Back to it

Well, since it appears that I am on the 6-18 months between posts interval, I'm going to try and get caught up.  So since the last post, I have cleared out several pending projects that were taking up workspace in the shop.  Had a 1st birthday bash for my little boy Henry in the shop, and recruited help to move the parts cab into the shop for removal of the patch panels and whatever things I could reuse somewhere else. 

I had anticipated that the removal of the patch panels would take much longer than it actually did.  Even doing it the right way and drilling out the spot welds and such to hopefully make a much cleaner re-installation onto the truck.  So I now have three patch panels that I don't have to make or buy.  I always prefer the original to anything that is sold as repop.  Even at its best, its no replacement for the original. 

So now I have a stripped and somewhat sad parts cab sitting at the edge of the shop just waiting for me to move it around back and ultimately after bodywork is done, to craigslist to hopefully move on and help someone else out.  Now the project facing me is to get the truck pulled from around back of the shop to inside. 

I have the following items on the short list of to do's once it gets back into the shop:

1) Pressure wash frame and cab, before rolling into the shop
2) remove doors, hinges, other exterior items from the cab
3) remove large items from inside the cab
4) cut out/remove areas that need to have steel replaced
5) replace cutout areas with either salvaged patch panels or reproductions
6) remove dents from cab with hammer and dolly
7) sand and remove old paint
8) epoxy all sheetmetal with SPI Epoxy primer.
9) start filling and blocking of body parts
10) prep for paint. 

Phew, I'm tired already.  I should also mention that I have also already brought in the hood and split it so that the center of the hood could be cleaned and epoxy applied to thwart any rust formation. 

Somewhere between #5 and #6, I'm going to pull the cab off the frame and work on just the body inside.  After the cab is off, I will likely get the frame prepped for epoxy and chassis paint, then the addition of the engine, transmission, and 4.10 rear end.  About the same time, rims will be prepped, primed, and painted. 

So every good project should have a plan.  And that's mine.  At least for now.  But for now, I need to recruit some help to move a poor sad and lonely looking parts cab around to the back, and drag in the truck that is due a resto.  That's all for now!