Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I want to, but I may not be able to because we have to move to a new house, that's why I am fixing the bed so that Rusty can help us move. I will spray some SEM undercoating under the bed while it is off the truck, as well under the wheel wells. Then I plan on using some sort of bed liner to roll that on, on the inside of the bed. I kinda like the ruff farm truck look on the outside, I believe they call that Sleeper look, LOL

I may not weld them until I buy a welder (again) this time a Lincoln, Miller, or even a Hobart and not a Harbor Freight piece of junk. I had two different HF machines, their $100 dollar Flux Core only unit, which looked like pigeons pooped all over your work, and their $200 Flux/MIG combo which I ran as a MIG with a tank which specialized in burning holes in sheet metal even on the lowest settings. (I was trying to weld much thinner material, ie modern day car fenders etc... but still, it was terrible, me being part of the problem I'm sure)

I bet, mine is pretty bad if I was to shine a light through it from underneath you would see a bazillion of other holes you do not see in the pics, trust me it is Swiss cheese at it's finest.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I painted the bottom of my bed with some cheapo silver.
makes working underneath more pleasant.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Wow, I would have tried to find another bed.

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Interesting, maybe I should paint mine blue, so it feels like I am laying there starring at the sky, LOL

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

picked up where we left off last night, on the passenger side we must unscrew the fuel tank filler tube from the side of the bed

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

once again we cut off the rear post by the tailgate from the floor of the bed

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and thirty bolts later we got ourselves a flat bed, lol

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

after using a wire brush on the threads of the eight long bolts that hold the bed to the frame and lubing them up, we used a cheater bar on the end of a ratchet for more leverage, that plus fines not gorilla tactics and we were able to unbolt them all

note the one super long bolt on the driver's side by the cab

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

don't forget the tailight wiring harness before you go yankin' the bed floor off the truck

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and large bolts later we had ourselves a Dump Truck

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

now we could remove the piece by the cab, again the whole point of taking it off piece by piece is so that one man doesn't have to lift 5,000 lbs

the bottom of the piece looks worse than it is, it is very solid, so a few minutes with a wire wheel and it should shine

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then it was just a matter of putting on some hefty gloves, standing up on the frame, and lifting the rusty bed floor off the frame and leaning it against the wall of the garage

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

man I waited 10 months to see this, looks kinda funny Rusty with his pants off

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then it was time to have some fun !!!

... and bye bye

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

other duties as required, (some say it's what I do best)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

ah yes, a clean canvas

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lets bring in the new patient...

for $40 bucks what did you expect, but I think we can make this turd shine, its a little wavy but it's solid

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

time to meet the replacement twins

anybody know if there is a right and a left one, I think my original driver side one is passed it and the replacement one has a hole in it that the guy who sold it to me cut out for the trailer wiring harness

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

just some wheel housings out in the pasture gettin' cleaned up

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Hey, it's the return of Dusty. :lol:

You should slap some paint on that chassis while you have such good access. Might want to change the diff lube too, because it's easy with no bed in the way.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Good fun!

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Dang...

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Man I just love your comments, so concise, make me laugh every time!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

For real, taking ****ez apart - that I excel at, the putting it back together, not so much.

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the Greg has no idea how the front end bed panel got rusted here, but there is a matching rusty spot on the back of the cab, so my guess is a wet cat must have gotten stock in there, LOL

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

we deployed a dual attack on the rust on this piece, abrasion and acid

first loosen up and remove as much rust as possible with a wire wheel

then use Phosphoric acid to fight the rust, in this case I had some Metal Prep left over, (it's just diluted Phosphoric acid I bought from POR-15, I won't be buying it agian, since I can get 50 times the amount from Home Depot for $5 bucks)

brush on some acid, let sit, have a beer, watch the rusty spots turn white, then wire wheel them off, and repeat till no more white shows up

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

the dance of the wire wheel

went through another cup wire brush, (I need to start buying these in bulk)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Rusty is so very lucky to have you mending things up.

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thanks, then tell him to stop biting me

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

same deal on the bed floor, wire wheel, then coat in phosphoric acid

I swear I went out and bought the most beat up bed I could find, this thing looks like it was used as a dance floor by $300 lb strippers in iron stiletto heels

try and visualize that I'll wait, JK

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couple annoyed neighbors and beers later, the top of the bed floor is wire wheeled and bathed in [deluted] phosphoric acid

not my favorite part of the restoration process, but it must be done

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I think I will visualize Rusty all nice and pretty instead if you dont mind ,thanks .

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Re: Restoring Rusty
 

For metal that keeps popping when you try to remove the dent the easiest way to fix this is by cutting the dent in half then rewelding it.

It's usually popping because the metal is stretched. The other way you could try is getting it red hot then quenching it quickly to shrink it.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

The reason they're popped out (or in, or they pop back and forth) is that piece, the bulge, is bigger than the spot it is in. Basically, denting it stretched the metal in that spot, so now it's too big for the surface it is in. The way to fix this is to heat the bulge with a torch (Bernzomatic would do), then quench it with water. It will shrink down to the size it needs to be and pull flat.

http://cid.vcc.ca/p1-dl/instructions...emo-shrink.htm

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

enaberif and I were typing at the same time. Yeah, don't cut it, at least not as a first try. Heat it and quench it.