Projects 28 RPU "problem child" build thread "first try at a hotrod"

Now it can start to go the other way..



Had to make some new bushings for the rear spring since the others were just a quick temp last time.. some hard plastic scrap I turned down and some bronze sleeves from the hardware store.


Painted up the center section of the 9"


Need more room it's like a mouse maze trying to work in here


Bedroom floor joist came in handy..




Out all the brake and hubs on so it's rolling again.. probably try to put the motor in and work on redoing the brake lines this weekend since the salt ate up the fittings


And today marks three years since the maiden voyage for the truck for my buddies funeral..





Remember it down poured and had standing water in the corners inside and under the seat.. guess that's what it's made for is making memories.. never forget that day..

Hopefully the progress will move a little faster.. been slacking posting updates


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Looking good man

 

Good progress!

 

That flathead stands tall.
Looking good.

 

Thanks guys!

Started redoing the brake lines since the salt ate up the fittings..





For some reason the new roll of nickel Cooper line I bought seems to be a little smaller and it wouldn't flare.. just kept sliding out ten back.. so I had to stick a piece of 320 on the top and bottom of it to get it to hold.


Took a few different options before fining a route I liked.. still need to add a few clamps to hold it up but it's routed way better then before.. feels like building it all over again





Took a few tries to get the drivers side rear to fit the way I wanted also.. but should be good enough to bleed out and check for leaks..


Went ahead and hooked the clutch up and bleed all the air out of it, so that's a step in the right direction..

Going to try and get the heads torqued and steering out back together next.



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Love this build, enjoy seeing it on instagram too. Right on Jared, thanks for keeping us up to date.

 

Please don't let this thread die! Just went through all the pages today! Killer work.

 

Thank you! Thread won't die

Just been fighting bodywork..

i think I have the fenders pretty much where I want them just working on the splash aprons and cowl panels..

Probably worrying to much as it's probably going to be a satin/flat clear that I'm going with..

but when I spray the primer and see a little ding/wave I can't un see it...

So here are the dreaded body work updates.. been kind of mentally out of it or depressed about it for awhile is why I haven't posted much..

Noticed a little small crack when I was sanding off the black primer on the drivers side fender.. sanded all the way down to see and where the guy had welded up some holes where the support is the salt and water must have worked its way under there and started rusting.


Had to cut the rear section off




And then make and weld on a new piece. Will get a support put on the. Some seam sealer this time.






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Now just working on the splash aprons and cowl panels













Also blasted and primed a few of the inner structure and fender braces





Don't remember if I had posted it or not but here is the little booth I put up to try and keep dust/paint contained.





Bought a cheap exterior door so I could cut it and mount the exhaust fan to it.





Made a box that hinged up on the ousted to get the stuff away from the house


And lastly I picked up an old paint shaker from a Napa store I used to work out few weeks ago.



Sorry for the long delay but hopefully have more updates and be able to get this thing back together by early spring.


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Looking good man. Body work is a dangerous rabbit hole. Most of my A is surface rust or old faded paint and I’m honestly scared to open up the old paint to see what’s under it.

The nagging feeling seeing that last little ding you didn’t see before. Knowing it’s going to drive you fucking nuts later if you leave it.

sigh.

I get it.

not looking forward to this stage of my build.

 

If you will use the palm of your hand you can feel the dents. Wearing a cotton glove will amplifie them. Try not to look at the panel when you feel it, you want all the input come from your hand and not what you see, but what you feel.

 

Making a little more headway..

I think I finally have the front fenders all smoothed out.. just one last sand with 400 before putting some color on..


I goofed up way back when sanding the body lines in the fender.. had no clue what I was doing..(still don't) but on breaks and lunch at work I always watch videos on how people do things.. so taped off the lines and started sanding.. took a few passes but cleaned them up..


You can see the little line there but they were all over the place before..




Put one more light coat of primer on and flipped them over to make the braces for the corner underneath..







Second one always is easier and goes faster..


Gong to clean it up and use panel bond on them since I can't spot weld them on now that they are covered in primer..

Then hopefully I can get the underside covered.. still on the fence if I should just go with paint or go the thinned raptor bed liner route..




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Turned the paint booth into a blast booth for a little bit


Surprisingly it cleaned up fairly easy.. then sprayed a coat of epoxy on them and then a few coats or normal urethane primer.. used a brush to get the epoxy down in the wire edging and a few other tight places


Decided I'd try a test spray on the bottom of the running boards to see how close I can get the clear to where I want it.. figure if it's bad it will be easy to blast off




First time messing with any flattening agent.. stuff is weird.. used a digital scale and I think I ended up with more on the bench and scale then I did in the mixing cup


Have to check it in the morning and see how much it has flattened out.


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I hate body work. Don’t envy you.
I bet we won’t see any new pictures on the salt for a good while.
Good work.

 

Thanks! And only pics of the salt will be from a rental car! Haha

Yeah I want to get better at it cause I kinda like painting things.. but would much rather be fabing things up though.

The clear flashed cured out and did flatten out.. going to try to flatten it a little bit more.. I mixed it by what the tech sheet called eggshell/satin.. which looks like it






Going to go try out what they call flat and see just how flat it is..


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You do really nice work, look forward to seeing this RPU finished out

 

Thanks!! I'm ready for it to be done so I can drive it again..

Little more progress started working on the rear fenders



Brushed some epoxy underneath pieces to try to protect it a little more


Also brushed up under the wire edging all the way around.. then shot some epoxy then 2k primer on the underside



I thought I had these pretty well straight but found a few lows and a few highs on the first round of blocking






Few more coats then i let it dry for awhile


Tapped off the areas for seam sealer


Couple coats of black and then mixed up some clear with more flattening agent in it.. went with what the tech sheet called for to get a flat finish.. 51oz per sprayable gallon which works out to be 40%


Still seems almost to be a satin finish still..




Maybe I'll try 50% and see what I get there..

Off topic I try to collect old signs and anything automotive related as another hobby to take what's left of my paycheck.. which in turn takes time away from this but sometimes I guess it's good to get my mind off it..

Always wanted an old gas pump and I just happen to luck out and work a trade with a guy for a AA fuel tank bed I have and some money for a 1924 fry 10gal visible pumps..



Anyway hope to repeat the steering column since I was in a hurry and didn't fix a few minor things on it and it's bugging me so I'll try to get it a little more flat..



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Nice work, love the Shell signs.

 

Thanks!

The little shell signs were dug out of a creek by my house.. where I live had three companies way back that made the majority of porcelain signs.. so there are a lot of them scattered around this area since they used to give away the seconds and defects


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Had a few small dents like this in the column along with the two large holes for the old column switch..





Best thing I could find around here to form the curve since I didn't have a piece of pipe the same size.




Welded them in and applied a little filler to the patches and dents




Sprayed the bottom of the fenders after mixing in 50% flattener and it was still kind of satin..

asked a buddy that has used it quite a bit and we come to the conclusion that I am probably spaying the coats on to thick...

Which we believe is letting the powder in the flattener sink.. next parts I get ready to spray he is going to come spray with me to show me how he mixes it and applies it.. so hopefully that will fix that issue.. good to have good friends close by..

Which leads to the next issue of the splash/fender apron debacle..

Somewhere along the line the drivers side had gotten flattened out quite a bit..





Not sure if it happened when it was getting sand blasted or me pushing to hard when sanding.. luckily a local guy had one in better shape..

Which while trying it out it fit better but was to low.. other one was also but not quite as bad..

Ended up having to put a spacer between the running board and the bracket to space the board up some..


So this time I screwed down a board and laying the apron flat while I sand and do body work to it..


So hopefully get this thing worked and in primer so we can spray the back side of these and the column.




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Still slowly plugging away at this thing..

Buddy came down and we come to the conclusion that I was spraying it way to heavy along with to many coats..

Mixed it at 50% and only a couple light coats.. I was putting in one light coat at first then 3 or so pretty wet coats..





Still has a little sheen to it which is fine.. I can tell this is going to be tricky to get sprayed out even..

A few people told me that painting something satin/flat is harder then shinny.. now I know why they say that..

I think I have the rear fenders and firewall ready for color.



Hopefully soon get the cowl panels spot welded to the firewall so I can get started on the cab..

Did a little test spray of a maroon color.. looks dark in here due to low light.. waiting for it to flash off so I can clear it then get some sun light on it to see what the color looks like




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Decided to mess around with it a bit and change up the mixture of flattening agent..

Had seen a few videos of people mixing it 75% for flat so I went all in and mixed one spot at 1-1 and another at 75%



Which I know one thing for sure.... 1-1 is no good haha... 1-1 is on top..



75% actually looks decent but in the end I think I'm giving up on flat and just going to go back to gloss.. just seems like to much room for error and troubles.. gloss clear I can work with by sanding and buffing..

Also I Fit the firewall and cowl panels last night so hope to get them spot welded together tonight after work.. then hope to get some color on the fenders this weekend.



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I like the way you eagled the underside of your fender to keep trapped moisture out

 

It's crazy where that stuff will get it... and I'm sure the salt multiplied it by 100... so hoping with just the casual driving that it will last a long time..

Sprayed the under side of the seat riser and gauge pod that I had made.. to test the maroon out and also just make it look normal with regular clear..






Also edged the firewall back in where spot welding it burnt it off..


Looks really dark inside







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Color shows up more when I set it outside in the sun...







Going to be tricky I think for a novice like me to get the color even through the truck...

I sprayed a lot of lighter coats on it to make sure the color was what it was supposed to be


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Nice

 

I like your color choice and agree with your observation on hard to match rest of truck to color on seat riser.

 

Little more progress lately...

Worked on the running boards some..


Thought I had them where I wanted them till I sprayed one coat of black basecoat on them...

There were quite a few spots that I missed and a lot of ruff texture from where there was bits of the original primer.. so I thought it would be quicker to just blast it and start over




Which resulted it more days and days of sanding after work


Wanted to let it really dry out so I decided to paint the gauge panel I made and the seat riser..







Waiting for a good sunny day to really see what it looks like. Need to sand and buff part of the seat riser that is a little orange peely.. switched over to a fast reducer/hardner for the paint and clear to try and keep the dust/dirt out.. seems to have worked well just caused a few sport to orange peel a little

going to wait a few days for that so I'll start sanding the running boards again and hope to get some black on them soon.


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I was able to get paint sprayed in the running boards on Sunday.. turned out pretty well I think..

little wavy in spots but I have to just have to keep telling myself that I am going to drive it like before or else I'll be in and endless cycle of stripping and repainting things..

Took a few days but put some guide coat on and wet sanded out with 400... put a coat of sealer on then the black and clear





Going to try to either polish out the dry/orange peel on the front of the seat riser or wet sand it and put a couple heavier coats on it.

Hate to tape it all off again but I'm afraid I'm going to sand through it and end up in a bigger mess.


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Few more parts sprayed late last night...

Ran some seam sealer between the firewall and the cowl panel to try and stop any air from coming in through there.. always had some shine heat coming in but I think that was more due to the floor.. so hopefully carpet will help with that when the time comes..





5 minutes after I started applying seam sealer


Painted the inside of the cowl and firewall.. have to finial sand the outside and paint it when I do the cab..


Subrail extensions and a wiring cover I made that bolts to the top and the extensions



Probably should have took a little more time to smooth up the inside of the firewall but hoping the guy I have do the interior can make up a firewall pad to match the floor..

but if someone is ever is digging around under the dash I'm sure some waviness and pitting is not what they are going to be worrying about..

Hopefully start on the fenders and splash aprons next.. since going gloss need to really make sure they are straight..



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