lostviking

Take a look online and you can find adapters. There are many options on where to buy. Amazon, McMaster-Carr. I'm sure even your local auto parts store can help you out.

Anyone have a suggestion on how to get some urethane single stage paint, in the socialist republic of kalifornia? Oh, it would be nice to not need to give up an organ for it also. Thanks.

Drove 25 miles to TCP GLobal today to buy some sealer/primer and color...all I got was a sign that said their storefront was closed. Order online and they will ship it to you. Well, f_ck off TCP Global. I can order it from Amazon for less, and get free shipping. The only reason I was giving you my business was the personal treatment. Never shopping there again.

Today I decided to weld the little over 1 inch long crack in the rear fender. I don't know if this was there before, or a result of the accident. I cleaned the metal around the crack, and a spot for the ground clamp. I spent maybe 10 minutes welding most of the crack, one dot at a time. Then I spent 45 minutes or so chasing the blow through holes I created Welding thin sheet metal is darn hard. I had my welder set to min power and min wire, but if you did more than touch the trigger and release, boom, hole. It took a lot of time to pop a bead or two, wait, weld again, wait some more (for the area to fully cool), but I finally got it so the light didn't show through. I used a flap disk over and again to grind the welds down as I tried to fix my mistakes. In the end, there is one little spot along the bottom edge I wish I could have fixed, but by then I was convinced I'd just make it worse. Cleaned the area again to shinny metal and applied a thin layer of filler. The wife got home before I sanded it, so I guess that won't happen today. If I ever have to weld anything that thin again, I'm going to find a nice piece of copper or aluminum and fit it to the rear of the weld area. I think that might give me a fighting chance at least. I've decided I'll paint using urethane as Ken suggested (maybe others too). I'm going to go up to TCP Global and see if they can help me match the color. I'll eventually paint the whole truck, but as I've said, fenders and running boards will be black. Single stage urethane seems to be the go to. It might even be what's on the truck. I didn't spend much on the quart of acrylic enamel paint and the hardener, so not a big loss. I can always paint something else blue

I was trying to think, but nothing happened

I guess that does expose more filter element to the dirty oil.

proven wrong.

Thank Ken. I don't know diddly about this so I only know what I read. I appreciate you sharing actual experience with me. I bought a gallon of lacquer thinner, so I'd have plenty to clean my equipment. I've read that you can use it to reduce urethane, but that it dries faster. If that is true, I should still be able to clean the gun right? Even use it to reduce urethane...but then other people say don't reduce urethane at all. A bit confused. I do have a can of HD paint from a bike job. It is urethane base I believe...I could test for reaction with it.

Been covered here, search is your friend.

I wouldn't use anything like that for cruise control, not exactly safe. For warming up, my chokes fast idle cam works fine. I'm guessing the reason they have it, is because different folks...

I like the idea of using the "fifth hole" as a heater control. I have no real use for that manual throttle control. Maybe they used it to crawl the trucks along on farms or something, I other than that I see no real use.

Wouldn't I have to seal it with an epoxy primer and repaint the whole thing to switch to urethane? I do have a nice 3M mask I use. Of course I'm spraying in my garage for the cab, but for the fenders I'm going to do what we did when spraying my Harley...drop cloth on the bottom, screen room popup. I'll just set it up in my driveway.

Water temp, oil pressure, speedo/odo, fuel, amp. I'm not sure it there is a Hi beam indicator in the speedo or not. probably. No turn signals or other lights otherwise.

Pretty quiet weekend. I wet sanded everything with 600. I mixed some paint, hardener and thinner...then used the inside of the damaged fender (running board is under a bunch of stuff). No reaction at all, but the color is not very close at all. It seems to have a much more violet look when laid right next to the original. Now the inside of the fender is not really the same as the body. The PO has two distinctly different colors on the truck. The inside of the fenders, the inner fender all have a much more sky blue look. The other thing is that the whole truck needs a repaint due to how badly it was done. I only purchased a pint or quart (not next to me right now) can of paint, since I was only going to do the cab repair with it. I'm going to take one of the head light housings up to a pro paint supply store and see if they can help me out. I hope they can and have an acrylic enamel also. That way I can go around with my sander and spot all the really bad area's, feather them out and respray the cab and bed. The fenders and running boards are going to be black. I don't want a base/clear paint job. Have a great Easter everyone.

You would think, but then again if it isn't 4x4 related, there isn't much interest. I have trouble getting a simple answer from anyone I've asked. They just want to get the truck and install a custom setup. I've also talked to the bigger guys, who sell new springs for our trucks. They want to sell new springs. I've done a bunch more reading since I first posted. It seems that removing the bottom two leaves is something people have done, and doesn't break any "rules". I'm going to do it. The 1/2 ton springs are in fact 8 leaves, rather than the 10 I have. Might be the only difference is the two I'm taking out. I already have the replacement centering bolts.

The question remains, which one to pull? Two bottom, or what?

My truck is a 3/4 ton, so it has a very stiff ride. There are 10 total leaves in the springs. 6 is the bound pack, and 4 additional overload springs (I guess you'd call them that). I don't want to mess around with the bound pack at the top of the picture. I do however want to remove two leaf's to lower the truck and soften the ride. It will never really work again, just be used to drive and show. I'm not worried about loosing weight capacity in this. Of the bottom four, I know that the shorter ones are the stiffer springs, however I've read conflicting information about removing the bottom most spring. I've also read that take two right next to each other was bad also, that you should skip a leaf. What are the pros and cons of removing the very bottom, skipping one and take the next. Or, leave the bottom, take the second and forth springs. I'm mostly asking to be sure I'm doing it safely. Thanks.

Good points. I'm using lacquer thinner and the hardener from the paint supplier. I expect this is the same paint he used, maybe different source, but I do have that running board to play with.

I like the way the brake hose attaches on yours. The Chev Celebrity calipers mount fore to aft, so the hose has to make a 90deg turn. I think the way yours are is better. I think the website still had the older information on it when I bought mine. The instructions were different, so I asked...but only which I should buy, not why they changed.

Quick weekend update. Went out today and used some 320 to prep the paint for spraying. I blended into the area's that had color, and did the surfaces with primer. There were a couple places I hadn't done any work to yet, so I got them all ready to put some color on also. As I was getting down, the sander started to make bearing noises. It's a fairly cheap Black and Decker 5 inch electric sander. I've had a small vacuum connected to the exhaust since I started working on the truck, to keep the air from being a cloud. Anyway, I took it into the "shop" and disassembled Johnny 5. It was pretty dirty inside and the bearing under the main aluminum fan/disk was pretty rough feeling. I took it all the way apart, including removing the rubber ends of the bearing. They seemed to come out pretty easily. I cleaned the thing with WD40 first then brake cleaner. Next is hit it with some white lith grease. It now spun fantastically again. I popped the rubber ends back in (they are backed with integral brass washers) after cleaning them inside and out. I spun it a bunch on my finger tip, cleaning all the excess grease that came out. Smooooth. I put the whole shebang back together after having cleaned everything. I tested just the motor in the housing at first and it ran very fast with no abnormal sounds, so I put the rest of it back together. Gave it another test run, on the back patio of course...works like new again. I put it back into it's box, ready to be used in the future...then bought a air powered random orbital on Amazon with excellent reviews. It was only $32, but had 400 reviews and nearly 5 stars...so what the heck. It will be here on Tuesday, which I chose to delay until then because I have the day off. I love Amazon, even if Bezos is a tool. I tested the paint as was suggested by dipping a screw driver in some and letting it run on the parts that no longer matter. I don't see any reaction at all. If the weather is good next weekend, I'm going to try my hand at getting some color on the cab. Once that has had a week to cure up, I'm going to mask the cab well and then remount the fender. I'll finish doing the body work with it on the truck since I think it will be easier for me. We'll see if that's right or not. Comments are always welcome. Have a good Sunday everyone.

Roberts shows this as the "original style" fender welting. I checked a number of other sources and all the pictures show what I got. I think they are all using the same picture actually. I then checked the history of this item, and it seems Dodge originally used a pure cloth material, but later changed the vinyl because of water getting trapped in the cloth. I guess it's the right stuff after all. Thanks for responding though Y.E. Here is a link to the image, that's what I received.

I got my "fender welt" from Roberts today, and it is not what I was expecting. I'm hoping someone can comment. What I got is a cloth backed vinyl material sewn around a white nylon tubing. I was expecting rubber. Does anyone have more information on this material. Is this actually the correct part? Front fender to hood area. I again was expecting a flat rubber with a bead along the top. Thanks.

Same with mine. I'm repairing a catastrophe, do I wasn't sure if I got the edge shaped correctly or not. Seeing yours lets me know mine is OK again. The rubber that goes in the lower area, like Young Ed pointed out is very thick, so it should fill the gap. I also think my hood would hit if I put it all the way up in the "wiggle area". I'm glad Y.E. was able to confirm. I'll do a bit of trimming when I put it back on the truck. I'm waiting for the welting to get here from Roberts.

I used a 1 inch thick bolt pattern adapter when I was using the stock wheels. I then put some Jeep 15 inch wheels that had a 4 inch back space on. Those fit also, but they rubbed on the steering arms, so I added a 1/4 spacer. The fixed that, but then the tire still rubs. The Scarebird stuff is fine, it was the back spacing causing the steering to interfere for me. I'm going back to my adapters and stock wheels. Mine is a WD-15 for the bolt pattern is 5x5. If everything else is the same, they seem to have 3 or slightly more back space, then they should clear the caliper just fine. Tim

Explains why the PO of my truck drilled holes in the cab and use about #10 screws...the holes were already in the fenders. Cool. I did a trial fit with the new rubber, it fills the gap very nicely. Does it follow that little wiggle in the fender near the top in the first picture, just before the fender gets flat. I have the welting material for there.