Hey All You guys (Nate) helped me out over 6 years ago getting my truck up and running. Thanks for all the good insight. You always said to get er running and then do the little things to keep her driving. You said most trucks that get pulled apart hardly see the road again. I got a 50 Chev handed down to me from my uncle years ago. I got her up and running and been driving daily till about 2 years ago. I parked her under a tarp where she has been sitting for the past two years. My goal is to do some work and get her rolling by the spring. The door handles and all tight, the gages are rusy and I want to get new leafs and steerting so I am confident on the road. A couple of questions. I pulled the door panels off to grease em up as well as took the gages out to spruce them up. When I got them out I noticed the inside of my dash and door panels were super rusty. How do I combat that? Also, the gages are rusty. Is it easy to re decal them? I am keeping her all original besides the 235 engine and newer GM rally wheels. One day when I have them time, patience and place I want to do a full rebuild. Thanks
These trucks were never painted under the dash and inside the doors. They all have surface rust under there. The guage is easy to resurface...look for my tech articles....
Peabo, Over the weekend I jumped out of my wife's 2007 Jeep Wrangler. The sun was shining at just the correct angle and I could see through a small gap in the plastic dash and view the steel steering column support that is hidden back behind the gage cluster. I was surprised to see that it has surface rust on it. The more things change, the more they stay the same. John
Hi Jeff ! Glad to see you're still having fun with it . Follow Russ' advice , he's done it many times over . Be aware that covering with a fully waterproof tarp traps moisture inside and makes things rust faster . NEVER store on grass for this reason ! . My current truck is a seriously rusty P.O.S. but , it runs pretty good in spite of a totally worn out I6 engine . Don'cha just love GM trucks ? .
As for the rust on inside panels etc., I used a product called OsPho. It's available at McCoys Lumber here in Texas. Sure you can find it elsewhere. It's actually Phosphoric Acid... Don't get worried about using Acid. This stuff chemically combines with iron oxide to form iron phosphate, (a really hard substance that renders the product Non Acidic). I lightly sprayed all the surfaces where it was needed and let dry a couple of days. Then I painted over it to prevent further rusting. I did this on surfaces that I had blasted, but may have had some residue. Another product I used was POR 15. It's name actually means Paint Over Rust.... Also a good product. This stuff, when dried, is really hard as well. I tried to scrape some off of my frame to get a ground, and it was quite difficult. There now, that's my 2 cents.
