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Another "what to do" thread

Yep! I had a 69 D-200 Camper Special that I put a clutch in, on my back, in my driveway. It was nice that the trans. tunnel would un-bolt & gave me plenty of access from the top, but it was not easy from underneath. Crossmember removal, rusted fasteners (truck over 50, me, well over 50, living in the rust belt) the N.P. 245 trans weighed A LOT, but I got it done & worked great. I should have kept that one, it was in pretty nice shape too. I think you could probably do a pretty nice job doing your own paint work, just practice first. Do you still have a paint gun & related items? I haven't painted anything in years either, but I plan on doing my own on the 1986 when I'm ready. It's not going to be a show truck but I'm sure I can do a pretty good paint job to match the cab close enough. Heres a couple pics of the 69 I had a couple years ago. 318 4speed, M/S, Power drum brakes. Even with manual steering & those fatter than stock tires, (It had rims from a Ford F-250 on it) it wasn't bad steering at very low speeds at all. This is right where I installed the clutch too!

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niceolddart said:
Yep! I had a 69 D-200 Camper Special that I put a clutch in, on my back, in my driveway. It was nice that the trans. tunnel would un-bolt & gave me plenty of access from the top, but it was not easy from underneath. Crossmember removal, rusted fasteners (truck over 50, me, well over 50, living in the rust belt) the N.P. 245 trans weighed A LOT, but I got it done & worked great. I should have kept that one, it was in pretty nice shape too. I think you could probably do a pretty nice job doing your own paint work, just practice first. Do you still have a paint gun & related items? I haven't painted anything in years either, but I plan on doing my own on the 1986 when I'm ready. It's not going to be a show truck but I'm sure I can do a pretty good paint job to match the cab close enough. Heres a couple pics of the 69 I had a couple years ago. 318 4speed, M/S, Power drum brakes. Even with manual steering & those fatter than stock tires, (It had rims from a Ford F-250 on it) it wasn't bad steering at very low speeds at all. This is right where I installed the clutch too!

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Had a 69 too.....was my first pickup in 73. 318 auto with around 90k miles and in bad need of valve stem seals. IIRC, got it for 200 bucks and had better things to do than install new ones so I fed it 3 cans of STP until it quit creating a cloud of smoke every time it had to stop for a traffic light.
 
I suppose I could, I wish I could find a factory bolt in one from a 72-76 truck
I did cut it plenty wide out of the junkyard donor. The junkyard donor had pretty solid floors and what was left , were springy/ floppy after I cut the tunnel out of it.
I'm gonna lap the old/ new a bit instead of butt welding.
I ordered a set of Cleco's to hold it in place while I weld in the bigger tunnel. Doing so might actually add some strength to the floor pan as I have a set of front (leather) buckets from a Durango and an extra set of ramcharger seat pedestals, I might actually put buckets in this thing. And I have a miller mig of my own that's collected more dust lately than usual besides...
 
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I've heard of that. I used to have a nice set of minivan seats the right color, even but I sold them like 10 years ago. I have a set out of a 98 Durango here, the driver side bottom is smooshed and clapped out but the covers are still nice that I may try to adapt to the ramcharger seat bases. I don't have a seat for this truck right now, the bench seat coming out of my 85 is real nice, (originally out of an 87) but it's the wrong color. Maroon with the rest of a tan interior wont look very nice
Worst case I can head back to the junkyard and see what they have that might work. Whether out of some Mopar or not.
I also have a single nice drivers bucket out of an RC in the attic but don't have a mate for it.
I might sell/trade these for something a better match... Not sure if I want buckets or a bench in here. After this weekend I will have a tan/butterscotch RC center console that could go in if I do decide on the buckets.
I have another pair of maroon RC buckets and console for my other (85 1/2 ton) Truck already.
 
well the frame is at the blaster, and were headed north on Sunday to bring home another parts truck...parts for both this truck and my son's RC.... a beat up, rotten 92 RC..... hopefully I can make some $$ back and get my parts basically for free.... don't know what all is left of this truck quite yet.
 
well it's "ON" (as the kids say "like Donkey Kong" haha) I just got a call from the sandblaster, my frame is blasted and primed, it looks GOOD!!! No surprises of swiss cheese-ness after blasting. Only spot is the support gusset that goes 45* to the fuel tank cross member.... and I knew about that before I took it... hoo boy.. more grinding rivet heads like I did to pull the cab mounts so I could fab new ones... Ill have to either cut one out at the yard or pull this one and weld it up from behind. not a big deal and coulda been alot worse. the guy was surprised it looked so good, for a 42 tear old truck frame.... New rear leafs ordered today also. should be here Friday/ and the parts truck stayed sinking into the ground where I found it. Not enough left that I need, for his price.
 
well, a setback.
I got the frame all blasted and primed, looks fantastic. Lots of new parts arriving, making the wife not too happy with me.
Got the cab out of the barn that we've had it in for the last 12-15 years, and home into my garage last weekend.... Now for the setback... I see that at one time the whole cab back wall has been cut out and replaced. I don't know if this truck was used on a box truck, ambulance, camper or other application that needed an open cab back, or if it suffered some trauma at some point. I'm suspecting the first scenario. the back wall has been sectioned in from another cab, all pop riveted and bondo'd over. As soon as the neighbor farmer to where i had it stored came over with his Bobcat with forks and got it out into the daylight, I saw the butt end of a gazillion pop rivets on the inside back wall of the cab. Weirdly, this cab is solid as new in all the areas that these cabs were known for rotting out.
I was hoping only to have to cut out the skinny 2wd/auto trans tunnel and weld in the wide 4wd and/or 4 speed tunnel I cut out from a truck at the local junkyard. SURPRISE!!!!

The way they (whoever did the repair job) overlapped it, there will be plenty to weld to, to do it the right way. The new panel is set in, and rests against the inside surface of the original cab. and fortunately they used plain old Bondo to cover the rivet heads/ not panel bond. (I was asked that question on FABO and Moparts) as if they'd have used "panel bond" it is said I would ruin the cab before i got that crap off of there. I can fix it but its alot of time I wasnt expecting to have to spend on it.... Gotta wait for my 0.023" drive spool and my 0.023" contact tips to get here so I can switch my MIG machine over from 0.035.

We had a surprise birthday party for both my wife and my daughter in law today, the guy that my kid got the cab from was there and I asked him W T F.... I know he didn't get the truck new, and that it was his "first vehicle" while he was in high school. It got broadsided while parked at a HS football game while he owned it/ and the insurance totaled it at that point/ but that wreck damage was well behind the cab. I remember what that truck had looked like while he had it/ and it had a plain standard Dodge truck bed on it.... I don't know any history on it before about 2010..... I've had this cab in another buddy's barn, up on pallets for at least 10 years.... I remember unloading it to that spot, but have never noticed this. There were 2 spare doors piled in the cab most of those years// and the barn has no lights/electricity.... the past owner of the truck this cab came from, and my kid, are "best buddies".... my kid originally bought the cab from his buddy after the wreck and was originally gonna put it onto his truck, but then sold his truck before the cab swap could happen. So we have had it there, collecting dust, ever since.
Whoever did this job looks to have welded it in from where the cab wall strengthening ribs ended upwards to the window opening...and that welding looked pretty nice. The plan is to grind off the rest of the bondo and drill out the spot welds one at a time and plug weld those holes shut.... and then skip weld the edges of the replacement bed wall in, around its edges... it'll be stronger than any of these cabs were when new and will be hidden from the bed on the back side and the interior trim on the inside. At least the roof over the windshield is in great shape as are the cab corners, the supports that the cab mounts bolt to, and the rocker panels are in fantastic shape. I just wont have it in for paint as quick as I had hoped.
 
Well I got the back bed wall fixed right, but whoever put it in with pop rivets and bondo left the original seam sealer on both the lip they left from the original bed back wall and the replacement both, so I started welding and popper farted and blew holes instead of what I was after. So I had to grind off the welds that dis go as expected and separate the bottom of the "new" bed wall from the original and q bottle torch, a scraper and then a powered wire wheel I got that crap clean d out and started over, the 2 pieces actually fit up to each other better with all that crap outta there.
There are gaps on the very top of the bed wall where the bottom of the window would be that whoever did the job just filled with Bondo that I had to strip out of there, I gotta figure out how to weld up since I can't get any kind of a "backer" inside there. I used a solid copper bar as a backer on the rest of the cab wall to absorb heat (weld won't stick to copper) and minimize warping. I also have to build up the pinch weld in that area as well. The kid my son got the cab from did say something about difficulty in keeping the back window in place. It came out on my trailer before I even got out of the farmers driveway as soon as I loaded it from where it had been sitting in the barn...

I THOUGHT I had a better cab "bought" but the people stopped responding and didn't call me like they said they would.

The Goofy part of all this is that everywhere these cabs are known for rust problems the one I have is in great shape there.
I do also have to weld up a hole in each of the inner and outer roof skins, the outer is much less than the hole in the inner. I do have a headliner going in that will hide this mess.
 
Your on a roll get it blasted and inside before you know it winter will be here and nice to work inside
 
Got it blasted and I'm pissed
The guy said it would all be the "dustless" blasting and he blasted it with black beauty, even though it was "ultra fine" and warped the Hell out of my truck... Besides the rust in the roof I didn't know was there and the holes "peppered" in the passenger door and the badly dented fender that was just filled in with a huge lump of Bondo
I thought I brought in my best pieces, but maybe not... The fact that everything is so rough, not smooth as body panels are supposed to be/
The blaster guy lied to me about the process he was going to do on my truck... A paint job that started at $6k is now gonna be 10.... I asked about what if I brought in a different cab and was asked "what if the next cab is this bad under the paint".... Back to square 1... Being as how everything I have had 2+ coats of paint that's not adhering very well I knew that had to come off....
I definitely thought I was doing the paint guys a favor saving hours of sanding and piles of DA discs
 
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No.... He did exactly as I could have done myself "black beauty" though he said "it's a really fine grit"... He was supposed to do glass bead with dustless blast (with water being part of the blast mix) which was WHY I didn't do it myself to begin with.... But oh he's been doing it for 12 years, he knows what he's doing...
He said he did the cab roof and the finned wiper cowl panel with the dustless blaster... Claims he stood back with some of it and blasted from the top of a ladder to get more distance between the blast and the metal...I know damn well my bird bath hood wasn't distorted when I brought it....
 
Power washer and blaster attachment. I will do it myself then there will be know no bit myself to blame.
I have enough projects to justify the expense.
To bad you are experiencing such poor results. Don't think I would ever try black beauty on sheet metal. Frame yes.
If the equipment wasn't everly expensive soda blast would be my choice.
 
I considered that but then alot of horror stories about paint coming off in sheets of every bit of soda residue isn't removed. I don't know what's involved in that

I know what happened
I took the frame to them a few months ago. I thought I was gonna have the body to them within a couple of weeks after. We've been saving this cab for years, been in a barn and hasn't even been wet in at least 10 years.
I finally got help with getting it out and onto my trailer and realized this cab we thought was so nice, wasn't. So I did what body work I could myself (think "rough carpentry") and the plan was to take it in for the "finish carpentry". The guy had ordered the right material (I believe it was glass bead?) for me and then I didn't bring it in right away.
When I did bring it the guy told me that since I didn't bring my project right away when I thought I would someone else came on with another job so he used the material he had bought for me on this other job. I had called him and told him that I was still coming but there would be a delay because of the unexpected work I had to do on this cab. He said "don't right don't hurry on my account"

Fast forward to a week before labor day. I brought my stuff in, he said something about a price increase due to tariffs etc and how his costs had gone up/ but that he would honor the price he had given me a couple/few months ago.
I think this was his way of cutting corners by not "having to" buy more dustless blasting supplies. Supposedly he did the cab roof and my cowl panels with the dustless blaster machine but I wasn't there to see.
I expected this thing to be bare and as smooth as new sheet metal but it's rough as hell. And all the sand in the crevices it sure wasn't done "dustlessly". He admitted to using black beauty but "look at how fine this stuff is (even "fine " black beauty is quite rough) maybe not in 4 hours but I could have done the same thing as he did with my pressure pot sandblaster right here in my own backyard.
Last fall I talked to someone else about blasting this thing but they were shutting down for the season, already had their system drained for the cold season and I was told to call back in the spring and get on the list. Then I discovered this place 6 miles from home instead of having to haul it 40-ish miles away. And they told me they would do the dam, they did same process. In the interest of "local" and having to bother people for help in transport (my son has a bigger trailer than me) I trusted this quack. He didn't do the job in the way he promised he would.
I also found another body shop that advertised sandblasting and that guy told me he could do my frame but would ruin the bed, doors fenders and hood. I told that guy I knew someone who would "dustless blast" and that other local guy even said then that's who I would use" so I did and got screwed. Not sure what I can do about it now but to be pissed. I got taken.
 
Black beauty is made from coal slag its for cast iron and will warp sheet metal a couple of other fourms talks about it. And any experienced sandblaster should know. Too bad it happened to you I would not be too happy either. Maybe you can find another cab with some searching
 
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