My body repair progress

[ajmcforester]

I know a guy didn't do the maintenance as well as they recommended and has 160,000 when we replaced the original plugs and still runs great. I found it interesting one side has NGK and the other Denso plugs, the Denso plugs had twice the diode left compaired to the NGKs

I hope to get 20 years minimal out of my 07, I've only put 23,000 on so far. Mine has the ARB roof rack, all the factory option but traded the wheels for the steel ones.

[cozye]

I know a guy didn't do the maintenance as well as they recommended and has 160,000 when we replaced the original plugs and still runs great. I found it interesting one side has NGK and the other Denso plugs, the Denso plugs had twice the diode left compaired to the NGKs

I hope to get 20 years minimal out of my 07, I've only put 23,000 on so far. Mine has the ARB roof rack, all the factory option but traded the wheels for the steel ones.

I've put the ATX Mojave wheels on it and that's it. I mainly use it for a daily driver and to tow my 6x12 enclosed tandem axle trailer to motorcycle races. It tows real well if you ever have the need. Only gets about 11mpg towing a big trailer at 75 mph.

[ajmcforester]

I've put the ATX Mojave wheels on it and that's it. I mainly use it for a daily driver and to tow my 6x12 enclosed tandem axle trailer to motorcycle races. It tows real well if you ever have the need. Only gets about 11mpg towing a big trailer at 75 mph.

11mpg at 75mph is not bad at all I wonder what MT in mine would get

[cozye]

11mpg at 75mph is not bad at all I wonder what MT in mine would get

Probably about the same. The MT gets about 1mpg less under normal driving due to being all time 4WD. I would think that the MT would do a little better towing, since you may be able to leave it in high gear. The manual suggest leaving the AT in (4) instead of OD when towing. It knocks the RPM's up slightly, but the motor doesn't work very much and the only time the truck will downshift is if going into a pretty steep grade. Under most interstate driving it stays in 4th and doesn't switch. I've probably got about 15k miles of towing on mine.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

This is a great thread. You guys inspire me to start welding again. Have not done it since college when I gorilla welded our SAE baja car.

[cozye]

Thanks. It's been a great learning experience for me. I've wanted to weld for years and finally had an excuse to buy one and learn to do it. It's given me a ton of practice and I've learned a lot along the way. My first few welds were a bit tricky, a few cold spots, burns, etc.. Now I can weld with confidence and definitely have improved. I love welding. I'm looking for stuff to weld all the time now.. The cool thing is that it opens up so many possibilities to solving problems. I look at problems differently now. It's a great feeling to be able to melt metal together, make any kind of strong bracket easily and quickly, patch holes like it's nothing, etc..

[tlorber]

Cozye, I would strongly getting your grill powder coated. If you do a basic color like semi gloss black you can probably have a coater throw it in with other stuff and get a cheap price. I paid $54 to have mine done (soon before I mangled it). I will tell you, that as twisted as the grill was-and I mean the thing is a pretzel-there was no cracking, peeling, chipping, etc.

[5150 will]

Cozye, That's some really good looking work. You will be way proud once she gets shiny.

[olzed]

Cozye. Job looks good. A couple of points--- 11 years ago ,I had my 240 stripped to bare metal, and some repair work was done and bogged onto bare metal as you have done. Repainted with 2 pack red. The car looked amazing for a number of years, and was much admired. It won me many awards. Over time small marks started to appear on the paint in the most odd places, like in the middle of the hood, the top of the doors etc. It is in the shop at the moment and the guy doing the work says each tiny mark is rust, caused by a skim of bog that was applied over BARE metal. Apparently is is the old method of doing this. He says the metal should be primed first. I don't know with what type of primer, but someone will. ---Where the bog is thicker it doesn't seem to be a problem---yet.

To say I am gutted would be putting it mildly.:disappoin

Wish I had seen your thread on this sooner.

[cozye]

Cozye, I would strongly getting your grill powder coated. If you do a basic color like semi gloss black you can probably have a coater throw it in with other stuff and get a cheap price. I paid $54 to have mine done (soon before I mangled it). I will tell you, that as twisted as the grill was-and I mean the thing is a pretzel-there was no cracking, peeling, chipping, etc.

Good idea. I had planned on pulling the grill off and cleaning it up, painting, etc.. but I do know a powder coater near by and that's a super idea.

Cozye, That's some really good looking work. You will be way proud once she gets shiny.

Thanks man. I'm looking forward to it. I hope to have it shiny in a month or two. Got some wheels sitting in my house that can't wait to go on.

Cozye. Job looks good. A couple of points--- 11 years ago ,I had my 240 stripped to bare metal, and some repair work was done and bogged onto bare metal as you have done. Repainted with 2 pack red. The car looked amazing for a number of years, and was much admired. It won me many awards. Over time small marks started to appear on the paint in the most odd places, like in the middle of the hood, the top of the doors etc. It is in the shop at the moment and the guy doing the work says each tiny mark is rust, caused by a skim of bog that was applied over BARE metal. Apparently is is the old method of doing this. He says the metal should be primed first. I don't know with what type of primer, but someone will. ---Where the bog is thicker it doesn't seem to be a problem---yet.

To say I am gutted would be putting it mildly.:disappoin

Wish I had seen your thread on this sooner.

I did quite a bit of research on this. Not sure what plastic you used. I used evercoat gold, directions specifically say to use ONLY over bare metal. Looked on quite a bit of painting and restoration forums and this is the consensus 100% of the time. That said, there is another product made by evercoat called "metal gaze" which is used to fill pin holes and very small imperfections. This product specifically says to apply over primer, or even mix in with primer to thin it out. I suppose it really depends on what product you use. Another thing that will affect this is how much hardener you mix. If you get too much hardener in the plastic filler it will not flex as much and tend to crack over time. I do appreciate the tip, but I don't think I would have done it differently. Hopefully I'm not wrong!

[olzed]

I'm not sure what type of filler was used when my job was done first. It obviously was not correct. Technology in all fields has come a long way since then.

I wish I had done some research, but I assumed the panel guys new all the problems. On thinking back, they may have left the metal bare for too long before filling and priming.

If you have researched this then i'm sure you will be fine.

BTW your work looks spot on .

[cozye]

More progress has been made. The painter has been pretty busy blocking out the car, cleaning up the door jambs etc.. This car is going to look very straight when its done. I'm on my way up to the body shop now to assist with putting the fenders, hood, and doors back on. Should be done in a couple of weeks. Here are some pics of the progress. Tim had just painted the jambs the day before.