Ole Yeller is back from the stripper

After waiting months and months, my precious bed is back in my hands, and looking better then ever! I was very nervous sending my bed out to be stripped for several reasons. One was that beat up old truck that hauled if off. Two you'll never know how damaged or full of rust a old panel like this can be until you remove all the paint and body filler. All in all I'm very happy.

Here's the bed and tailgate.

I knew there were these two rust spots in the floor. I discovered them a while back when I was removing the old bed liner.

Not to bad for a 39 yr old. I've seen people the same age that don't look nearly this good.

The front bed panel is a little damaged, but nothing that a hammer won't fix :)

This is the left bedside. See all the little holes. Way back in the day when a panel was dented the body man would drill holes around the dent then pull then out with a huge wood screw. This is not the way to fix a panel. The worse part about this repair style is usually the holes aren't welded up, so that allows water to enter the paint from the backside of that panel.

The tailgate. I want to get the body work done on the tailgate first so I can paint it, and display it in my office. I found my color last weekend on a Dodge Challenger and I'm super excited to see what the truck looks like painted baby blue metallic!!

Even the underside of the bed got stripped. I thought about painting under here, but it will never be seen, so I'll apply new black undercoating to the underside.

Well I have alot of work to do on this bed. Before the rust coating can be applied I have to sand the bed down to smooth everything out and wipe it down with wax and grease remover. Once the bare metal is covered. It will be off to get the body work started.

Has anyone seen my bed???

Well it's been one month since my bed got loaded in the back of that beat up Ford dually, and guess what??? I still don't have it back. Whats the deal has been my question to the owner of the company since last month. Well you know he had other larger jobs, and I was out of town and the weather wasn't good. I've heard every reason in the book, but still no bed.

So onto something else. I mentioned in my last post that I'd like to C- notch my frame. Theres no better time then the present to get this done since it requires the bed coming off anyways. I'll explain what this means for my mom, sisters & bro- in-laws that follow my blog but don't understand this lingo.

I bought this truck with a 4/6 drop. The four means the front of the truck has been lowered 4 inches and the rear 6 inches. When you lower a vehicle really all your doing is lowering the vehicles ride height. Since the truck was lowered 6 inches in the back I lost six inches of suspension travel. This is okay, and the vehicle will still ride just fine, until its loaded with people or something is in the bed. As more weight is added the springs in the back compress and the rear axle gets closer and closer to the frame. Any speed bump or ruff spot in the road will cause the truck to bottom out, or the axle will hit the frame. Not good for several reasons.

So a C- notch fixes this issue and allows more suspension movement with out damaging the frame or the axle. Now I've only done the right side. Tomorrow I'll tackle the left, but for now I'll show you whats required in installing the right side.


This is a picture of the rear suspenion in my truck right now. The axle shock and coil spring are shown here. Usually the axle is 4 to five inches away from the frame, but I have the tires off the ground so theres more room then normal.

First things first get the truck up on jacks and support the weight. Next remove the rear tires, shocks, springs and disconnect any brake and fuel lines.

Next get out the torch, remember the fuel lines I just mentioned!!! Make sure there way out of the way!!! With the torch and a chisel I cut the old bracket off the frame. It will no longer be used.

After all the brackets are removed and the bare frame rail is exposed, thats when you begin cutting. Yes, cutting the frame. Have you ever heard the saying measure twice and cut once???? The new C-Notch bracket sides onto the frame and allows you to trace the frame portion above the axle that needs to be removed.
This took me a little while. Cutting the frame would have been easier if I had access to a plasma cutter, or if I felt comfortable with a torch, but I used a cut off wheel instead. After all the cutting and trimming the C-Notch will then bolt onto the frame. Like so


The Notch as you can see encloses the cut frame rails and strengthens the frame. Theres several extra bolts that need to be installed to complete this right side, but I don't have them yet. Once both sides are installed and bolted in I'll weld the C-Notch to the frame for extra strength.

Last night Oct.12th I completed the left side. So I'm ready to weld and re-install the rear suspension. Just in time too, the bed just showed up from the stripper and I have to get it sanded and coated with a rust primer, before it begins to rust.