Salan's 1980 Something

Just in case you miss it, I ordered the stuff from Sky today, as shown in Big Blue's Transformation.

I'll be right behind you.....as soon as I drop $1k on tires for my Ranger.

Not too much to report, but I'm currently trying really hard to prep my trucks for Hurricane Dorian.

Sometime last month I picked up a repro 80-81 grille from NPD. I hate it, but you can't buy new chrome grilles at a budget price for those years which is a joke in my opinion. Anyways, I'll get used to it eventually once I figure out what to do about a bumper. I really want the chrome with impact strips and bumperettes, but they're not easy to find locally so for right now I'm stuck with the faded black one. Might paint it silver for the time being just to make it blend in a little more since it sticks out like a sore thumb against the chrome headlight bezels. I also laid some satin black on the inside of the bezels, that really made the front end pop.



I currently have a tarp over the truck to keep the truck from leaking until I address the issues causing the leaks (there's quite a few). The mis-matched white paint on the emblem section of the fenders is the result of having to grind away the liquid nails that some  used to secure the old emblems.



The next picture is for Gary, since he asked what the factory sound deadening looked like on a bricknose cab. The sound deadening is gone, but you can see where it was. I intend to replace it with some sort of peel and seal style layers. The floor has been bed lined by a previous owner, but as you can see they rolled it right over the sound deadening. I will have to decide whether I leave it be or bed line the exposed areas before I stick the sound deadening on.



Picked up a little something new for the interior a few weeks ago. What's funny is that I now have most of the same interior options (light group, security lock group, convenience group, etc) that I had in my Ranger Lariat, even though I said I wasn't going to do that. But hey, cheap and available parts are cheap and available parts.

Shaun - Do you have an old grille you can paint black?  Might make for an interesting front end with the black bumper and headlight doors.

And thanks for the pic of where the sound deadening was.  Basically under the seat.  I think a good dose of Peal & Seal or somesuch would be a good replacement.  But, it needs to adhere to the floor or something that's stuck to the floor quite well, so if that bed liner isn't.....

As for Dorian, let's hope all you and anyone gets is the rain and tropical-force winds.  Just talked with our son and with the latest track showing it not making landfall per se they'll stay.

I've seen a white truck with the XLS treatment and I'm not a fan of the way that looks. I love the chrome on these trucks so the more the merrier. I think I'll be happier with the grille once I find the bumper I want and the grille fades to a charcoal color.

That bedliner doesn't stick very well, at least in some of the spots I've seen. But in my experience the Fatmat that I used in the Ranger gets nice and sticky and will stick to just about everything. So I guess we'll have to see.

It does look like the storm has moved way out, which is good because as of right now the center of my county is outside of the projected reach and if it keeps going the most we'll get is rain and slight winds.

Decided to do a little alignment check with my radiator support and fender after the new radiator support bushings, and I think the body line speaks for itself.





I also made the hard call to cut the original u bolt plate/panhard mount off of my D60. It was probably still useable, but it was corroded and since Sky offers replacement parts, I feel better just replacing it than chancing it.

Nice!

Lookin' good. That's a nice cement pad you've got to work on there too. I wish I had something like that outside. I don't even have level ground outside let alone a smooth surface to work on.

Thanks guys.

I'm thankful for the cement pad. I've considered throwing a shelter over it, but I don't plan on staying in this house forever so I will hold off for the next place.

That is nice. I too wish I had a pad. Working in my gravel driveway.

Got the front end buttoned back up, and everything lines up great. I'm still searching for a useable hood, even in Florida they seem to all be rusted out or bent out of shape. May have to just bite the bullet and pick up a reman from NPD.

Also, I finally had enough of the black bumper. I realized the black paint was pretty poorly applied, so I decided to just spray bomb the bumper in the mean time since I plan to upgrade to a chrome version later down the road.

Well, in the dark the bumper looks good!  How does it look in the daylight?

As for the front clip, you put it on before installing the engine?  What do you use for an engine hoist?  I find it much easier with my shop crane to have the radiator support, grille, and bumper off.  What am I missing?

It looks better than it does at night.

I'm nowhere close to engine time right now. Maybe next year that will be my goal but right now I'm just trying to focus on the whole "on all 4 wheels" thing. I don't want truck parts to be scattered everywhere since I don't have the room for that, so the best place for them to be is on the truck. I'll revisit removing the front clip when it's time to throw an engine in, maybe next year, or maybe in five years at the rate I'm going. Either way, at the very least the radiator support will come back out. I've mastered the art of taking it out in one piece, so it won't be a major deal for me at that time.

Gary Lewis wrote

Well, in the dark the bumper looks good!  

It does look good!

Good job on the bumper, then.  As for the front clip, I understand the issue of being knee-deep in parts.  So it makes sense to put them back on if it is going to be some time.  

It dose look good and there is nothing wrong with painted bumpers.
I did the same to mine as no money for chroming them after I did some customizing to them.
Dave ----

Thanks guys!

Excuse the phone pic, it's just easier. Haha.

So I've officially reached the point where I can't stand having a multi-colored truck. Everything but the roof has now been hit with the DA and is in primer. I'll probably tackle the roof tomorrow. I still have a ton of finish sanding to do, but hopefully I can get it all knocked out soon so that I can lay some cheap single stage color to match the fenders and doors. No point in making this thing shine when it's rough to begin with.

Ok, tell me what you've done?

Updated.

When I post from my phone, it flips the pics. So I have to save them to my desktop, rotate them, and then repost them.