Slick 60's

Any updates, April? Or are you taking a break from the truck? Still here and watching...

I've done nothing on the truck thiseeekend, I've been working on a project at work which requires me to build a lesson plan, student guide, instructor guide, power point and job aid. The topic..... student and instructor guides.... sounds redundant but I was given a few pages from a manual describing the content required in those items and have to build a class off that. It's a pain in the ass!


On a side note, my wrist is hurting again, the weather is messing my joints up, and I've been a complete monster at work. When I get recruits around me I become a complete asshole. I am sick of their shit.

Just the other day I had a 6'2 18 year old boy try to huff and puff his way shoulder checking me as he was ordered to go sit down on the floor away from other recruits. Great idea little kid! I'm not intimidated by these kids at all because they all cry for their moms when they calm down from their tantrums. Anyway the kid is in hold status and a pain in my ass... this is why I am an asshole. I deal with these attitudes all day. By the time I get home from work I'm mentally exhausted. I've got a group of 100 coming in tonight- by Friday they will be out of my hair for two whole weeks. I am turning my supervisor duties over to a replacement in January. At first week of Feb I pick up my group of 100 kids for a cycle. I should be done working here after that.

shipwrecked wrote:
On a side note, my wrist is hurting again, the weather is messing my joints up, and I've been a complete monster at work. When I get recruits around me I become a complete asshole. I am sick of their shit.

Just the other day I had a 6'2 18 year old boy try to huff and puff his way shoulder checking me as he was ordered to go sit down on the floor away from other recruits. Great idea little kid! I'm not intimidated by these kids at all because they all cry for their moms when they calm down from their tantrums. Anyway the kid is in hold status and a pain in my ass... this is why I am an asshole. I deal with these attitudes all day. By the time I get home from work I'm mentally exhausted. I've got a group of 100 coming in tonight- by Friday they will be out of my hair for two whole weeks. I am turning my supervisor duties over to a replacement in January. At first week of Feb I pick up my group of 100 kids for a cycle. I should be done working here after that.

You have my complete respect. Dealing with young people can be a challenge. As a parent of 21 and 18 year olds who can be trying at times, I feel your pain. They are good kids but still get an attitude which has to be checked from time to time. Riding herd over 100 testosterone-laden young men would be a handful. You have to be tough. I'm sure you identify those who are leaders and troublemakers fairly quickly. Keep the faith. You can see light at the end of the tunnel!

Ditto on the respect... you have an extremely difficult job, made worse by having not having raised them from a young age, and not having the buffer of love because they are yours.

Just found out that I'm getting transferred to out training center in Virginia where I will be teaching our mechanics school.

Holey cow, Thats a change ! Hopefully for the positive...

As someone that likes to stick close to home, I can't imagine having a job/career that moves you around.

Sanded that red mess again today.



Dash is roughly sanded.



Have about three more hours of sanding to do till that is roughly done. Them will feather what is there, reprise and let dry.

Snow and arctic cold coming this week. Weekend should be in the 50's again. Got a lot of free time next week to do some block sanding and maybe paint.

Have you tried acupuncture for the wrist? I was a skeptic until my tennis elbow was completely gone after two visits. My doctors suggestion was that it might feel better in six months if I could not use my dominant arm at all for the same time -- not an option.

Did a bunch of sanding....

Back in epoxy primer ready for a second coat.

I like your style April, you never give up.

Well, there is call for a lot of rain this week and next. I also saw I could not get the lower portion of the step with my paint gun since the cab sat so low to the ground on my cart. I braved the hidden dog poop and rolled my frame out to the front driveway. Fiddled with some straps, the engine hoist and found my cab bushings.



It sits in the garage like this waiting for more work to be done.

No real great new photos this week, but I was working on a few things. I dropped the front,rear bumpers, spare tire rack, and the steel strips for the bed floor off at the powder coater for powder coating. I am doing thebed strips in the same color as my hub caps, but the bumpers in a fake looking Crome.

So the trim ring for around the windshield and the dash bezel I contemplated doing the same. I am unsure if I want to polish my grill or just have that powder coated as well. I will pick the pieces up in a few weeks.

I bought a carpet kit from stock interiors in a gunmetal color. Nothing special, and I did contemplate the massbacking but decided against it since I have sound deadening and waterproofing already in there.

Went to Joann fabrics and bought some vinyl remanents and some marine grade vinyl to practice sewing for seat covers. I won't get them professionally upholstered due to time constraints, and most of all money is more scarce.



For an insertion thought this would be neat, so I bought some to compare it



The epoxy has been sitting in cab on the sanded down red mess up for about a week. I will go out today and work on scratching the surface to see how it's holding up. If it's good, then I will prep for a light coat of high Build and let sit till Monday, I am in a heat spell here in south jersey with 40-50* temps. Goal is to have paint inside the cab by end of moment. I've been messing with that cab paint since October.

I want to get the core support and front fenders done soon too. That way the engine can be built and installed. With snowy days in the future...... I could think of better things than painting.

Like the woven looking stuff. Good idea.

Today I prepped for epoxy over the bare metal and any roughed areas. Still seeing a reaction where old paint is exposed.





Overall it's looking real good.



Messed with the fender too,




And I'm considering a storage system behind the seat. Worked on a template





And messed with my fuel tank.

Decided to do a little work on. Y steering wheel. I just don't have 200$ right now for a replacement one but I did have some putty epoxy.


Took the Drexel to the plastic, a scotchbrite for cleaning the nasty out and a wire brush. Wax and grease remover, rag and an air hose,


It's out in the garage drying now. Will sand it tomorrow.


I sprayed some high build on the rear sails too. Will hit that with sandpaper tomorrow.

Got a dinner party to go to. See ya!

Sanded today down to 320 and it's doing good. I am of course wanting to put sealer back down cause I have a few shiners showing.

The weather guesser said we are gonna lose the nice warm temps and get snow tomorrow night. I may just stay up all night tomorrow and preheat my garage. So I plan on sanding tomorrow after work down to 400. Roll the chassis out and scrub up the garage and push the chassis back in. I may build my paint booth around the cab and spray my sealer. Of course to keep the heat pumping when the vapors settle. I need to be sure the solvents cure before I put any color down. If I have any further blistering I would cry and roll bed liner inside the cab all over everything. I can't go through this hassle again.

Your blistering is confusing. I haven't seen that since I stopped using lacquer paints in the 70's. I thought it was caused by the hotter, more volatile solvents, which I thought the new paints had gotten away from.

Spent my limited free time re-sanding down to 400 wet. My hands were frozen!

Anyway it's in the garage. Need to do a wipe down and spray some epoxy on the bare spots. Do I seal all of it, or just the shiners? Do I just start light coats of red and hope for the best? Ugh.

The day(s) have come! I put a coat of sealer on the cab in prep for paint. It went okay,

Put a coat of red down too.
















Looks a bit crazy with two seriously different colors but I like it.

Time to let it dry. It's 0200 and I just came in from the garage. It's dry to the touch. It's about 70 in garage and 35 outside. Ran out of propane in one of the two tanks. Will try to sleep a little then get up around 5 and go put the heat on since it will try to drop fast to equalize.

Anyway. Need to sand the steering tube and steering wheel. The epoxy see,s to be dried now.