1964 GMC 1000 Fleetside

[WDShaffer]

Originally Posted by aphaynes

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Due to tight budget, if you don't mind me asking, what did the straightening cost you?

That was some time ago, and in California... chrome shops are under strict regulation, and generally expensive. I think I spend $50 and waited a week..A good chrome shop will know where to find the correct dies to basically re-drop forge the piece back to OEM spec. I used the same guy the older body shops call on for bumpers. If you decide to go that route, be careful before dropping off that great original steel. I still have to metal finish gouges and scrapes, but that is easy compared to getting it truly straight.

[Andice]

Repro bumpers are crap. Use an original and be glad you did. The repro bumpers bend as you bolt them to the frame horns and, if plated, the chrome doesn't last. My truck has as few reproduction parts as possible and those that remain are being replaced piece by piece. The repro door checks lasted no time at all and nearly allowed for a "smiley" dent on the drivers door as they literally fell apart. There is not too much damage that you can do to an original front bumper that you can't undo - and with an original front bumper you will not need the two outer brackets. The bumper is so hefty you can simply use a dummy bolt to fill the two outboard holes. Try a couple different ways to remove dents, etc. and by the end you will be an expert. Good luck.

[aphaynes]

Rusty makes it to the drive-in after scrambling to get the Pertronix setup in in time!

Old truck at an old drive-in. Fitting, yes?


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Thanks Barry, for your help which got me done in time for our daughters first drive-in experience.

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I'll have to say it was quite comfy with the three of us lounging in the back of the truck.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

You guys have been bizzaahhhyyyyy!

Tailgate: Looks awesome! Bet you guys have some memories there now!
Gauge cluster: Are you sure you didn't have that done in a shop?

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I bet you grin every time you look at it now. nice work!

Bumper: A Bernzo will be fine. It's just a propane torch. In fact any time someone calls for heat you can usually use that. What you dont want to do is use an oxy/acetelene torch. You'll cut it in two!



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[aphaynes]

Originally Posted by FetchMeAPepsi

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You guys have been bizzaahhhyyyyy!

Tailgate: Looks awesome! Bet you guys have some memories there now!
Gauge cluster: Are you sure you didn't have that done in a shop?

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I bet you grin every time you look at it now. nice work!

Bumper: A Bernzo will be fine. It's just a propane torch. In fact any time someone calls for heat you can usually use that. What you dont want to do is use an oxy/acetelene torch. You'll cut it in two!



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Welcome back Fetch!
Yes we do...on the memories. My wife tells the story more than I do!

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. The best was last Monday though. She was so determined that we were going to the drive-in with Rusty and not the car that she was under the hood and dash helping me run the wire for the Pertronix that Barry gave guidance on.

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[GMCDAC]

Love your drive-in pic! Thanks for posting it.

DAC

[aphaynes]

Originally Posted by bigblockv6

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Myself being in the auto body industry for 30 plus years I would heat the surface start out with a heavy hammer and finish with a hammer and dolly.

Originally Posted by GMCDAC

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Thanks for chiming in BBV6, I wasn't sure if I should recommend heat as I didn't know if the bumper would lose strength. We had a "bumper and paint" shop here locally at one time and they would send bumpers to Denver to get "pressed" straight for repairs, so when I needed to do that once the press at work did to a reasonable job for a crude repair. It was a pain setting it up in the positions and finding a few odd shaped pieces of iron to use for "dies" though.

I have about 30 plus DAYS of "seat of the pants" auto body experience!--LOL!!

DAC

Thanks again guys for the suggestions.

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I did use a little heat and the 3lb hammer. To try to keep the bumps from becoming dents, I took a piece of flat steel (maybe 1/8" thick and 3 inches wide) I had that fit behind the bumper nicely length and width wise. Clamped it in for a makeshift brace and went after one bump with the heat and carefully aimed blows with the hammer.

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It worked surprisingly well. Rinsed and repeated for the second bump on the other half of the bumper.

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It's not perfect, but it is a whhhooolllleeee lot better.

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In the center section, where the bumper is narrower, the bottom edge was flared out pretty bad. Guess the truck it was on tried to pull something improperly that it should not have.

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So, I clamped some square steel tubing to the bottom edge to show me how far back the flare needed to go; basically a straightedge. I added some additional bracing in the narrow section so I would not collapse the bottom edge to far. I started with heat and the three pound hammer, but it really did not want to budge.

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So, I took a risk and grabbed the sledge. A few careful blows later, it is a nice and flat bottom edge now.

I will be painting it white, so as I address the remaining pitting that appears to be fairly minor, hopefully I can try my luck at hiding the rest of the minor imperfections.

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[aphaynes]

So since my last post, I knew I was not going to have much time for a while to devote to Rusty. Though I was continuing to work on the bumper as time permitted, I knew I had rust covered bumper brackets to contend with at a future date. Since I knew I had time before getting to them, I decided to try out a little science experiment I had heard about...treating rust with molasses.

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The theory is that soaking the rusted parts in a concoction of molasses and water (9 parts water to 1 part molasses) for two weeks would take care of the rust.

So starting with these parts...



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(the cover plates were very rusted on the back side)
...I scrounged around to find a container they would fit in. I then poured in 1 gallon of water at a time into the container with the parts in it to see how much water I needed to cover the brackets. Once I knew how much water I had, I managed to do some math to figure out how much molasses I would need. In it went and I let it sit. After a few days, it was getting a little bubbly...



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...A few more days and I had to move it out of the garage. The smell was getting a little funky.

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So as it continued to sit, a guy at work asked why I did not use vinegar. Frankly I did not know you could. Once he said it was faster, I did a little research into molasses versus vinegar for rust. What I learned was, yes the vinegar is faster. However, vinegar will eat rust and good metal whereas the molasses only goes after the rusted metal. Good to know!

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So two weeks later and the concoction was looking oh so yummy...



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I stated pulling out parts and they did not look to impressive at first...



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However, after cleaning them up with a little dawn and scotchbrite pad, I was impressed. Just rinsing them with water and 90% of the rust just sloughed off. In this image you can see flash rust did raise it's ugly head to a minor extent...



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But a few short minutes with a wire wheel and all parts looked quite impressive to me...



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The rusted bolts came out good to. Obviously, if you are in a hurry, this is not the method to use. However, if you have other things to work on, toss your rusted stuff in a batch of molasses and let it sit. It's slow as molasses,

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but you don't lose any good metal during the process.

Bumper is almost ready as well...



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[Andice]

Looking good! I used Simple Green to remove a bad paint job on a plastic model kit. It worked great. You never know unless you try.

[aphaynes]

Originally Posted by Andice

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Looking good! I used Simple Green to remove a bad paint job on a plastic model kit. It worked great. You never know unless you try.

As long as what you try does not destroy what your working on

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