A fair number of animals get dumped off on the road I live on, mostly cats. I live on a back road in close proximity to 2 major highways so its convenient for dirt bags to do that.

I still have 3 porch cats one of whom is very friendly. And 2 inside cats. Toby was porch cat (and King of the Yard) because, although we had him neutered, he was at least several years old at the time and used to spraying on things that were "his". We tried to bring him inside but he sprayed in the house several times which was no good. We really wanted to bring him in because he was an awesome cat but didn't want to have a house that reeked like cat pee. I built him and the other porch cats an insulated wooden box to shelter in and several cat beds on top of it for when he wanted to sleep out.

Before we had him neutered he would attack the UPS guy when he came into the yard! He simmered down afterwards. Plus I told him that Brown Truck is our friend.

 

In other news I have most of the stuff stripped off of the back of the truck in preparation for painting with rust inhibitor.


My plan is to prep then Chassis Saver the frame and monitor it. If it starts to flake off or bubble I will likely go the Tman route and spray grease on the exposed spots.


I also got the front grill off and am getting ready to pull it into the garage to drop the tank and fix the frame.

 

Sorry to hear about the loss of Toby.
Those pets do become a important part of our lives.

Check out Rust Evaporator product, I just tried it on my '91.0 floor board to clean it up before paint.
Non toxic, no fumes and easy to use.
I was pretty impressed with how easy it was to use.
I have a few bolts de rusting in a jug of it right now.

Footnote: I have no affiliation with them, I am just a customer that was pretty happy with the product.
I had never heard of it till j_martin mentioned it here on DTR.

 

I did a search for Rust Evaporator and the closest I could find was evapo-rust.is that the stuff?

 

Sorry my bad that is the stuff. I got a gallon of it from the local Tractor Supply.

 

I've considered Evaporust and KrudKutter rust converter has been pretty highly recommended. The reason I'm thinking of using Chassis Saver is that my cousin painted a rusty jeep frame with it that sat outside uncovered for 2 years afterward. The paint faded but no rust came through.

The downside is that it is toxic, expensive, and moderately difficult to deal with.

Maybe I'll do one side of each!

I'd like to see some long term results from the first 2 products mentioned.

 

After dealing with a bunch other projects I finally got to do some work on the truck. I cut the rusted cab mount and floor board out of the DS of the cab. I welded in the new floor board last night.

 

I welded in some more material around the floorboard and filled some small holes. I would post pics but my camera is still at my inlaws house 3 hours away and its a PITA to do with my phone.


I'm going to attempt to weld up some cab mounts out of 1/8" steel plate. There is a video on YouTube that a guy did about replacing a rotted floorboard in a W250 and he fabbed up some mounts out of 1/8" steel so I'm going to give it a try. Since I never want to replace them again 1/8" seems like a good start.

 

Cab mounts on the cab or the frame?

 

Sounds like fun. Can't wait to see it... or at least read about it...

 

Not sure if I'm allowed to post YouTube links but here is the video I was talking about.

Or type this into YouTube:
first gen dodge cummins cab mount and floor repair

 

I finally got the truck into my shop. Pulled the tank, fuel lines, and rear brake lines. I am making a plan for dealing with the frame rust. I also installed my THD low pressure lift pump. The biggest PITA with that was cutting away the tappet cover sound insulation. Stupid idea anyway.

I have one of my 1/8" steel cab mounts pretty much done. I'll post that up in a separate thread soon. As Ollie mentioned: the R&D took way longer than I thought it would! LOL.

I pulled the fuel sending unit from the tank and am in the process of trying to figure out if the sender is shot. The fuel gauge doesn't work (it went to half full for a couple seconds once) and I am trying to figure out if the arm/sender assembly just needs tightened or if the varistor (?) is fried. I get Ohm readings between the middle and top wire but none between the middle and bottom or bottom and bottom.

 

Look what was hiding behind my fuel tank....

 

The mounts on the cab. Frame to cab mounts look OK.

 

Behind the fuel tank is always the rustiest area on a 1st gen frame.
The dirt and salt gets trapped back there and the tank sweats moisture when it gets warm and cold.
Glad to see you are back on the project.
I just looked at the cab mounts you made, AWESOME!

I have about 6 weeks of 7 days a week work before I can even look at the Gauntlet project again.