Thread: Project Special K

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I've got 3 acres to cut, well my sister is home, she's been cutting the grass this summer. I just been sitting around on my fat butt watching her...LOL
That grille came out pretty good with that rust killer.
BradC

Sure looks like you have a nice yard and the truck just blends right in. I here ya on having a couple of dogs and trying to keep it nice, I just redid my back yard last year and they're already wrecking the grass. Put in a new driveway, retaining wall and all new grass, had to add an ornament also. I never want to touch another paving stone either, I layed 3500 between the driveway, patio and sidewalk. Maybe if Don would come over with his walkman................the grill looks great also.

Sean

Sean my driveway has been waiting for pavers for three years! It's dirt right now, so every time the Harley comes out I have to go over it with a magnet to catch any nails the construction crew seeded the back yard with. It's amazing, I always come up with at least 10.
3500 sounds back breaking! My driveway is 110 feet long, so I dread the costs of having it done!
Yesterday, we picked all the fruit off my apricot tree and decided to can it, before it all went bad. It was a young tree(2 years old) so it only produced enough fruit for 8 jars of jam, but it was fun, working with my wife on a project, and smelling all that fresh apricot smell throughout the house!
Back to the truck today!

Today I spent the better part of the afternoon with just getting the passenger door striped and primed. I figure shoot low and then you won't be disappointed. No wonder people shell out 15 k for paint jobs!
I started by sanding with 60 grit, but didn't get far. Then pulled out the paint stripper and buttered it up. Three rounds latter, hit it with 40 grit, then 60 then steel wool. Finally a three coats of rust converter, followed by steel wool, etch primer and a quick coat of acrylic SEM primer. Not tooo bad. At least I can see where some touch up work will be needed and maybe some filler!
P.S. I love my wife. She got me this poster at a garden show she was volunteering for in a beer booth! I like her style!

Heres the door, stripped, the rust inhibited, finally primed.

did you neutralize the paint stripper?

Originally Posted by Matt167

did you neutralize the paint stripper?

Matt thats a great point I guess I'll be sanding some more, The primer was just to stop rust anyway, since I put it up for the night, but have more work to do on the door, I guess tomorrow will include washing it down after sanding and starting over!
I guess I was in a bit of a hurry! Thanks for chiming in, that would definately been a bummer down the road!

Well today involved tackling the roof of the cab. Boy between rust and stripping old paint, it took several hours just to get half the roof done. I kept finding bondo spots too! And one big metal spot of a weld that I'm guessing pluged a hole in the roof. Tomorrow will be a full day of the same! I figure the one area at a time approach is working on whittling down the whole body! Also scored some new old stock clear glass lenses for the front turn signal indicators on Ebay(8 bucks). I'm still hunting for a 1970's ford f150 9 inch rear to change out the stock one. Craigslist hasn't provided what I'm looking for yet!

Sunday at work, it was very slow, so I created a blog on the truck, short version of this long winded thread at http://fordf1.blogspot.com/

Spent another 4 hours stripping paint on the roof. It is amazing what it takes to get that old paint off. Afterwards I pressure washed the whole truck down, and left it out to dry for 3 more hours. I then worked on the old Trusty Toyota truck, that is 15 years old this year, that just broke down (blew a alternator belt on the highway) which needed to be towed home off the highway. It also blew the cap of the radiator overflow tank cap, and sprayed fluid on the hood. So today I went and washed and polished it to a nice shine. It still looks pretty good for its age, but between scrapping, stripping, sanding, washing waxing and polishing I'm done for the day!

Here are some pics. Scary thing is the rust was pretty well hidden under several different paint jobs, and is probably under those big blobs of bondo, too! The rust pitting makes it hard to scrape all the old paint off, but I'll sand it down when I'm done stripping then, treat whats left with rust inhibiter/converter.

Actually Steve, that doesn't look too bad at all........seen a lot worse. In the pictures the whole truck looks very solid.

Don

Yeah the roof is the worst as are the running boards and cab corners. But for a 60 year old truck it is very solid. I thought about just sanding down the other areas, but since I found rust under smooth paint, I figure I better take it all off, and treat the metal! The good thing is I have 5 gallons of industrial paint stripper, from when I bought my house 12 years ago, it turned out much easier to scrape the paint off than use the paint stripper, so I finally have a use for it(I'm a pack rat, keep things knowing someday....)

Worked on the paint stripping for a few more hours today. Got most of the cab done on the back side, and to the driver's door. Tomorrow, I want to finish striping the cab and get a coat of primer on it. That will leave just the bed and some fender work. Not very exciting in the realm of hot rod building, but it gets me one step closer while I save towards the engine.

Here is how far I got today. As I was cleaned off the paint on the window seam, I discovered more rust holes in the seam. I welded some of them up, and then ground down the mess the best I could, it is tricky because I make as many holes as I fill it up! I think I'll take Dave's advice and weld the whole seam, it just takes a lot of patience!
Here are some shots of it now.

Stovens, its nice to see another person doing this style of truck build!! i will soon probably be doing a thread of my 51' build.

lookin great so far!! what are your plans?