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. 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!