Rusty Wagon Rebuild (2 Viewers)

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Paint= lots of sanding.
Painting should be called sanding like surfing should be called paddling.

There are 3 or 4 coats of color on everything depending on the part, the quarters got a bit extra since I had to sand some off. That was the only color-sand, the rest is all just tack-coat.

Single stage paint, so no clear.
 
There is nothing with being a bike geek. I have a steel 29er hard tail that I love. Steel is where it is at.

gregnash is correct; nothing wrong with being a bike geek. I have 2 steel road bikes and 2 steel mountain bikes. The youngest one is from the mid 90s. Steel rocks.

And I have a newer carbon fiber road bike...that one kinda "thuds" (instead making "rocking" sounds).
 
Kevin,

This is looking great. I bet it feels nice to get this far and have (hopefully all) the rust behind you.

Sorry the gate lid you built for me slowed you down mid-build. :)

As so many have said, your work inspires. I just spent over an hour reading your thread, and now I want to keep my 60 and rebuild it with my daughter as a father-daughter bonding project. Which should be fun, since she is not even 2 yet... Today I taught her the word ratchet as she helped me install a steering stabilizer.

I need to hang out in the 60 forum more. Great work man!

Cheers,

Jon

PS: A guy at the carwash (I know, I know...but I was parenting) opened my tailgate today and it was so freakin' heavy he dropped it (Kevin made a tailgate lid for me and my gate is full of recovery gear).
 
Great work, I really like the way you trimmed the bottom of the rear quarters and then used the glue.
I've been following along and I like the way you jumped from a sorta sanded body to painted in 4-5 pics. I should do that, as i did my 60 last Dec, with 2-3 pics and forget the 400+ hrs in between. It is lots of work, and the results are worth every minute! I'm saving $ for your rear deck. It will finish the back up nicely!
 
Kevin,

You boxed in your rear frame sections; will that not reduce the amount frame flex that is inherent in cruiser articulation? Or would that not affect it?

Thanks,

Jon
 
Hey Kevin--I'm glad the West has the conditions to make it worth the total build of your LC; Looks like you will be done just in time for the early Summer tour of the great state of OREGON-
Well done on the detailed work...the rest of us only wish we had that much time..let alone the skill.
WAGON GEAR: finally have 2 of the 3 panels installed in my rig--work awesome and using the textured panels all around looks really sharp!
LCDiesel
Oregon
 
Thanks Guys, no time to type but I feel bad about not posting the photos, so taking a little break.


Won't it be nice to not hear the rust-mites nibbling away?
That is the whole driving force here. :p

Kevin,
Sorry the gate lid you built for me slowed you down mid-build. :)
Yeah, if I don't get it back on the road in time it's all your fault Jon. :p
...... and now I want to keep my 60 and rebuild it with my daughter as a father-daughter bonding project. Which should be fun, since she is not even 2 yet... Today I taught her the word ratchet as she helped me install a steering stabilizer.

I need to hang out in the 60 forum more. Great work man!
That's great Jon, If I can encourage people to keep what they have and work on keeping it in good shape that is a good thing.
I feel the same way about the 60 forum as well, I don't have much time for the internets but when I do I want to see creativity and problem-solving and that's what I find here. There are a lot of other places you can go to see people spend money but here folks like to figure things out for themselves and often come up with creative solutions.

Great work, I really like the way you trimmed the bottom of the rear quarters and then used the glue.
I've been following along and I like the way you jumped from a sorta sanded body to painted in 4-5 pics. I should do that, as i did my 60 last Dec, with 2-3 pics and forget the 400+ hrs in between. It is lots of work, and the results are worth every minute! I'm saving $ for your rear deck. It will finish the back up nicely!
:p I guess there just isn't much to take photos of when sanding. :cool: I could take a picture of each panel in each grit progression, but somehow I don't think it would be worth it. :doh:

I am sure you will have this thing built before I get a free day but I am open off and on after the 20th if you need a hand!
Clint
Oh sure, now that Im finished with the sanding. :grinpimp:
I am really trying to get this on the road for by the 27th but I don't see how that is going to work, for the most part it's best if I just work away at it, I'm pretty bad at finding work for other people. But if you need an excursion you know where I'm at!

Kevin,
You boxed in your rear frame sections; will that not reduce the amount frame flex that is inherent in cruiser articulation? Or would that not affect it?[ /QUOTE]
The short answer to that is; I have no idea.
I stared at it for awhile and I don't think so.
I basically took the part that was already in there, remade it and flipped it around. At the same time I removed the rear tire brace and the bumper tie-in brace, the bumper puts that support back in but still allows the twist (I think...)
It should be fine.

:cheers:


So, I don't have time to caption these but I will post a bunch of photos for now, some exciting stuff....
EDIT: Some captions added for info. :)


Disassembled and cleaned all the HVAC inside and out. (so nice having hot running water in the garage)

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No idea if it will help anything but I had all these scraps of foam I have saved over the years so I re-did all the seals and insulated the ducts.
I know that with the AC blasting they get a lot of condensation on them so the thought is that this will help, and might make things quieter under the dash.

IMG_7338.jpg


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The pile of crusty old foam that used to be in there:

IMG_7342.jpg



...
 
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Ok, so that wasn't that exciting, maybe this will be:




Employed the use of some blocks of dry-ice to deep-freeze the asphalt so it pops right off the metal, worked great

IMG_7345.jpg



Once I got the rhythm down I put three blocks to use at once, I found that if I covered them with a rag it kept evaporation to a minimum, finished with all three blocks still mostly whole and the whole thing only took maybe 40 minutes.

IMG_7346.jpg



Had to get a bit creative on the firewall in order to not have to stand there holding the blocks in place. :p

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Even in the cargo area where POs had spilled gas (you know the spots, they are in every cruiser) and melted the asphalt in even more, the dry-ice did the trick with no effort.
If the stuff does not pop off in a big sheet with zero effort, just leave the ice on there a bit longer and it pops right off.
Too cool compared to the alternatives.

IMG_7348.jpg




Going for the space shuttle look on the cowl.
Dampened the areas where the fenders cover as well.

IMG_7350.jpg
 
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Nope. not really, but this is!



Fresh from the Zinc coaters

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Ready to sort, just like playing with Legos, have to find that perfect piece....

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A few hours and some crossed eyes later:

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There are a few more bins not shown in this pic, I'll post a full pic latter, the tackle boxes are a must, another $24 but worth every penny.



I meant to weld these inserts to the fender before paint, but I forgot, so had to put some little screws to use.
This is for the base of the fender where it meats the cowl, with the cut there are no bolt holes on the lower portion so this helps me set the distance of the lower panel to match the profile of the door.

IMG_7354.jpg


In place:

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It is so nice to put things together with clean hardware.

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It for now, I'll come back and caption that stuff (done) but I needed to prove that I was at least doing something.
:cheers:
KR

.
 
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Truck is looking amazing and the new felting and padding on the heating items should help a lot. Wish I had your tools, skills, and time to get this done (let alone have a cruiser at this point).
 
Perhaps this is a dumb question, however do you know where all the nuts and bolts actually go? Did you catalog the nuts and bolts?



Zack
 
killer rebuild, I'd love to have one with such detailed work on it.

Care to share the source for that foam on the heat duct? Looks like good stuff for a sound dampening layer under the carpet and over a layer of the aluminum faced damper.
 
Very cool Kevin. The more I thought about my articulation comment, the less I thought that section of frame would potentially contribute much to flex anyway. It is probably more in the cross pieces and how they attached and flex.

I have been having recurring OCD-style dreams of rebuilding my 60 like this (seriously, bolt-by-bolt, every rusty area) since the mid-90s. So...you are livin' the dream.

The new plating on the hardware is very nice. I was wondering how you were going to sort it (based on the old pics). Now we know. Reminds me of my recent engine "brightening" on my Dad's old AMX. That body floor looks like a lot of work.

A guy in the 80 section took a nod from some of your past work https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/167864-more-cargo-room.html

Baja in the fall...

Excellent. Cheers, Jon
 

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