adsm08's Ranger build up

[adsm08]

Well, here is another 5 hours of my life gone.



Primer tomorrow if it is warm enough. We got hit with a clipper last night that dropped temps into the 30s and they haven't picked up yet.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

The 5 hours would have gone regardless of what you did....at least it looks shiny.

 

[adsm08]

Yes, but I can think of a number of other activities that would have been more enjoyable and left me without technicolor boogers.

Just gotta keep telling myself that at the end of this I will have a very nice truck that should last me many more years.


And for those who may wonder, yes there is still a big white patch over the wheel arch. That is not a reflection, as best I can figure it is bondo. It sands off very powdery, with a much different texture from the paint. I was a little unwilling to undo it, mostly because hole patching is not in my skill set.

I am going to leave it for now and if it causes me grief in the future hope it is at a time when I can have that fixed properly by someone who actually does body work.

 

[adsm08]

Primer, round two.





I have the heater running in the garage, since it is just a couple degrees cooler than it should be for painting. I finally have the primer spraying nicely.

It if is dry tonight top coat will be laid. If it isn't I will have to wait until Sunday.

 

[hoosier1104]

You know what sounds good, bacon. Bacon always sounds good though.

 

[prerunner]

You know what sounds good, bacon. Bacon always sounds good though.

^ This. +1. ^

Primer looks good, ADSM. I like where this is going.

 

[adsm08]

I did get the first coat of color on tonight. I let the primer get just dry enough to be sticky still, but not so wet that it can still be messed up just by touch, Just enough that it wouldn't need sanded to stick, and shot the first coat of black. A little upset because I somehow got the air knob on the gun closed the whole way and it shot about 10 big globs on the side of the bed. It looks like they might level out on their own, but even if they don't I am still going to sand and lay at least two more coats of color over the next few days.

Pics to come when I find my phone. Not sure why I took pictures of the black right away. This stuff always looks terrible when it first lays down and then levels out wonderfully over the next 2-20 hours.

 

[adsm08]

Found phone. And M&Ms. Out of bacon.

PICTURES!!!





Missed a spot. Good thing more than one coat is going down.



Oh, 4.0 SOHCenstein.

 

[Curious Hound]

I hate painting. I REALLY hate sanding.

paint jobs are...

80% prep work
50% skill
50% art
100% magic

I see hundreds of cars painted every day at work and it still amazes me. They look like orange peel after the color coat. But send them through the intermediate oven, shoot the clear coat and then bake in the final oven and everything looks beautiful. Of course, we can't do it that way at home.

Good luck. I like following your project.

 

[adsm08]

I got out and looked at it tonight after work. I am actually pretty disappointed in the first color coat. The splotches evened out a good bit, but the driver's side is mostly orange peel that didn't level out, except for the front where I can still see a good bit of primer. The passenger side is even worse, because I can see primer over most of the surface.

It is a very good thing I plan to do multiple coats on this. I will probably shoot this bed every other day for a week.

I hate painting. I REALLY hate sanding.

paint jobs are...

80% prep work
50% skill
50% art
100% magic

I see hundreds of cars painted every day at work and it still amazes me. They look like orange peel after the color coat. But send them through the intermediate oven, shoot the clear coat and then bake in the final oven and everything looks beautiful. Of course, we can't do it that way at home.

Good luck. I like following your project.

Me too. I actually like painting. I hate prep work. I love spraying.

Cutting the paint and primer down to bare metal was the real bear. Like I said in a previous post, each bed side took 5+ hours to sand down.

Fortunately the bed side is mostly one big flat surface so I can do the scratch work for a second coat in about 5 minutes a side with a block and 220 grit. I usually have to wash it down and take a second pass around the wheel well and corners, because you always miss a spot in the corners.

Thanks for the props though. I keep pushing through on some of this stuff because it is a labor of love. Knowing other people are enjoying watching it helps though because I am proud of the work I am doing and like showing it off.

I will be so happy when this truck is done. I really hope to have it done done by October and get it in the car show portion of the local street fair.

 

[adsm08]

Well I had a consult with my friend who mentor tech in the early days of my wrenching to get a second opinion on some decisions that have to be made.


The cab on my black truck is rough. The doors and fenders are shot, and the cab corners, as well as a few other spots are badly rusted. The red cab is pretty clean, but will be stripped to bare metal and repainted for the same reasons the bed was. But I pulled the carpet back last night and the floor pan is rough. Not shot that I can tell, but rough.

The 4x4 frame is also rough. The rear is pitted badly near the end.

So we talked it over, and I think the bed is going back on the black truck, while the red one is pushed into the garage, cab stripped, and frame completely disassembled. I mean completely. This will give us the chance to put the cross members in a blasting cabinet, clean the main beams, and do a proper rust reform on the whole thing without having me sans truck for a year or more. Then it will take a few weeks to put it all back together with a 4x4 cross member.

I don't see this as giving up on my old truck, even though there won't be much of it left, I see this as building a truck out of the best parts I have. I am going to be using the power train and drive line that I have spent over 10 years scraping together and driving for almost 10 years.

 

[prerunner]

Excellent news, ADSM.
I like that you see it as using the best parts you've gathered to fix the truck you have and that the original truck continues providing service as always.
As far as I'm concerned, as long as when you get in it - it feels like your truck and not someone elses - you've stayed true to your truck and goal. Only you have that connection to it and would know "your" truck that way.
It is entirely possible to do a frame off restoration on the original truck and lose that attachment.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Excellent news, ADSM.
I like that you see it as using the best parts you've gathered to fix the truck you have and that the original truck continues providing service as always.
As far as I'm concerned, as long as when you get in it - it feels like your truck and not someone elses - you've stayed true to your truck and goal. Only you have that connection to it and would know "your" truck that way.
It is entirely possible to do a frame off restoration on the original truck and lose that attachment.

That thought has hit me before. When I am done the only thing that will still be the truck I drove to high school will be most of the cab and the frame. The engine, fenders, hood, trans, t-case, axles, springs, bed, tailgate will be replaced...

I am well on my way there... so far so good. It isn't the same truck I had in high school but it has gotten better in all the right places.

 

[adsm08]

You know, there was a thread up here a few years ago, I think in the Tailgate, that was discussing the more existential side of the question "At what point does it stop being the same truck?" The one end of the argument said that if anything is replaced it's no longer the "same" truck because as soon as you replace one part it is now "different". The other end of the spectrum was as long the VIN doesn't change it is still the same.

I am going to do what I can about taking the VIN along to the finished product. It is a lot of paper work, and in PA the VIN (along with all emissions requirements) is attached to the chassis, not the body, but by the time I am done there will be no identifying marks left on the chassis to say which on it is. Tell PennDOT that I just swapped cabs and then fill out the paper work (all 7 pages of it) to swap VINs.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

So far my cab just needs cab corners and a drivers side floorpan... so it stays. I already have a hood and a pair of nice (one new, one perfect OEM) fenders waiting for the big day.