SkinnyG's '61 Apache

[SkinnyG]

Frickin' crane operator hit my truck.

I did not ask for the crane operator to use his magnet. I am perfectly fine unloading $45 of scrap metal by myself. Except now I need to get this dealt with. It's possible ICBC might write it off as a total loss. NOT impressed.

[SCOTI]

Well that just sucks.

[Palf70Step]

[aggie91]

yeah, that sucks, but with your skills you should be able to fix it and no one will even know...

[SkinnyG]

Possibly. I have two weeks for spring break, and I wanted to get all the rust repair finished on the '61, not repair some damage somebody did to my '77.

I'm still just a rookie at shrinking.

Estimates from most shops are 12-14hours. That'd be 24-30 hours for me, I'm sure. That's a week's work that I don't really want to do.

I've debated pocketing the compensation money and just do it myself, but I don't want to lose the time in my shop.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Possibly. I have two weeks for spring break, and I wanted to get all the rust repair finished on the '61, not repair some damage somebody did to my '77.

I'm still just a rookie at shrinking.

Estimates from most shops are 12-14hours. That'd be 24-30 hours for me, I'm sure. That's a week's work that I don't really want to do.

I've debated pocketing the compensation money and just do it myself, but I don't want to lose the time in my shop.

Outsiders perspective w/a positive.... There are no holes so there's no breach that will lead to further damages. This buys you time.

Option #1= Have someone repair the damages now. That gets it done now. But, will 'how' (they did the repair) be a looming concern for you?
Option #2= Take a settlement & do repairs yourself when you can. This adds to your 'To-Do' list but you'll know the quality of the repairs.

[SkinnyG]

Waiting on compensation on the roof repair for the '77.

Intended to distract myself with work on the '61, but pops came over with an exhaust leak on his mini van, so I welded up the slot the ragamuffins made trying to steal his cat. Did some other maintenance as well as popped out a parkinglot-induced dent in his bumper.

Got SkinnyKid1's Civic on the lift to plot out 2" exhaust and a fart pipe.

Big sweep and tidy in the shop, and we'll see what I get done tomorrow.

[SkinnyG]

Recycler's will issue a check. I'll try to pound out the roof myself and gain some skill. Or more hatred of autobody.

Air Ride kit arrived. Except the tank....

[SkinnyG]

Just to update y'all....

I'm probably 60+ hours into fixing the roof. I've learned a lot.

Pulling the dent is one part of the challenge, but the other part is 1) eliminating
oil canning" while also 2) maintaining "crown" yet 3) keep the skin "tight."

The best work was done with a heat gun to raise the low spots and compressed air to tighten the metal. Shrinking disc worked good to smooth the skin, but tended to "loosen" the panel quite a bit. Heat bun tightened it up. And ALL the defects in the skin DIRECTLY relate to the whole dynamics of the skin.

The silver lining here is 1) my air ride suspension is paid for courtesy of the recycler's, and 2) I have grown significantly in my sheet metal skills which will help me fix the stepside fenders and hood on the '61.

[Ronzo]

Bonus!
1977 what kind of truck?
Also, I like "ragamuffin" lol

[SkinnyG]

1977 Silverado. The Daily - shortboxed & dropped, "potato-potato."

[SkinnyG]

While it's a squarebody, it's still learning a crap ton about roof skins that might be useful here:

Fixing a crushed roof - YouTube

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

1977 Silverado. The Daily - shortboxed & dropped, "potato-potato."

I wonder how many get this immediately? LoL...

[SkinnyG]

It's just as obscure as posting "11:1,231°@050,108°LSA"

[SkinnyG]

Back at it.

Replaced the entire fender flange, and repaired the fender's leading edge rust hole. Still need to fabricate the reinforcement flanges, which will be blasted, epoxied, then welded in:

Rear section replaced:



Complete flange done:



Repaired a rust hole, zero-filler TIG-welded:

[Paul Y]

My body work looks like I left King Kong in my garage with a 5lb hammer and told him to have a go....

Very impressive.

P.

[88Stanger]

awesome work there sir

[SkinnyG]

Got all the dents and creases taken out of the RR fender, with all my new-found "crushed-roof-adventure" metal-whispering skills. Also prepped the fender edge to re-attach the brace brackets - one had broken, and one has to be moved.

Fabricated the reinforcement flange for the fender mount, just some minor trimming and it will be ready to epoxy and attach.

[SkinnyG]

Also welded up the step-bumper holes, and got rid of all the dents and oil-canning.

[SkinnyG]

Spent today scraping undercoating and stripping paint off the driver's rear fender. Not as caved-in as the right side, but certainly repeatedly hammered.

Driver's side looks to be in better shape. I'll only have to repair the flange, not fabricate a whole new one. Interestingly, the right side of the whole truck is the rustiest.

I'm finding very inconsistent primer throughout the truck. In most places there IS primer, but in others there is clearly zero primer under the paint.

[SkinnyG]

Because this fender is so much better, I'm just patching the defects. Notice the square tube brace to try and keep the fender from changing shape (I learned from the last one). Two spots patched (silver paint), the biggie in the corner next. I hammered the rust away with a needle-scaler attachment on my air hammer. All the rust came out of everywhere, and opened some holes. I'm trying to do -something- every day instead of saving it all for a time-spartan weekend.

[SkinnyG]

Piece by piece: the reinforcement is repaired:

[Joe Pass]

Nice work...enjoying your YouTube vids........

[SkinnyG]

Today was physio (and I can barely tie my own shoes after physio), so I merely cut out the top part of the patch:

[SkinnyG]

Then the following day I welded in the patch, and then patched the next inner-panel hole and made the top patch for it. It seems I missed a mounting hole - I'll locate it using the existing bed holes.