Excursion paint, swap, build

[Tiha]

I thought I would just throw some truck porn up here.

My sons both drive excursions. One with a V10 and one with a 6.0. The son with the 6.0 has spent a ton of money on the engine of course and is happy with it, but now his is a rust bucket with a dent or scrape in every panel. (he bought it that way)

So we are starting on his dream.

He found a ex fairly close to home that was in pretty good shape. It has more rust than I would like but the interior is mostly useable. So that makes up for some of the extra work we will need to do on the underside.

The truck has 150k miles with a V10 that has a bad piston. Interesting it was bought new in Alaska of all places, even looks like it had a snow plow on it at somepoint. But still solid mostly rust free body.

It also is set up for a 4th row seat. Face backwards but has seatbelts and all. Didn't know that was a thing. Apparently the guy he bought it from was the original owner with 7 kids.

 

[Tiha]

The rockers are solid inside and out.

This truck is going to be white like the one towing pictured above. only a couple door dings to fix. The hood has hail damage and not worth fixing. His original hood is in better shape so we will use that.

It has been hot out so work is slow, besides I have other projects and he lives 3 hours away so when we get a day, we get a lot done. But those days will be far between.

right now my focus is getting the rest of the drivetrain pulled so we can treat the underside properly. Probably spot blast. Treat it and paint.
Also need to cut all the door edges and window frames in. Need to cut out the windshield to inspect it. Cut those edges in.

He is focused on sound deadedning. Once I get the door frames done he can start putting the interior back in. Between both trucks he will have almost perfect plastic.
We need to wash the carpet and see if it is worth saving.
Recover the headliner. He wants to find one without the dvd player. (his brother has one LOL)

We were originally going to do a body swap but honestly this truck, body mounts, frame is in better shape. So we are putting his axles, engine/drivetrain on this truck.
If you don't know, when swapping to diesel you have to swap everything. Harnesses, dash, brake booster, everything. So there is nothing to gain by lifting the body off and risk damage trying to move it.
Besides it keeps both trucks somewhat mobile and sealed up during the process. That way if I need to push them outside for a while we can.

 

[Tiha]

This is certainly not a job for the faint of heart. I probably wouldn't do it except this is my son's dream truck and my other son is helping as well.

He thinks he wants to do away with the roof rack and seal the rear 1/4 windows permanently to prevent leaks, But then says he wants to add cab lights. LOL

We are just getting started and he already wants to cut corners. Keeps saying, it is good enough. I am like nope. we are going to all this work we will do the best we can.
He doesn't have the life experience I do. How badly rust can burn through a vehicle. Or how cutting corners haunts you in your sleep.

Plan is to mostly store it but he will use it for vacations and such. It could see snow and salt again but very short exposure.

 

[posford]

IN! Love Excursions

 

[Projectjunkie]

Dude, needs a 05 coil swap and e locker rear, the stuff is cheap, now is the time!

Unless he was happy with the ride and turning radius of the leaves

 

[Jbevs]

Nice, wish he were going to drive it though, not store it.

 

[Tiha]

Nice, wish he were going to drive it though, not store it.

It will get driven. he is like me. Has a company pickup so it will sit 90% of the time and only get driven on road trips.

Otherwise he was driving it everyday and would continue to do so.

 

[Tiha]

Dude, needs a 05 coil swap and e locker rear, the stuff is cheap, now is the time!

Unless he was happy with the ride and turning radius of the leaves

I suggested that, but part of the reason for the axle swap is he just did all new springs like a year ago.

 

[Tiha]

This thing is gutted. Loaded back up on the trailer. Ready to head for pressure washing.

At my work we have a wash bay. I am taking it there. higher pressure and flow. Plus about every soap and degreaser you can imagine. Different wands to get in everywhere.

We still have some little things we can take off. It is like everything we look at we can't use with the diesel. Crazy how different everything is.

The Heat AC lines running to the back are a horrible setup. I am not sure I know anyone that doesn't have a leak in them. And of course you cannot buy them new anymore. So we will probably have to make hoses for the entire length of the truck.

My son is coming this weekend. I told him to start sound deadening. He wanted to do other stuff. There isn't much else to do. Start scuffing door jambs is next. Pull the dash is really all that is left.

Blasting or painting is not a 3 man project.

I gotta get the pickup out of my garage so we can pull the windows on this thing and roll it in there.

 

[Tiha]

The battle is over, now starts the long war.

Washed it all off, out, whatever last night. spent over 3 hours in the washbay. Soaked it with degreaser, then hit it with high pressure soap with heat. Then high pressure hot water. Our pressure washer runs about 2800 psi at 180 degrees at about 4 gallons a minute. It is really hard to use anything less once you have used something like that.

It needs to dry out a couple days, which could be tough, Chance of rain, high humidity. But once it is dry then the rust treatment and primer of the underside is started. I got a cheapo undercoat gun with a 30 inch hose.
hoping to reach inside all the body cross members and rockers to spray.
I think that alone will take days. Give everything a coat, let it dry over night. Re coat at least one more time. Then let it dry a couple days before top coating it.

If I can get it into the garage this weekend the windshield will come out as well as the 1/4 windows.

the RR 1/4 panel has been repaired and the paint is not sticking. There is some bondo below the tail light. I will dig that out and see how bad it was. Seems like they did okay work, but they did not prep it very well when they painted it.

 

[Tiha]

More progress updates. Kid came down this weekend. Kind of unexpected.

1/4 windows out. Adhesive cleaned up. Roof rack off. Weatherstripping out from around the windows.

Finished pulling the dash.

Started putting in killmat and dynamat.

Also laid out and drilled for cab clearance lights.

I have started scuffing everything, Dang my hands will be shot after this one.

 

[Tiha]

Put factory insulation up against firewall. Debating on adding gym foam to it or nor. Not sure how much room we really have until we install the new dash.

Oh yeah, windshiled cut out as well. Frame was pretty decent. These trucks and the superduties have a problem with rusting under the molding.

kinda hard to see. So the dynamat is on the roof. Then we used contact cement to attach 1/4" gym foam. The excursion is neat in that most of the roof bows unbolt and can be removed. Only the front 2 were glued. I wanted to glue them all, but this might work out better.
The sound difference is already quite noticeable.

What you can't see is the 3m Thinsulate we are stuffing in the void areas. Like the A and B pillars. few areas overhead. basically any echo chamber we can find.

took the old front carpet to my work. Pressure washed it. Good shape except stained pretty bad. He is going to do captains chairs in second row now so he is probably buying new carpet anyway.

 

[rockota]

Everything I’ve read says YES to as much insulation as possible behind the dash. Supposedly a lot of the noise of the diesel comes in from the cowl area.

Hopefully the local sound expert will pop in.

ProjectTwin

 

[Projectjunkie]

How many kids does he travel with?

I have 3, I avoid 2nd row captains seats because if I needed/ wanted to fold the 3rd row down and carry something big, I'd be SOL. I know some people love them, ymmv

 

[Tiha]

How many kids does he travel with?

I have 3, I avoid 2nd row captains seats because if I needed/ wanted to fold the 3rd row down and carry something big, I'd be SOL. I know some people love them, ymmv

He just has 2 kids. But they are arguing about a 3rd.

That is a very good point. I will point that out to him. I have had both bench and captains in the second row so he knows what it is like, but he wouldn't remember the early years.
Even in an excursion it is easy to fill the back with camping gear and dogs just with a family of 4.

 

[Gumbybronco]

I have 2nd row bench seats in mine and two boys. On long road trips I give each boy a row and have their bedding and gear bag on the other end of their bench. It keeps the peace.

 

[Thatg9659]

probably not worth your while, but if you wanna throw the gassers vacuum reservoir box in a flat rate box, I’ll send you money.

 

[Tiha]

probably worth your while, but if you wanna throw the gassers vacuum reservoir box in a flat rate box, I’ll send you money.

There will be parts to get rid of. I am not sure what pile that is in currently. LOL

Also my other son has a V10 ex. So they need to sort the piles of spares to keep and let go.

I hope we get this wrapped up before winter. but that is not realistic.

Started sand blasting and priming the bottom side last night. What a miserable job.

 

[Thatg9659]

I have 2nd row bench seats in mine and two boys. On long road trips I give each boy a row and have their bedding and gear bag on the other end of their bench. It keeps the peace.

pull the car over and beat their ass when they don’t behave

 

[Tiha]

Doing some of the more tedious stuff. Still scuffing a little bit everyday. There are some door jambs ready to go.

Trying to focus underneath. Frame and body mostly primed. Frame is primed pretty well. The body has some spots where the primer is not sticking as well as I think it should.
Going to do some more sand blasting and descaling in a few areas then try to prime again. Make sure it is solid.

really wanted to paint the underside first. Less chance of overspray drifting out onto anything important.

I can kind a see we will have to do like one door jamb and inside of door and stop. Clear coat and move onto the next one on the next night. Just takes too long to do it all based on weather, day light, and cure times.

The windshield frame looked really solid but as we started cleaning it up with a wire brush on a drill we kept finding rust had creeped under the paint and urethane windshield sealer. Looks like we will end up stripping most of it.
The spray you see on there is a rust converter treatment. I don't know if that stuff really works or not, but really it is all we got. It smells like battery acid when you spray it. So it has potential right?

We will end up sanding most of it off. If we see any rust appear we will wire brush that spot and spray it again. Then we just use a normal bare metal primer before paint.

 

[Tiha]

got far enough to try and cut some of the edges in this weekend.

Used base/clear.

Far enough that we could start putting glass back in it, door latches, weatherstripping. Need to do the outside of the window frames on the doors. Also need to do the tailgate area.

But I ran out of clear coat. Thought I had close to a gallon, but I only had about half.

Progress nonetheless.

Still need to paint under the body. My daughter has or had a white Jetta, I have a quart of acrylic enamel left from her car after one of the times she wrecked it. LOL. I think I am going to use it up under the body. See how it turns out before I go to the effort of base/clear under there.

At least this was a big step towards getting started on the interior again.

Supposed to be super hot this week. Probably will not get anything done.

 

[pennsylvaniaboy]

10/10 would do an axle/ suspension swap...I own a excursion with a spring swap.....A coil/spring/axle swap for these trucks is soo much better. I would also conside a 2012+ bumpers

 

[Tiha]

Doesn't seem like we were making progress, but finally saw some results yesterday.

My son has been working on the roof, we pretty much have to strip it. So many rust pits everywhere. That is always fun with the ribs, working from a ladder, and the shear size of it.

But got the outside of the door window frames done. Also the rear hatch/tailgate area. that was the worst. Took forever. Hardest to scuff. Hardest to paint. So far.

You can see some spots of bondo. Don't worry, those are not over paint. LOL After I washed the truck I spent some time walking around it and marking dings. Went and ground them out, filled it with bondo. Quick easy fixes. I run over them with some 80 grit first by hand. Then I will block with 120 grit. When I am getting close to bare metal I will swap to something finer like 220. Then hit is with primer and see how it looks. It is really easy to go too far with the first sanding and then have to go back and fill again just to get the scratches.
Have some on the other side of the truck already sanded. Bondo and primer shrink. So letting it sit a couple days before I go back and block them again.

Now I think we are going to focus on getting weather stripping back in. Doors adjusted. Glass back in. Some more sound deadening inside. We should be able to start putting door panels back on. If I can find a windshield it can go in.

 

[fl0w3n]

Do you do body work for a living?

Also just curious if it would have been more cost effective to pay the premium and ship a west coast truck your way?

 

[Tiha]

Do you do body work for a living?

Also just curious if it would have been more cost effective to pay the premium and ship a west coast truck your way?

No I don't. I hate body work.

He bought the truck non running for $3k. It was also very close to home with good interior. We could sell enough parts to recover the $3k, but my other son has a V10 excursion so no telling what we are going to sell off yet.

He was shopping a trucks from the south or the west. He had 20 k and had been shopping for months. Everything he wanted was $25k, $30k or more.
Then he would most likely have to do the drivetrain upgrades he already has done to his current truck.

Granted we will have a thousand hours in this thing but it will be done for far less money. That includes his high dollar stereo, amp steps. Bunch of other crap he already bought, cab lights, new head lights, new tail lights.
Honestly don't know there are so many boxes in my garage right now. LOL But all things he would have bought even if he spent $30k on a different truck.
Can't imagine spending even $20k on a truck, then having to tear it apart to sound proof it. If that was your end goal.

We were originally just going to swap the body onto his frame. Then decided it was silly, the way we are doing it both trucks will be mobile until the very end. Don't need a lift. No shaky carriages moving bodies around.

We did a body swap on a suburban years ago. Lots of scary moments during the process.

Really the only concern is getting painted before the weather turns. The rest we can do in the garage whenever.

Anyway, this is really a once in a lifetime build. This is his dream truck and he will own it and drive it forever.

 

[fl0w3n]

That’s awesome! Just wondering if it would have made more sense but I guess you’re right if you’re going all in with the tear down why not start cheap.

Was there any thought about swapping to some newer gen dash or interior? I think that requires a firewall swap or some real customization of the factory pieces to fit, but having the newer dash and center console would be nice

Enjoying the progress.

 

[Tiha]

Was there any thought about swapping to some newer gen dash or interior? I think that requires a firewall swap or some real customization of the factory pieces to fit, but having the newer dash and center console would be nice

He is eliminating the overhead entertainment. In fact he is stealing his brother's headliner. LOL I think the headliner swap is on the agenda for this weekend.

He wants to use a newer superduty center console.

Second row he wants to swap to captains chairs. We will probably build our own brackets and we have discussing to swivel or not to swivel.

Beyond that, I think he go some fancy head unit that works with steering controls, has front and rear cameras, and blue tooth for tire pressure sensors.

We are working out a permeant setup for his programmer.

Otherwise he is happy with the factory dash and interior.

He bought a bunch of locktite and made us promise to use it on every screw we put back in. LOL

 

[Tiha]

Another big weekend. Got a lot of time consuming stuff done. My son came down and even though it was 100 degrees everyday we got a lot done.

Glass side windows are back in. We used seam sealer when we installed them rather than the usual tar stuff.

All the weather stripping is back in. We picked the best pieces for this donor and his current truck. It has all the little plugs back in. Little rubber snubbers.

Kind of funny, we were ready to run the windows up and my son hooked the battery charger up to the battery cables. Put all the window switches back in, then we realized it was impossible to turn the key on. LOL Now steering column. So we had to go around to each door one by one and jumper to the motor wires to get them closed.

He used kilmat inside the doors and on the inside of the doors. Installed new speakers as he went as well.

When you close the door it is a solid thud. Sounds amazing. We may still add gym foam over the top, or underneath the door panels. We need to see how much space we have there first.

For installing the weather stripping I ordered a bunch of new push pins off amazon and ebay. I got like 200 of them. Different types and brands. They are supposed to be 3/16" but only about 40 out of everything I bought were actually the correct advertised size. But that was enough.

Used weatherstrip adhesive under every piece as well. They should stay in place better and longer than the factory.

The door weather stripping from the donor was in really good shape. The doors shut great. But I haven't done the paper test yet. Where you close the door on a piece of paper and make sure there is resistance, meaning the weatherstripping is making good contact.

If that fails we will add surgical tubing inside the door weather stripping. I did it on my bronco. Made a huge difference in road and wind noise.

Picked up a new windshield last friday. But there was 2 big dents right at the top of the frame I just could not ignore. So we pulled them and filled them.

Then of course I had to repaint the top of the frame because the windshield trim extends onto the roof about a 1/2 inch

 

[Tiha]

All the latches and guides, weather stripping in the rear hatch/tailgate area was a pain. They don't make the tailgate weather stripping anymore. His current truck was much better shape than the donor. So we installed that for now. It is just across the bottom that it is torn.

Next are pictures of the Thinsulate stuff. We stuffed every void we could with it. No echo chambers. It is of course great for sound and temperature insulation. The gym foam is better but this is easier to work with in the void areas. It is supposed to be water proof and so we hope it is.

Now the cab is sealed up I can focus on bodywork. Not a great picture for orientation, but this is under the LR tail light. There was 4 big dents. Probably from jackknifing trailers.

I use a bolt in my slide hammer, tack it in the dent, Then yank it out using a body hammer to work the outside of the dent. Simple and effective.

 

[Tiha]

With the windshield in I can focus on bodywork now.

I have 2 goals right now. Get the interior sealed up so it can stay clean and dry.
Paint the body before the weather turns and gets way more difficult.

This thing will be bright white so really bodywork doesn't have to be perfect, but I still try.

For the little dings I grind the center to bare metal with a small disc on the drill and then fill it with bondo.
Originally the bondo goes onto the paint as well, but first step I sand it with like 80 grit to get it close. Just using folded paper and my fingers.
Then I will use a block with 120 and get it closer.
Last step is using a block with 220 paper.

You can see the exact area I ground out appear out of the bondo. Then it is just a matter of sanding until it has a nice feather to it.

I am sure it is not the proper way, but is quick and easy.

Tried to take a decent picture, but next step is a nice wet coat of primer. Then look across it and see if you can see your work.
If you can, then you need more work.
If not then I will hit it with a block and 320 at some point. The rest of the truck will get a DA run over it before paint.

Spray can primers are horrible anymore. You have to make sure they say fast drying. Otherwise they just clog the sand paper.
Used to be called lacquer primer, or primer surfacer, and they still make surfacer primers, but they don't dry right.