Willie dog

1 hour ago, Vladislav said:

Looks fine!

Wonder how things will go with the curved parts of the tank..

Luckily Vlad, the curved part of the tank are in good shape. The lower side panels took the most abuse from the salt and junk they used on the roads during the Pennsylvania winters.

5 minutes ago, j hancock said:

Looks Good!  Clean sheet metal is sooo good to work with.

Ain't it though!!  Welds beautiful, and you can hook the ground clamp anywhere!

42 minutes ago, mowerman said:

gotcha,,,,,,man its certainly coming right along....looks real good,,,,glad you were able to save it,,,im finally building my dream shop now be working on mine soon....about time ...had it 21 years lol...bob

Whatever shop you build will never be big enough. LOL

26 minutes ago, Freightrain said:

Looks good.  I like fabricating, even if I don't have the right tool for the job LOL!!

I don't have all the fancy rollers and benders either, wish I did though. I think I see them in my future though.

So far everything I have made has been literally made by hand with a welder, cutting wheels and a nice straight, flat edge on my work bench.

5 minutes ago, mowerman said:

excetankert,,,,didnt realize it was so r ough,,,,beautiful job,,,thanks for the updates,,,,keep us posted...bob

Unf

Unfortunately the bottom half of the tanker body was the worst part for rust. Plus the fact the cabinet floors were all hacked up from years of modifications.

I'll keep up the posts of the progress.

I showed this to my wife and tried to win her over by telling her it would be the PERFECT thing to water her flower beds......sorry to say she didn't agree with me.  

After some time doing other unimportant things  (eating, sleeping, work ) I'm back in the Mack attack. 

Sorry about the mismatch of the pictures. I uploaded some of the wrong ones and couldn't figure out how to get rid of them before posting. I'll do another one soon with the correct ones.

Got all the frame work completed for both side boxes, fabricated and installed the floors and walls, made a couple of more doors with actual working latches.

Also started mocking up the pump and counter as well as the hose reel to check the fitment. 

Soon the LONG process of getting the whole tank ready for primer.

No rest for the weary! 

I have used POR 15 many times. It is a great product for stopping rust and it dries rock hard. It does fade and get a chalky finish if exposed to sunlight for a long period of time. So if looks are important, you can paint over it will any color or finish you want. 

Do wear gloves and old clothes when applying it because it will NOT come off your skin if it gets on it. And it sticks to everything in the vicinity of what you are painting. 

I'm interested in a decent glove box door.  No latch is fine. 

3 hours ago, MHfred said:

Did you consider using a chemical stripper?

I'm in the process of doing that now. I had to at least try to cut some of the layers down to make sanding/grinding a little easier. Once i get it down some it will come off much easier.

In the past, after using chemical stripper and scraping the loose layers off and a good rinsing with lacquer thinner I always sand the metal with 80 grit on a D.A. sander.

.

I've got an old catchers mask I'm going to convert into a jock strap for future grinding jobs!!  

1 hour ago, B-42 said:

Sounds like Willie dog came darn close to being neutered.  The next time you pick up that grinder you'll be wearing OSHA certified PPE.....a cup.

Next time I'll be wearing kevlar underoos.

2 hours ago, Bigdogtrucker said:

Did you look into sand blasting?

I'm gOing to send it out to have the cracks and crevices blasted. 

I got an estimate to have done without me removing any paint myself, just to do the tank would have been $1800. 

The cab will be a different story though. It will be worth almost any price to get EVERYTHING stripped off.

48 minutes ago, 41chevy said:

Thanks for the spaghetti onain't monitor, gotta hurt worse tha n trapping it in the zipper   

The problem with that is you gotta come back down wth the zipper.

I dont' know where the spaghetti came from. Colorful though ain't it?

17 minutes ago, GreenGiant2 said:

Ouch. Hope the boys are ok.

Yeah they are.  They're just afraid to hangout with me. 

I still have some massaging to do along the bottom edge. I rolled it by hammer and dollie around the framework I made.  The panels on the far left and right sides are made from a roof section from a '57  Chevy pick-up. 

They had the perfect curvature and fit the original panel perfectly. 

Then it was just a matter of cutting away the rotten panels and installing the metal. 

Here's where I am so far. It's much better than the panel that was on there. Full of rust holes covered by filler and fiberglass. 

Thanks guys. I love doing this type of work. I'll post more pics as it progresses.

It's drop dead gorgeous. It takes just as much time or more to modify from original than to restore to factory original. We can all appreciate how much work it takes to do both.

In the end, if you're happy with the results, THAT is all that matters.

By the way, did I mention that it's drop dead gorgeous?

How about some pictures of the front of that old girl...I like looking at rear ends but a pretty face to go with it makes my day...Looking nice. Great work there.

Her face has been removed and is waiting for a MAJOR makeup session.....I'm thinking Merle Norman?

That applies to all who mess with old trucks!

For me, it started with a Tonka and a sandbox...

For me it was Matchbox cars....I used to smash them in my dad's bench vise and pretend they were in a wreck.

Anything you choose will be great! Don't see too many oil trucks. I think Paul (41chevy)posted an old Gulf station with a B-61T semi in it. Cool pic. Good luck with it. Al