In which a 4x4 620 is built

[Eagle_Adam]

you already went thru all the trouble to double wall the bed, filling the seam cant be that hard for you :P 

[SandyMush620]

you already went thru all the trouble to double wall the bed, filling the seam cant be that hard for you :P

Lol, it's definitely doable. I just don't mind the seams, especially considering my preference for a stock appearance. The other hangup is time, since the shop will be closing in three months and this bed is way rougher than I thought. I also have a lot of stuff to move before then, seven bays and a parking lot full of vehicles. I am cleaning up the seams as well as I can, and I just found out about a product called Ospho that may prolong the virtually inevitable return of the rust.

[Eagle_Adam]

fair enough :D 

[SandyMush620]

The inner bedsides are pretty much done other than seam sealing and coating with epoxy.  I bolted 1"x1"x1/8" angle to the floor and wheel well, and welded a piece of 1" box to the rear wall, then I drilled 1/4" holes and plug welded the sheet to the angle, box, and the overlap between the bed rail and bedside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the front of the bed I closed up a gap between the inner bedside and a factory seam overlap protruding into the bed by welding in a piece of flat stock.

 

 

I smeared a little fiberglass over the plug welds and moved on to the outer bedsides.  The sheetmetal is pretty misshapen from cargo slamming the walls and from homemade patches being welded into them.  I started with a little 'glass over the welds and then skimcoated the majority of the bedside with filler to identify the high and low places. 

 

 

 

 

 

Suddenly it was screw-this-thirty, and I couldn't even stand to look at it anymore.

[]2eDeYe]

Nice work, love the inner bed sides. :)

[SandyMush620]

Well, I'm fighting burnout here, but I'm trying to keep plugging considering the time limit.  I had hoped to get one side of the bed primed but in the end it just took too long to reshape it after all the rust repair.  Like some panels on the cab, I ended up coating the whole side in finishing glaze after roughing it in with body filler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news is that the bedside used to resemble the Swiss Alps, and now it's nice and smooth.  I still have to glaze the bottom panels and rear corner, and clean up the underside of the rail and hooks.  Looking down a wet coat of primer will tell me how well I did shaping the wheel arch and style lines where they were affected by the welding.  I hope it's pretty good because I'm starting to get tired of beating on this truck all weekend every weekend and some evenings after work.  No worries, I won't give up, but sometimes I have to walk outside and hug the cab for inspiration.

 

 

[Ooph!]

Will rust be an issue inside the new double wall of the bed ?

[SandyMush620]

Will rust be an issue inside the new double wall of the bed ?

 

Everywhere I removed a little of the sprayed in bedliner the metal was fine underneath unless it had rusted from the outside, so I left it in place inside the walls.  I also sanded and painted the inside of the new walls with a high quality trim paint that has an etching feature so it can be applied to bare metal.  I coated all of the welded areas inside with non-sag seam sealer after a wire wheel cleanup.  The areas around the plug welds where paint has burned off is where I expect rust to start, and that's something I can't do anything about, but I expect rust issues from the rest of the bed long before anything inside the walls.

[K_trip]

- removed -

[SandyMush620]

It's coming along nicely.

 

If you were to do it again, would you have started with a better bed?  The quality you're going after is great, the truck looks almost like new, but that bed you started with was pretty far gone.  Perhaps in California it's just easier to find a better bed, I don't know.  You are getting it, and I'm sure it will look as nice as the rest of the truck.  I'm guessing this phase will be the last of the uphill battle, then once you get the bad painted it will be a rush to put it back together - making it a downhill run to the finish!

 

I really like that blue in the sunlight :)

Yeah, I would definitely start with a better bed, and hood for that matter. Maybe a better truck all the way around, lol. Makes me sick to see what a few hundred bucks will get you out west. But alas, is what it is. Thanks for the encouraging words.

[SandyMush620]

I finally have the first bedside roughed in and primed.

 

 

 

Still a little work to do, but having the whole side the same color helps identify issues.

 

 

Once it was primed I turned the bed around and started the other side with a quick coat of fiberglass over the welds after a cleanup with the wirewheel.  Then I got it mostly stripped with 80-grit before tossing the sander and hitting the door for the day. 

 

 

 

More edge-of-the-seat excitement tomorrow.

[SandyMush620]

Not super-productive today but I did get a couple of unexpected holes welded up and some mud slung.

 

 

A couple pics at the bottom of the side.  I had to wire wheel the rust craters.

 

 

 

I also discovered some rustage in the fuel filler opening.  I will just patch it with glass because of where it is.  This is looking up from below.

 

 

I forgot to get a pic of the mud I slung, but there's so much of it in this thread my computer weighs 80 lbs.

 

[raggmann]

_{Anyone that can do body work amazes me. I have ZERO patience for it and am always left in awe with beautiful work such as this.}

[heretic]

looking oh so good.!!!!

[SandyMush620]

Thanks guys. Have to admit that the patience wanes sometimes, but hopefully I will end up with a decent driver.

[heretic]

I've ZERO doubt 

 

....... but hopefully I will end up with a decent driver.

[SandyMush620]

Time for updates for the last two weekends.  I finally picked up a decent camera, a Nikon Coolpix S5200.  Nothing fancy, but it's 16M and I caught it on sale.  I can see a big improvement in pic quality.

 

First, there was fun with tailgates.  The green one was in the back of the first 620 I bought as a "good replacement" for the existing one that had a large dent in it.

 

 

I noticed a high spot near the bottom of the gate, and I dug in with the wire wheel to check it out.  Body filler, and at least 1/4" deep.

 

 

I hoped it was isolated, but it covered the whole tailgate above and below the letters, and was especially thick below the style line.

 

 

 

The metal is covered in small dents as though someone tried to work it before applying the filler.  I took a second look at the original tailgate, and knocked the worst of the dent out with a block of wood.  Then I stripped it for comparison.  It has plenty of issues itself, but it's great compared to the "good" replacement.  *sigh*

 

The original after the large dent was knocked out:

 

 

 

The bedside is also roughed in and primed.  I thought this side was in better shape than the other, but that was not so.  The good news is that it looks a little better in primer than the other side.  As expected, it will still need a little work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step will be to clean up the bed rails  and get a coat of epoxy on them and the inner bedsides.  Then I will focus on blocking the sides and working the tailgate.  The irony is that the whole reason I put the effort into this bed as opposed to building a flatbed is so I can have DATSUN on the back and avoid a small percentage of the "nice Toyota" comments.

[garryk6]

Thanks guys. Have to admit that the patience wanes sometimes, but hopefully I will end up with a decent driver.

Just read this entire thread, and I have not doubt either. Hang in there! BTW how much time do you have left till the move? I started a similar project on my 1963 NL320 in 2001. It has been moved twoce since, and is in storage right now, and is till awaiting completion.. try to get it done before you have to be out of the shop! I painted my engine bay the original bamboo tan while the body was off the chassis. That was in 2003, and it has been in the same shape since... Try to get it done if you can.

Keep up the good work, and as the son of a body/paint man, and having worked and hobbied in it, you are truly doing a great job!! Hang in there!

Garry in Kodiak, Alaska

[SandyMush620]

Just read this entire thread, and I have not doubt either. Hang in there! BTW how much time do you have left till the move? I started a similar project on my 1963 NL320 in 2001. It has been moved twoce since, and is in storage right now, and is till awaiting completion.. try to get it done before you have to be out of the shop! I painted my engine bay the original bamboo tan while the body was off the chassis. That was in 2003, and it has been in the same shape since... Try to get it done if you can.

Keep up the good work, and as the son of a body/paint man, and having worked and hobbied in it, you are truly doing a great job!! Hang in there!

Garry in Kodiak, Alaska

 

Thanks Garry, both for the compliment and the encouragement.  Our last day in the shop is December 15, but with the need to move so much stuff, my work will need to be done a little before that.  I expect to have the body and paint work complete and the bed back on the chassis by then.  Final assembly, interior work and other tasks to prepare it for daily use can be done in my driveway or a borrowed garage if necessary.  Fortunately, motivation has returned to a great extent because the bedsides came out pretty well just with the filler being roughed in, and they still have a few blockings coming.

 

Hope you enjoyed the read.

[]2eDeYe]

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the read.

 

 

I am enjoying it. :D

[dvdswan]

this is really an inspirational build.  I hope mine comes out even 1/2 as beautiful as yours.  I on the other hand will be wheeling the truck on a regular basis though.  lol

 

 

Awesome work!!

[SandyMush620]

this is really an inspirational build.  I hope mine comes out even 1/2 as beautiful as yours.  I on the other hand will be wheeling the truck on a regular basis though.  lol

 

 

Awesome work!!

 

Thanks.  I may wheel it someday, but I hope to keep it nice for a while.  Too much work in it, lol.

[]2eDeYe]

Armor it up well and it will last a long time :)

[SandyMush620]

Armor it up well and it will last a long time :)

 

 

 

[Mirrorimg]

Well, I'm fighting burnout here, but I'm trying to keep plugging considering the time limit.  I had hoped to get one side of the bed primed but in the end it just took too long to reshape it after all the rust repair.  Like some panels on the cab, I ended up coating the whole side in finishing glaze after roughing it in with body filler

 

Keep it up! Youre doing great.