Just rebuilt my ws what a pia

[philin mt]

I have for the most part a montana rustfree body with 2.8 mi .It has been sitting in the montana sun for 20 plus years, I bought it from the gsa in 1985, thay used it as a parts rig and stoled a lot of wierd stuf over the years but what was left was very good. In moving the truck around I slipped with the forklift and blow out the driverside ws, well that was no big loss, the glass was foggy and the pass side had been robbed years before I got it. The onlything that went right was the inner frame slid right out after I unbent the keeper tin on the hinge. Afterthat I went to hell. all 6 of the screws twisted off.I went out to the boneyard and robbed a inner frame from a 6x6, It was froze tight and I broke the screws off in the arms that hold it up, It took a hour to free the hinge so it would slid out, and then I broke off all six of the screws that hold the inner frame together just like the drivers side. After I broke the glass out I tried to remove the rubber seal, well it was rock hard and broke into little pieces, so I spent a hole day chipping out the rubber, Than I had a friend with a sandbleaster that let be use it to clean the frames. The blast cab was way too small to fit the inner frames into so I cound not clean the little groves (thas why I drove 30 miles to use his stuff) so I stopped at the ace store and got some acid to dip the frames in (works well as long as you dont spill any or leave the parts in too long). After a trip home for new pants, I got the frame clean. Then I found out that water had got into the inside of the frames and froze, this swelled the tin and cracked it. I then spent the next 2 days sliverbrazzing the frame up. After that it was down hill for a while, the priming with good, but then it came to the outside rubber (I bought the good stuff but what a pia to install in to that little grove) 2 days latter that was done and it was time for the glass, I had found some NOS for 25.00 each and it fit right. In being cheap I didnt buy new moldinging and thought I could find then here in Montana (bad Idea no one evens knows what the stuff is) well I have a electric motor shop and after spending 3 hours running around I looked in the motor supply room and found formed cell for rewinding motors that fit just right, will not hold water and its was free. I went to paint the main frame and kicked over the paint gun and broke the trigger, had to wait until the parts store open to buy a new paint gun. Things went well after that but 7 days to rebuild the ws was overkill.I am glad the whole truck didnt go like this. I feel sorry for you that live on the coast and have to fight rust ,the way the ws is made there would not be anything to fix...Phil in mt

[Lifer]

Sounds like one of those days when you shoulda stayed in bed!

[Cal_Gary]

I went through the windshield bolt drill (literally) a couple of months ago, having to drill out all of the windshield track mounting bolts in order to install a complete new windshield. No fun trying to hold the mounting strip in place while drilling out the bolts (I used a small easy-out in an existing hole, then clamped it with vise-grips so the strip wouldn't flex upward into the windshield frame when pressure was applied). My truck was all cancered out, too, when I bought it, which led to my entire cab, front fenders, and bed replacement. Still chasing rust here and there but making headway.
Gary