Getting my 46 WD15 repaired and back on the road

[lostviking]

Thanks everyone. It's not terrible. I'm just making sure the metal is protected. I'm not mixing paint to color match, but bought the closest Eastwood single stage poly I could find. That's why I never expected it to match. The only time it will have a really good paint job, is when I pay to have it done.

Fender is ready to go, so it's the next item on the agenda. I have a pop-up screen room to paint it in, so at least I don't have to worry about "things" getting in the wet paint. It's also a lot of curves, so I will be doing the wet sanding by hand. That's how I did all the primer and base/clear sanding on the fuel tank. I like doing it that way personally.

The running board is taking a bit more time. I tried a number of test prints of my pattern, but measuring it by hand from my contour gauge wasn't working. The measurement device at work is getting a software update, and the guy who normally runs it is out on disability right now. I need him to give me a good reading on the gauge, then I can get the hammer and anvil parts made for me. Once I do, and it works correctly, I'll publish the drawing here so anyone who needs it can have a set made.

[lostviking]

Finished the area below the door today. Not too bad actually. Now I need another full coat of darker primer on the fender, then wetsand it with 600. I'll maybe do that today, maybe tomorrow. Next week, weather permitting I'll get the inside of the fender painted. I want that to cure a full week, and I'm not going to even worry about any sanding. Once that is nice and hard, I'll put it in my screen pop-up and spray it.

There is a light dimly appearing.

 

Update: Added the primer, wet sanded and washed the fender. One more spray I hope of color and I can wet sand, compound and polish. Then install the proper welting and fender filler, and hang it back where it belongs. Woo hoo.

Edited May 6, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Took the day off today to paint the fender. Mostly looked OK wet. There were a few places the filler must not have sanded as smooth as I thought. I blame old eyes. I didn't use primer sealer, I know, but I must have just not felt the rough spots. I put enough paint on I think I can sand it out. We'll see. I used twice the paint I thought it would take, but even though I was putting on heavy wet coats, I didn't get any runs. I did learn that I should have gotten the fender higher off the ground, but I had to work with what I have

 

We'll see how it finishes. I've been looking at my work, and the old paint. I don't believe they did any color sanding at all, so at least mine is smooth.

Edited May 8, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Was out of town for two weeks scouting retirement destinations. Couldn't afford to retire in CA even if I could still stand the place.

 

Started wet sanding the fender yesterday, all by hand rather than using my DA. There is enough orange peel that I needed to knock it down with 320 at first. I have the fender attacked to a work stand, but it moves around too much for my liking. New plan. I sanded, compounded and polished the first few inches towards the truck. Plenty of paint on there to get is nice and smooth. I'm going to attach the welting and the fender filler using some flush head aluminum rivets. After that my plan is to put it on the truck and put all the bolts in like it's done. That should hold it steady I think. I can mask the welting and fender filler, as well as the mating surface (to avoid messing them up). Then I can sand the whole thing, compound it and polish it. Even the places I'm not too proud of are still better than the paint on the rest of the truck, so once I get this done I'm ready to brave the roads again.

 

Round the block, retorque, round the block, retorque. I'm going to be extra paranoid this time around. The running board won't be done, but it is mostly back in shape. I need the 3D coordinate measurement system at work to get that contour gauge profile into a CAD file. Measuring it by hand just wasted a bunch of 3D printer time.

 

Something else I plan. The wood blocks that go under the running board force it to hit the bottom of the cab on my truck, since they can't be put in after the running board is in place. I plan to cut them into two pieces and slide them in one at a time to take care of that problem. I don't really see any issues with doing that. Since they won't be so long, I can pop them in easily enough...I think.

 

Have a great Memorial Day everyone. Remember, it's not for us vets that came home, it's for those who didn't.

[Veemoney]

Progress is good. My thoughts are no need to get to bent on perfection if down the road you will redo the paint. Nice enough is good enough for now.

 

Have you considered making a mold of the floorboard contour inside and out That should help with measuring if they will use a scanner, arm. There are some expensive kits but as long as you have no negative draft areas you could use some play-do on a small section of each. Then some light grease or oil to help with release in that section and bondo filler to capture the contour. A 1" section should be enough to allow the 3D measurements. Not sure if that would allow you to get the floorboard mounted earlier and tweak and paint inplace? Just thinking of options.

[lostviking]

I used a contour tool. I just need to transfer the manual contour to a CAD file. That means measuring the contour at specific intervals to plot a curved line. I have the equipment at work, but they are doing an upgrade, so it's offline right now. Using a caliper and trying to do that by hand just didn't work.

 

 

 

[Veemoney]

Sounds like you have a plan. I'm familiar with metrology equipment and software. My thought was the manual contour gauge depending on the size of the individual slats or needles is directly related to your accuracy in the tight radiuses, that may make it tough to get an accurate curve fit along with its true start and stop for each curve when they go from convex to concave. It may get you close enough, and I'm Interested to see how it goes. GL

[lostviking]

True enough. The gauge has .050 inch increments. I'll just fit a spline to points once I can get them accurately measured at a specific step increment. It should be very close to perfect, but to the eye...it will be

[lostviking]

Got the filler and welting on today. Ready to hang the fender and finish the rest of the paint.

Edited May 29, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

So far, so so. I'm ready to finish the paint. All the fasteners are just snugged at best. Rear of the running board isn't attached to the rear fender. Front running board support isn't tightened (it's a bolt on now.)

 

Considering the mess, and I should have taken a picture before I started disassembly, but I just couldn't bring myself to, it's not too bad. First time it's had the proper fender filler and welting on it also.

 

Edit: One thing I see, is that the fender fits much better now. The hood used to drag on the fender, now there is a nice even gap along the bottom.

 

Edited June 3, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Wet sanding and first round of compounding done. I need to remove the front bumper to get the very bottom. I see a few places the paint might need to be "patched". I'll 320 the defects out and see if I go through. If I do, I'll brush a few coats of paint on the spots, and repeat the sanding to blend. I've had to do that once already, so I can do it.

 

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

[lostviking]

Another round of compound, this time with the softer pad. Then a bit of scratch remover. There are plenty of fine scratches, but it will do I guess until I can get a real paint job. Before I put the welting and filler on, I did the first 2-3 inches of the fender. That way I could mask it off and the area under the tape would already be polished.

 

Still need to do the front of the fender, after I remove the bumper. As I go, I find places that still need sanding to remove the orange peal. I stop and do them, then compound and polish. I work pretty slow, just ask the wife.

 

 

[Veemoney]

Looks blue and shiny to me. The blend worked out well enough.

I'm starting some paint patch work on a spot at the backside of the cab along with replacing the bed wood on mine. Hate having the old truck down in the summer.

[lostviking]

I wanted to remove more of the fine scratches so I went back with finer sand paper and did some more wet sanding. This time it actually has a nice dull shine even without the compounding. But, that big word, there are some places where the orange peel is kind of rough. As I learn, I've had that before. Instead of trying to sand it out, and take the chance of going through. I mixed a small amount of paint/hardener and used a foam brush to apply a layer to those areas. It flattens out pretty good with the foam brush. I'll got back at it with 600 tomorrow maybe. I found a few "dimples" in the paint and I used some of the paint to fill them also. I'll take some pictures after I finish sanding it out. Or maybe after I'm done

 

[Rodney_Hamon]

I have enjoyed reading this thread about your save...and the fixing and the painting.  I  need to apply some of the steps you have done to mine. Love this era of truck.  People must rubberneck when they see it going down the road !

[lostviking]

I've gotten to the "good enough" point. Now I'm putting the head lamp back on, and of course while I thought I put all the fasteners in the bucket, I either didn't or some dropped out at some point. I can't find what I believe are the two screws to mount the "head lamp seat" to the inside of the bucket. I'm having a hard time making sure what size they are also. It is part number 865 336 in the book, but no size information is given. Anyone have a size they can share?

Edited June 24, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Patients is not my middle name I found them at DMC and ordered two sets. We'll see how long it takes to get them. Only $3, so no reason to try something IMHO.

[Los_Control]

Just curious does it have a shoulder & lip on the bolt to hold the seat in place while screwing it down?

 

I doubt my 49 would be same as your 46.

! screw to hold chrome bezel on

3 screws to hold headlight ring in place

2 springs 2 screws to hold the headlight base in place & adjust.

 

I just got 1 screw out & was going to check size & saw you found them ..... I was thinking Dang, thats a specialty screw just the size is not enough....

Glad you got it.

[lostviking]

Thanks, yes they are special. I was going to make one, but now I won't have to cut a screw down on the lathe.

 

The spots I touched the paint up show right now. I thought they were level when I was wet sanding, but after the buff/polish, they were darker looking. Getting up closer I see they are just a lot smoother. They aren't really flush, so the buffing pad did a better polish on them. I'll have to wet sand again in those spots, but I'm done for right now. I want to get it back together and start the darn thing. It's been quite awhile.

 

I'll move it into the driveway to finish the sanding. Better light might help.

Edited June 25, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

Never really good enough I went out and wet sanded with some 800 on a few of the spots I could reach without moving everything again. I took a shot of the dark spots in another area to compare. After bringing the paint level and compounding/polishing...you can't tell it was ever there. Ya!

 

 

There was a huge dark area right there on the rear of the fender. It's gone. You can see other area's I sanded, but haven't finished off yet. The wife isn't keen on my taking over the garage again right now, so next week I guess. The screws for the lamp will be here by then maybe, so I can move it into the driveway???

Edited June 25, 2023 by lostviking

[Los_Control]

11 minutes ago, lostviking said:

The screws for the lamp will be here by then maybe, so I can move it into the driveway???

I Dunno, sounds a bit risky to me ..... those screws might have a break in period?

I would suggest 2 weeks garage time to let the screws get acclimated ... ?

 

 

[lostviking]

DCM shipped already. Of course I still have to wait out the break in period.

 

Edit: got here today!

Edited June 29, 2023 by lostviking

[lostviking]

It's alive! I still have work to do on the fender paint, buff buff buff.

I put the headlamp back on today with the new hardware I got from DCM, and I put the battery back in. It was fully charged. I cranked it awhile with the ign off until I saw the oil needle move, not continuous of course. One push to set the carb and it cranked right up. I'll have to get more gas for it, because it's been on e the whole time, but it was nice to hear it run.

I need to move a few things out of the way, but I can move the truck now. As soon as I've done a few short shakedown trips, and recheck torques on everything, I'll start hauling the old parts to metal recycler. No other options have presented, so I'm putting the front brakes, rear axle and the other engine across the scales. Not my first choice, but I can't seem to give them away, so away they must go.

[lostviking]

When I started this, I removed, with malice the old floor mat. The PO missed a few spots on hole placement, so it had some extras. I looked at them on Roberts and DCM, and while they look perfect the price of $140+ was a bit steep I though. Now, it does include the backing, but mine is fine. I went on Amazon and found a 4'x6' "workout mat" that is 3mm of rubber. Not foam or anything like that, but rubber. Some of the commenters were using it to top their work benches.

I will make a template from cardboard and most likely get the holes in the correct locations the first time. Should be here next Thursday (holidays). It was around $60.

[lostviking]

Another thing I was adding because they just were not here, was the dust and draft seals for the clutch and brake pedals. Unfortunately, what everyone sells even out to Steele Rubber do not fit my truck even remotely. The don't fit around the pedals and they don't come close to filling the holes around the pedals in the floor. The holes have not been cut as far as I can see, but the seals I purchased won't cover the entire opening.

I had read about people getting them over the pedals, I tried all that hot water and stuff, not even close. I figured I'd cut them, put them in place and glue them back together with "shoe goo". It's a very good product for gluing rubber together and it stays flexible. Problem was the seals as I said left large open area's and they don't fit around the pedal. Maybe 3/4 ton are different or something. I'll have some of the rubber mat left over, maybe I'll do something with that.