"Rocky" - 1981 F250 Restoration

[Gary Lewis]

That seems like a good plan. And should give a decent finish.

[taskswap]

A little progress the past few days. Starting to get warmer weather here. Actually the big challenge is that when it does get warm, it can sometimes spike way up there and be almost too HOT to paint. But I managed to get a few paint steps done on the driver's side:

1. Wire-brushed/flap-disked all rust.

2. Bondo-filled all "major holes" (until I get better at welding thin sheet metal, this is my only real option) and "minor dents" (I filled small dents but left the big ones as "patina" or whatever you want to call it).

3. Wet sanded to 240 grit.

4. Applied glazing compound to the entire surface.

5. Wet sanded to 320 grit. I've never used glazing compound before, this stuff is a game-changer. The small pinholes and other defects it fills are just amazing. Previously I'd dealt with these with alternating coats of high-build primer and wet-sanding, but the glazing was way faster.

6. Applied 2 coats of white to the center band. I had a change of heart on being all red. I'd bought that white paint already, why not see how it goes? If it looks good I can just redo the center of the passenger side to match it. (I didn't mask it because I'll mask for the top/bottom when I apply the red).

The pic doesn't do it justice. To be honest the white looks so good I almost wish I'd gone all-white. You don't see the minor defects as much, and it seems to be a higher quality paint. For reference, I have Rustoleum High Performance Enamel for the white and Rustoleum Stops Rust for the red. The "high performance" product is much less susceptible to runs and drips, although it seems to come out more spotty so overspray is more of a problem.

I wet-sanded the color coat to 320 grit mostly to address two or three runs, not bad for a rattle-can run on the entire side. Tomorrow I'll apply a final color coat and if the weather (wind) allows, the first of 2-3 clear coats.

[Gary Lewis]

That really does look good.    I think I'm sold on the all white, but white and red will look good as well.  However, is that red a "finish" type of paint?

[taskswap]

Waaaaeeeellllll the can says it is :) I've got experience now with 5-6 different brands and "models" of paints and I'd have to say the red is probably at the low end. In a future project I want to get into better paint gear and products, but for Rocky... this'll do for Frostbite Falls Minnesota if you know what I mean!

I didn't get a good pic yet but I've started masking now for the red. I hit all the straight lines already but I'm still waiting for my "automotive curves" tape to arrive. I'm not known for my patience, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Where I'm masking, I'm re-applying a coat of white on the edge-to-be-painted side to seal it so nothing bleeds under. I think I'm more or less doing things "right" by the books, just maybe not always with the best gear, environment, or experience. It's fun though...

My next "project" on Rocky will still be the front winch mount, I'm just dealing with the weather. Since I can't pick it, if it sun's up and the wind is down, I'm painting and nothing else. I only get so many days of that here in early spring...

[Gary Lewis]

I think you'll be fine in Frostbite Falls, but maybe not in Moosylvania.

Anyway, keep on keeping on.  I'm anxious to see how it comes out.

[rcarlisle]

I can't wait to see the two tone version.   I absolutely love the 2 tones from back then.   I wanted to do that to mine, but am finding I barely have the patience to do the top of mine back in this crappy blue.   And I'm using Rusto 2x navy blue that matches what looks to be an Earl Scheib type paint job.   BUt it's ok, if my paint isn't perfect, I'l probably sand through to the primer some on purpose on mine. I just needed to stop the top from rusting.  Or at least slow it down.

I went to buy some touch up paint at Advance and it's like $17/can now - up $6? can in a year?  and doubled in just a few years?  I don't think so.  I'll roll it with leftover paint here at work first.  

I don't care how you're doing it, you truck is looking pretty dang good.

[taskswap]

Thanks guys. Encouragement is always appreciated! I didn't do more over the weekend because I'm behind on a work project, and didn't have any tape flexible enough to line out the curves I want on the bottoms of the body panels around the wheel wells. That should come today.

I would say for the money, rattle-canning this hasn't gone too badly. The real loss isn't the cost of all the cans, it's the time. Especially on vertical surfaces you need to apply very thin coats to prevent drips/runs, and I'm finding I often need:

1. Apply two coats of primer (one to level/fill any final scratches I missed when glazing, then wet-sand that to 240 grit and apply one more to any slight bumps where the sanding exposed metal again).

2. Apply at least three coats of color: two to get a good base with no primer showing through, which I try to do on the same day so I can hit the second coat while the first is still not cured, to skip a sanding step. Then wet sand to hit any imperfections/orange peel and apply one final coat to get a nice color surface.

3. Apply three coats of clear-coat, same way as #2.

4. Wet-sand to 1500 grit then polish with polishing compound.

It's all actually really easy, but it takes a lot of time to do well. I've been pretty good about filling small imperfections and the glazing compound helps a lot too at getting a nice surface. But I don't always have the patience to make the surface perfect.

It sounds like it would be fine, right? It's just a hunt truck, who cares if there's a bump somewhere. But actually bumps don't just add imperfections. They add time. What happens is when you block off the primer coat, if there's even a tiny bump somewhere it becomes a high spot so you sand right through the primer and have to add a coat. If there's even a tiny dent, the block won't get in there and you have to hand-sand those spots carefully. It's not a big deal but did add a lot of time.

For my next project I really want to try a "single stage" product, like the epoxy paints. There's a guy that makes vehicle-based projects like mobile pizza food trucks who has a good video series on this. The results are pretty impressive:

https://youtu.be/CkrZXyim5_Q?t=442
https://youtu.be/bLVKWDKRzc4?t=706

It takes a bit to invest in the right gear but I think it's worth it in the time you save. For the type of stuff I do, I usually just want a "better than average" output. I don't need showroom quality, but also want it to be "better than motel lawn furniture" without spending 20 hours of prep and process.

[taskswap]

Some mistakes were made. I have a few spots where I didn't quite mask carefully enough and got some red overspray in the white. I also have a few small areas where the tape pulled up some small paint chips. I'll fix those over the weekend, then wet-sand it before clear-coating. Despite the boo-boos I think it looks fantastic, I love the two tone effect. I can't wait to finish this to get it driving again!

[Gsmblue]

Ummm… can you come and paint mine too please!

[Gary Lewis]

It is looking great!  And I agree, maybe Big Blue needs your help.  

[taskswap]

I've been kind of quiet lately but I haven't been idle, just mostly messing with small tasks and not actually finishing anything. I figured I'd share a status update for the curious.

Right now Rocky is driveable but his role has changed. The original plan was for him to be "the back-woods hunt truck I don't mind scratching," but now that I've swapped campers the new setup fits the RAM better, and that was always my long-distance driver anyway. It has little details like air conditioning and 4WD that make it a better long-distance driver for camping. :)  

But now Rocky has another purpose. I don't actually like driving the RAM around town because it's so bulky in a parking lot, takes awhile to warm up, etc. So Rocky is turning into my "daily driver", and it's a lot of fun for that. That means I've adjusted my priorities a bit. For instance I still want to install a front winch at some point, but it moved down the list a ways. Here's "what's next" for me to improve the general drivability:

1. The heater is just going crazy. I know installing a shutoff/bypass valve on the heater core is a common mod, and I'll do that. But I also want to look into my fans/push-pull controls because nothing I do seems to change it - temp slider, air-direction control, nada.

2. Rocky is all over the road, so I'm definitely going to do the power steering box plus probably some new tie rod ends and whatnot and an alignment once all that is done.

3. The parking brake is somewhat functional now but still not great. I need to adjust it some more.

4. Shifting is... not great. I already replaced the shifter-cane alignment pin, which helped, but the shifter forks feel crunchy and the 2nd and reverse gear "gates" are hard to find. It's also "quiet and well behaved" in 4th but loud and gravelly in 2nd so I figure a rebuild is in my future. I just haven't decided if I want to tackle this myself or have it done.

5. Persistent oil leak. Just a drip a day, nothing major, but annoying enough to be worth some time. I threw a bottle of Stop-Leak into it last night just because why not, but I may also hit some common/easy items like the cylinder cover gaskets and whatnot. (I have them, why not install them?)

6. Finish the painting. To be honest I kind of hit my "good enough" saturation point here, from afar it looks pretty nice but up close it's blotchy and there are noticeable areas where I didn't do enough sanding. But family and friends unanimously prefer the red/white over the solid red so I need to add a stripe to the side where I didn't do that. I also have some roll-on Herculiner bed liner to apply.

7. Do something about the rear gas tank.

8. Do something about the front gas tank sender. I've thought this truck was near E since I bought it, but after nearly overflowing the filler after adding only 7 gallons at the station, I now believe my sender is reading wrong. I have a replacement to install, I was just dragging my feet because it seems like a pain. :)

Hope y'all are having a great spring.

[FuzzFace2]

I think Rocky will like being driven more once the little list things are fixed.
Keep at it and before you know it will be done.
Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

It is fun driving these old trucks, but there are usually so many layers to peel to get down to the good that many people never really get there.  But I think with your persistence you will.  

The heater does sound like a bit of a problem, and just a shutoff valve probably isn't going to suffice from what you've described.  Perhaps the temp cable is broken?

Anyway, you'll get there, and will have a truck that you really love.  

[taskswap]

Hey guys, reviving this thread. We're getting into the phase I actually purchased the truck for - to be a "project" truck, but a mostly driveable one. With the price of diesel these days (and for fun) I've actually been driving Rocky quite a bit lately. That means I haven't been working on it much, so I've been quiet.

But the steering is becoming a big problem. I really want to teach my middle sons to drive stick in it, and I just don't feel it's safe for them right now. It wanders all over the road, and needs constant correction to stay straight. I know I need an alignment, but before I bother with that I may as well go whole-hog on the steering system in general.

Do you guys have any suggestions on things to add to this list / components to replace? Most of these steering components are pretty cheap and are easier to do while everything is apart rather than one-by-one. So I figured maybe I would just take a weekend and tear the whole thing down and replace literally as much as I can all at once...

Things I already replaced:
1. Front/rear shocks
2. Front coil springs
3. Coil spring "seats" (bottom pads)

Things I've either already bought or plan to buy shortly:
1. Gearbox (Blue Top).
2. Front axle bearings
3. Axle pivot bushings
4. Tie rod ends
5. Adjuster sleeves
6. Pressure hoses

Is it worth replacing anything else? Drag link? Cooler line? Pitman arm? I don't want to add to the landfill replacing something that never has issues in the first place (stuff that only breaks in accidents, like the radius arms - mine are fine). But this truck has been heavily used. Anything in the "this might be worn, inspect it before reusing" category almost certainly DOES need replacement by now. The only exception is the radius arm bushings, which were replaced recently. Everything else is 40 years old and definitely worn out.

[Pete Whitstone]

taskswap wrote

Is it worth replacing anything else?

The drag link does have a ball joint in it, so it would be worth at least checking. The other thing that made a big difference on my truck was the rag joint, I didn't see that anywhere on your lists.

I am told that the column itself can become "loose" and get play in it. My truck did not seem to be that way. Setting the toe, replacing the rag joint, and replacing the steering gear box pretty much addressed all my issues.

[taskswap]

What is the rag joint? Is that in the steering column? I know people have talking about replacing whole columns before as part of this...

[ArdWrknTrk]

The rubber joint where the steering shaft meets the sector box.

[Gary Lewis]

I think you have a good list, but agree that anything that moves and wears should be suspect as well.  But I'm not sure the hoses qualify.  Still, when the system is apart is the time to replace anything like that, so it won't hurt.

[taskswap]

Alright so I obviously haven't gotten to the steering yet. Summers are tight for personal projects - we camp almost every weekend which takes time and money away from other projects (but for a good cause). So I was kicking around "what else can I do" and figured the fuel system would be a good thing to target. I have all the parts already.

My front sender "sort of" works - it reads about half the tank's range. (Reads E when tank is E, reads 1/2 when tank is full.) I already have the sender for it, but is there any way to replace this without dropping the tank? I've got like 14 gallons of fuel in there and nowhere to put it.

My rear tank has had no filler neck (the whole tube was removed) so I figured whatever was in there was trash. I have a new tank already, but the PO welded in a rear receiver under the tank so I can't do the swap without grinding that off.

So all that's stopping me is fear factor. I know they make non-sparking grinder discs but I can't seem to find any that are reasonably priced so I'm thinking of just trying to shield the area with wood and cloth to keep sparks from being thrown forward... I could fill the tank with water but then I'd have to dispose of 20 gallons of contaminated water. Sand would make it too heavy. So yeah anyway I don't know if there's a standard answer for this but that's where I am.

[Gary Lewis]

I have been successful lowering the front tank enough to get the sender out by using ratchet straps and by just unthreading the all-threads that holds the ends of the straps together.  And IIRC I put a piece of plywood under the tank and then my floor jack under that.  But it is scary to work under there with all that gasoline evaporating right there in front of you.  

On the rear tank, I think if the sender is in and you cap the filler neck and the vent you should be find grinding.  But I'd do as you suggested and shield things.