The Resurection of 'The Beast' (1 Viewer)

[Southeast Overland]

Little work done last night. All bare metal in Pic one from Post 348 was hit w/ Marine Clean, then Metal Etch, then POR'd. I let the POR get very tack (close to dry) and then hit with a few light dustings of spray primer. This seems to work well to allow me to top coat w/ paint and not have to sand. I need to get some of POR's primer...

Six holes in Pic 2 Post 348 were welded shut and a split in the rear corner was welded shut. Welds were ground down and then slatered in POR. I'll have to sand this area before I paint.

I won't get in any work tonight - going to a baseball game for $1 draft beer night.

 

[Southeast Overland]

I got about six solid hours in today on my Piggie. I'm taking next week off also to work on her so that should give me four solid additional days to get her fixed up all purdy.

Today I finished painting a door which leaves me one left. A, B and C pillars (half-way up) and rockers have been stripped where needed, POR'd, and top coated w/ Rustoleum black. I am in the process of now painting these areas to match the white/ODG color scheme.

I painted the passenger rear quarter ODG and it looks nice. I stripped off some undercoating under the passenger side where it had been damaged by welding in new floor pieces. These areas were scraped clean, POR'd, primed and then undercoating. Undercoating in a can shoots out like a rocket!

I found a few rust areas underneath the Piggie that I'll have to deal with at a later point - no time now. I will have to get access to the underside of what is left of my stock rockers to treat rust - either that or cut the rockers off late this winter and do the needed repairs. Cutting them out might be the best bet.



I left my camera at work so I probably won't have any pics for over a week.

Oh, and POR is hard to get out of your hair.

 

[Southeast Overland]

I was able to get about six hours in today. Things started off at sprint speed but slowed down quickly when I got into the wheel wells.

Lets see if I can remember everything I did today.

I wire wheeled and primed both rear wheel wells. I under coated the passenger rear wheel well. I have not welded the wheel well back to the quarter panel (should have done this before I painted) but everything matches up pretty well on this side so it will only take a few beads, then some sealer, touch up the paint and I'm done. I do need to weld in a new piece of sheet on the front of the wheel well but that is on hold until I get a few other things further ahead. The driver's side is a different story.

The driver's rear wheel well is rusted pretty badly. I was able to clean up the quarter panel to some degree but to get the rear quarter and wheel well to contact I had to cut about eight slits in the wheel well and then clamp the wheel well and rear quarter together. This works well to some degree but when doing this it is KEY to use a very thin cutting wheel. Using a thick cutting wheel makes it a pain in the keister to weld the slits back together. I got a little discouraged at my progress and right as I got my second wind I ran out of welding gas so I'm off to Tractor Supply in a bit to pick up a full cylinder.

I painted the driver's side A and B pillars ODG up to mid-height. It looks pretty good.

I also painted the inside of the last door white. I got one spot of fish eyes (or whatever you call it). About 10 seconds of sand paper and a spray of paint fixed this area good enough.

I'm probably only going to get about four hours in tomorrow. During this time I hope to finish up the wheel wells. If I can get them done and throw some undercoating on I will be pleased. I hoped to get these done today but you know how that goes!



PS: when I get back from Tractor Supply it will be drinking time...o yeah!

ETA: The wife is a wee bit peod that I left my camera at work...so...she wants her own camera. She says she is buying a pink one this evening so I won't take it...I think pink will go very well with the Piggie - that and my camera is held together with electrical tape.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Employees at Tractor Supply last night were I-D-I-O-T-S. Girl at the cash register thought it was more important to talk on the phone with her boyfriend then to page someone to exchange my cylinder. It took her ten minutes - literally. Then the man wouldn't exchange my cylinder b/c he said I didn't have a cap for it. I never had a cap and I've exchanged cylinders four times with them so far and they have never given me one. He changed his tune though when he opened the cabinet with the cylinders and NONE of the smaller cylinders had caps...heh heh heh. All I did was smile and give him a big "Thank you sir."

Anyways - rant off.

I got about three hours in this evening. Had to have breakfast with the in-laws and then spent some time with the wifey. I finished welding up the driver's wheel well for the time being. I need to weld in one patch up front, about 4 inches by 6 inches but that will wait until I have some more time. I'm sealing up some seams now and will finish off with some undercoating in the morning.

I painted the front side of the last door white. Now have to hit it with ODG tomorrow and it will be done.

Finished sanding the driver's rear quarter and have it taped off and ready for ODG tomorrow morning. I would have done it tonight but my hunger go the best of me.

The wife is picking up a new camera tomorrow so I should have some pics up. She is looking good.

I keep telling myself that this is a trail truck and close is good enough...close is good enough...close is good enough...

 

[n2666s]

Steve, was thinking I could paint this weekend but kept having problems with the drivers door hinge; the body work was about finished till I opened the drivers side door and screwed up the leading edge......... realized that the spring that holds it is place had slipped out and pushed the doors leading edge out a lot; it seems like the spring held in place by a crimp?, any ideas on this one?, by the way how are you doing with your hinge situation?

Lou

 

[Southeast Overland]

Steve, was thinking I could paint this weekend but kept having problems with the drivers door hinge; the body work was about finished till I opened the drivers side door and screwed up the leading edge......... realized that the spring that holds it is place had slipped out and pushed the doors leading edge out a lot; it seems like the spring held in place by a crimp?, any ideas on this one?, by the way how are you doing with your hinge situation?

Lou

Still working on the hinges. I think my rear hinges will work for the time being but the front ones have gotta go - soon - they are horrible. I think I'll have one hinge coming from k9crazy but I need another and I'm not sure what side I'm getting from k9 . I might have to see what I can get from Dearborn if I can get ahold of him.

I don't follow what you are saying about the spring being held in place by a crimp...so I've attached a few pics of one of my hinges for you to look at. Give me some more info and I'll take another look.

 

[Southeast Overland]

I only got a couple of hours in today but I have my camera now (long story) so here are some more pics.

I picked up two 40 sqft rolls of foam and foil backed insulation from Big Lots yesterday. It was labeled for use under hardwood floors and is pretty thin but for $20 I got 80 sqft. I'm going to blue the two rolls to each other with the foil size facing out. I'm going to glue the two pieces together with spray contact adhesive and then attach probably with the same method to the bottom of my factory floor mats and a piece of carpet that will cover the rear cargo area. I'll eventually place Second Skin ontop of my floor and then slop Durabak across the entire floor.

See pics of insulation.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Ok kids - here are some more pics.

Right after I got my Piggie home I trimmed the rear wheel well lips off because they were, well, already half missing. Problem then was the wheel well was no longer attached to the rear quarters. I've reattached both passenger and driver's rear wheel wells to the rear quarters. Pics are of the driver's side. The passenger's side was much easier as I just clamped it in place and welded. The driver's side (pictured) had to be sliced, diced, and then welded in place. The metal was pretty thin so I had a ton of burn through and therefore my welds are NASTY but hopefully they will hold. I pounded on them pretty hard and they appeared to hold OK.

ETA: after welding the underside of the wheel wells were wire wheeled, primed and under coated. You can see in the first pic that I am missing some metal . This is hopefully going to be replaced later this week with new 16 gauge sheet.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Here is one problem I have to tackle soon. I cut out rust on both driver and passenger door sills. I need to either fab up a replacement (PITA) or find a donor. I might have a donor lined up but haven't heard back from the owner.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Both rear quarters are now painted. I have to paint the upper 1/2 of the Piggie but don't know if I am going to wait until I pull the rear glass or not.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Couple more pics. Doors are all but ready to go on. I have to paint the ODG portion on one rear door. I also need weather stripping and guess I'll buy from JC Whitney in about a month (Cruiser funds are L-O-W). Hole on rear passenger quarter will need to be welded shut with a piece of sheet to fill the gap. I already welded shut six holes and one crack near the large hole you can see surrounded by POR.

Tomorrow I think I'll weld in the missing sheet metal to the rear wheel wells and either rip out the headliner, wire wheel out the factory insulation and attach the roof rust or I might pull the hood and work on some rust on the front edge and then paint the hood. We'll see what type of mood I'm in and if a neighbor is around to help lift the hood off.

 

[n2666s]

Steve, PM sent.

Lou

 

[yooper]

Wow, looking sweet! Quarter panels look especially nice.

 

[Southeast Overland]

Wow, looking sweet! Quarter panels look especially nice.

80 grit and an axe handle did wonders for the driver's rear quarter. The passenger rear lower quarter is good enough but the upper needs some work to get the window to mount again properly. I studied it a bit today and I think its not the dent you see from the outside that is the problem - the entire upper rear quarter below the window is pushed inwards. That should be an easier fix with a jack and some boards....

 

[GXO]

I like the looks of the rear wheel wells without the lip....

 

[Kaderabek]

I'm becoming less and less of a skeptic every day....

TJK

 

[Southeast Overland]

I like the looks of the rear wheel wells without the lip....

That was my only real choice here. If mud flying up from the rear wheels becomes a problem I can add the rubber flexible flares from JC Whitney but I'm not a big fan of their looks.

I'm becoming less and less of a skeptic every day....

TJK

Thanks...I think.

Now on to today's work. A fellow Upstate Cruiser member, Bill Wright (secret code screenname: BillWright) was generous enough to come over for the day and help me out. Neither one of us had ever changed a pinion seal so it was a learning experience for both of us. Thanks to the tech support via several cell phone calls to DanKunz and Hard40.

The old pinion seal was a b#(*%@ to get out (it came out in pieces) and the new one was a huge b#(*%@ to get in properly. In the end I think everything is in how it should be - or let me restate - I hope everything is in how it should be. I need to get a big torque wrench to make sure the staked nut is on well enough. I only tightened it up with about a 14 inch wrench. I am going to fill the front diff, hook up the drive shaft, make sure the hubs are unlocked and hope all is good until I can drive about 10-20 miles to have someone double check my shoddy work. I think I read that I need to crank the staked nut down to 150 ft-lbs...can someone confirm?

Not much else got done today besides the front pinion seal. Now that I've changed one I could do another in less than an hour - especially since I won't have to make two trips to auto parts stores and one to a plumbing supply store. The plumbing store put together a neat contraption for me to (kinda) evenly seat the pinion seal. They gave me a clean out trap end plus a metal screw cap (or whatever you call it). This fit very nicely over the pinion seal and allowed for me to seat the pinion seal pretty dang evenly. I could tell a slight difference from one side to the other by feel (not by eye) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I didn't want to pound the pinion seal in too far. I know there is a lip that should stop the pinion seal from overseating but since the metal on the pinion seal is fairly soft I didn't want to pound past this lip. I'll take a pic tomorrow of my contraption for everyone to see.

Tomorrow I hope to get the front diff filled. One PO of my Piggie cranked the front diff drain plug down so hard it took about two straight minutes with the impact wrench to get the drain plug out. I didn't see a washer so I need to check and see if one is supposed to be there. The diff fluid was pretty dirty. While I'm at it I'll change the rear diff fluid too. I also need to finish painting the last rear door ODG portion and add some undercoating to the underside of the driver's floor. The ebrake needs new shoes and springs and I have one of Mudrak's seals that needs to be installed but installing Mudrak's seal might be over my head without some further research. All this stuff is pretty easy after you do it once! Does anyone have any experience w/ installation of Mudrak's speedo seal?

So I'm off to bed - this work was done between a 6 mile run and taking the new puppy (Cruiser) to puppy class...fun times. I think my neighbors get more and more puzzled with my shennanagins every day.

 

[Southeast Overland]

SOR shows a gasket/washer for the diff drain plug - costs $1.37. I hope Advance has something that will work because I'm not waiting and paying shipping on a one dollar piece!

 

[n2666s]

Steve, do your neighbors complain about the pig project sitting on the driveway ruining the resale value of their homes?; mine did to the and that is a great incentive to make a pig look respectable

Lou

 

[n2666s]

BTW, the "Beast" is looking very very sweet.....think you are going to beat me getting it ready specially after i found out that am missing all the inner door lock handles buckets along with emblems and ashtrays....amazing how the lack of small stuff makes it look so crappy.........could kick myself how the door hinge spring screwed up the drivers door

Lou