July 3, 2005 - I decided to take advantage of the 3-day holiday weekend to do something I've been needing to do for some time....finish up with the bottom of the cab so I could go ahead and get it bolted down for the last time. I figured I'd need two consecutive days to do this....one to prep the cab floor with MetalReady (in anticipation of the final application of POR-15) and getting it rinsed off. I figured with all the nooks and crannies in the floor, I'd better let it set overnight to completely dry off. Since having two days in a row to myself to spend in the shop is pretty rare around here, I haven't done anything on the truck for a while now.

I hit the shop a little after 10AM this morning ready to get started. I started off by getting a tarp laid down under the cab, to protect the frame and chassis components from the cleaning debris. I then rolled it out into the driveway, where I could hose it down later. In the past, when applying MetalReady, I simply used a foam brush. However, this got kind of tedious, so I decided to use a spray-bottle instead. According to the directions, I had to keep the metal wet for 15 minutes, but since the temperatures here were in the mid-90's, and considering the large area I needed to treat, it would have just dried out too fast. The spray bottle definitely made this go a lot faster and easier. After letting it set and do it's thing, I rinsed the MetalReady off with the hose and left to dry.

I then got to work on the inner fenderwells. They were already completely sandblasted and ready to go. I was originally intending on getting these powdercoated, and was told by them last Fall that their commercial sandblaster would probably warp these, so I had to do them myself. Then when I talked to the powdercoaters about 2 weeks ago to set up an appointment to drop these off, I was told that they were swamped for most of the summer and wouldn't be able to get me in until late Fall. Since I didn't want to wait that long, I decided to just POR-15 them instead.

Since the fenderwells would dry much faster than the cab bottom, I figured I'd go ahead and get them completely finished off today. Several weeks ago I'd ordered some supplies from POR-15 and from Eastwood. One of the Eastwood items was an aerosol can of their 'Rust Encapsulator', which is their own version of POR-15. I wanted to do a little comparison. The can said it would cover 10 square feet. It was just barely enough to spray the top side of both inner fenderwells with a single thin coat. Since I wanted a little more protection on there, and wasn't going to wait for another can, the second, third and fourth top coats were with the Krylon semi-flat.

I then went back to check on the cab bottom. Because of the high temps, it was already almost dry, except for the nooks and crannies still holding some moisture. I used compressed air to blow these areas out to speed up the drying process, and then spent some time tinkering on a few other things while I was waiting. I checked back in about an hour to find that the cab was 100% dry....and since it was only mid-afternoon at this point, I decided to bite and bullet and get started applying the POR-15.

It's recommended that this stuff be applied in several thin coats. However, because of the square footage I had to cover, and due to the fact that it was very humid today which speeds up the drying process, I found that it was drying too fast. I wouldn't be able to completely finish one coat before it was completely dry, meaning I wouldn't be able to apply a second coat, since additional coats need to be applied while the first is still tacky. Therefore, I ended up going with a single slightly-thicker coat. I just hope the surface prep will be adequate...I think it'll be OK.

I also found out that although I ordered the semi-gloss POR-15 (or so I thought), I was sent 2 quarts of the gloss. I didn't realize this until later, since the semi-gloss is glossy when applied but then dulls as it's drying. However, I noticed this time it didn't seem to be dulling....but obviously by this time I was almost done, and it was too late to do anything about it. Therefore, the bottom of the cab is definitely gonna be very shiny!

I then went ahead and coated the bottom side of each inner fender and the firewall mounting brackets with the POR-15. One idea that I came up with after I was almost done today was to try attempting applying the POR-15 with a squirt bottle. It's actually thin enough that this might be a quicker application method. However, I only had one squirt bottle and wasn't curious enough to make a special trip to the store for another. However, I AM going to be picking up a few more, just so I can try it out and see how that works.

Fig. 8 - Here's a view of the finished inner fenderwells. The one in the foreground is showing the glossy POR-15 bottom side, the one in the background is showing the top side with the semi-flat Krylon.	Fig. 9 - ...and one more view of the finished product. Yes, this picture was taken when the POR-15 was completely dry. I pushed the chassis back into the shop to let it finish curing overnight, and I'll be headed back in the morning to get started getting the cab bolted down for the final time. Then I'll be getting started on the interior floorpans.
		Fig. 10 - I was getting some bugs stuck in the fresh POR-15 and attempted to take a close-up picture of one. When reviewing the pictures on the digital camera, I saw it didn't turn out, but I notice there was a heck of a reflection, so I snapped this pic for the heck of it. (See that image in the upper right corner? Is that the Virgin Mary or the Grim Reaper???)

Fig. 1 - The cab is ready to go.

Fig. 2 - Here's the MetalReady and the spray bottle used to apply it.

Fig. 3 - This shows the MetalReady soaking the bare sheetmetal. Gotta keep it wet for 15 minutes and then rinse it off.

Fig. 4 - Here's a shot of the flash rust that appeared almost immediately after rinsing.

Fig. 5 - Here are the two inner fenderwells soaking in MetalReady.

Fig. 6 - Here is the top of the R/S inner fenderwell with a coat of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator. It went on smooth and dries to a semi-gloss finish.

Fig. 7 - ...and here's the finished cab bottom. Looks pretty good...except that it's not the semi-gloss I wanted.

Fig. 11 - Since this cab's original cab bushings only had 28K miles on them, they were still in good enough shape to reuse.

Fig. 12 - Dropped the fuel tank and got the left rear cab mount installed. Here I'm doing the right side.

Fig. 13 - Here you can see the LMC reproduction front mount bushing set. The center tube is too long and had to be trimmed.

Fig. 14 - Here is one front cab mount installed with the reproduction bushing.

July 4, 2005 - First of all, I'd like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!

I didn't have a lot of time to spend at the shop today, due to family holiday plans, but I was able to get the cab mounted, at least.  It's not tightened down completely though. I won't do that until the front sheetmetal gets mounted, since I'm sure I'll have to jockey the cab around a little to get everything properly aligned. One thing I neglected to notice when I was assembling the auxiliary fuel tank setup is that once the tank is mounted, it blocks access to the rear cab mount, so I ended up having to completely remove everything to get the left-rear mount installed.

Some time ago I'd purchased a full set of cab and radiator mount bushings from LMC, but since the truck that donated it's cab for this project was a low-mileage unit, the rear cab mount bushings were still in great shape, so they got reused. I did have to use the reproduction set for the front mounts, however. One thing I noticed when installing them though, was that the center tube was a bit too long. The mount would not have cinched up adequately, so I ended up having to cut a good 3/16" off each tube. In Fig. 13 you can see the amount the tube protrudes, when it actually should be about the same amount short. For this photo I included the piece I cut off the other bushing set's tube, so you can see how much needed to be removed.

There are a set of square metal hold-down plates for the rear mounts that are located inside the cab. Trucks equipped with in-cab tanks have different plates than those equipped with the in-cab stowage compartment, which is what I'm planning on installing. However, when I retrieved the stowage compartment from the salvage yard, I didn't have the necessary tools to get both plates. I do have one, but I'll have to return to the salvage yard to get the other before I tighten the cab mount bolts down 100%. In the meantime I went ahead and installed a standard plate.

Well, that's about it. Next on the agenda is to finish stripping the interior floorpans and the upper firewall in preparation for the POR-15. I'll be using the second of two quarts of the gloss that I recently got, but I'll be misting several coats of semi-flat Krylon over the top of it on the firewall, so it'll match the inner fenderwells a little better.

Stay tuned!

Fig. 15 - Ta-da! The cab is now bolted down for the last time! I think it's looking pretty good, too.	Fig. 16 - Since this is the last time the truck will be this clean for a while, I rolled it outside for a few pics.	Fig. 17 - Next on the to-do list is the interior floorpans. You can see in this shot that I've gotten started getting them cleaned up.