Friday, June 9, 2006  -  Since it was another slow Friday afternoon at work, I decided to take the afternoon off and head to the shop. I had no idea what I was going to get done today, although I was sure it had something to do with the new box.

After stopping at the local farm supply store to get some more 3M composite stripping wheels for the angle grinder, I went to work on the front of the box, getting it stripped to bare metal (Fig. 1).

I then decided to get started on welding up the bed seams (Fig. 2). It took a few tries before finding the proper setup on the MIG, and then it took a while for me to learn the proper technique to filling in a gap without blowing holes in the thin sheetmetal. I only went through one time, but was able to fill that in.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

A couple days ago, a FORDification.com forum user posted a message in the Body/Paint section, calling attention to a thread on a Mopar messageboard, where there was a very lively discussion going on about a cheap alternative to expensive paint jobs. This alternative was the use of Rustoleum Professional roll-on enamel. Yes, that's right....an enamel paint applied with a roller! At first I rolled my eyes, but decided to keep reading...and reading....and reading some more. As of today, the thread is a whopping 47 PAGES LONG! It took me three nights worth of reading to make it all the way through, and by the time I was about half done, I was already seriously considering this as a viable alternative to expensive BC/CC paint jobs, which can easily run $3,000 to $5,000. And the total cost of the Rustoleum method? About $50-$75. The paint is only $25-$30 per gallon, with the rest covering the foam rollers, mineral spirits for thinning and clean-up, and sandpaper for wet-sanding. The Mopar messageboard thread has been linked to from dozens of other automotive forums, and by end (so far) of the thread, a majority of the people participating aren't even Mopar owners, but owners of Hondas, Camaros, Volkswagens, etc. who were giving this method a try and reporting back their results. After the proper surface prep, paint thinning and application, and wet-sanding, a lot of folks are posting pictures of their cars/trucks with some very respectable-looking paint jobs.

So anyway....over the past couple of days I've been giving some serious thought to picking up the supplies needed and satisfying my own personal curiosity, and trying this out on a fender. My father-in-law called me last night from the local Menards, asking me if there was anything I needed. At first I said no, but then on the spur-of-the-moment, I decided to have him check to see if the Rustoleum was available there. He checked and said it was, so I decided to have him get the paint supplies for me. The only problem was that I still hadn't fully decided on a color yet. The stock colors didn't really do anything for me, but after discussing it with him for a few minutes, I made another snap decision and told him to get me a gallon of 'After Midnight' blue, which is the darkest blue they could custom-mix for me. He also picked up a gallon of white primer, although the general consensus among the participants of the Mopar messageboard thread was that it wasn't needed. However, after reading the entire thread and seeing some of the cases of laying down inconsistent layer thicknesses, I decided I wanted a light-colored base coat to permit me to get the hang of the paint application. This Rustoleum enamel is applied in multiple very-thin (almost transparent) layers, so the white primer will enable me to see how thick each of the first layers are applied, until I get the knack for applying it uniformly. He also picked up the necessary foam rollers, sandpaper for wet-sanding (in 600, 800, 1000, 1200 and 1500 grit) and some tack cloths.

I'm not sure when I'll get started on this, but it'll be fairly soon. Although the cab and box aren't ready yet, much of the front sheetmetal for my project is already down to bare metal. So sometime in the near future I'm going to get started on a fender and give this a try. After a fender is done and I see how it goes, I'll make a decision at that time on whether or not to proceed with this. If I do, I'll be constructing a special tutorial page showing all the details and progress, so that others who consider this in the future won't have to wade through many personal project update pages to find information on it here...it'll be all in one area. Stay tuned!

Fig. 2 - Here's a shot of the paint, primer and mineral spirits. The Masstone Tint Base was used to custom-mix a gallon of 'After Midnight' Blue, the darkest blue that could be tinted.

Fig. 3 -  Here are the foam rollers and brushes. The white rollers are perfect, but I'm not sure the black ones will work, due to the larger pore size.

Fig. 3 - Yeah yeah, I know...this is one ugly bead! It took me a while to get the hang of welding with the MIG without burning through.

Fig. 4 - You can see in this shot how I was jumping back and forth to different areas of the seam, to avoid heat build-up which would distort/warp the sheetmetal. However, I did still end up with some warpage that will need fixed.

Fig. 5 - Here's a shot of the completed right side, ready to be ground down.

Fig. 6 - The first rough pass with the grinder. Man, this bead is some hard steel!

Saturday, June 10, 2006  -  I kinda got a late start this morning, kept getting sidetracked playing on the computer. Made it to the shop about 11AM, knowing that I only had until about 6PM to work, because I had to come home and play Mr. Mom while Mrs. Mom went to work. Since I got started on the seam welding yesterday, getting some more work done on this was today's agenda.

Since the subject of welding seams has come up many times on the FORDification.com forums, the general consensus has been to not weld a seam in a single continuous weld, to prevent (or at least minimize) sheetmetal warpage.  Therefore, I started out by welding 2"-long beads at a time, (Fig. 4) and then moving to another section of the bed seam, to avoid transferring too much heat into one area, and to give the first one time to cool down a bit. However, after I was completely done on one side and everything had cooled down completely, I found I did have a bit of warpage on the top side of the horizontal bump. It's not bad, definitely repairable, but it's obvious now to me that I have to go in much-shorter spurts. When I get started on the opposite side, I'll try making small 1/2"-long beads at a time, and will see if that will make a difference.

Welding up the right side of the box actually went pretty quickly. I think it took me about 60-90 minutes to completely fill in the seam. However, it took me a LOT longer to grind it down. The weld bead is considerably harder than the sheetmetal, and it took several hours just to rough it in. Another mistake I made doing this too, was that instead of just making a tiny minimal bead, I really filled it in, figuring that it was better to have too much than not enough. Unfortunately, not only did this probably contribute to the little bit of warpage I experienced, but it also dramatically increased my grinding time. Plus, the large bead made it almost impossible to accurately figure out where the top corner of the bump was supposed to be. Therefore, I had to guess-timate, and while I got close, it's still going to need a little more work. I'm going to have to tape a piece of string to each end of the box right over the top of the bead area, where the center of the top curve is supposed to be, and then mark it. Then I'll be able to finish up the grinding, using the mark to more-accurately shape the curve. I was going to do that this afternoon, but by the time I'd roughed it in, I was needing a break from it, so I moved onto something else...and that was:

...welding up some trim holes, as outlined below.