Fixing up an older pickup truck, part 5

If you read my last post about my work on the pickup truck, then you know that I was worried that the weather was not going to be nice enough to get more work done on the frame. As it turned out, I got lucky this weekend. We had 2 nice days in a row, both sunny days. On Saturday, it got above 50 degrees so I was able to spray primer over the Rust Reformer rust killer paint, and today it hit 60 degrees so I was able to spray a couple of coats of gloss black Rustoleum over the primer paint.

The Rust Reformer paint has chemicals in it that chemically bind with the rust to stop it from continuing to rust, and it also acts as a primer base coat. This was how it looked on Monday.

Yesterday, I moved the truck out into the sunshine in the back yard, and then sprayed a coat of Rustoleum black primer paint on the frames to cover up the Rust Reformer paint. I let that dry all day. I didn't really have time to spray the gloss paint on it yesterday as it was only warm enough for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

This afternoon it got up to about 60 F, so it was a good day to spray the gloss paint onto the frame. I moved the truck out of the back yard to the alley and turned it around so that the frame was facing the sun. I figured that the sun would warm up the frame a bit more, and would help the paint to dry a bit faster. I sprayed the paint on a bit heavy, I was holding the can close because of the breeze. I also sprayed a second coat on the frames about an hour later. I ended up using most of 2 cans of spray paint on the frames, plus I sprayed the tops of the springs and the underside of the frames. I'll have to redo the undersides of the frames next year because I didn't clean the rust off of that area.

As you can see, I also painted the inside of the frames, I had cleaned the rust out of the insides of the frames as far as the center crossmember with a wire wheel on the angle grinder before I sprayed the Rust Reformer on at the beginning of the week.

The frames aren't very smooth because of about 25 years worth of the process of rusting, but they shouldn't rust anymore, at least for a few years. I've got more work to do to the frames next year, but they're good enough for now.

I also had time this afternoon to start on the 4X4s that I'm going to use for the cross members for the flat bed that I'm going to put on the truck. I don't know how far I'll get on this part of the project before winter hits, but I want to at least get the crossmembers bolted onto the frame so that I can put something on them to keep the snow from piling up on the frame this winter. I also have to remount the rear bumper, and attach a set of tail lights for the truck in case I need to drive it somewhere.

The flatbed on the truck will be 6 feet wide, slightly wider than the cab is. I had bought 3 six foot long treated 4X4s this week to use for the flatbed. I had to cut 3 inches off each one so that when I put the 2X6s on the sides of the flatbed, the bed will be 6 feet wide, including the width of the 2X6s.
Here's the 4X4s, cut to length.

Hopefully, I'll get more work done on the project this week. The temperature will only be in the 40s F this week, but we're not suppose to get any bad weather until the end of the week, so I should have a couple of days to get the holes drilled in the 4X4s for the bolts, and get them bolted onto the frame of the truck.

That's all I have for this post, thanks for stopping by to check it out!