Gettin' the interior floorpans stripped down [LG. PICS]

[FORDification]

Just thought I'd post a couple pictures of what I've been up to the past couple evenings. Normally I don't get to spend any time at the shop in the evenings, because of family obligations. However, Monday night and tonight I was free, so I spent all night both nights getting the interior floorpans ready for a coat of POR-15. (I'm covered in paint dust, haven't even hit the showers yet.) Got a couple small areas that'll need touched up by hand, and then I'll be ready to go. In addition to the floorpans, I also got the door-jambs stripped, since I'm going to coat them at the same time.







Well, I'm off to the showers! I'm tired and sore but I'm pleased with the progress I was able to make the past couple evenings.

[campfire67]

very good progress

[shrektruck]

Man Kieth! Those things look so sweet all cleaned up like that you should consider clearcoating them to show off all the effort!
LOOKIN GOOD!

[dcbullet]

Man you really know how to strip!!

[dotcentral]

Looks good. After the POR are you going to do any sort of taped on or roll on insulation or just paint and when the time caomes, carpet or floor mat?

[OLEYELLERTRUCK]

Looks good! Looks like a really nice cab also.

[FORDification]

Looks good. After the POR are you going to do any sort of taped on or roll on insulation or just paint and when the time comes, carpet or floor mat?

Oh yes, I'll definitely be installing some sound deadener / heat insulator material under the carpet. I've got some stuff that should work just fine.

[dablack00]

what tools are you useing to strip the floors like that. I'm about to do my 68 cougar and 71 SWB at the same time.

thanks
Austin

[FORDification]

This is it. The majority of the cleaning gets done with the blue composite wheel on the right. I'm completely amazed at how well these things actually work, stripping off the paint and primer down to bare metal without damaging the metal. Once I've gotten everywhere I can reach with the composite wheel, I then get started with the wire wheel that's mounted on the angle grinder in the pic above. Not quite as fast, but you can get into a lot of nooks and crannies. The few places (very sharp bends) that neither of these can get into are at least roughed up with the drill and it's attachment, since the drill doesn't generate enough speed to really strip the paint. After that, it's manual labor....sandpaper and my fingers.

I'd estimate I have about 10-12 hours time invested into stripping the interior floorpans and door-jambs.

[dduude]

Looks good you can be proud ...Dude

[dotcentral]

Keith, what are you going to do with the brackets that hold the dome lite switch? I can't decide if I should paint mine or bust the rust and paint them to look like bare metal. Mine look like they came bare from the factory, but have some surface ruct on them. Not sure if they will look right painted.

[flyboy2610]

That looks good, Keith!
You're really coming along on your truck!

[FORDification]

Keith, what are you going to do with the brackets that hold the dome lite switch? I can't decide if I should paint mine or bust the rust and paint them to look like bare metal. Mine look like they came bare from the factory, but have some surface ruct on them. Not sure if they will look right painted.

You know, I'm not much of a planner.....that is, many of the decisions I make are made on the fly, done as I'm working on it. However, at the moment I think I'll probably paint them to match the door-jambs, so they'll tend to be less visible. It's also possible that I'll be picking up a can of Eastwood's Silver Cad aerosol, so that I can do those brackets and several underhood items to look kinda like the factory pieces.

[dablack00]

Ok, now for the tough question. Why grinding instead of sand blasting? I'm sure both make a mess.

[FORDification]

Hmmm....well:

1) The cab is already bolted down to the frame. I didn't want the hassle of trying to move it around and into the sandblast booth.

2) I wouldn't want to blast it while it's on the frame, because of the possibility of damage to already-painted components.

3) Sandblasting makes a HECK of a mess, much more so than a little bit of paint dust caused from grinding/sanding. The cleanup from grinding/sanding is limited to blowing off some dust with the air hose. If I were to blast this, I'd have had to construct a booth around the whole truck to contain the sand and dust.

4) When sandblasting, you only get a 10-minute work window, after which you have to shut everything down, peel off your protective gear and blow it off, then sweep up all the sand and strain it into a barrel to remove the garbage, then funnel it back into sandblaster, get back into your protective gear, drain the moisture out of the sandblaster, and then get back to work for another 10 minutes. I figure for every 10 minutes worth of blasting, there's at least 20-25 minutes of make-ready.

If there had been any rust, I most certainly would have sandblasted. However, since the cab was in good shape and all that needed to be removed was paint/primer, I figure I actually saved time (and wear/tear on the sandblaster and air compressor) by just sanding it off.