Prepare yourself
Well it's now page 22 and over 2 1/2 years ago since I stupidly started this project. I was out
as usual in the garage tonight Wednesday 18th April and I just got so cheesed off, I just thought
what the hell am I doing in here wasting my life doing this stupid, stupid truck??? So I came in. ;o)
Tomorrow I have a funeral to look forward to, another guy I knew bit the dust on his motorbike..
my old fella is not doing to good and looks like he is exiting stage right very soon. My old mate
Smax tells me his old Fella Jerry has had his leg off and looks like he is loosing the other fuk at
80 how cruel is that.. life can be a barstard..
.So what have I been doing, just body prep for hours and hours and days and days and weeks and
months... *groan* some people have to actually do this every day, day in, day out for a living..
Here you can see the dents and ripples in the nearside wing.
I have beat on it for a few hours to get it in some kind of shape.
It isn't getting to bad at this stage, I stripped all the gloss paint off and started again.
I found this bad repair so I cut it out, and made a new piece to weld in place.
This is it before filler, not a professional quality job but better than what was there before.
I called in the professionals, this is me old mate Pete Lawrence, who was a great amateur Boxer (57 Amatuer fights)
but years of boxing has paid its toll and his elbow joints are pretty buggered so he don't do body work no more, but
I managed to get him out of retirement (he now mot's Cars) to get this wing sorted. I was surprised how quick he
got it done. Ok the finer details needed more work but the basic wing was done in 2 nights.
First thing he did was, take one look at my set-up and said we need more light and more heat.
He went home and got his search lights and a 3bar infra red heater.... made filing times extremely
quick and the light made it so we could see what we were doing. He made a cracking job..here it is in
primer. But the rolled edge was not crisp. that was my job.
So I set about undoing some of his amazing filler work in a effort to get them edges crisp.
I found a ripple about 3 quarters along the top of the wing to... but apart from that it was close.
Mine you I have spent a couple more days doing my tiny bit.
When a professional does a job you can see how they don't muck about they just jump in and d
o it while people like me are still thinking about it... take me a day to do about 1 hour of Pete's
work.. I have this wing further on now than this photo. I have filled a little more inside the wing and
sanded the outside plenty, it is ready now for more primer then a black coat ready for a final sanding
session then off to the painter's.
The off side wing had a cracking bodge of a repair at some time in its life, so that had to come out.
Here it is a gert lump of braze, the other side wing had rotted in the same place but not as bad,
must be a rust trap area.
I made up templates from card transfered them to sheet metal and welded them in,
this section is double skinned.. it would be wouldn't it.. ;o)
I drilled holes in the rear piece so I could plug weld the outer plate for a neater job..
Here it is done just needs a splodge of filler to make good...
Also there were 2 rot holes on the front edge to sort.
That's them sucker's done, so I stripped the paint off this wing to.
And set about the fillering of this one. I will prime both wings at the same time, this wing is almost done,
I was doing this wing tonight when I got pissed off big time and just gave up and came in for a beer..
I hated the washers up on the cab top, so moved them to a more conventional position by the cowl vent.
The cowl vent has to be welded shut so that was a task I did to break the monotony of body prep..
Yeah I know lets make more fukin work eh.. more bloody body prep...
I was very conscious of the warped door I had done the other week, so I just did a tack
here and there and let it cool, then tacks and cool until it was fully seam welded.. took
absolutely ages, but the result was no warpage and little filler to make good, though the
front edge is going to take some work.
Well that wasn't to bad was it... though it does need some fine fettling to make perfect for final paint.
They say the difference between a Rat truck and a show one is hundreds of hours work.
I sure am putting the hours in, I just hope the quality of my prep is good enough.
The third brake light I am starting to like more now, sort of the ugly bird you date for so long,
she is still ugly but you start to fall in-love ;o) I have fine tuned the aperture now so the light fits real neat..
and I still have months of body prep left.. and I haven't even looked at the pick-up bed... oh boy!!! Save Me!!!!
This sure is the worst and hardest work hobby I have ever gotten myself into... but I know I will just love showing
it off once it gets finished... I just hope I am still young enough to enjoy it!! ;o)
I decided enough was enough and took both front wings to the paint shop and let them final prep as I was starting
to feel I would be doing this truck for ever if I didnt.. So Now I can get into the cab.
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