Getting rid of the rust

[Gregturley]

Finally got done with the compound today. Buffed the hood and was not happy with it so i went at it with the DA some more, then buffed it again. Got rid of almost all the scratches and really starting to shine. 

 Went over the whole truck by hand with Mirror Glaze Show Car Glaze. Never used it before but it did shine it up even more. 

 Tomorrow is wax day. 

Driver side of hood. Old paint.

Truck was last washed about 1 1/2 years ago. Never waxed since the day it rolled off the lot. Had black crap growing on it when i bought it and when i started this it had gotten almost that bad again. Can't believe how easily the old dead paint came back to life. 

[Doubletrouble]

Looking good! 

[Gregturley]

I am surprised the old and fresh paint matches so well.

[Doubletrouble]

From the pics you can't tell it's been touched up. Everything looks uniform down the sides. She's looking real nice. 

 Good work!

[Gregturley]

Got done waxing it just as the rain started coming down. Got tired of looking at the faded eBay grille so i cleaned it up too.

Before:

 

Now:

[Gregturley]

Got the tailgate trim in today. Now i need to find time to do driver front door and I'll done with the body.

[Doubletrouble]

 I like the old school decal. Looks good on there.

[Gregturley]

Thank you. I wanted something different and always liked that style lettering. 

[Gregturley]

Got a bit sloppy with the compound and got it on my driver door handle pretty bad. This stuff is hard to remove from black plastic and makes it look really bad. 

 

A really easy way to get it clean is an eraser. Big pink eraser. Took less than 5 minutes to clean. I didn't use anything else on this.

 

Trim around tailgate handle is new but handle is original. Eraser also works well for wax residue. 

Even shined up the paint spot thats been on the handle since i got the truck.

[Doubletrouble]

Nice tip! I've had wax and compound get on those textured handles before, could never get it to come off. 

[Gregturley]

@Doubletrouble you're welcome. Seems too simple but it works.

[Mopar1973Man]

Another than cleans the plastic is 3,000 PSI power washer it will blow wax and compound out with 15° nozzle just mere seconds.

[Gregturley]

Never thought to try a pressure washer, but after all the sanding, buffing and hand waxing the whole damned truck i don't think i would have wanted to get it wet again. Have some spare handles i'll try that on.

[Gregturley]

Here's the rust bucket straight from the auction. Still sitting on my lot at work.

[Bullet]

That's a hell of a transformation and alot of work!  Much respect...

[Gregturley]

@Bullet thanks. I didn't realize how different it looks now till i ran across those pics in my phone. They don't show the black crud growing on it.

[beren]

Man I wish my trucked as good as your before pictures. I don’t even no where to start now it’s so bad. 

[Gregturley]

@beren thank you. Just start looking around for sheet metal and talk to local painters. I got lucky when i found the bed. $200, 20 minutes from home 1 owner truck that had an engine fire. Everything else had been sold already. Got 2 fenders and driver front door when we went on vacation to Florida, $200. Went to buy my Hummer wheels and the guy had a driver rear door for $100. Tailgate was $50 from Pull-A-Part. $1700 to paint all the loose parts, including my tonneau cover. Paid $2300 for the truck, have $2250 in paint and body that was spread out over 2 years. Still need to patch driver floor, i can do that, and front of rockers. They are white duct tape right now.

[beren]

Yeah my neighbor just moved but does great work and works at a collision center. I need the bottoms of the 2 front doors, the bottoms of the rear doors have some ****** holes, the rockers are almost gone, as is the bottom of the tailgate. The fenders above the front wheels are really bad and above the rear wheels are bubbling bad. I paid $8k and prolly put at least 10k into it in the last 9 years. Bunch of upgrades and some replacements/repairs. Not looking forward to $2-3k in body work, and my Injection pump is failing after less than 40k miles. SHe'll hit 300k miles before the end of next month though. 

 

I got a 4th gen bumper from a local place that does utility body conversions and big truck work pretty cheap, need to get someone to make some brackets now that my original has a 3" hole in it… 

Edited June 14, 2020 by beren

[Royal Squire]

1 hour ago, beren said:

Yeah my neighbor just moved but does great work and works at a collision center. I need the bottoms of the 2 front doors, the bottoms of the rear doors have some ****** holes, the rockers are almost gone, as is the bottom of the tailgate. The fenders above the front wheels are really bad and above the rear wheels are bubbling bad. I paid $8k and prolly put at least 10k into it in the last 9 years. Bunch of upgrades and some replacements/repairs. Not looking forward to $2-3k in body work, and my Injection pump is failing after less than 40k miles. SHe'll hit 300k miles before the end of next month though. 

 

I got a 4th gen bumper from a local place that does utility body conversions and big truck work pretty cheap, need to get someone to make some brackets now that my original has a 3" hole in it… 

I believe you can buy those bumper brackets on line