More steady progress while I wait for Mark the welding guy

 Trying to get as much done as I can before Mark gets back. So far have more or less stripped virtually every particle of paint from the dashboard. Has taken quite a number of hours to get to this stage, but about as far as I can go now. Probably just needs a bit of a go over with the sander and should be good.

Playing around with the tilt hood kit. I think the crucial part is making sure both sides are evenly distanced from each other.  See there is some damage here from the old hinges that needs cleaning up still.

Action Shot! Marked out where the bolts were supposed to fit and trimmed this area bit by bit. Didn't want to make a meal of it and cut too much meat from the bonnet. 

Bead blasting some of the tricky areas in the dash.

Another coat of paint stripper and then left it dry for several days before hitting it with the wire wheel

Not the best photo but it is coming along well.

Hitting the cab hard today with stripper and my trusty ancient paint tool. Had some good results with PolyStripper, but have run out so will be ordering another four litres of Cam Stripper. Tomorrow I plan to hit the chassis hard and give it a good coat of KBS Rust Seal. Also planning on painting the insides of the doors as well. Stay tuned! More tomorrow!

Slow progress on the F100. Annabel coming along!

 Mark stayed a week and hit the doors and the bonnet hard, We also hit the underside of the cab pretty hard as well. Mark also tack welded in one side of the rocker panel. Waiting on a couple of parts to arrive and hopefully when he gets back in a few weeks we should have all the pieces we need.

You can see the progress here:

In the meantime, I am getting stuck into the bonnet while giving my el cheapo compressor a good workout. So far it has been performing quite well, although sanding things does give it a decent test. 

This is the project I have before me. I should be able to knock this over in a day or thereabouts. My days are never my own. I am lucky to string together a couple of hours without being called to go somewhere else. The luxury of putting a solid day into this project is unheard of. I just have to work under the constraints I have. I was able to put in a couple of solid hours today and am pleased with the result. If I get a good run tomorrow,  I should have it finished and ready for 2k Primer. 

Gotta love an action shot! Here's me (yes, ME!) actually doing something! 90 grit on rusty steel. I'll show you the end result tomorrow. 

Made a fun little video of me checking through most of the things you need to replace your front and rear cab corners. I am astounded that there is so much! 

You will see on the video how I point out the poor quality of aftermarket parts. Here is a stark example below. 

Just look at the difference! If only I could find the other older support, I would return those crappy new things. They are so thin I can actually bend them by hand. 

All hail Mark the saviour!

 After 12 months of looking sad and neglected, work has finally begun on the truck with a massive thanks to Mark, my legendary saviour, who has spend the last few days with us hitting the panels really hard. Mark is planning on staying over for a couple more days before returning home on the weekend and hopefully to return at a later date and mig weld the panels. Here's a quick snapshot of what we have been up to. 

The two of us were able to lift the cabin off the chassis and place it on its side. From here, Mark was able to access the underside which was in pretty poor condition. It also made life easier for him to access the far side of the truck that was almost buffeting the brick wall. 

We can now get access to the complete chassis and clean it up. Mark reckons a wire wheel and then some 2k primer over it to seal the thing. The other good thing is we can do some adjusting of the alignment of the tailshaft and the transmission. As you might be able to see, it is sitting up a little high.

Forked out and bought a Blackridge Air Gravity-Fed Sand Blast Gun and hit the door, getting into some tough to get areas, specifically the tops of the window frame. Worked pretty well for what it is, but runs out of beads quickly. Next time I am laying a tarp down to catch the beads as it goes through a big tub of the stuff very quickly. 

This is the front cab corner looking from above with the cabin at an angle. 

We discovered a stress crack in the seat bracing.