The Blue Bomber

[ChuckB]

Didn't we talk via PM? Which island are you on? I'm on Oahu. Would love to check our your piggy if possible?

(edit)

Just checked PM's. So is the 55 still on the big island or did you bring it over already?

 

[laguna80]

Didn't we talk via PM? Which island are you on? I'm on Oahu. Would love to check our your piggy if possible?

(edit)

Just checked PM's. So is the 55 still on the big island or did you bring it over already?

Sorry, I've been out training at Schofield for the past 3 days. I brought the pig up from Big Island. Right now, I'm waiting on some disk brake parts to do a front disc conversion, then it will be road worthy again. You can come check it out if you like. I'll talk to you via pm for info.

 

[laguna80]

I'll post up some paint progress pics later on today. For now, I realized that my truck isn't as bad as I thought after seeing this one on the road.

 

[laguna80]

Here's a little update on how the paint looks. You can see the difference from the pics above.

 

[laguna80]

I got a couple of questions about welding for you peeps. To play it safe, I'm going to drop the fuel tank and plug the lines when I start welding. Is this what most of you all do? I'm got some huge sections of floor pan to weld in, do you take off the undercoating on the backside when you weld? How do you deal with places that are impossible to take off the undercoating on? If you don't do anything, does that lead to bad welds? Thanks for your time. I'll be posting up progress as time goes on, but it will be slow for now since I've got the MCAT in less than two weeks.

 

[laguna80]

Just tried welding for the first time. It's pretty fun. I totally suck at it though. Here's pic, I really just wanted to see if I could lay a bead down...apparently I can't. I think the sheetmetal was entirely too thin. I had the settings at their lowest.

 

[cruiserbrett]

more often than not, the undercoating does lead to a little porosity in the weld, but catching fire and spreading is generally more of a concern. I would have a wet rag around to put out the small fires that inevitably start with welding a painted or undercoated surface. not a big deal, but a hose and a wet rag at the ready will help keep it under control.

 

[laguna80]

Tried laying a bead down with my welder a second time. This time it was with 16ga steel. It went a lot better than before, I didn't even burn through once. I can really see how easy welding is but how hard it is to get really good at it. What do you all think? Later beads at the top. I didn't clean any of the slag off BTW

 

[laguna80]

So, I bought a sawzall and did some cutting. I got the fender off and saw the damage under there. Looks a lot like Eventhough's rig if you ask me. Here's some pics for your enjoyment.

 

[n2666s]

making progress.........like to see one resuscitated instead of parted

Lou

 

[MauiVince]

Yeah!!! Another saved piggy!!! Good work!!!

 

[laguna80]

Got a little more practice with the welder today. Had to stop after catching some of the fumes. I gotta remind myself to make sure each side is properly prepped before welding.

 

[laguna80]

Some more pics of the flintstone style floorboards. I'm gonna have to comletely redo the inner rockers as well the the floor board supports along with pillar that hold the front driver/passenger doors. I can do it but I want to know how you all cut metal out of the really tight spots such as the upper left of the first pic? I've had a lot of success with the sawzall but that can't get everywhere. Any suggestions?

You can see I completely removed the body mount which was actually pretty easy. Someone had lubed a bunch of the bolts with antiseize at some point in time. I'm going to reuse the mount as it's still in good condition.

 

[cruiserbrett]

get a air body saw. one of the best tools I have found for rust repair. gets alot of places even a small die grinder cant. Its not much bigger than a die grinder either.

Porter Cable PTX5 Pneumatic Reciprocating Saw

 

[laguna80]

Thanks for the tip. I'll finally be getting more work done this week. I was studying for the MCAT all this time. Finally, got that beast of a test done yesterday. Oh ya, I got my disk brake parts, so conversion will be done by next week hopefully.

 

[laguna80]

So I tried to go pick up new rotors and calipers for the disc brake swap and it was going to be $530 just for those! I think I need to find some cores, but it will even still be so expensive. What do you all pay for your rotors and calipers? I had gone to checker autoparts, which is the same as Kragen.

 

[laguna80]

I'll probably be picking up some seats out of 2004 silverado this weekend like the ones in Nats pig. I'll see if I can grab some used calipers from the truck too, so that I can get a core charge back from Napa.

 

[laguna80]

NM I searched the internet more.

 

[laguna80]

Hey peeps, I'm in the middle of a disc brake swap. well more like the final 1/8 and I've ran into a problem. I'm trying to put on the hub nut to hold the wheel bearing and tab washer in. I've got it almost all the way in, but now I can't get my wrench (a pipe wrench BTW) in far enough to spin it anymore. Is there some sort of specialty tool that reaches in there to torque it down?

 

[laguna80]

Nm I got it fixed. lol turns out I forgot to put the wheel bearing back in.