Alright, had an
incredibly aggravating day working on this goddamn truck.. or rather TRYING to work on it..
Plan was so strip the rest of the POS15 that was still stuck to the frame and then clean & degrease it to get ready for various coatings.. simple right? It SHOULD have been... Just not my day I guess.
I sprayed down the entirety of the frame behind the cab with stripper and then left to get some gas & oil for the pressure washer. Before I even left it had started to bubble & lift the POS15 pretty darn good.. so I was super optimistic that once I got back and started with the pressure it'd come right off. Not quite... It took MOST of it off... But really needed a 2nd spray down. Didn't have 20 bucks to blow on another can though.. so I was starting to hit the rest of it with a wire wheel.. which was working well enough thankfully...
Went to hit it with the washer again... but the washer wasn't able to keep pressure... Wtf. By this point my aunt had arrived home and let the dogs out.. and this is where my aggravation REALLY started. The spigot for the hose is on the side of the house that the dog pen is on... And the GD MF'rs chewed through the hose right at the brass fitting... No wonder the washer couldn't keep pressure
assholes! Of course.. no money to buy another hose so.. progress for the day has come to a halt. Half the wind in my sails.. gone.
Thats not it though.. as I was coming out of the garage after putting the washer in there.. I got a good look at the rear of the truck from 50 feet or so.. rest of the wind in my sails GONE and it felt like a big kick in the nuts.
We'll start back during last year when I had to replace a giant section of the web of the frame behind the driver's spring hanger...
I pretty much whacked this hole in the frame and then left until the next Sunday.
I forget EXACTLY why/how it happened but... I came back the next Sunday and whatever I was using to support this side of the frame to obviously keep it straight.. my uncle's lift mabey... Could of been a jack... Idk.. I forget.. front wheels were on the floor though. Either way.. whatever it was over the course of the week had decided to lower itself to the floor... Letting that section of frame sag like a bastard. Not good. I was so pissed when I came back and found it essentially bent in the shape of a shallow V.
I tried my best to straighten it back out.. jacked it up.. eyeballed it from each side.. laid a level across the frame right over the hangers in a few spots.. bubble looked good.. laid it across the back of the frame.. bubble good.. looked at it a bunch more and convinced myself it was straight. Welded the missing piece back in.. plated it.. crossmember.. done.
Welllllll........ It's not straight
not even close.
Look at the crossmembers... Both of them are PERFECTLY centered on the frame web top to bottom... that frame obviously has a MEAN twist
clearly I jacked the frame up by the drivers hanger a little more than too much or something.. idk.. I just know it ain't straight and it's absolutely wrecked my goddamn day.
So fucking disheartening. Here Ive been for the past 6 months or whatever all SUPER PROUD of myself for being able to bring the truck back to straight from being bent nearly in half... Just to find out.. hey... It ain't straight at all buddy. Good jerb
Of course... It's way TF too late now to try and fix it. But the more I think about it.. I don't think it should affect things toooooo much... Right? The location of the spring hangers are dead-nuts.. so the axle will be square and it won't dog walk... The angle of the shackles obviously won't match but... I'm hoping that I'm just stuck with crooked bed at worst... But I could shim it so it's straight(er)
Ugh.
Still.. happy to have made SOME progress anyhow
thats what I'm telling myself anyways. Idiot.
do some real redneck shit with it..
