GrumpyGhost

Welp I got the run out, but it came at the cost of having the paint come out darker. Oh well I'm not a professional! There is a slight line but you can't see it here. Starting clear coats in 30 mins. You live and learn from mistakes! Yolo! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Got a run on passenger side, set me back about 3 hours! Anyhow the driver side you can see where I didn't quite get the body filler completely flat. It won't be perfect by any means but at this point it's too late now! It is what it is! Still laying down paint on passenger cab corner, probably another hour before I start clearing. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

First coat! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Only see one spot that I need to sand. I am honestly shocked it's not on the driver side with all the Bondo. Guess I skimped on the passenger cab corner cause well, it was supposed to be easier! I'm considering just fixing it with 600 grit sandpaper I use to sand the primer and not spray another coat of primer. It's barely noticeable, I could just let it go. I'm ready to have my truck back! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Welp, the body work is done. I haven't been taking pictures. Been kinda hectic lately. It ended up storming pretty bad so I couldn't prime the truck. Went to prime it this evening and realized I don't have the correct hardner for the primer. So tomorrow I'm going to pull an all nighter and do it all at once. Got plans in the morning so I have to do it in the evening tomorrow. I did find one picture of my "hack n pack Bondo" job of the driver side panel. It's all actually pretty thin besides a few spots. So it looks worse than it is. It'll buff out!! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

First coat of everglass is on the truck! Spent yesterday moving the truck bed out of the shop and fixing more welds and grinding them all down. But I'm officially done with metal work!!! I will be priming the truck this evening, it's gunna be a long day but well worth it. I need my truck back! Lots of Bondo work left to do before I "drive" the truck to the "paint booth." I'm so ecstatic to be doing body work! Bondo work is easy compared to metal work! I'm not looking forward to masking the whole truck. Probably take me a couple hours just to mask it. Friday is the day for color paint! Will update later this evening! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

So one of the bottles for the bed liner exploded. I didn't notice because they came in plastic bags from shipping in the mail. I saved about half the bottle and used it to paint the tailgate. I guessed on the mixing amounts cause I was too lazy to put it in one of my nice new mixing cups. It was a big pain in the arse to spray it. I'm trying to be better about not writing essays on here so I'll spare yall the details. The new paint it a bit lighter than the 18 year old tailgate paint. You won't be able to tell the difference after the bumper is on. (Don't compare color from inside the taillight housing. Wasn't sprayed the same.) Overall I'm happy with it! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

THX, ive been told I should have made a YouTube channel and recorded all this, but editing video doesn't sound like my cup of tea Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Truck bed is finished, just need to let it cure now. Supposed to rain through Thursday so im going to get the truck ready for paint on Friday. Also give the truck bed time to cure before I move it. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Used red Scott Brite pads to sand off the loose overspray in the bed and scuff up the new paint. Got it taped off and mixed the raptor bed liner. It recommended 100ml of color Max for the mix. I put in more than 100 ml and it still didn't darken up. I'm not spraying puke green on my truck. I may not have enough base to paint the rest of the truck either, I'm gunna try to make it work, but I'll be sure to paint during the day when I can go get some more made. So I wasted one of 8 bottles of bed liner and 100ml of my valuable truck paint. Lesson here is you live and learn and at least I got to practice different spray patterns with the crap color bedliner. It'll be fine, just gotta go buy some black paint tomorrow. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

First pic is final buff with mirror swirl remover polish compound. 2nd pic: first cut with buffer 3m cutting compound 3rd pic: 2nd cut 4th pic: 3rd cut 5th pic: 4th cut 6th and last pic: 5th cut with swirl remover polish Took about 5 or so hours to buff I start with top sections and work my way down. I used a mix of 3m and meguiar compounds. Wool pad for cutting and a foam pad for polish. Used a borrowed 8 inch electric buffer. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Sanded it down, working on buffing it out! Literally! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

11 hours total to paint the bed! Got a few 10 min cat naps in-between coats. The base coat flashed and layed down really well. Then when we started clear it got humid outside, so it orange peeled more than I was hoping. 4 coats of base coat green and 5 coats of clear. Thanks to my brother-in-law for all the help and pulling an all dayer to get it painted (He works nights). Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

One more coat of clear and it's done! Been a very long day! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Took me about 4 hours to "block the bed". Gotta be awake in less than 3 hours from now. Why you ask do I have to start painting at 5a.m. well the answer is because my brother-in-law who is helping me works nights, so as soon as he gets off work, we paint! Or really he paints as I watch/sleep! Will update with better pics of a painted bed later today! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

First photo is the cheap clear I had bought, my brother in law said no to the acrylic type clear and I had to go buy more expensive clear! Blablabla! Yesterday I also sandblasted the bed side supports and primed them in black and bought all new bolts to mount them. Of course it took 3 hours to do because everyone knows it's the little things that take forever and the sandblaster needed new hoses cause its old and yadayadayada! You can see where I missed spraying primer on the bottom of the bed sides. Not a big deal since I have to do some bodywork touch-ups and I'm also going to spray another coat of primer on tonight. Tomorrow morning at about 5 a.m. the color painting shall begin. I may post my progress later tonight! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Bought 3 quarts of base coat and 1 gallon of clear today. I gotta finish welding in the passenger cab corner which was a real pita of course. Hate metal work! Absolutely!! Got my truck bed moved to the other shop where I'm going to do all the painting. Didn't get any photos cause well, it was heavy and pics was last thing on my mind. Tomorrow I will do some minor last touch-ups to the body work on the bed and re-prime those areas. Then I'm going to block out the bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day. So come Wednesday, hell or high water I will be painting the truck bed! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

*tomorrow, my phone isn't so smart after all! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

I finally got the rocker welded in, well mostly, Still gotta weld the bottom to the inner rocker. As you can see I had to do quite a bit of shaping and hammering and bending. But it's in! I am not happy about the quality of of this new rocker. But from what I have researched, I got pretty much the only aftermarket rockers that can be had besides specialty places for lots of money. The cab corner of course fits like crap. That's a whole other issue and tommorow problem. Moving the bed tommorow as long as it doesn't rain and should finish up last of body work on it. I'm thinking the bed will be painted by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Depends on how long it takes to block out the primer, plus I gotta spray primer over the new body work I have yet to do. As always, I'm getting burnt out on this project! #whiskey Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

The outer rocker panel has been a real chore to get to fit correctly. I cut the seams perfectly but the front door would not close to the rear sucide door. So I finally got it adjusted and had to put in a small spacer about the thickness of a credit card on the striker. I used washers but will cut out an old credit card to fit behind the striker. It already has a plastic spacer from the factory on it so I think the credit card will be better than a metal washer that will eventually rust. In the last pic you can see how well the rocker fits to the door sill. Gunna be a lot of hammering and shaping going on tomorrow. Also I'm still out of welding gas "lol" "hehe" I also enlisted the help of my brother in law who is a welder by trade and fixes up old Harley Davidson motorcycles in his spare time. He changed the settings on my welder and gave me one of his spare welding helmets, wow what a difference a $500 welding helmet makes. I need to throw my $50 Amazon one away! Mine looks cooler still though! My brother in law is also going to take my truck bed to my grandpa's shop and paint it for me using his expensive (don't quote me on this but I think it's a "Proline" ) hvlp spray gun and equipment while I finish up the work on the truck. I have some borrowed spray guns that are inferior to his equipment. So cheers to him helping me out! As always, beer before liquor, you'll never be sicker, liquor before beer, your in the clear! Cheers! (P.S. I'm American it just writes better to use our across the pond brethrens wording and say cheers!) Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

So maybe I had a little gas left for the welder. Anyhow its all gone now. Welded on bracket and rewired and then slammed the truck hitch on. I threw on some quick spray paint. I'll probably repaint it in future, or probably not! Maybe with more spray paint! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

The place I get argon for my welder is still out. Small town problems! So I've been doing some other stuff. New bleeder valves and rubber lines for the front calipers. Did both sides even though I only need to do the driver side. You can see how I almost crushed the old bleeder valve with the vise grips getting that sucker out. Let's just say it was a scary 2 minutes. My rear diff has been leaking and I never got around to looking at it. It was only like a drop or 2 a day. Anyhow it was just me not making sure the drain plug was tight. Pretty dumb mistake on my part but thank sweet baby Jesus that's all it was! I also installed the rear bumper and was getting ready to put on my tow hitch when I remembered that it doesn't have the bracket for the trailer lights. This is not the original to the truck. I got this at a pick a part place in Florida for $20 or $30 bucks and it didn't have a lick of rust on it. I also took the bolts for it with me since I cut the old ones when I removed the old hitch. Someone cut the bracket off for who knows what reason but I didn't care at the time. I have also decided that I should probably redo the rigged wiring job that I'm guessing my father did when he owned the truck. I also finally hooked up the e brake cables which was of course a pita. Oh and the gas tank is finally back in the correct way and not just ratchet strapped on as I had it previously. As always, sorry not sorry as I'm a bit mad that I can't finish the rockers!!! Probably go steal my grandpa's gas off his welder, he'll never notice! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Ran out of argon once again. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the correct 75/25 and a big tank instead of the little small guy in last pic. Anyhow I decided to work smarter not harder and used the old outer rocker I cut off as a guide to cut the new one. It fits almost perfect! The rear of the rocker I didn't cut out in one piece, so I used some masking tape and guessed! It also came out perfect. I'm honestly in disbelief that I got the rocker cut on the first try and didn't have to do any grinding or trimming. You'd think I've done this before or something. Anyhow yesterday I discovered that my left front bleeder valve is stripped beyond all belief. I got some vice grips on it and it turned! I haven't tried to remove it but I'm hoping I can get it out and just put a new one on instead of putting a new caliper on. I'm guessing if I do one side only it will throw off the brakes and make me need to replace both. I'm trying to hold off on replacing the calipers as I want to put some 18 inch rims on my truck and upgrade to the 2005 and newer calipers that a bigger! I did put the gas tank in and the battery back on. Truck started right up! Anyone know of any way to cheat the abs module into cycling so I can bleed my brakes properly without paying someone to do it with a tech 2 scanner? As always sorry for the essay and plz help if ya know of a way to bleed brakes besides removing the ground wire for the abs module from the frame. That doesn't seem like a good idea to me! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

The passenger side is now ready for the new stuff! It took a lot of drilling and chiseling and hammering to get to this point. The door sill trim brackets have completely rusted. It caused some surface rust on the inside floor panel but its really not a big deal. One bracket is so rusted idk if I'll be able to save it. Just more time consuming crap to add to the list. My deadline is coming up quick! Was hoping to have truck completely painted by this weekend. It is still doable but I'm gunna have a lot of long nights. Plus I still have to put it all back together. I've got my nephew tomorrow so I won't be doing much, I may have him help me bleed the brakes followed by lots of Xbox games as a reward. He's 9, is that old enough for call of duty? Haha jkjk he likes NASCAR and Forza. I did let him play Halo once in a little one on one, little bugger was actually good! As always, why am I apologising again? Oh yeah for those few who actually read my rambles haha. Pics are for people in a hurry! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Passenger side was off to a great start. I cut out the cab corner and missed all the stuffing by like and inch or two which was lucky. Then the outer rocker was drilling and separating easily. I decided to cut it off before the front section cause it's actually in good shape up there. I might try cutting it out a bit further up and see if I can salvage the front. Then I discovered that there are basically 2 inner rockers. As to why that is, is beyond me. I guess it gives the rocker a bit more strength since there is no pillar. But I can't even find a new panel to replace it with, so i will not be trying to save or install a new "middle rocker. Other than that, it's going quickly considering I started the day doing some final touch ups with the welder on the driver side. As to the reason I want to try and salvage the front section basically is because the front of the rocker was a real pita on driver side and I won't have to worry about lining it all up with the front fender as well as the doors. Like Srsly! It was not fun trimming the outer rocker on driver side, but I imagine I'll get into it and ultimately decide to tear it out. As always, I hope y'all didn't fall asleep reading this! Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk