MoGas said:
Looks great.
A couple questions....
How did you address the flare mounting holes?
Did you re-use the black plastic trim pieces on the outside bottom of the window frames?
Dave
Hi Dave,
The flare holes... I unbolted everything I could reach and then just pulled off the flares. Drilled heads off of the rivets. All this didn't mess up the sheet metal like I sort of thought it would.
I then used fiberglass drywall patch mesh tape on the backs of every hole I could reach (probably 4 or 5 holes per side, total), and then used Devcon Plastic Steel Putty to cover up the front of the holes. Also used that stuff on the roof rack holes. I tried JB Weld at first, but it runs too much and just won't fill/cover the hole. I've used Devcon for years for bedding rifles and it's TOUGH. I'm almost certain it's harder than the sheet metal of this trucks body. Only potential problem I can see is if years of vibration, hot, cold, etc might cause it to crack. Only time will tell.
One thing about using some kind of putty or anything other than welding, is that you can't sand/grind the stuff down flush with the surrounding sheet metal or you end up with only the edges of the holes as contact points for the putty to stick to. I didn't think of that before I started sanding the stuff down after it hardened. So what I did was sand each "patch" smooth so the edges sort of tapered down around the hole. For example, a 1/4" diameter hole is covered by roughly a 1 square inch patch of the Devcon putty. So painting directly over that would look pretty bad.
I asked the guy at the body shop who was going to do the painting about covering up the patches and he suggested the 3M Rocker Panel Spray. That's about $30/can at NAPA and I got by with 3 cans, but 2 full cans per side would have been better. That stuff goes on with a texture almost like Line-X only much thinner (and cheaper) and can be painted over. It's also pretty tough stuff - I tried to sand the edges a little to sort of make the transition from smooth to rough a little more subtle and it's VERY hard to sand. It all looks good and if all this stuff holds up over the long haul, I'm plenty happy.
Here are a couple of shots that show the fenders where you can still see the patches a little bit under the 3M goop. If I'd have bought 4 cans instead of three, you would not likely be able to see any of them at all.
Oh yeah - Yes, the trim was reused and in some cases never removed at all. The only exception is the plastic "covers" on the rain gutters that I elected not to reinstall after the paint job.
I think I posted this before, but maybe in another thread - I did NOT do a full-blown 100% factory type paint job on this truck. I just had them pull the front bumper, mask off the windows etc and shoot paint on it. That's how I got out of the paint shop for only something like $350. So when you open the doors, hood, tailgate, etc the old 4K1 paint is still there. The new 464 paint is only on the part that rain hits. Actually, if I would have painted the truck 416 "Dune Beige", you would not likely even notice the difference between the outside and inside since both 416 and 4K1 have a lot more gray tint to them than 464 does.
It's not a "perfect" transformation, but I like it a lot better than it was before!
