Salan's 1980 Something

[Gary Lewis]

Mother nature held out just long enough to allow me to prep and burn half of my repair patch in. Lap welds up top, plug welds at the bottom to mimic the factory spot welds. I'll finish the rest up either sometime this week, or over the weekend.

I had to be careful because whatever rough texture paint they used on the back of the cab occasionally tried to ignite, as did the goopy stuff they tried to hide the rust with inside the cab. Florida man needs to leave trucks alone.

Wow, that looks good!

But seems to be like Chickenman - "He's everywhere! He's everywhere!"

[ArdWrknTrk]

Thanks guys! It's been raining all morning, so not much of a chance to do anything unfortunately. I really need to figure out a shelter for my concrete pad so I can work rain or shine. My shop took a tree hit a months or two ago, and it's not worth fixing due to how poorly it was built. I'll likely be looking into a new shop build, and will likely have a carport added on to cover the pad.

I definitely would not want to be out in less than 40 degree weather trying to do this, but when you have to, you have to. Luckily on this truck, I don't have to. The temps are going to be hovering around 60-70 high and 30-40 lows through the first week of December, so we're unusually cold here currently.

That's a funny story Jim, although I'm sure it wasn't at the time. I always make sure whatever I'm wearing is likely to ignite as I've seen way too many stories of clothes on fire when welding.

Thing is.., you can't see flames through a welding hood. 🔥.

My friend James got one of those canvas garage frames for free because the "tent" was in tatters.

He covered it in metal roofing panels using gasketed self drilling screws and uses it for storage. (I want to say it's 18x28'???)

I don't know what building codes in Florida would allow, but up here it's not inspected because it's not a 'permanent structure'

[grumpin]

Mother nature held out just long enough to allow me to prep and burn half of my repair patch in. Lap welds up top, plug welds at the bottom to mimic the factory spot welds. I'll finish the rest up either sometime this week, or over the weekend.

I had to be careful because whatever rough texture paint they used on the back of the cab occasionally tried to ignite, as did the goopy stuff they tried to hide the rust with inside the cab. Florida man needs to leave trucks alone.

Nice! Looks good!

I’m freezing my buns off out here! That’s why I’m planning on moving to Arizona!

[salans7]

Nice! Looks good!

I’m freezing my buns off out here! That’s why I’m planning on moving to Arizona!

Thanks guys! It feels good to be making this progress on the truck. Checking things off the list is a great feeling and I'm trying to make sure I keep the momentum up.

I've thought about finding one of those galvanized tube frames and running that, but my pad is 20' wide, so I'd like it to span that width so I can cover the whole thing. Florida is lax on free-standing removable structures, but they become more aggressive against carports built into the ground due to hurricane standards and the like. I'd like to get something like this to replace my shop, but with a deeper garage portion and carport.

 

[salans7]

Thanks guys! It feels good to be making this progress on the truck. Checking things off the list is a great feeling and I'm trying to make sure I keep the momentum up.

I've thought about finding one of those galvanized tube frames and running that, but my pad is 20' wide, so I'd like it to span that width so I can cover the whole thing. Florida is lax on free-standing removable structures, but they become more aggressive against carports built into the ground due to hurricane standards and the like. I'd like to get something like this to replace my shop, but with a deeper garage portion and carport.

Today I finished up the other side of my cab wall repair. I still need to seam seal and POR15 it, but I'm going to wait until after I fix the rust on the rear cab crossmember.

Speaking of that, I spent the rest of the daylight and night removing the front clip again. I wasn't planning on removing it again, but then remembered the crossmember rust so it had to come back off. The cab is completely free from the frame, so tomorrow I am going to flip the cab back so I can access the rear crossmember and get it repaired.

Any thoughts on replacing the cab bushings while the cab is off of them? I've read some back and forth on it, but think I remember seeing that polyurethane kits weren't worth it due to noise, but also that regular replacements were hard to find.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Today I finished up the other side of my cab wall repair. I still need to seam seal and POR15 it, but I'm going to wait until after I fix the rust on the rear cab crossmember.

Speaking of that, I spent the rest of the daylight and night removing the front clip again. I wasn't planning on removing it again, but then remembered the crossmember rust so it had to come back off. The cab is completely free from the frame, so tomorrow I am going to flip the cab back so I can access the rear crossmember and get it repaired.

Any thoughts on replacing the cab bushings while the cab is off of them? I've read some back and forth on it, but think I remember seeing that polyurethane kits weren't worth it due to noise, but also that regular replacements were hard to find.

Your repair looks great Shaun!

I can only say that the poly bushings don't compress the same as rubber, so if you want the body line to match the bed you better change them all.

[Gary Lewis]

Your repair looks great Shaun!

I can only say that the poly bushings don't compress the same as rubber, so if you want the body line to match the bed you better change them all.

Yes, the repair looks great.

As for the bushings, my experience with Dad's truck is that if you use the grease that comes with the poly bushings you can tighten the bolts down until the bushings are very thin and huge in diameter and still not have reached the torque spec. And since there's no bushing between the bed and the frame the body line won't match at all.

I had to pull the bushings off and scrub them as well as the truck to get all traces of the grease off and then I was able to torque them down correctly. And I was able to get the body lines to match.

But without the grease I fear that I'll have a squeak, although I obviously don't know yet.

[salans7]

Yes, the repair looks great.

As for the bushings, my experience with Dad's truck is that if you use the grease that comes with the poly bushings you can tighten the bolts down until the bushings are very thin and huge in diameter and still not have reached the torque spec. And since there's no bushing between the bed and the frame the body line won't match at all.

I had to pull the bushings off and scrub them as well as the truck to get all traces of the grease off and then I was able to torque them down correctly. And I was able to get the body lines to match.

But without the grease I fear that I'll have a squeak, although I obviously don't know yet.

Thank you both! I was rained out today unfortunately, so will have to wait for another day.

As for the bushings, that's exactly what I was reading. I have polyurethane up front (rad support) since that's all I could find a couple of years ago, but maybe now the stock stuff is more available so I'll likely go that route.

[salans7]

Thank you both! I was rained out today unfortunately, so will have to wait for another day.

As for the bushings, that's exactly what I was reading. I have polyurethane up front (rad support) since that's all I could find a couple of years ago, but maybe now the stock stuff is more available so I'll likely go that route.

I had planned to work on my F350 this weekend, but my daily and the aftermarket fuel pump I bought for it had other plans (pump was good, broken filler vent nipple was not).

I did however get the doors back off, and then had a neighbor help me flip the cab backwards (after he helped me lift the bed off of my daily to access the fuel pump) so I can get to the rust along the rear cab crossmember. After looking at it closer, it's obviously been rusting from the inside out. So now I have to decide how I want to handle that as I am willing to bet the metal is thin all through that crossmember. I would prefer to tackle any corrosion in there, but it may be a can of worms in the end.

[grumpin]

I had planned to work on my F350 this weekend, but my daily and the aftermarket fuel pump I bought for it had other plans (pump was good, broken filler vent nipple was not).

I did however get the doors back off, and then had a neighbor help me flip the cab backwards (after he helped me lift the bed off of my daily to access the fuel pump) so I can get to the rust along the rear cab crossmember. After looking at it closer, it's obviously been rusting from the inside out. So now I have to decide how I want to handle that as I am willing to bet the metal is thin all through that crossmember. I would prefer to tackle any corrosion in there, but it may be a can of worms in the end.

Wowza!

Nice that you have a neighbor to help!