You got 5 minutes ?

[slick4x4]

Yep… I read some of the stories about paint jobs
The amount of money they put into them can be extremely costly
Lot of difference on how we use them
I’ve painted several trucks for less than $400 total investment
Never been ashamed at the results
But I’m not worried about throwing a log chain in the bed either

[jamesdfo]

**See UPDATE @ BOTTOM in Dark Blue Text

This goes back to a Friday and Sunday before last:

Friday:
Well, (Fri Jul 8/22), I was out in the garage, getting ready to put a new chain on my Mountain Bike......at some point, a hammer was required (shocking!!). My big toolbox was locked, and I was too lazy to go inside for the keys, so I just popped the top on my De Walt box (that I use when I go to Pick'n'Pull, etc) and grabbed a hammer.
A bit later when I went to grab the hammer off the fab table, I was puzzled to see one side of the head was all covered in oil?? So I wipe it down, then pop the top on the De Walt box, lift the tray out........and discover the cause of the oily hammer!!
It seems that at some point, the tray had depressed the spray nozzle on a can of Seafoam Deep Creep that I keep in the box for rusty stuff @ P'n"P :rolleyes::censored: Yup, there's a quarter inch or more inside the bottom of the box:(
So, tomorrows task is to empty the box, clean up as much of the oil as I can from inside the box and all over the wrenches and other stuff, then, it's on to a good scrubdown with some Sunlight dish soap, and afterwards, I'll take one of my Muck Buckets and give all the tools that were in the bottom of the box the same treatment.
Ironically, that can of Deep Creep has been in there for three years at the very least without issue, and I can't even tell you how long it's been like this, because I haven't been to any of the local yards for AGES???

So kids, learn from my mistake!!

Sunday Jul 10/22
Well, went out to the garage about 12:30, carried the toolbox outside, the top tray is fine, but 85% of the items in the bottom part of the box were covered in Seafoam Deep Creep penetrating oil:(


So, after taking all the content out and laying them out on newspaper, I swabbed up as much of the oil as I could with copious amounts of paper towel. Then I poured a goo cup or two of SIMPLE GREEN into the toolbox. Took my muckbucket into the kitchen, and used a hose that screws onto faucet to add 6 or 8 inches of ridiculously hot water into the muck bucket. Carried it outside and poured some of the water into the toolbox, then started scrubbing with one of those old carwash brushes that hooks to the end of a garden hose. Once I was satisfied that I'd gotten all the nooks & crannies, I poured the contents into the muck bucket, then rinsed out the tool box with the garden hose & hung it up to dry.



Here's what it looked like after it dried off....






Then, I sat on a milk crate for at least an hour, scrubbing all the wrenches and other items that were in the bottom of the box.......threw them off to the side onto some more newspaper as I went.

Once I got to the end of the pile, I emptied the muck bucket, rinsed it out, and added in some crystal clear water from the garden hose to rinse everything. As the items were pulled from the rinse, they were blown dry, and set to the side on a dropcloth (a curtain in it's former life:)




Once all the items were rinsed and dried, I grabbed my MTB Chainlube & lubricated the moving parts of the breaker bar, crescent wrench, ratchet wrench, etc. Then emptied the muck bucket and hung it to dry.

That done, the only thing left was finding a new container for the Holley float bowl gaskets, and finally new containers for some holley jets. Went in the house & found some suitable containers and decided to get fancy and label the containers with their jets sizes. Which leaves me with a question: Has anyone ever seen Holley jets with a 3 digit number on them? IIRC, I have 52's, 53's, 54's, 56's, but the stumper was the ones that had 512, except the 2 is upside down & backwards? WTH??

Anyways, by this point, I've had enough, so after putting some clear packing tape over top of where I'd written the jet size with a sharpie, I put everything away and called it a day.

Bad news is, I discovered a crack on the bottom portion of the box, just below the lid hingepoint, no idea HTH I did it, still pondering on what method of repair I'll use, first method that came to mind is plating it inside & out with some SS coupons I have here, and riveting them on, but on the outside, there's a vertical rib very close to the crack. So that would mean one plate inside and two outside:( Oh well, not committed to any method yet, just thinking out loud.....

**Update: Well, since this happened, I've sent a few emails, and spent a bunch of time on the phone, and the folks @ De Walt claim they're sending me a new box, but they don't have stock on mine, so they're sending the next size up.

1) I'm still skeptical, so I won't believe it until the box lands on my doorstep.

2) I believe there's no stock because the box(s) have been discontinued because there's a problem.

3) I really hope the new one will still fit behind the passenger seat (Ranger Ext Cab) like the old one did, or it's useless to me.

4) They've sent me THREE emails looking for feedback, but I'm not saying anything until I have results.

5) Three emails looking for feedback for an issue that is ongoing, but they told me I'll have to call them to get a tracking number??

UPDATE: Called this AM to get a tracking number, and the guy tells me it's in Edmonton, and it's out for delivery! Got the tracking number, and went to the door to look and see if there was anything on the front step. NOPE. So, I come back and sit down in front of the computer, and start typing the number into the window on UPS website, and the doorbell rings!!

So, have the new box here now, but it's BIG, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get it behind the passenger seat (Ranger Ext Cab) if there's anyone riding along with me.....

James

Well, here's an UPDATE on the update:)

Several weeks back, I popped in to the store I bought the original box from, explained what had transpired with DeWalt, and asked if he would consider trading me the new (too big) box for one the same size as I had previously. He was OK with this, BUT, neither of their Edmonton locations had my size of box in stock, so they had to transfer one from one of their BC stores. I got an email the other day, letting me know the box had come in. So, the next day I dropped in with the still in it's packaging "too big" box, and we did the swap. What I hadn't anticipated, was them actually giving me a small credit for the difference (based on their cost) between the two. I thought this would be a straight-up trade, so I was totally OK with getting a small credit!! Now I just need to drag my butt out to the shop and take the heaping pile of tools and load them into the new box!!

James

[grump]

Wow oldsmily if you brought old blue to Slick Stock next year we could have a paint party. I'm not sure how the motel would feel about the idea but if it was done in the middle of the nite almost nobody would know. LOL I know some strange things happen at nite at Slick Stock, isn't that the truth Pat? lol

[slick4x4]

[jamesdfo]

Yah, cuzz everyone knows, you always get the very best results doing body/paint work at night, under THE COVER OF DARKNESS WTF?

Wow oldsmily if you brought old blue to Slick Stock next year we could have a paint party. I'm not sure how the motel would feel about the idea but if it was done in the middle of the nite almost nobody would know. LOL I know some strange things happen at nite at Slick Stock, isn't that the truth Pat? lol

[unibody madness]

or under the light of a full moon?

[grump]

Sometime the full moon doesn't put out that much light

[unibody madness]

true, about put my lights out some time back

[Lowell]

Ive been trying to repaint my 65 for the last two summers and still not quite ready for the top coat. I want to finish painting under the hood before i start on the outside again.looks like it will be next summer before that happens, right now the outside is mostly primer.

[grump]

Just keep chuggin along Lowell, you'll get there. I have my cab pretty close to being ready to put some color on it but still need to repair the front of the hood, the corners of the door bottoms and the bed and tailgate. Other than that every thing is coming along nicely. We'll get there Lowell, a little bit at a time.

[My wife's nightmare]

Sounds like I should invest in some kind of a portable paint booth and start travelling throughout Slick-land. I've struggled with the same deal, waiting for the weather to be right because I don't like painting in the shop and covering everything with plastic and overspray! And there's always the bugs that think they need to actually land on the part so they can inspect the fresh paint. So, y'all have me dreaming of a rig with slide-outs on both sides, an onboard air compressor and propane for heat or some way to hook up to your natural gas service. I think it would be a great service and a wonderful way to meet a lot of y'all. Have to run it by my financial advisor (wife)

[grump]

Sounds like a heck of an idea, definitely need the slide outs. Let me know when you're taking reservations. lol

[oldsmiley]

Mr Grump;
I love the idea of painting old Blue at Slick Stock. But for a person who has no free time at all, I couldn’t even make it to the F-100 Super Nationals in Sevierville Tenn. 3 weeks ago and and that’s only 6 1/2 hours away.
A big old heart attack jumped in my way, and now the hospital and my insurance company wants me to spend 3 days a week walking, doing yoga, stress tests, and treadmill. Like I have all the time in the world.
I don’t know if I’ll ever live long enough to catch up on everything. I might have to get the neighborhood kids to come by and give them all a brush and say go to it.

[grump]

oldsmiley, I can't say I've had a heart attack but I did find out when your heart rate goes down to 32 bad things tend to happen. lol Sorry you're having health problems cause that sucks but a little bit at a time gets things done just not as quick as we might like.

[oldsmiley]

Well....the Lord's kept me around longer than I thought. I've got 3 more sessions of PT then I'm on my own. I was SO sick this week, I had to cancel 2 others.....but I'm doing better than I thought I would.

I've bought few pieces and made a few plans what I want to do IF & WHEN i doe get some realtime of. I just wish it would be at least a week at a time so I can make a good make. But we'll see.

Until then.....I hope everyone has their BEST Christmas ever, be safe, and thank the Lord for ALL THINGS

[My wife's nightmare]

Great to hear you're doing somewhat better Rick! been wanting to check on you but didn't want to seem nosy. best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
Ol Blue is waiting for you!

[oldsmiley]

Lol......the first time I've had a few hours off, and hoping to work on my truck, and WHAT HAPPENED? I had a tree that fell and got to run my chainsaw for a couple of hours, then my truck to haul the wood to my wood splitter, than ran the splitter for about 3 hours.......

At least I had a chance to EYEBALL my truck while I was splitting wood. At 70 years old I ended up pretty achey, so it wasn't enough of me left that wanted to tackle anything on my truck.

Waiting on another day, and another break from work.....and it all seems like another DREAM.....

Oh well.......

[chris401]

Broken record here: Would help keep traffic up if we could post photos directly to the site. I'm not talking about a copy and paste deal with a third party site but something that will permanently stay on this forum. The MEL engine forum went through a server change 5 or so years back. Pictures followed and as far as I know not pictureless links exist.

On another note I am really liking the MEL 430 swap to my 1965 F-250. A lot of 2000 rpm torque. Once the overdrive and 3.54 gears are swapped in I'll be able to log in some honest miles per gallon numbers.