You never quite get it good enough

It has been a while since my last truck post but. I assure you that I have been diligently working on the cab. Not day and night, 24/7 mind you, but consistently on the weekends when the temperature was above 60 degrees.

While the cab was in good enough shape - that is it had no rusted out spots except for the crushed corner which I successfully welded a replacement patch panel. This was an earlier post. There was still one big task remaining, it was to block sand the roof and the back. What this means is you use primer and body filler to “level” out the sheet metal, so that when you show your project to other truck guys they will rub their hand over the cab and say how good it feels.  Don’t make me explain it as it is something in guy DNA and even we don’t understand it.

Who would know working on the cab would be a three month odyssey.  Let me give you the short tour. Grind off all the paint and surface rust, prime it, fill the dents with body filler, sand until smooth, reapply body filler, sand, reapply body filler, sand, spray high fill urethane primer, sand... Okay you get the picture.

After about a month into this Sisyphean task, my wife said it was good enough and pointed out that no one would ever see the back since the bed would cover it and no one would see the top – remember she is just 5’-0”. In her opinion it was plenty good and I should just “put a fork in it”.

So I had to start working on it on the sly. I would say that I was going to church, get all dressed up and walk to the end of the block. Then I would come back to the garage and sand in the name of Jesus for the rest of the day.  I think after going to church on Saturday and Sunday for two months Stephanie started getting suspicious, maybe because in our 28 years of marriage I had never gone to church before.

Finally last week after two coats of high fill primer, I had it level and man does it feel good. I know you would expect someone to say that it “looks good”, but that is not the objective – it feels good.  Body work, excuse the pun, is a tactical experience. You know you are done when it feels right.

 

I finally told Stephanie that the cab was mostly done, just so I could stop going to “church”. The next step is to put the cab on the frame to see how well everything fits.

Now just between us girls – I am going to spray one more coat of high fill primer on the cab top, I just can’t get enough. There is always another pound to lose, another mile to run, another dash of chile powder, one more kiss, and of course it can always be smoother.

These pictures show a little bit of the progression.





April Huntsville Times Column

The story in my column tells how I had to endure several days of the Clear Fluids diet in order to prepare for a doctor's visit. It was a happy ending, but not so fun at the time.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2013/04/it_turns_out_that_sometimes_yo.html#incart_river

Enjoy.

The instructions could have been better.

I repurposed a story about struggling through the instructions on how to rebuild the cab bench seat and posted it on Al.com.  Hope you enjoy it.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2013/03/it_would_have_been_easier_if_t.html

Reaching the Summit – Priming the Cab.

Believe me, a lot has been accomplished on this restoration project in the last two months. The cab is 100% primed – the whole enchilada, everything, todo completo. This milestone is akin to reaching the summit of Loveland Pass, the view is great and everything is downhill from here.

It was a long climb to the top; you remember the total replacement of the floor panels, the kick panels, the cab front patch panels, and everyone’s favorite shaving the gas cap filler hole. Not to mention sanding the rust from every frigging inch of the cab. The last welding task left is the cab corner patch panel.

The cowboy that owned the truck before me modified the bed for some kind of ranching task that involved crushing the left corner of the cab. Just like my daughter crushed her Jeep’s front fender trying to turn into the parking space at thirty miles an hour. The truck she hit was undamaged.

A crushed cab corner is apparently a common ailment since the part suppliers conveniently have a replacement part just for it. So here I go, one last welding task before the summit. The first step was to cut out the crushed and rusted corner. Next, I had to fabricate the inside corner support piece.

I am always surprised how quickly I can make the new part and have it closely resemble the original piece.  Note the term closely - exactly the same would save me some last minute sledge hammering to make it really fit.

In order to prevent the newly fabricate panel from rusting I needed to spray on a coat of primer.  Since the temperature in my unheated garage was freezing, I sprayed it in the back bedroom – Stephanie was conveniently out shopping.  My daughter, who was home and has an OSHA certified nose, went nuts over the paint odor.  She did not call the inspectors to arrest me but did spray about two cans of Fabreze in the house. I called the inspectors to report her.

With the old cab corner removed, I had to install the truck door in order to get the new corner panel properly aligned. This sounds so simple but I must have agonized for several days before figuring this trick out. Once everything was clamped in place it was time to butt weld. My welding technique is improving, but I did manage to warp the panel so I will get to practice my body filler skills a little bit later.

Now that the welding was finished the only task left was to remove the rust from the bottom of the cab. Enlisting the help of my lovely wife, we tilted the cab over to rest on the front firewall. This exposed the underside of the cab, which to our surprise was in pretty good shape. We also figured out that it was a female truck – no I am not showing these pictures.  In no time the undercoating was stripped off. I sanded off most of the rust and used POR to encapsulate the bad spots.

Once the weather cooperated, I broke out the spray gun and primed it all. Yippen Farcheesy! Ain’t life grand.

March Update

I promise to put out a status on the truck project this week. But I have two other updates.

When Brooke was 6 years old we ran a 5K race. The finish was a very memorable event. I was able to tell the story on NPR this week. You can listen to it at this link.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/WritersCornerOnWlrhPublicRadio

 

 

Also, I have a new story about surviving a kayaking trip. Sometimes you just have to trust that your friends will be there to help you.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2013/02/kayaking_the_locust_fork_is_a.html

February HTimes column

A friend of mine took a trip to Baldwin County that turned into an unexpected adventure. Enjoy the story.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2013/01/really_how_many_sweet_potatoes.html

Brimmer

New Column for the Huntsville Times

If you have never experienced arc welding, you need to try it. Or at least get invited to one of my parties. Enjoy the story.

I appoligize to the people that are following my on Facebook for getting two notices.


http://blog.al.com/times-views/2013/01/learning_how_to_weld_becomes_a.html

Huntsville Times Column

Happy New Year to all.

The Huntsville Times has given me another year to write columns, WhooHoo. I have created a Page on Facebook that links to my online column posts. If you like reading these columns please go to this link http://www.facebook.com/BrimmersColumn and “Like” it. This way you will get a notification when I make a post.  It does require that you have a Facebook account.

My plan is to keep the “1954 Chevy Truck EV Conversion” blog focused on the truck project and use the Facebook Page for my columns.

My latest column is about a friend that finds an unwanted hitchhiker in her laundry. Here is the link to the column.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/12/its_a_good_thing_he_was_in_the.html

Just a note, “liking” the story on al.com does not work to subscribe, you have go to the Facebook page to subscribe.

Enjoy,

Shaving the Gas Tank Filler Hole

My latest mantra is “progress progress progress”. I am knocking out tasks one by one, getting better at welding, and doing it all faster. The goal is to get the truck done before Brooke graduates from high school – that gives me a little over one more year, it will be close.

The latest task is to cover over the gas tank filler hole in the cab. This 1954 Chevy Truck is going to be “shaved” - it will be one sleek ride with nothing but a smooth body line.

Okay, enough with the visceral explanation, the practical reason is that with the truck being converted to an electric vehicle it does not need gasoline for fuel therefore the gas tank filler is unnecessary and must be removed.

This task has gone about as good as it could go. I must have been possessed by the spirit of Carol Shelby because everything went exactly as it should.

The first step was easy; remove the gas tank filler unit and gasket from the cab body. As you can see we now have a perfect hole in the cab.

Step two was to fabricate a piece of sheet metal to cover the hole. This involved a little metal work since the replacement part must match the curve of the cab. I had to cut out a circular hole and then put a curve on it by rolling it over a pipe, my Hillbilly metal forming equipment.

  

After careful trimming and grinding, the replacement cover plate precisely fits the hole. It is clamped into place with special clamps before the welding begins. For those of you that have read 50 Shades of Gray you might recognize these babies from a different perspective.

  

Step three is to butt weld the cover plate to the cab. The proper technique is to place a series of tack welds around the seam to hold the cover plate in place. The other reason for doing it this way is to control the heat applied to the sheet metal. The extreme heat from the welds will warp the sheet metal so you have to weld slowly and let the heat dissipate before continuing.

 Slowly I added more spot welds, gradually filling in all the gaps. I also used the angle grinder to grind the welds flush with the cab, still being careful to go slow to let the heat dissipate to avoid warping.

 Voila, tu es magnifique! It is all welded in place and smoothed out. The new piece did not match exactly the body curve and I did get a little warp on one side as I am still learning patience and butt welding. However, everything can be fixed with a little body filler and elbow grease.

 This is the first layer of body filler. You basically put it on, sand it down, put more on, sand it down, put more on – you get the picture. Each layer gets you closer and closer to Nirvana, until finally you rub your hand over the cab and it feels perfect and I mean purr-fect.

  

With the body filler sanding finished, the last step is to spray on a coat of primer and baby does that look good. When they say “shaved” this is what I am talking about y’all.

Cab Update

I have great news – the cab is mostly done. Did I trick anyone? Everyone knows that “mostly done” translates to something like – pretend done. The term is only used when the claimant wants to believe that something which is unfinished will be worked on and competed by magical elves that night.

Even with mostly done there is still cause to celebrate. The inside of the cab is completely primed. Yippee-a-mundo. I have successfully removed all the rust or encapsulated it and sprayed epoxy primer on everything inside. That’s right; the cab ceiling, the floor boards, the dashboard and the back of the cab. And baby, baby, baby does it look good.

Currently I am in Dante’s third circle of Hell (Priming the Cab) and have three tasks to complete before I can go to the next level Hell (Butt Welding the Cab Corner).  There are two small areas in the front of the cab which I will get done this weekend and the final test will be removing the rust and goop that is under the cab, followed by spraying on the primer. I am hopeful that it will be a straight forward operation, you know I do believe in the magical elves.

As soon as Virgil and I finish this six-pack of El Diablo IPA, I will get back to work.

Huntsville Times Post

I wrote a story about getting Brooke her first mobile phone.  Enjoy.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/11/it_takes_two_tries_to_get_the.html

Another Lesson

With the outside of the cab progressing quite well - thank you very much, my attention is turned to inside activities. As rust is enemy number one with this restoration I am focused on eliminating it and the long pole in the cab tent is the rust on the top of the cab.

Taking out my trusty wire wheel brushes, I commenced to grind off the rust and old paint. Soon into the campaign I discovered the ceiling was covered with something else along with the rust. After extensive scientific analysis, I determined there was some type of goopy coating on it. I was at a loss as to how it got there, but I figured it had to go.

The wire wheel was effective at taking it off, but needed a couple of passes to get it all off, slowing down my much desired progress. Not to be daunted, I kept my nose to the grindstone and pushed through, even using solvents to break up the sticky spots.

At the start of this task, I heard “the little voice that never shuts up” in the back of my mind. Not wanting to be bothered I pushed it all the way out of my conscious and continued grinding. However, as the task seemed to drag on and on it escaped my banishment and said “Pilgrim, tell me again why you are grinding off this top coating?”. I whine back that I have to get the rust and gook off the metal in order for the primer to bond properly.

“The little voice that never shuts up” then proceeds to point out that I will be putting a beautiful color coordinated cardboard headliner on the top of the cab, which “mister works hard but not smart” (that is what it calls me) will cover up all your hours of useless exertion.  I have learned that it is always hard to argue with good reason – especially when it is right.

Unfortunately I was beyond the point of no return. This is similar to removing wall paper in a home remodeling project. When faced with the decision to either take off the old wall paper or just paint over it, you are completely committed after you pull off the couple of easy sections of wall paper. Once this is done you have to do all the hard work to remove the stubborn sections.

As I was steaming off the last bits of automotive wallpaper I figured out that the gooey coating was heat and sound dampening material and that it was not really rusty after all. It was just dirty and messy, with a rusty color.  Note to “mister works hard but not smart” don’t remove this in your next restoration. If you look up the definition of this task in the dictionary, it is called tuition.

Finding the replacement heat and sound dampening material was not as simple as you would think. I did find the material in several of the classic truck web sites, but it was quite a bit more expensive than I expected. As I started looking for other options, I let “the little voice that won’t shut up” sit at the adult table with me this time. Together we were going to make the correct choice. Out of the blue I receive an email from Eastwood saying they were having a sale on guess what? Heat and sound deadened material.  I liked the price and started reading the detailed description, the installation process and then the reviews.  The first four reviewers thought this stuff was better than sex, which pretty much had me sold. But my partner felt the need to keep reading.  The next two reviews were 1 star out of 5 star ratings and said that a few days after they installed it, black tar goo started oozing down the wall and puddled on the floor. It turns out that the positive reviewers lived in Greenland where the temperature is minus 50 and the negative reviewers were fans of the SEC – translation lived in the hot south.  Eastwood’s product was fine until the temperature got to 95 degrees, at which time it transformed into black gooey ooze.

Not wanting to repeat the removal process again, I have already taken and passed this class, I am getting the heat and sound dampening material rated to 270 degrees.

Making Progress on the Cab

Progress is a wonderful noun, especially when it applies to my truck cab. Of all the parts in this 54 Chevy truck restoration, it is the cab that makes me the most insecure and paralyzes me into inaction. Everything that has to be fixed with the cab is something I have never done before.

The floor was rotted out with rust and while it was tempting, putting a carpet over the holes, would not be acceptable. So, I manned up and cut out the rusted floor, learned how to weld and welded in the replacement floor panels.  The side of the cab had a dent as big and as deep as the Mariana Trench. This, in case you are wondering is 6.8 miles deep. I banged it out and used body filler to make it perfectly smooth.

Even with all this progress, my mechanical clock is ticking and it is runing out of time. This is the manalogy of the woman’s need to get married and have a baby. Who could forget Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny saying “my biological clock is ticking”. According to my clock it is time to deliver this cab.

With the cold of winter about to shut down this Hillbilly Garage I had to get a heated shop in order to keep working through the cold dark months. I was starting to look for a garage to rent when my amazing wife offers to let me move my table saw, other wood working tools and bicycles into the back room of the house so that there would be room in the garage to work on the cab.

I am certain she was under the influence of a hot flash and didn’t know what she was saying, but I quickly agreed and now we have three rooms filled with truck parts and tools.

Once the garage was cleaned out, the next step was to move the cab into the garage. The timing for this operation could not have been worse. Several of the neighbors were out of town and another had hurt his back. That left me – one old guy, my daughter – who is like anti matter when it comes to helping with the truck, and my amazing one armed wife. Don’t worry, she has two arms, but with a recent rotator cuff surgery, one was out of commission – Doctors orders.

With a good three arms between us, we used Egyptian methods to move the cab. I would lift one side of the cab up off the stand and Stephanie would pull it out and put in a smaller one. Repeating this process we soon had the cab on a furniture dolly and were able to roll it into the garage and perform the process in reverse.

Now that I have the cab in a warm well light garage, I have been able to work on it almost every night after work. I have taken off all the paint and rust on the outside and primed the inside floor panels. Two recent warm days gave me time to spray on the primer and Baby it looks good.

Huntsville Times Column

Here is my latest Huntsville Time column about my mothers boozy fruit.  Enjoy.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/10/all_generations_have_their_qui.html

My Rear End is Leaking

The rear end was leaking and demanding attention. This was one of those slow weepy seeping leaks, not big enough to require an immediate repair, but an irritating incessant drip that nags you to action. Pampers were not an option and neither was putting cardboard under the truck to catch the drips.

As you recall my ¾ ton truck is a special needs vehicle and I could not find a replacement gasket to save my life. Finally on one of the truck forums someone mentioned that they had “made” their gasket. This was the solution to the problem.

 The gasket making procedure is fairly simple; you basically use a caulk gun to put down a bead of the gasket material around one side of the part and then bolt the other side to it. As you tighten up the bolts the material squeezes out like the cream filling of a Moon Pie.

Gasket making is as simple as it sounds - once you get through all the mistakes. With this step done, the last thing I had to do was tighten down the bolts to the proper torque. The shop manual said to tighten them to 85 ft/lbs. I got out the torque wrench and started tightening and tightening and tightening. I must point out that the torque wrench will click when you get to the correct torque setting. With all this tightening and no click, I was getting worried because at some point bad things will happen if the bolt is over tightened.

 Well you guessed it, I kept turning until one of the bolts snapped in half. The only good news was that I have been in this position before and knew the authorized extraction procedure. At about step four of the extraction process the bolt remanent came out. As it dropped into the inside of the differential, I heard the delicate ping of the start of another unplanned task.

I expected a metal filing or two to get into the differential and knew this would be okay; however, half of a grade eight bolt in the differential would turn my rear end into a Cuisinart and quickly shred my gears into coleslaw.

 Well once again the good news is that I am now an expert gasket maker. I was able to remove the differential cover, retrieve the bolt, make another gasket and replace the cover.

No leaks so far.

I Am Back

Guess What? The Huntsville Times reinstated my column. I get to finish the year as a Community Columnist.  My columns will be in the first Sunday newspaper, but the digital version will come out earlier. I tried something different with this column and hope you like it, I know I had fun writing it.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/10/linda_stays_cool_when_kitchen.html

Latest HTimes Column

Greetings,

As of now, last weeks column will be my last. The Huntsville Times canceled the Community Columnist section as part of the three days a week publishing format.

Hopy your enjoy it, I certainly did.

http://blog.al.com/times-views/2012/09/doctors_deliver_mixed_message.html

Brimmer

A Butt Weld Success Story – The Second Book Two

In the last episode we had successfully welded both the floor panels to the cab framework. However, there was this three quarter inch gap between the panels that needed to be filled.

The first task was to fabricate the filler piece. I started with a piece of sheet metal and cut it into a strip the correct length and width. Next, I started bending it into the proper shape with my pliers and other pieces of metal. This is Hillbilly fabrication in action.

I clamped it into place and was about to start welding when I remembered the advice from Chuck _inDurham, he wrote a welding primer and said, “he always does some practice welds before he starts on the real welding”. I dutifully spent 15 minutes practicing on an old fender. This allowed me to dial in the voltage and wire feed rate. It turns out the difference between not enough penetration and blowing holes is very small. It also got my grove going on how fast to move the torch.

With the part clamped in place I started with the tack welds, placing them about an inch apart and alternating the welds to avoid any warping. Next I started filling in the gaps, being careful to let the welds cool so as to not warp the panel. In between, I would grind down the welds and repeat the process. I only had one blow out and easily filled it.

The next thing I knew the welding and grinding was done. The last step was to used my two-inch angle grinder with a sanding disk to smooth it all out. I would give myself a C+ on this job, which is a great improvement over the F- on my previous try at Butt welding.

The next thing I did was screw down the transmission cover plate and put in the battery cover plate. Dayum, the cab floor is starting to look real pretty.

Today was one of those days that energize you to come back to the shop again. I can’t wait.

Spot Weld Adventure – Book Two

“You don’t know what you don’t know”. I will attribute this to Confucius since my friend Google does not know who said it first. The floor of the cab is rotted out with fifty years of rust and must be replaced. Earlier I purchased the replacement floor panels, both the right and left side. If I had been a little more observant and not so damn cheap I would have just bought the whole floor replacement panel. I did not find out until I was putting them together that the two half’s are an inch short in the middle, how would one know? My project just got a little more complicated.

I was cutting out the old rusty floor and having trouble as usual when Dale came by and said that Eastwood has a spot weld cutter to make the job easier, how would one know? Thank god for friendly advice, this tool is right up there with the Ronco Veg-o-matic - except it really works. For you English teachers out there, spot welding is similar to using a hot glue gun. Except instead of melting glue to stick two things together you use an electric arc to fuse the two pieces of metal together.

As you would expect it is a mother to take the already welded together panels apart. Enter the spot weld cutter. It surgically cuts a nice little circle off the top piece of metal and Voila, we have separation.

Since my Butt weld technique is a sad story, let’s just say my truck is still wearing Mom jeans to cover up my sorry work, instead of the low rise thong showing jeggins.  Recognizing my limitations, I decided to use the spot weld method to attach the floor panels to the frame.  Never mind that I had never spot welded or even hot glue gunned before, I was convinced it would be better. Did I hear someone say “you don’t know what you don’t know”.

The way you spot weld with a DIY home welder is to drill a hole in the top piece of sheet metal, then clamp the two pieces together, and then fill the hole with the glorious pool of shimmery molten metal. Dutifully I drilled about a hundred small holes in the floor panel, got it properly positioned and did my first spot weld. After I finished the cigarette, I spot welded a few more.  Deciding to test my handiwork, I pulled up on the floor panel to see if it worked. Well, guess what, the panel came up so fast it nearly knocked me unconscious.

Reading the instructions again, I figured out my mistakes. I have to use advanced welder speak to explain the first one; I did not get enough penetration. I think this means I have to give back that cigarette. Now in English, my hole was not big enough – the second mistake, and the weld was not hot enough to get through to the bottom piece of metal.

It turns out I had my welder voltage set to “scared as shit” and the wire feed rate was on “miserly”. Inspired with knowledge I set the voltage to “river of magma” and the wire feed rate to “fill-your-boots”.

To fixed my other problem I went out and bought an Irwin step drill bit to enlarge my tiny holes - careful Jane. I have converted to the Church of Eastwood and their doctrine is that any problem can be fixed with a very specialize and expensive tool, Allahu Akbar.

Well with everything set up, I started spot welding. I am sure there were a few of the 72 virgins dancing on my shimmery pool of molten metal and I successfully filled up every spot weld.

With a little grinding and a coat of primer, it looks as good a new.