Lower Body

As I didn’t want to have the “usual paint job” done (just paint over everything) I decided to disassemble the truck. Doors, windshiled, rollbars, rub-rails and bed sides were all removed, cleaned and all rust spots removed.

First step: take the rub-rails off and FINALLY, some real rust.......

Naturally all screws holding the rub-rails were rusted in place and either didn’t move at all or turned the rivet nuts with them. Nice job, drill 24 screw heads and grind of what was left. All rust spots were coarse cleaned with the grinder, then attacked with a wire brush and finally treated with por15 Metal Ready.

Next step, take off the rear canvas, both roll bars, all doors, bed sides, windshield, rear seats, rear bumpers and tail-lights....... Now I have a full box of used fasteners and a stainless replacement list worth $220

What was left of the truck.....The sides already stripped. Naturally one bolt had to refuse cooperation. The outer large bolt which holds the left bumper was well rusted in place. After cutting the head off and soaking it from both sides with Liquid Wrench it finally could not stand the hammer any more. Now the Pinz finally fits into the garage! Please take note of the secure professional attachement of the batteries for the trip from the backyard to the garage!!!! Just in time, 3 mins after “Pinzi” was in the garage it started to rain for hours......

Everything is stripped except for the “air-tunnel”. The truck must have been used for UN missions as the paint layers are: primer, OD, UN white (very thick layer), 1-4 layers of OD.
After the air-tunnel is done all rust spots will be wire brushed, the surface treated with Metal Ready and all dents filled with Epoxy paste (Epoxy + fumed Silica + glass bubbles)

After the painful removal of the junk and rust in the air-tunnel (sandblasting in the garage, nice environment for painting, LOL) por15 primer in grey was used again and painted twice. (Tip: check your Pinz’s air-tunnel at the right lower corner. The foam isn’t glued there. Most likely you will have the same bad surprise as I had! Some trucks have it a lot worse and you can feel it if you touch the metal above the heater hose on the passenger side.)

Then everything was spray painted with US-Paint Awlgrip 545 primer white.

Pinz inside the spray tent, primed twice in white. The problem is that the front section of the tent has to be removed over night... I hate short garages.......

and then Awlgrip federal yellow, one of the most durable and scratch resistant paints on the market. Unfortunately it was quite humid and windy (the foil of the tent was blown onto the freshly painted surface, yuck!) and the paint job didn’t turn out as good as expected/hoped but “oh well it’s a work truck”....

According to plan it was time to get the bedliner sprayed in. They wanted to have it after the paint had cured for about a month to make sure that the masking tapes they use won’t hurt the new paint job.
Fortunately there are people which offer help without being asked for! Brian Mason offered to put my “Pinz-wreck” onto his trailer and bring it over to Inyati, a local “bedliner place” in Chandler.

Click on the picture to see some more detailed views of the bedliner!
The bedliner is sprayed. Now it’s time to strip, paint and attach the ”upper parts” of the truck ....................