Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha ;o) Oh What a feeling I am dancing on the ceiling

Well lets not get ahead of ourselves here.... but a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks so here is the story as it unfolded..
A year on as I said before and still prepping, even the bed sides I had made weren't flat when I took a straight edge to them. I couldn't believe it they had either warped or weren't straight to begin with.. what ever the reason I had a lot more prepping to do.

Here the bed panels sit prepped as far as I can do, I hate them bastard things... Only the rear rolled pan to sort...

Well this was the state of my garage after the bed prepping session. The rolled pan needs plenty of work and that is a new panel to. It needs a hinged or removable number plate sorting to hide the tow bar... So pee'd off with prep I took a drive up to the body shop see if they had done anything.... I didn't expect any progress but Steve the owner said I could come up as Kev the painter wanted a word.... "Hum?".......

whooaaaoooo this is what greeted me ;o)

They had got the front metal into the spray booth and it was all prepped to perfection. I was over the moon and my stomach started turning over with excitement and worry can I get the rest up to scratch to match?... Oh my gawd the stark realisation hit me, this is all really happening and I was getting my truck done... Bugger I best get serious and do the chassis..

Kev and Mark 2 young lads in their 20's I would say are responsible for this stunning prep and paint .. It looked dynamite, just mounting it all together is no mean feet on its own as these young lads have never seen or done anything like this before..

Dash is going to look cool with the gauges in the original pod all colour coded...

The engine bay and bulkhead had come out real good, so it was decided to make it shiny instead of the matt gold it was first done in... and I am real chuffed it looks miles better.... just the bonnet underside is black so we need to do something with that..... but it finally looks like it is coming together... I said to Steve the owner of Long Lane Garage (Dalton In Furness) where the truck is being painted... I best get on with the chassis now, as I dont want to risk moving the cab from here.. my intention if I can pull it off is finish the chassis, get it sand blasted and painted straight away. Then just stick the suspension on, and take it up to the paint shop and put the cab on there... I best get home eh... if I can get the engine painted to match to then I will get them to help me put all the front metal on up at the body shop.. they are all really into this project which is real cool and makes them also want it perfect.

Back home I stood and looked at the chassis long and hard... do I leave it as is and just finish weld.... or do I try and improve???????

I decided to fully box and make a few mods.

All the running board brackets needed to be bolted from the outside so captive nuts where the order of the day. Also the cab mounts needed a means of bolting from the inside when the chassis was boxed?? No way of doing captive nuts... So I thought of this method, weld some tube over the bolts, then that to the boxing plates so the bolts have no way of falling into the chassis when trying to bolt up the cab mounts.....

Here they are finished, the bolts go through the tube to the cab mounts on the outside of the chassis... cool eh!

Here is the state of the chassis 4th November.. it is fully boxed, the start of a x member can be seen at the front just the rear section to do. The centre radius Rod and prop loop crossmember is now more solid with a c section and fully boxing session done..

Nearly there, I have to sort the engine mounts out as they are crap and then turn it over to weld the underside then off to the blasters and get painted then comes the fun bit I think, bolting all the shiny and new bits on...

All day Sunday while I was trying to do the chassis my head was battered... and all my miss's wanted me to do all day was build a bonfire for tomorrow night... grrrrrrr

Steve at Long Lane Garage said the cab and panels were in the spray booth and were not coming out until it was all painted. As this is a very busy paint shop I knew they couldn't afford to mess about and barring a major catastrophe Monday night it would be done.. All day at work I was on tender hooks, my stomach turning over and gibbering away about nonsense to anyone who would listen... it was like being an expectant father waiting for a birth of a child.

My miss's knew the truck would be painted this day, but insisted I come straight home to light the bommy as that was far more important. I left work had to get some diesel to light the bommy and guess what every pissing person who owns a sodding car was out and the roads every where were chocker... Boy was I getting wound up. got to Tesco and they were queuing out onto the road.. Arghhhhh once fuelled every bloody dawdling slow coach was in front and it took an age to get to Long Lane Garage... There was even a mile long traffic jam, in all the years I have used that road I have never seen a traffic jam??? I wonder sometimes if someone really is watching us and taking the piss ;o)

Eventually I made it and this is what I saw.

It blew me away when I walked into the paint shop as sat out in the prep room was the front metal in all its finished (bar colour sanding) glory. I just stood gob wide open in a stunned silence... Kev and Mark have done me and Long Lane garage proud and I am really impressed and this is an out of the gun stunning finish. I could only stay a few minutes as my son his wife and the grand kids were coming to our house for a bonfire party so I had to fly...

I went to the parts I knew were badly prepped by me and they were perfect so I take it it all will be.. it certainly looked amazingly flat and Mark the painter has excelled in the even colour on every panel... only a few minor parts and the rear bed to paint now....

So I best get on with that chassis and hope I can keep it looking this perfect as I bolt it all together.... Still plenty to do but I am enjoying it now and I am sure I will enjoy everything else left to do.... ... I want to write more but I will leave it till next time...

The bonnet smoothing works and the 3 bar grill to I think.. the cab is de-seamed and makes it take on a more modern feel yet keeps it old look... I think.. do you to?

whoooo feast ya eyes man ;o)... crazy though really as now I can see I wont be using it for work as originally intended. I just would not settle while it was sat in the car park with all the knob heads Barrow (where I work) has... they would love to ruin it. I will use it a lot but never so I have to leave it un attended.. Damn.. I can see the attraction of matt paint and a ratty look. now can you "Wink" ;o)

Just an update, this is a the rear of the cab and the mid body line was a mess. I had about 10 goes at it over a few week of prep and could I fuk as like get it right, but good old (young) Kev sorted it. Kev said he did about 40hrs more prep on the cab alone to get it this perfect and I am so pleased and in awe of what a professional can do, and be so young it isn't like say oh yeah he is an old guy with 30yrs experience that is why he is so good. Na he is in his 20's and I bow at his feet.

As for Mark also a young lad to make so perfect a job of laying on this real difficult colour on such a large and curved body well what can I say I am just gob smacked, the paint is like a candy as it is just a gold tint over a white base. Each coat is translucent and darkens with each coat, so a slight hesitation or the gun slightly closer on one sweep and you get a line of a shadow or any overlap more or less on any section the same.

. Steve the owner of Long lane Garage said, Mark especially asked if he could paint it and he went in at 8am and didn't come out until 1.20pm wet through and the front metal was now 20ltrs of paint heavier... Whoooo So much work, effort and logistics goes into a project to try and get it perfect I shudder with worry.

Well this is pretty much the stage of the chassis now. It is fully boxed even the rear, I have finish welded the top and sides, just the underside to do.

I did the welding and to be honest it looked real spaggy... I was a bit pee'd off. So tonight I was determined to get it right. When I was welding before as soon as I sparked up the weld pool was just a a flash of light and I couldn't really see anything... I put it down to my 53yr old eyes as they are getting worse, but I thought Na it cant be right even with my reading glasses on it was just a flash...

So I put the mask screen on my buffer and polished it up and Man what a difference, the spaggy weld was down to me not being able to see the weld pool properly because the screen was crap up.. "Pillock"

So I redid the worst spaggy bits and I am so much happier now... I could just imagine it when the next owner gets it and takes it to pieces because the last builder was a twat and he is so much better at building and would announce... "just look at these spaggy welds warra numpty" ;o)

So onwards and onwards. Get it sand blasted and painted do the same with the suspension, then repaint the engine...get it a roller and then the fun begins... I am buzzing with excitement this is it boys this is what we have waited for ;o)..

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