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Excursion paint, swap, build

Okay last post on this for a while. I am going to be busy for a couple weeks. Not sure when we will get back to this.

Sound deadening the rear quarters. What a difference when just taping on the side of the truck.

Kind of the same setup. Kilomat, then gym foam or Thinsulate under the factory cover. If there is room we will add more between the factory cover and the interior trim panels.

Just tapping on the outside of the truck, even with the interior still out, compared to the other trucks. Night and day difference.

I have a decibel meter at work. We are going to try and remember to do some testing in his old truck and in the new truck when it is done.

Pulling the rear heat and AC out, we debated, glad we did it.

4th picture, we found the right rear 1/4 panel torn loose from the floor. Probably from whatever accident happened back there, but we could see daylight. not only did it let it noise and dirt, but a mouse can certainly get through there.
Used the left over urethane from the windshield to seal it up. If you have ever used window weld from 3m. That is a great adhesive for just about anything.

After gluing it up it got covered with kilomat. Should be sealed for life now.


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I have been working on this again this week, just going slow. Now with shorter days I get only about 2 hours to work outside.

Since I am working on the roof I can only do it outside.

Hope to have it ready to paint this weekend, so hopefully the weather cooperates. Wind is supposed to be about 7mph. Temp is warm enough. But this time of year crap is falling off the trees.
Last weekend I painted the hood of my daughters car. ended up having to sand and buff it because so much garbage fell on it.

I am not sanding and buffing the roof of this excursion LOL

There was a few dings in the roof that we are ignoring. Worst part was we would sand on chipped/rusty paint areas and as you feather it out you uncover more rust. so the area gets bigger and bigger.

Finally stopped sanding and just took a drill with a wire brush to all the chips and rusty spots we could find. Now to feather them out.

Also had one spot of cracked paint that was really bad.

So I have about one more night of sanding and feathering and hopefully it will be ready to paint.

I have already started masking stuff off. Going to do to the top of the doors. I will blend the portion in front and back of the rear 1/4 windows when I do the sides of the truck.

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Up early Sunday morning to try and paint.

Got the first coat of white on, wind came up and started blowing dirt all over it. Wind never died so back into the garage it went.

Now I will have to scuff it and try again.

tough this time of year as it is windy most days.

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Weather cooperated this morning so the top is painted.

I made the mistake of cleaning my paint gun yesterday so I have a couple spits I am going to have to sand and buff, but at least I don't have to do the whole roof.

The temp was 55 degrees when I started this morning, luckily I had the a quart of the correct reducer.

Would have liked to get one more coat of clear on (only got 2) but it just wasn't drying and the wind was starting to kick up so back into the garage to finish drying it went.

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I am finding out my air compressor is old and worn out like me. It is a 6hp direct drive craftsman. 30 gallon tank I think. I hated it since the day I bought it like 25 years ago. I had no idea what a direct drive was or how noisy it was. I was in the middle of painting a project and needed something in a hurry. Suppose i will start shopping for one.

Air compressor will no longer keep up with sander. Still working on this when I get time. working in the garage now. Not enough heat or daylight left outside.

Trying to get one panel ready to prime/paint at a time and moving onto the next.

It is easy to get overwhelmed on these projects. I know I have body work left to do on the back. So this is my way of putting it off for now. LOL

Everyone has been busy. My son hasn't been down. We are ready to put roof rack back on, cab lights and wire them in. Then onto the headliner and interior can start going in.
I know we probably won't really get back into this until next spring but it is blocking my garage so I want to see some progress here and there.

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Can finally make an update to this.

I had been sanding, doing body work off and on all winter. It got warm early this year and really had been waiting on a non windy day to paint.

Well that day ain't comin.

So last weekend I loaded it up, took it to work and thought I would spray it.
3 day weekend and all, figured I had time to cure and fix y mistakes and such.

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These two nuts for the cab clearance lights I forgot and they rode across town on the top of this thing. I guess I drive like an old lady now.

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Finally all masked off, 3 hours worth of taping. Ready to paint.

Funny how the kids are never around to help or learn the important stuff.

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And Fail.

Paint is old or I am. Or both.

So it would start spraying perfect, then taper off and dry out and then down to where paint was barely coming out.

I stopped, cleaned the gun, remixed a new batch of paint. Same problem. Only now when it starts blowing dry paint it spits.

kept trying to thin it out more. Did everything I could think of, Thought maybe if I can just get a fender to spray right, or the tail gate or a door that would be some kind of accomplishment, but nope not today.

Guessing maybe my paint froze over the winter? I honestly have no idea, but ordering new paint.

So I took it home as pictured. Going to wet sand it down. Then I will just spray it at home. If the weather won't cooperate I will just do a fender or a door at a time if I have to.

I am probably overly critical too because this is for my son, not me.

I will win eventually.

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Well after many interruptions.
Atv project, 3 of them. New encolsed trailer project, Fixing jeep for a friend, fixing and selling daughters equinox, tractor project, lawnmower and trailer project for my in laws. Deck removal project, tree removal project, Swing set project. And who knows what I have forgotten, but

This project is back underway.

Started wet sanding with block and 400 grit this weekend.

I think the bodywork was good enough for white paint, but when I started sanding I started seeing chicken scratches from the DA sander and decided to sand them out and not chance it.

I will have to hit it again with a primer in spots for sure after sanding though.

But I certainly have more confidence in what the final product will look like.

Need to buy a fresh batch of paint, but this fender is completely ready. the door is very close.

Wet sanding sucks.

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Rockwood said:
Gonna replace the rivets in that damned cross brace under the engine with bolts while it's all out?
Click to expand...
Is that a thing?

Have no idea, my kid is the excursion fanatic.

Can i just weld it? Would that be better?

This is a V10 chassis only about 140k on it. It is getting a 6.oh no. Probably a good idea.
 
Busy the next couple of days but did get the RF fender wet sanded last night.
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I know they are not the best pictures in the world. But when doing this fender I found 2 dents I missed.

Can you spot them? Scroll down to see them.

It is easier for me because I know what this looks like close up in person. So I can see where the white is thin and where it is not. But I thought these two spots should have been glaringly obvious.

My son is like, don't care just paint it. But I will probably fix them. Pretty easy at this point, especially if they are the only ones I missed.




































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Tiha said:
Is that a thing?

Have no idea, my kid is the excursion fanatic.

Can i just weld it? Would that be better?

This is a V10 chassis only about 140k on it. It is getting a 6.oh no. Probably a good idea.
Click to expand...
Derp. 6.0 is bad, but not terrible. V10 makes you cry to replace. 7.3 is a 50/50 shot it doesn’t leak unless you pull the fucking motor and flip it over…
 
Still wet sanding on this thing. My shoulders couldn't handle a full day of wet sanding so I started on the headliner.

Kind of different when the foam on the headliner is not garbage. Have some repairs to do to the backer board. This headliner did not come from this truck. My son wanted to eliminate the TV and video player. So we actually took the headliner out of his brother's truck.
So we have 2 headliners to do.
The material is hard to get. There is really only one option in color and size because this is so wide.

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And it is white.

Told my son, not my best work, but I put my whole heart in it.

Got hot while I was putting clear on. I think I am going to have to sand and buff to get the mirror finish. BUMMER!

Body work turned out great, no funny dings or lines. Pretty happy with it. Just wish the clear went on a little wetter.

But still, this was huge progress, now I can get the cab lights in, roof rack bars on and it can sit outside if need be.

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Hell yeah! You reach a point where any more prep work is just diminishing returns and you've gotta say a prayer to your God and spray it:laughing:


Looks good, hopefully that gets you some wind in your sails
 
Started sealing up the roof last night. Put on the roof rails for the cargo rack. He wanted to weld them shut and eliminate it, but I told him he will want to use them someday.
Since we started this project, Grand baby number 3 is on the way, so he said yes he will need it. LOL
I put seam sealer around all the holes, but then used anti seize on the bolts. Anti seize will act like a sealer itself but also it keeps the seam sealer from sticking to the bolts.

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After the roof rack, I started on the cab lights. Used the same seam sealer. A quick wipe with mineral spirits cleans up anything that pushes out.

Pretty sure these will never leak.

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The truck is now sealed up. I can push it out and let it sit if I ever have to.

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Lights wired in, cleaned the interior so I can start on the floor and hopefully get the headliner done and in.

Oh yeah, that is where all my tools went. LOL

Put some of the window moldings in, Keyless entry pad back in. Now we can seal up the inside of the driver's door.

It is shocking how solid and quiet these doors feel. There was quite a difference doing my F350 a few years ago but these had a much more dramatic change.

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Headliner is done and almost in.

That was a big job, working with that much material, getting it to lay right. 4 cans of headliner adhesive.

My son wants to come and start tearing his 6.0 apart. I am like, dude, we have a lot of work before we are ready for that. I want to get as much done as I can before we go there, because once we go there he is borrowing my spare car until he can drive this home.

How long is that? Another year? I am tired, I don't want to work that hard.

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Got the headliner finished up except for 2 pieces I can't find yet. Nice thing is, anything we are missing we can pull from his current truck.

I started putting the door panels on. Rear panels are in good shape but his front panels I think are better than these, so I hung the pass side just to get the mounting holes cut open.

After that was kill mat on the floor, then gym foam and threw the old carpet in there. He didn't want new carpet. He has 2 small kids with a 3rd on the way. They are going to spill and make a mess. He says when the kids get older he will replace it. Having gone through that I understand. After fighting that a few years I went and bought a different family truckster that I didn't care about.

Weather is cooling down. Sucks because won't be able to pull this out and work outside much longer. Too dark, too cold and windy. Need to get the back finished up. His excursion parts are blocking my bronco in the other bay, would like to get it out and still drive it a few times this year.

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I wish I had all that insulation in mine. I just can’t bring myself to gut the interior with nothing wrong.
Maybe some day when I replace the body mounts.
 
Gumbybronco said:
I wish I had all that insulation in mine. I just can’t bring myself to gut the interior with nothing wrong.
Maybe some day when I replace the body mounts.
Click to expand...
We joke all the time that we probably added 600 pounds to the vehicle, that is probably not far off.

Things always get crazy, but I have a decibel meter. I hope to take a bunch of readings before we tear his old truck apart. Then compare to this one.
But often the range of what we hear is different than what is shown on a decibel meter.

Normally I would add MLV (mass loaded vinyl) on top of this but he was worried about it being too thick to get everything to fit back into place and that is a valid concern. Most of the moldings and door sills snap into place. No screws to hold them down.
In the front area you will have floor mats and seats to help keep sound from coming up through the floor. We will probably still use the MLV in the back portion.

Tapping on the metal with your hands there is a huge difference, but that does not equate to a reduction in the hearing range going down the road. It would be more equal to sitting in a rain or hail storm.

When I did my F350 it showed me how bad my door seals were and how noisy glass is because all the other sounds were gone. The fit and finish of the doors and seals on this excursion is much tighter than my old F350 so I hope it really pays off.
 
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