If it ant straight it aint right!

[beetleswamp]

Thanks, great to be here. If you do come out to the islands get on it quick because I think they plan to entirely cap 'em in concrete.

Actually I have some pretty serious body work issues that I'd like to get some input on. I just bought this thing off a painting company who neglected it and now the rust around the windshield and above the doors is pretty severe. I'm surprised the windshield hasn't cracked already. Basically there are a couple holes where I can look through and see the gas pedal so even though it hasn't rained since I bought it I know the day's going to come when my pants get soaked.

I got some different advice on this from spray foam/fiberglass/paint to super size bondo job (which I heard will crack it for sure when it soaks water) and even rust converter paint with giant sticks of jb weld-type epoxy putty.

All I'd like to do for now is just stop the rust where it is and keep the rain out until I have the time and money to either buy a welder and DIM or send it to a body shop. The truck only has 34k and is in great shape mechanically as a far as I can tell.

Damn that Island Rot.....

 

[SuperchargedRS]

Get some patch panels, LMC truck has em', weld them in paint and done.

for the areas you can't find patch panels, you can fab up some new ones or (the easy way) find a junker and cut em' out.

Just take your time and do it right...in the end you will be happier you did.

 

[beetleswamp]

Some guy was selling a cab on craigslist today. I was thinking about rhino/lava lining the whole thing and just dropping it in. Oh well, it's fun to imagine sometimes.

 

[Bigmick]

Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and cut out all the rot, I took the piccies, I let my buddy do the cutting and welding.
This was the good side.

 

[maddawg308]

Good repair job there, bigmick! Show what a dedicated repair guy can do, and I like the after shot as well....

 

[SuperchargedRS]

Is that a Dragunov???


One of my favorite rifles sweet...especially if it's a Russian one

 

[Bigmick]

hi Supercharged...
Nope, it's not a Dragunov, it's the Romanian copy called a Romak 3, I don't have the money for a real SVD as they're around the £1700 mark.
This is the rest of the Iraqi/Russian/Eastern Bloc made collection, and no, they're all deactivated.
Hi Maddawg, I was really pleased with the after pic, that was taken this July at the War & Peace show, I was trying for the desert storm/storm in the desert theme, came out well I think.

 

[Bigmick]

this is what a dedicated repair guy can really do, all depends how far you want to go and how much you want to spend.
For years all I did was paint over the rust and patch holes with filler, it got to the stage where the vehicle was either restored or scrapped.
Luckily I found someone who loves and knows the vehicles, is not out to rip people off, knows what he's doing and sticks to a repair estimate.

 

[beetleswamp]

Those are some great looking resto picks Bigmick. I'm dreaming of bringing this M1008 back to similar condition.

Yesterday I started picking away at the rust just to see what was holding up the roof on the passenger side. The answer? Well you can tell from below. Is this thing fixable or should I start thinking about replacing the cab?

 

[maddawg308]

Uh, Beetle, I think that is a candidate for cab replacement. Would be more work to fix that rustout there. And it makes me wonder, if the cab top is rusted that bad (and usually that part isn't), what else is wrong in other places in the cab floors, for example? My vote would be to rip off that junker cab and replace the whole thing with good solid metal. If such a thing exists in Hawaii....

 

[n1bnc]

That is a rather unusual place for a K5 to rust. Here in New England, they tend to rust heavily from the bottom up and slowly sink into the axles.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

swap the cab for sure

 

[Bigmick]

Holy buckets, I thought mine had metal termites, in the UK we'd try and repair that, 1. because of the lack of donor vehicles and spares, and 2. because we're slightly mad and like a challenge lmao.

 

[chevycrew]

yes replace it...waaaaay to much work there.

 

[beetleswamp]

That is a rather unusual place for a K5 to rust. Here in New England, they tend to rust heavily from the bottom up and slowly sink into the axles.

The strange thing is the rocker panels and the bed are in much better condition but all around the windshield and the tops of the doors are totally fried. My guess is that it's from salt spray on the windward side of the island. Plus they don't salt the roads here either.

Thanks for the input everybody. Yeah I kinda had that cab replacement feeling already. In the meantime I'll try to seal it up with some fiberglass and buy some time to come up with a battle plan.