Build 82 first Gen Project (RECON)

[SFROMAN]

More work on the bed yesterday.

The body line inset is completely rusted. I attempted to bend a piece of 14 gauge and go past the body line. I couldn’t quite get the bend tight enough so I decided to cut out the length of the inset.

I was able to weld in a inch piece inside the body line and clean it up pretty good to keep the body line

shaved the driver side marker and went ahead and cut out the same area in the back of the bed as well

finished up the corners I started a few days ago. They were pretty bad so I am happy with the result.

 

[SFROMAN]

Today’s progress. When I built the bumper I roughly plasma cut the bottom of the bed where the license plate use to be. I went ahead and cleaned up the cut.

Hard to tell but I went ahead and reinforced the bottom of the tailgate. With how little sheatmetal was left in that area I didn’t want the tailgate to rip off the bed floor.
I already had 3/16 x3” plate that I added when I cut out the bed floor that was pretty rotted out. I went ahead and finished welded it from the

I also went ahead and added 1”x 3/16 flat stock to strengthen and straighten the area where the tailgate used to be.

 

[SFROMAN]

I think I have one more day worth of work on the bottom of the bed and I should be able to POR 15 it. But first I want to do some metal prep with ospho.
then I will flip the bed and finish up a few more things like the tailgate.

 

[SFROMAN]

Did lots of cleaning and grinding to the bed today. Need one more small piece of rust that I found and then it’s time to ospho clean and POR.
got started on the fenders also so I can POR them at the same time.

 

[SFROMAN]

Update
I encapsulated the bed floor with POR 15 and then was finallly able to epoxy primer the truck. Metal work phase is done. Now to do some bo

 

[SFROMAN]

Seating in the garage just begging for some body work. Now that the epoxy primer is dried out I can see that most of the truck is pretty straight. The major areas will be the bed sides where I did most of the metal patching to remove rusty areas.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Seating in the garage just begging for some body work. Now that the epoxy primer is dried out I can see that most of the truck is pretty straight. The major areas will be the bed sides where I did most of the metal patching to remove rusty areas.

[/QUOTE]

it looks like an RC car.

 

[SFROMAN]

Some body work progress. Been doing 1 to 2 hours at night but had ran out of 40 and 60 sand paper so progress was very slow going until I got some more in today. My homie came by today and gave me a hand.
hoping to be able to spray the high build primer on Monday. Then possibly paint a few days later. Really want to have the truck finished by the 28th before I go on a end of year trail ride.

 

[SFROMAN]

Been doing some plotting and the plan is to go three link and coil overs in the front.
I want to daily drive the truck on 35s.
But the plan is to buy a set of 37” tires or 40” tires undecided yet, on true bead lock 17” rims. This tire combo will only be swapped in while wheeling.

also I want to move my axle forward. I am going to accomplish this by swapping in an 80 series steering box which points the pitman arm forward instead of backwards like my current box.
this will allow me to move the axle forward a few inches so it seems like a good time to 3 link it while I am at it.

the 4wheelundefground 3 link kits look like they are the perfect set up formy truck so looking to start purchasing partsin late January. I won’t tear into the truck until I have all the parts and have a long weekend to complete the 3 link hopefully by the end of winter or early spring. Until then I plan to enjoy the truck as a daily driver once I finish the paint and body of course.

 

[SFROMAN]

Update for the year on this project.
The truck has been on the back burner since last year.
I completely went in a different direction with the project so I could hurry up and finish it and enjoy it.

I bought another truck that I will be using for going in the hard trails and keeping this much nicer truck as a camping truck. I have some new cool ideas for it that I’m excited to get started on.

This is the other mini I bought for the harder trails. It’s a cool little truck that is very capable.
I will start a thread for it eventually

 

[Box Rocket]

Good solution! Nice to have a wheeler truck and a nicer one that won't get beat on.

 

[SFROMAN]

With surgeries and major life changes in the last 2 to 3 years I have completely neglected this project.
But now I am committed to getting this truck out of the garage all back together and painted by the end of this week.

Here are some body work progress shots of the work I completed this week.

Note to add now that I have a better welder and my welding skills have improved I did spend a portion of the time fixing or improving some previous repairs.

The bed rails are too thin on this style bed so I added to them with 1 inch tubing. This will make it easy to use the standard aluminum clamps to attach the camper I want to install on the bed.

I spent a whole day messing with the tailgate. After I inspected I was never very happy with the reload I did to it so went back and redid it again but better. It still is t perfect but it is as good as it is going to get considering the shape of it when I started.

 

[SFROMAN]

Completing some of the previous rust repairs I finished up the bed reinforcement with 3/16 plate patches (I cut out the original rusty bed floor in this whole area.

I prepped the doors to accept new mirrors I bought which wil be a much needed improvement to the very small mirrors I had on there before and much nicer than the stock ones I think.

After going over the body work one last time I applied another coat of epoxy primer sealer to the bed and fenders and high build primer to the camper shell

 

[SFROMAN]

After the epoxy primer I applied the high build primer to the camper, bed and fenders and began sanding. Started block sanding with 320 grit.

then I guide coated the panel and finished the parts with 400 grit

 

[SFROMAN]

Finally I got the panels painted. I went with an fj40 freeborn red paint code.
I sprayed 2 coats of base coat and 2 coats of clear.
I am very happy with how it turned out.

Getting started on the cab, doors and hood next in the morning.

 

[gnob]

Looking good. I like your bedrail mod. Nuts and bolting a canopy on brings the suck. (ask me how I know lol)

 

[Box Rocket]

Looking awesome! Can you remind me what paint you used? I'm getting closer to being ready to paint my son's 1990 pickup and he's wanting to do red.

 

[SFROMAN]

Photo is the spec sheet on the paint can.
You can more likely use that.
But I used a paint code for a 1982 Toyota fj40 in freeborn red.

 

[SFROMAN]

Speedokote Mobile Refinish Clear Coat High Gloss Super Fast Clearcoat Gallon Kit SMR-105/75 Amazon product ASIN B01JAGRQ74

Here is the clear I am using. I should be good to do 2 coats on the whole truck with the 1 gallon i initially bought but I ordered a second one just in case. I will update if I end up needing to use the second one.

 

[SFROMAN]

Resealed the whole cab with black epoxy primer to cover up all the major metal work and body work. Then I sprayed the panels with gray high build primer.
Should be spraying color tomorrow evening.