My '72, work in progress

[whiterabbit]

It has what I call "minor rust". A few holes in the foot wells, gas tank area, tool box and naturally the batt box. Other than that it's pretty good. I have a lil bit of rust on the cowl vent area but it's fixable.

[whiterabbit]

Low miles! The engine cylinders still have the cross hatch pattern!




Dust, dirty on the outside but spotless inside! Been sitting almost 20yrs.
Found a whole box of dispatch books and operators/equipment log books.

[HILLBILLY-06]

That's awesome, and it looks like you got a good head start on your project going great.
I been working on mine a little lately, but you got way more done on the body. Of coarse I aint gonna strip mine too far, but your's looks great, thanks for posting.

[whiterabbit]

Fresh oil and a carb rebuild= running truck!
The carb was a mess! 60Amp gen is charging. Ran the truck from a gas can. Just got done acid cleaning the gas tank and Red koating it.

[csmith]

Looks like a solid rig, should be a pretty easy fix. Keep the pics coming!

[HILLBILLY-06]

I only worked on one gas tank before, we used something called metal prep and metal ready with awesome results. I don't know if you can get it at auto parts stores or not, we had to order it off the internet. I have seen it several times since then at antique car shows down this way.

[whiterabbit]

I hate rust! I have no mercy when it comes to it, cut it out and put fresh steel in.

[lpcoating]

Check out the tool box stiffener. Eagle eye Rick pointed this out to me. Someone made the comment that there were different styles of stiffeners on the tool box lids and now we have proof. Maybe this was done for the ROPS?

[whiterabbit]

Passenger side was mashed up and covered in bondo. Nope! Wrong!
Hammer & dolly. had to C clamp a piece of 1 1/2" sqr steel to it to pull the crushed area out. Should only need a very thin coat of filler to look great.

Drivers side is another story. "Houston, we have a problem!"

Nothing a lil' fresh steel won't fix! Cut & weld time!

Hmmmm. Something is not right with my shovel head mount. Anyone got a spare???

[whiterabbit]

Guy, The lid is original to a 72. The corner is cut out for the ROPPS cage foot that got mounted there. I was the SOB that cut eveyone's toolbox lid and mashed the back corners of the fenders in the late 80's!

[whiterabbit]

Ahhh. I remember taking a sledgehammer to beat the top flat to mount the cage foot under the fender back in the day!
Gonn'a weld up the hole & reform the top channels. Payback huh??

[whiterabbit]

This area was where they scabbed some plate to cover the ropps holes. Made matters worse!


Most of the batt box was saved by the 1/4" thick layer of batt box tar that was put on by the units S&R shops.


The "frame" channels are rust free thanks to the "ziebart" but the ropps foot plates caused rust in the top skin. Hmmm. Planning this repair carefully.
This is the only damage under the truck. A piece of rod welded in the back corner. They cut the tail light harness too! Agggg!

[whiterabbit]

When all the welding is done and it's shot in redoxide, I'm pulling all the plastic plugs and spraying in a home brew "ziebart". 2 toilet wax rings,1 gal of kerosene, 1pt of chainsaw bar oil heated & mixed together and sprayed all in the channels and underside.

[whiterabbit]

Only brake that was leaking.
Naturally, need new brake hoses. They're toast or just go ahead and assume they are!

24hrs with acid then 12hrs with phosphoric acid then flushed,dried and Red Koated. Good to go except the pickup/cover is roached and so is the sender. Adding that to the list of crap to get. Broke one sender screw in it!
Hey, at least it runs and has a motor in it unlike some of the projects I drag home.

[whiterabbit]

These are my other "projects".

1978 ex Military 109 Land Rover and a 19XX loving,caring,kind'a understanding wife. Both like being offroad!