Got the A post skins on and they looked great! That's when I realized that I left out the lower hinge plate...I'm trying not to sound ****** off, but I was dumbfounded at such a stupid mistake! Rut
Three weeks ago I wanted to cut the grass. I moved her car and my '89 F150 up about 35 feet to keep from breaking windows with gravel. While my truck was now in a good spot, I just KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was gonna knock the back glass out. It would have been really hard to do at that distance, position and angle but I KNEW it was gonna happen. It never happened before...but I just KNEW it would.
Sure enough...SMASH! I tape up the window because it's about to rain for five days. Well...tape I used doesn't like water so I'm grounded inside for five days till the weather clears enough I can get out and fix it. I have a parts truck here that I pulled the back glass out of as a replacement so I was all ready to go when the rain stopped.
Pulled out the perfect replacement window and scraped off the old aftermarket tint and then removed the broken window...only to find the seal channel rusted bad on my good truck. I figure that I have a good welding machine and a parts truck; it sure would be a shame to just fill the rust up with bondo hair and move on. I cut out my patches, one area had a crack but it looked like I cut all of it out of my good truck. I then proceed to blow holes I my good truck for about five days doing the side that is cracked and rusted.
Once I get blowing holes in it down pat, I then move on to filling them up...only to have ground the area down next to it too much while grinding out the previous weld blow-through. After about three days of straightening that out, I move to the other side to patch that area.
By this point I'm really good at filling gaps and holes so it goes back together REALLY fast. When I cut the bad part out, I saw the back panel bow in a little but I figured that would straighten back out once I clamp everything back down. SoI zip everything up because I'm now so dam good at doing it. I eyeball down the seam from the patch and and everything looks good. I grind everything out nice and smooth, making sure to fill any small pits by welding up and grinding back down. I've also figured out how to tell when a panel is getting a bit thin when grinding it. I get it almost PERFECT, so it's time for paint and install the glass.
I look down the seam from the other side and now and the back panel definitely bows in right where I have the patch. I beat and bang as best I can to straight it back out but it doesn't budge. I finally cut almost everything out of that side so I can straighten it back out. It moves a little but not where it needs to be. After about four hours I just kick the dam thing from the back side and that did the trick. I now have a little dent on the inner panel behind the seat but it's ok; this isn't a restoration. I just need the dam thing fixed and back on the road; more rain coming.
I get it welded back up, pits welded up and everything ground smooth; now it's time to skim coat, paint and install glass. I decided to skim as I did have a little pull-in from a couple of welds. (no way to get behind and hammer weld it out).
I skim it up and come back the next day to fill in. I didn't built it up quite high enough in three spots but that's ok as it now matches the rest of the dents in the truck. I do a light sand to clean up any spreader streaks and any other marks in the filler. I didn't have time to do another coat as weather was moving in soon and I always have trouble getting the hardner ratio down right. (It usually locks up right after I mix it or it never sets.) I finish the kicked side and then move to the cracked side.
I sand everything down nice and smooth working my way down toward the bottom. I keep getting snagged on something; a little metal ledge. It wasn't from a weld, it was too sharp. I keep looking at if trying to figure out what it is......IT'S THE **** CRACK !!!! It's not big, just about 5/16".
So now I'm really tired and ******! This was the side I spent the most time on trying to get pits filled and not use any filler. I have no idea how I missed this **** crack. Now I have a crack in the middle of a filler patch.
That's it, I'm done! This S.O.B is going back together and it's going back together NOW !!! I am not about to grind all the filler back out and weld up the crack and then wait another day for the filler to set enough to sand and then wait AGAIN for the paint to dry. The rain will be here in two days and it is going to rain for another five days again.
(At this point I think I've been stuck at home...ALONE for about 17 days).
I shoot some extra paint in the area to seal the crack up good, let it dry and install the window. The glass was already clean and ready to go except for one sticker on the back window to remind me which way it came out. I couldn't find the temper stamp so I left the sticker on. I shove the window in, it took about 3 minutes and now I'm finally DONE!
A couple of days later, I notice some badly scratched areas on the lower part of the window. It looks like it was hit with a sander. I didn't see them before even though I looked. I considered getting a sliding window but this one was perfect so I decided not to. This really bums me out but hey, IT'S DONE and I can now drive my truck again.
About a week or so goes by and I'm at our teaching studio doing a raku workshop with Kelly's class. The truck is parked across from where I'm standing and I'm looking at the truck; the window in particular. Something doesn't look right, it takes me about five minutes to figure out that the reflection on the glass is concave.
THE **** THING IS IN BACKWARDS !!!!
SON OF A BITCH !!!
At this point though I gotta laugh. That's exactly the way it came out of the other truck but I couldn't tell because I couldn't find the stamp at the bottom of the window...which I can now see...and it's facing INSIDE the truck instead of outside....
I'll pull it an fix everything whenever I decide to paint it. Other than that, the **** thing is staying PUT!
Feel better now Rut?:laugh:
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