot welds........ :)

Todays slicing and dicing, not done yet, but going little by little, looks like i'll have to remove a strip along the upper firewall too, not sure about the outer section where the kick panel resides just yet.

I succeeded in getting the outer floor and kick panel out from between the cab support and lower A pillar, but it was a pita! there were 2 spot welds on each outer cab support flange, very hard to get separated.

I'd like to be able to leave both the lower A pillar and the cab support in place if possible, but the only way I can clean the inside of the support is to peal back more floor. I can run a wire brush on the inside of the lower A pillar tomorrow and decide if it needs to come off. I went under the cab with a dotco and maroon pad and I cannot see or find any weak areas on front or aft supports so far.

Guess a storm front may be moving in tomorrow, Oh joy!

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excited to see all the progress your making even with a sore shoulder. I may have to copy your blasting cabinet idea:metal:

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Glad to hear that your shoulder has recovered enough for you to start getting after it again. Looks like some fun patchwork ahead!

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Famous last words! :lol: Good job!

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Yea I know, the rust lurks in mysterious places! LOL!


Again guys thanks for the compliments and good wishes. The PT guys and gals worked me pretty good yesterday, I have some sore muscles on my neck and shoulder blades, and back.


So we have a storm rolling in, its suppose to pack a 3 day punch, but the morning news just said something about a 7 day punch thanks to a hurricane off the pacific coast, suppose to have high winds today starting about 3pm, today will be spent checking the car cover and buying supplies.

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How are you planning on replacing the kick panel (I know you mentioned it a couple posts ago) with the A pillar in place? I had to remove the A pillar or drop my floor - of course, I replaced the entire floor pan and had not permanently attached it as yet, so it was kinda easy. I spent (wasted) many hours trying to figure out how to get it in there before that.