Hexenschuss

[unibody madness]

I like your mirror idea . I have the original ford set where the tube clamps through a bracket, unfortunately both my style and ford's style like yours, both vibrate with out the thin struts that came with their respective kits. you have to decide whether to drill holes in your doors or put up with the fuzzy image in the door mirrors.

[My wife's nightmare]

Thanks for hanging with me Grump, its been a long ride so far. I've really been dreading trying to repair the end caps and that has kinda paralyzed me for too long. It still hasn't been easy but slowly getting there. The floor should go pretty quick when I get to it and then strip all that orange paint and get some green on it!

Uni, the mirrors have been good overall. They do produce a fuzzy image during acceleration, but you can usually see pretty good going down the road or backing up. I probably will make another set of arms out of some thicker wall tubing one of these days. I've noticed they get moved rather easy by people accidentally bumping into them

[My wife's nightmare]

Man, I'm glad we can post pics again! I didn't realize there are no pictures of this:






The man that painted my 65 and most of this one finally felt good enough to lace the roof last fall. I love it!!!

[unibody madness]

cool pictures, how did you attach them, directly from your computer or do you have to use a hosting site?

[My wife's nightmare]

I posted these using Postimage, just by habit I guess. I haven't tried direct attachments but will give it a shot.

[My wife's nightmare]

I am not even close to being smart enough to use a computer, but I've tried quite a few times to add files and it appears they always exceed to size limit.

[grump]

the lace looks awesome, keep up the great work.

[My wife's nightmare]

Thanks, I am still tickled with the lace!

Inch by inch, things are getting finished on the bed. A few spots to touch-up but should be starting the filler panels between the wheelhouses this week.


The lower patches are from New England Speed and Custom if anyone is interested. They are nice pieces, not really inexpensive, but a lot easier for me to use than trying to make something.

[My wife's nightmare]

Got the first panel in. Haven't cleaned up the welds yet but happy with it so far.

Roughing in the other one for the passenger side front.

[My wife's nightmare]

Well here's a little catch-up:
Both front panels are welded into the bed, still need to dress up all of the welds

Which leads to the last update

I've been studying on a fuel filler for the side of the bed and was going to use original one from the cab but could figure a way to "attach" it and step down to 1 1/2" tube while keeping it fairly close tight to the inside of the bed and how to attach a fill vent tube/hose. Randomly typed in a search for filler necks one day and an ebay add for a 72-80 Dodge D100 popped up. The shape looked like something doable and it had the fill vent tube as well. That one was an NOS part (too expensive!!!) So I checked with my neighbor's salvage yard and he said there were a few of those trucks in his yard. I retrieved one and it is going to be a very good solution. Only thing is this one is 1 3/4" and is slightly angled to the rear of the bed, so it gives me a reason to change it to 1 1/2" and straighten it up to connect better with the tank. Not real crazy about the filler cap, but have a few ideas for it rolling around in my head.



In regards to the update about grinding the welds, I made some modifications to the rotisserie. The wheels are wonderful for moving it around on concrete but they don't like gravel and I would prefer to get it outside to do the grinding, strip the rest of that orange paint, and get some primer on the bare metal. So made some brackets to mount some old lawn mower tires on one end and a hitch for a 2" ball for the other. Tested it out finally yesterday and looks like its going to be just fine. Now if I can get some time this week to drag it out of the garage

[shipwrecked]

love the paint job on the cab roof and the fuel filler. looking good.
im a little jealous you have this project going... mine are like 90-95% done and I keep adding little things to it.

[My wife's nightmare]

Not sure what's been going on with the site, but I've been getting an error message and the site won't load for the last several weeks. Looks like its back now!
Thanks April for digging the lace on the roof and I have too many 90% projects myself Plus I really don't ever see this one being "complete", it'll just be waiting for the next thing I decide to do!
The last filler panel for the floor has been installed and the cleanup grinding has begun. Not as much progress as I'd hoped for, but a little is better than nothing. The pictures are from several days ago. If the weather stays dry maybe I can really get after this thing the next few weeks.

[My wife's nightmare]

Finally no more orange paint on this thing!! I have no idea what kind of paint it was but it was the toughest stuff I've ever messed with. 40 grit and the DA and several days out in the driveway. I have ran back over the whole thing with 80 grit and applied all of the seam sealer. Waiting for a chance to spray it with epoxy. I still need to test fit it on the truck again to be sure the fuel filler rig I made up is going to do what I hope it will, but want to seal it up before I have paw prints all over it again. No seam sealer in the photos


In between stripping sessions, I made a seat for our dog. If you crank our "family" truck, he is sitting at the door waiting for a ride. We have a seat for him on the console of it. In this one, he will not get in and he kinda fights you too because he has to sit in the passenger seat. He doesn't enjoy the ride I think because he can't see out the window, so there was some sheetmetal left from the bed repairs and I decided to make an attempt at a bomber seat for the "console" in Hex. It turned out pretty decent and he seems to want to ride in the truck now! It is out of 10 gauge so it's heavy!

We made a pad for it so don't think he has dimples on his rump!!

Yes it is longer on the bottom because he likes to lay down when he's riding. He has such a rough life

[My wife's nightmare]

The bed is all gray epoxy now!!
Fun is on the way with body filler, sanding, more primer, more filler, more sanding, repeat and repeat and....................

[My wife's nightmare]

Time sure passes quickly. Finally got everything to line up and sealed the bed Friday evening and had my painter come Saturday morning to spray it green and clear it. Masked it off and undercoated it late that evening. I have been wanting to change the gear from the 3.91 to a 3.50. Another friend of mine built gears for Nascar teams for 20-some years and he said he'd put one together for me. I found a trac-loc at the Ford show in Carlisle earlier this year and he used it as well. Picked it up this afternoon and plan to install it before putting the bed in place, but the bed should be back in its rightful place real soon. The clear is much flatter than what we used on the cab which has been wet sanded to dull it down. They should match but time will tell.

[My wife's nightmare]

The bed is back on and the clear coats matchup very well. Put the "floor" in and painted it the same color as the frame. It works pretty well except it is surprising how much dirt gets thrown up into the bed. I added a pair of backup lights under the bumper, and they are proving very helpful. The fuel filler lined up really good and works just fine.



We added some LED strips under the bed rails and they are much better than I expected