SkinnyG's '61 Chevy Apache 10

Repair area blasted and primed:

Not really motivated in the shop today. 

Letting epoxy cure further before welding.  Tidied a bit. I played around with some tubing and I think I have a decent plan for the panhard.

Welded in, and I got to experiment with the "shrinking disc" I picked up - they are, indeed, magic.  I likely won't spend a lot of time making this area perfect, absolutely zero people are ever going to see it (good place to experiment).

My son did some picture magic, and came up with this:

That's closing in on old BC Tel colours, or an homage to current Graham Construction colours.

Pops was Ministry of Transportation and Highways for YEARS.  Throw a black stripe between the colours, and you're there.

Kinda shocked me at first....

I finally snapped on the now 4-ish year old dishwasher I bought along with matching other kitchen appliances.  Name brand is similar to the "spiraling cesspool" of disappointment it has been since new.  I found the closest appliance store that could sell me a new Bosch and let me take it today.

The install went ok I guess.  Plumbing was different, which meant capping the old line and tapping into the sink. Wiring was different, which meant installing an outlet.

And somehow I must have banged it against the door knob of the house bringing it in, because I put a nice divot in the stainless skin.  I hammered it reasonably straight again, and put a "Berkeley this E36 M3" sticker over the defect.  I ordered a new skin.  

Only just sitting down now, at 8:47pm.

In the momentary meantime, I cut the grooves in the boards for the bed on the table saw at work:

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

I finally snapped on the now 4-ish year old dishwasher I bought along with matching other kitchen appliances.  Name brand is similar to the "spiraling cesspool" of disappointment it has been since new.  I found the closest appliance store that could sell me a new Bosch and let me take it today.

The install went ok I guess.  Plumbing was different, which meant capping the old line and tapping into the sink. Wiring was different, which meant installing an outlet.

And somehow I must have banged it against the door knob of the house bringing it in, because I put a nice divot in the stainless skin.  I hammered it reasonably straight again, and put a "Berkeley this E36 M3" sticker over the defect.  I ordered a new skin.  

Only just sitting down now, at 8:47pm.

Just last week replaced my Bosch Dwasher  of 25+years with another (800 series) after finding out that the 'brain' in the door was kaput and no longer available......but I could still order/receive the peripheral components that actuated the soap dispenser door. So approx $45 in unusable parts versus $1300 in the new Dwasher  and I'm good to go......probably will out live me.  

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

In the momentary meantime, I cut the grooves in the boards for the bed on the table saw at work:

Is that one of those saws with the hotdog sensor?

Yes.  I haven't yet gotten the courage to put my hot dog on it to try.  Certainly not with kids in the room.

I don't teach wood.  Wood is for sub boxes, wheel chocks, and protecting my drill press table.

Was intending to work on the hood today, but instead I placed all the freshly grooved bed boards in to see how they looked, and discovered I mis-estimated board spacing by 1/32" per side, and need to trim the end boards some more.  No matter.

Then I fired up the heat gun and scraped undercoating off the bed crossmembers, and fully welded the risers so I can do hidden bed-to-frame fasteners.

And my hands and wrists have been killing me lately, so it looks like I'm not going to get much done this weekend.

Grrr.

I ordered Trex decking from my local Home Depot.  The three 20' lengths arrived, except the forklift operator drove over them, chipping one and breaking another.

They ordered me two more 12' board to replace the two board lengths I needed, except while I said "non-grooved" what they ordered was "grooved."  Didn't think it mattered. 

But guess what - it does. The "grooved" Trex is thicker by about 1/16".  Which means the boards I placed at the ends are too thick, and I'll have to re-cut the 1/8" part of the grooves on the rest of the boards, as I referenced the end boards to make the last cuts, and the rest of the boards are thinner, so those cuts aren't deep enough.

And of course, nobody is at the "special order desk" until Monday.  Grrr.

Big box store comedy of errors.  Sounds fun.

I cut the thicker "grooved" Trex board down about 1/16" by setting the table blade height to "scary" and trying to avoid finger contact as I pushed the thicker boards through.

Just as a reference: Trex Select comes in 5.5" widths. I used seven boards at full width, and the end boards were cut to 3.5" wide.  This seemed to work fine, but you may want to do your own measurement.

The dark wood is a nice touch and something a bit different from the usual light stain/seal that a lot of wood beds seem to get.

The dark wood look is definitely a nice touch. 

Panhard mounts tacked in:

Finished the panhard, but I'm not happy with the side-to-side motion of the bar, with the front-to-rear motion of the truck arms.  Looks like binding to me.  So I'm going to cut it down and go spherical rod ends.

Scraping undercoating off in anticipation of hood repair:

I have to remove a large amount of undercoating, do you generally use heat or solvents? Or just mechanical removal?

If it's the pads that are stuck down under the carpet on the floors, I'd try the dry ice method:  Plop some dry ice down, it freezes and cracks off easy.  Alternatively, if it's cold where you are right now, put it outside overnight and try that.

This is aftermarket spray-on, and I'm using heat and putty knives.  It's 60 years old, and coming off pretty easy.  Absolutely everything is coated with it - the entire underside of everything.  I will use lacquer thinner to clean up later.

I think dissolving it with solvents would be the nastiest, grossest way to do that.

In reply to SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah its the old tar undercoat. I've using a wire brush on a grinder but I'll try some heat and a putty knife on the flat sections thanks.

I've removed quite a bit with a knotted wire wheel on an angle grinder.  Not really something you want near delicate sheet metal or clothing or fingers.

Spent some time learning the shrinking disc by dealing will the plethora of dents on the passenger side bed fender.