August 9, 2012 - I got started on finishing the bodywork on my truck that I'd started on four years ago. The truck had picked up some surface rust on the bare sheetmetal while it was in storage...fortunately it wasn't serious and just needed a light sanding to clean it up. The cab, fenders and hood were already 95% done and would just need some minor touchups before being ready for paint, but the box needed a bit more work.

This box is the one that came with the choptop truck project. While it's the best one I've found of the 4-5 I've picked up over the years, it's still got some issues. The besides and underside are OK...as in 'useable'...but they've got dings and dents that'll need to be addressed. The bed floor is another story. The floor supports are in great shape, and the whole underside has been coated with POR-15. However, it's got one rip in the floor, as well as some shoddy rust repair on the corners by the previous owner...but I've decided that for a shop truck, it'll be OK. On the outside, I'm going to tap out the dents I can, fill the ones I can't and be done with it. It won't be perfect, but it'll be presentable. As for the bed floor, I'm just going to roll in some bedliner to seal and cover it up and be done with that as well. I might also find a drop-in bedliner to further clean up the overall appearance of the inside of the box.

I'd done most of the exterior repairs four years ago and it was looking pretty decent, but since this box was originally destined to be used on my choptop 'ratrod', I coated the entire exterior with POR-15 and then some rattlecan flat black. That all needed to be sanded off. In the process of sanding it off, I chewed up most of the body filler, so essentially I had to start over on all exterior bodywork on the box.

Fig. 01 - I picked up this set of five vintage 15x8 aluminum slot rims for $200 off Craigslist a couple days ago. One has a few dents caused from someone prying on it with a tire iron, but will still make a great matching spare. These will look great once they're polished up!	Fig. 02 - This is essentially the 'before' shot, showing what the truck looks like as pulled from storage; lots of patches of surface rust, and the box done but coated with POR-15 and rattlecan black...which will have to be removed.	Fig. 03 - This shows the paint on the bed cleaned off. It took me about 3 hours with a couple 3M Clean-n-Strip discs, a wire wheel in the angle grinder and some sandpaper. I dug into the existing body filler, so that'll all need redone.
Fig. 04 - The body filler has been applied to the areas that need it and is drying.	Fig. 05 - I spent many hours sanding down this side. I then hit it with some rattlecan primer, which will fill a majority of the sanding scratches, and be make it easier to see any others that need further work.

August 16, 2012 - I've spent the last week working on and off the sanding down the filler in the bed, then reapplying as necessary and resanding....then repeat, and repeat. I'm not seeking perfection here, but I'm going to be painting this truck black (Blitz Black, to be specific...more on that later), so a black 'presentable' means more work than a lighter-color 'presentable'. Anyway, I now have the bodywork 99.9% done...and it's ready for primer.

I masked off the engine bay area to keep overspray off the engine. I got a bundle of throwaway newspapers from the local weekly newspaper printer to use as masking material, and thought it was pretty cool to find that the ones I was using were from the week that my newest son Wes had his birth announcement printed.

August 17, 2012 - The first coat of primer is on!

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Fig. 10

After the primer was applied, I was able to see some areas that needed a little finer touch-ups with the glazing putty, to cover deeper sanding scratches or pinholes in the filler, so that was applied (Fig. 10). I was able to get the right side done before calling it a night. The weather forecast is calling for a 50% chance of rain tomorrow, so I'm going to be crossing my fingers and hoping they're wrong. I'd really like to be able to finish sanding down the left side, wiping the whole truck down, and then hitting it with a second coat of primer tomorrow.