ASSEMBLY
The next day the cab went back into place with relatively no problems, I had myself, my brother-in-law, his wife, my wife and my father-in-law all straining every muscle in their body but we managed to put her in her place. We quickly bolted on the front end only to realize that the cab wasn't positioned properly, this meant laying back on the wet ground, removing the pressure on the cab mounts, repositioning the cab and aligning the fenders, hood etc. again, this would wait for another day as there were cold beers to drink and it seemed as if my 'crew' were ready to pack it in. Off to the deck for a few coolies!!!
I returned the following weekend alone as my 'crew' decided to rent 'Radio', 'School of Rock' and 'Jeepers Creepers II' and leave me to my own devices with ol' Rusty. The original plan was to do away completely with the body as it was far too rusted up to save, we had already scrapped the entire front clip and cab but the search for a good stepside box was futile. I couldn't find anything that would work within my budget so I decided to 'salvage' the old box until a suitable replacement can be located. This box is seriously rusted out and the amount of existing bondo combined with fist sized holes is enough to make any Chevy man sick to his stomach. While asking myself "what are you doing?" I proceeded to grind, sand and bondo up the drivers side fender..............
Yeah, it looks nasty and it is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, basically it's a waste of time but if it can hold things together long enough for me to find a decent donor I'll be happy.
You can clearly see just how far everything has gone here, more bondo than fender........ugh!! The only spot worse is the steps.............. unless you count the box sides themselves, they're rusted right through!! If my Dad seen me doing this he would turn over in his grave............ well if was dead he would, now he'd probably just slap me on the back of the head.......... yuck!
Doesn't look too bad after some more sanding and some primer but I still had a few pinholes and other spots to fix so a little glaze here, some bondo there and voila!!
I kind of lost a bit of the body line in the rear bottom of
the fender but that will be where the 'rock-guard' goes so I'm too concerned
about it, besides I didn't have a body line there to start with and I'm no
sculpture let alone a bodyman. Overall I am OK with the results, it's not
perfect but it'll do for now. I also have to repair my front fenders as
the wind blew them into each other after paint while awaiting installation,
sucks working outside........... here's the final picture for now.
I'll update again as soon as I have time and have more accomplished. I am
now into this truck for about $1,200 since picking it up and have a grand total of
about ten short days invested into it time wise.