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-   -   Restoring Rusty (https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=645440)

Gregski 06-06-2015 10:16 AM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by greg64 (Post 7200241)
Are you going to paint the bedsides while it's all apart?

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

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg64 (Post 7200241)
And how are you going to re-weld the joints you ground out?

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)

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg64 (Post 7200241)
Believe it or not, my original bed floor looked worse than yours.

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.

KQQL IT 06-06-2015 02:21 PM

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

Jake Wade 06-06-2015 03:22 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Wow, I would have tried to find another bed.

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:19 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by KQQL IT (Post 7200426)
I painted the bottom of my bed with some cheapo silver.
makes working underneath more pleasant.

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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:21 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:22 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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once again we cut off the rear post by the tailgate from the floor of the bed

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:24 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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and thirty bolts later we got ourselves a flat bed, lol

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:28 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:30 PM

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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:32 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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and large bolts later we had ourselves a Dump Truck

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:34 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:36 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:38 PM

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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:39 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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then it was time to have some fun !!!

... and bye bye

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:41 PM

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

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:41 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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ah yes, a clean canvas

Gregski 06-06-2015 04:42 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-06-2015 09:13 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-06-2015 09:15 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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just some wheel housings out in the pasture gettin' cleaned up

greg64 06-07-2015 01:08 AM

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.

y5mgisi 06-07-2015 01:43 AM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Good fun!

Chaplain 06-07-2015 02:40 AM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Dang...

Gregski 06-07-2015 10:09 AM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaplain (Post 7200984)
Dang...

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

Gregski 06-07-2015 10:09 AM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by y5mgisi (Post 7200959)
Good fun!

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

Gregski 06-07-2015 10:58 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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the twins sun bathing, after taking a good bath in some dish soap, they were preserved because they were covered in grease and sludge

you probably could not see how badly these wheel housings were beat up before I hammered out all the dings and dents, apparently the previous owned used the truck to haul lumber

anywho, can you tell me how to pop out the big slight indentations in the vertical sides, what happens is when I step on the dents they pop out, but as soon as I step off of them they pop back in, it's as if the metal is teasing me

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:01 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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since I didn't want to use a replacement wheel housing with the wire harness hole in it, I thought I could save one of mine, however after taking a wire wheel to it, we found lots of swiss cheese

so we'll use the orange ones


Gregski 06-07-2015 11:04 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:08 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:10 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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the dance of the wire wheel

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

flashed 06-07-2015 11:11 PM

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

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:14 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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kicked the bed floor outside - cause it's not potty tained, LOL

keep in mind this thing is ORANGE, it's not all covered up in rust, just some surface rust, so it's solid otherwise


Gregski 06-07-2015 11:16 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
1 Attachment(s)
Quote:

Originally Posted by flashed (Post 7201886)
Rusty is so very lucky to have you mending things up.

thanks, then tell him to stop biting me

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:19 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:22 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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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

flashed 06-07-2015 11:22 PM

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

Gregski 06-07-2015 11:25 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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tomorrow we will change the wire wheel on the angle grinder to a grinding stone and grind down these welds

these are the weld spots where the old bed side walls were attached to the bed floor in the bottom corners of the tailgate


Gregski 06-07-2015 11:28 PM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
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and the other side...

the detail is in the devil

I know the next time I am walking by a restored C10, I will stop, I will look at the truck, I will find the owner, I will gaze down at his hands, seek the scars, then look down at his worn out boots, and just look him in the eye and and give him that nod of sweat, blood, and tears of approval


enaberif 06-08-2015 12:24 AM

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.

rich weyand 06-08-2015 12:28 AM

Re: Restoring Rusty
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregski (Post 7201866)
anywho, can you tell me how to pop out the big slight indentations in the vertical sides, what happens is when I step on the dents they pop out, but as soon as I step off of them they pop back in, it's as if the metal is teasing me

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

rich weyand 06-08-2015 12:29 AM

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.


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