Stay-cation Mod Week

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 4

Thursday I was able to get the rear cross member replaced. I was not going to replace the sheet metal but after finding more rust in the seam I decided to use the CCOT lip that came with the cross member and pur it in.

Rear edge of bed:



Comparison of original lip with replacement.



Replacement in place

 

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 4 continued

The old lip went over the top of the bed, the new one goes under:





I decided to weld the entire seam to keep water and mud out.

 

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 4 continued

Lots of welding today.




Rear cross member in place for a test fit:

 

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 4 continued

Hit it with some weld through zinc primer:



Tack in the rear cross member. That paint that CCOT puts on thier cross member is tough stuff but stinks when it burns.


Finished product

 

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 4 continued

Question: The bed has obviously had plenty of weight thrown in it. The bed metal is sagging between the cross members. Can I do anything about this (besides replace it. The CCOT rear bed for $6xx is too steep for me)?



Rocker panels today and I am pretty much ready to prep for paint.

 

[pillguy]

nice work

Question: The bed has obviously had plenty of weight thrown in it. The bed metal is sagging between the cross members. Can I do anything about this (besides replace it. The CCOT rear bed for $6xx is too steep for me)?

View attachment 331931

Rocker panels today and I am pretty much ready to prep for paint.

 

[Wilkinson]

Thanks! Now if I just had 2 more weeks of vacation...

 

[LDowney]

Thanks! Now if I just had 2 more weeks of vacation...

You did great work here. I have twelve weeks on the books at work, but there always is too much going to be away for long. You will probably be buried when you go back.

Regarding the sagging bed ... You appear to be replacing some or all of your bed supports and the challenge is to pull them up tight. Have you given any consideration to using clecos? The clecos would require drilling ~1/8" dia holes for the clecos to go through to pull the bed tight with the support, plus plug welding the holes closed when done. However, the finished product could be close to what you want?

Again, like the work and the progress. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 5

Short day today due to other family obligations.

I patched the drivers side rocker today. Rust has made the metal thin and whenever I weld something to it I get burn through. I decided to replace it and make it solid.

Cut out the bad spot:



Weld in the patch:



Grind it flat. It was this step in which the smoke escaped from my Makita 4 1/2 inch grinder. As you all know, electricity works by smoke. If the smoke escapes from your equipment it stops working. I had my welding gloves on grinding away and the grinder suddenly slowed and white smoke came out of the vents. This has been a really good grinder for 7 years but no more. It was a 7 amp model and Home Depot was out of the Makita 7 amp version. So I popped for the 10 amp Milwaukee 4 1/2 incher. I'll see if I can get a replacement for the field coil on the Makita since it will be nice not to have to trade grinder to cut off to wire wheel all teh time.

So after a new grinder was obtained to finish the job:

 

[Wilkinson]

Week 2 Day 5 continued

I am a bit disappointed in the outcome. To much warping.



I'll have to look at banging this out later.

 

[Wilkinson]

You did great work here. I have twelve weeks on the books at work, but there always is too much going to be away for long. You will probably be buried when you go back.

Regarding the sagging bed ... You appear to be replacing some or all of your bed supports and the challenge is to pull them up tight. Have you given any consideration to using clecos? The clecos would require drilling ~1/8" dia holes for the clecos to go through to pull the bed tight with the support, plus plug welding the holes closed when done. However, the finished product could be close to what you want?

Again, like the work and the progress. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, Larry. I didn't take the bed supports out. The truck was formerly on a farm and they must have thrown heavy stuff like fire wood or heavy implements and stretched the metal of the bed. I can live with it but if there is a way to fix it now is the time!

 

[LDowney]

Thanks, Larry. I didn't take the bed supports out. The truck was formerly on a farm and they must have thrown heavy stuff like fire wood or heavy implements and stretched the metal of the bed. I can live with it but if there is a way to fix it now is the time!

Nelson,
Are the bed supports bent? For the bed to stretch, it seems like they should be. However, if the supports are stright and you are eager to fix it ... What do you think about running a cut lengthwise between the corrugations. Then starting at the wheel wells, cleco the bed to the supports => working towards the center. Then weld the bed to the supports. My thought is the cut removes material from the bed allowing you wash the stretch out in the center cut. When the bed is fully spot welded to the supports, the cut in the bed would be welded together and the all the cleco holes would be plug welded. One bad thing about a bed cut between corugations would be grinding the weld smooth & flush ... the adjacent corugations will limit room for a grinding. It may be better to run the cut down the center of a corugation nearest the center, but this is all off my head without looking at the bed as I am writing. You will want to check the sanity of all this carefully first.

 

[Wilkinson]

My worry with that plan would be trying to weld together the rust pitted bed. I think I am better off letting sleeping dogs lie. The real solution would be to replace the bed but I don't have funds for a new rear bed pan.

The supports are not bent, the bed is just stretched between them. Thanks for the thought though Larry.

 

[Wilkinson]

Passenger Rocker

I have not managed to get near as much done in the last week as I have while I was on vacation

I did get the rocker cut off for replacement:



Yes, that is rust flakes in the rocker. Lots of them. I'll get this cleaned out and prepped for the new rocker to go on.

 

[Wilkinson]

a couple of more pics.



Old rocker and new one from CCOT: