[sgaylord]

This was a nasty mess of a task (the initial stripping part). I needed to remove 40 years of road gunk and old undercoating from the bottom of the cab. I tried everything from chemical strippers to paint scrapers. I found the best tool by far is a wire wheel on a 4 1/2 grinder. You need the heavy duty twisted wire ones. Be careful though, if you hit yourself it will rip your skin off down to the meat. I was lucky not to have a run in with it but be careful all the same.

This was dusty and nasty but it took off the old gunk down to shiny metal. I then bodyworked the weld seams where I replaced the floor portions and then shot on a good coat of etch primer. The last task was to coat the entire bottom with truck bed liner. I used Al's liner, I was skeptical at first that a DIY kit wouldn't provide enough texture but I was pleasantly surprised. I used the entire gallon on the underside of the cab so I could get a nice thick layer that would seal out the elements. I will use the same on the underside of the bed when I get to that stage.

Lifting the cab with my cherrypicker helped me cover the entire cab floor. Otherwise I could not get the gun low enough to obtain complete coverage where the cab corner wraps around the back of the cab.