60Patrol

Lot's and lot's of work to the frame lately. All sanding! The frame is really starting to look outstanding though, hard work pays off. One thing I love about these trucks is the frame, it is so stout and overbuilt. The engineering that went into it is also impressive not to mention 50 some odd years ago some Japanese guy stood around all day with a stick welder building these, back in the day before robotics in car manufacturing. To me that makes them super cool.

Had a lot of trouble coming up with a good fuel tank for this truck. As a lot of you have experienced, 50yrs and these old fuel tanks can be in poor condition. After cleaning 4 different tanks I ended up using the originals for the 67. It was really bad inside since this truck sat since the 1980's, must have been 2" of sludge inside it. But it had no dents and I couldn't find any holes in it. So I took it to a radiator shop and had it boiled out. That got all the sludge out. Now all I can see inside it is some light surface rust. I am using a KSB fuel tank restore kit on the tank. The outside somebody had rattle canned it, on top of grease and oil! Sanding this off was one dirty job, imagine paint dust but it is sticky and oily. I got it all sanded back though, I am coating the outside with Rust Bullet and then will top coat that with chassis black.





Here is a tidbit of info. A lot of people love seeing the very low mile trucks and dream of owning one. The thing is very very few low mileage Patrols I have ever seen were taken care of, most were abandon and just left sitting. That creates a ton of problems. Not only will fuel tanks sludge up and rot out sitting for many years other problems can be expected too. Like engines seizing up or cooling systems being nothing but a crusty rusty sludged up mess. Rust and pitting can also form on key sealing surfaces in axles, trans, t-case, steering box and more. Wheel cylinders and brake lines plus master cylinders tend to rust from the inside out when they sit. Also plow trucks are always beat down badly. Frames cut on and big holes drilled in the frames. The trucks exposed to salt. Hard work with big loads on the engine. Smacking into curbs and the like with the plow. Most the time plow trucks are maintained well, like oil changed often and when things need repair they get fixed. However, I have torn down 4 plow trucks now and every one of them was beat down badly, most beyond what I consider worth restoring. 35k mile engines with busted pistons, bent axle housings, wasted frames, rusty bodies are all common on plow trucks. The best Patrols in my opinion have 50-100,000 miles on them, have lived in the dry western states and didn't spend a lot of time in the dirt. I have seen a lot of these types of Patrols in Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and California. So if you are wanting to restore a Patrol, that is what you really want to find. It will make the whole project 1000x easier and more enjoyable.

Cheers

Great progress and photos, as always. The fuel tank looks great.

And your tip on what Patrol to look for makes all the sense.

Merry Christmas!

So after sanding down the fuel tank, it got an acid bath.



and then I coated it with Rust Bullet. This will get a light sand before chassis black goes on. But first, time to restore the inside of the tank!



Cheers

Looks way better than new...!!!

Incredible level of detail.

Frame horn repaired, a new section was made and welded in place. Holes drilled, all cleaned up and done.



Final prep before painting



Two coats of 2K epoxy primer, one day apart and wet sanding to 320g between coats, then two coats of chassis black. This nearly 50yr old frame now looks like new and is ready for another 50yrs!



This area saw a lot of repairs, I am happy with the results.




Cheers

In case anyone is wondering, I used this paint for top coating.

http://www.hirschauto.com/Super-Black-C ... oducts/10/

It is very affordable, goes down real nice, self levels well and seems pretty bomber. It is a spray and go, no mixing required. Or you can brush it on. It has just the right amount of shine, it is semi-gloss. I used their manifold paint on the 64 and liked it a lot so went with their chassis paint on this truck.

I spent a lot of time on the frame, several reasons for that. One being it is a really good condition frame and may never be restored again, so might as well do it right and to the best of my ability. Two, the truck is going to be used so I wanted it rust proofed as best as I could. Lot's of hours put into it but I am happy with the results, it is sealed up very well and should even take some exposure to salt with no ill effects. Bill Hirsch claims over 500hrs exposed to salt with no issues. I used nearly a full gallon on the frame. I used a half gallon of the epoxy primer, actually a full gallon if I count the activator.

Cheers

I was asked a question in pm that makes more sense for me to reply to here than just to one guy/gal. So here goes.....

I was looking at your pics on your frame restorations. How do you go about doing it. I take it you blast the frames first? Do you make up all your own repair parts? I just got a 65 and want to redo the frame and eventually the whole truck

First let me say, it depends what you start with. Like most Patrols the frame is going to be nasty, neglected and have 40-50+yrs of funk on them. There is always the odd chance though that the truck was taken care of or came from the desert and if that is the case you could skip a thing or two on it. For me, a frame restoration is something I only want to do on a truck once, ever. So I am going to do it right and to the best of my ability. If you do this, the frame will be ready to survive another 50 or so yrs of use and abuse. On top of this, if you really want a sealed up frame it takes considerable effort because of how the frames were made. Not only are they fully boxed they also have a ton of seams and seams = rust. Can you imagine going through the effort of restoring a frame and then a year or two later it is bleeding rust out of these seams!?

First, a good pressure wash. If it is a clean frame a cold water will do it. If not you may need to scrub it with Simple Green and repeat the wash and keep doing it until it is clean. However, the fastest and best method is a hot water pressurer washer. These are much hotter than you will find at the car wash, most go to 300+*, some are adjustable. The big brand and most common and best made are the Hotsy. You can rent these and take home to do up your truck. It is well worth the rental and diesel fuel it runs on expense, trust me on that. In addition to the wash I also wash out the inside of the frame as best I can. I raise the back end of the truck, they don't drain well out the back, only the front. I then use an attachment I made for the garden hose that fits inside the small holes in the frame rails. I push it in there and wash until I have nothing but clean water coming out of the frame.

Once washed, it is time to sand blast. Now if you skip washing and go straight to blasting you will not make any friends at the sand blast shop or if doing it yourself you will find out why they won't like you. Grease, oil, grime are bad news when blasting, a sand blaster really doesn't want to take this stuff off, it will but not easily. A commercial outfit re-uses their sand (I do too, it is expensive and I hate waste) and when you bring them nasty greasy or oily items it pollutes their sand. They hate it, trust me on that and that is why I wash first. My local sand blast shop charges about $250 to do a Patrol frame, not bad really. You can go at it with a grinder (flap discs), a sander and wire wheels on various tools. In is a major pain in the butt though, takes tons of work and will never get the frame as clean as sand blasting. Not to mention it is dangerous and not fun at all with the wire brush, steel thorns are not joke and hurt plus hard to get out of your clothes! After blasting it takes some effort to get all the sand out of the frame, the more effort you put in the more sand you will get out. I start by putting the frame up on end, ya know lean it up against the shop or house or whatever, front of the frame down. Then I get on a ladder and smack the frame rails with a rubber mallet. After this I use compressed air. I use attachments I made for the compressor and also the shop vac to get inside the frame rails via the small holes.

Now you can spray right on the sand blasted steel and most people do that. Make sure you clean it thoroughly first, sand dust will be present even if you can't see it. A wipe down with MEK is recommended, only use MEK for wipe downs, anything else can cause you problems. I take things a step farther so I don't paint right after blasting. I believe Nissan dipped the frames because there is paint applied to the inside of the frame and dipping is the only way to do that. Since dipping is very expensive, I do it myself.

At this point I will do any frame repairs that are needed. I always and I mean always cut apart the #2 cross member, this being the one below the trans. Even if it looks good from the outside, I promise you it has funk inside it. I cut off the top and work with it from there. I always remove the "H" shaped reinforcement brackets inside the cross member, they are always corroded and often falling apart from rust. In my opinion it is a poor design because the H brackets trap dirt, mud and funk. So I re-enforce the cross member with 1/4" plate. I weld this in to the bottom of the cross member. I have also fully fabricated a new #2 cross member when they are to far gone to fix up, I have made them out of 3/8" plate. The stock cross member is stamped out though and takes considerable effort to make new and make it look stamped. Front frame rail horns are often damaged and need repairs, for these I usually cut 1/4" patch pieces and weld them in rather than trying to straighten up twisted old pieces. Very common for previous owners to have drilled holes here too and it is simply easier to make new pieces than mess with trying to fix trashed horns. The firewall body mount outriggers are also often trashed on Patrols. These get hung up off road or bounced off rocks, logs or whatever. Very common to find these bent up as well as the caps on the bottom of them twisted and trashed. For these I make patch pieces out of 1/4" plate and I always make new caps for the bottom. Make sure and use cold rolled for this vs hot rolled. CR won't distort like HR and is a finer grade of steel. HR is considered cheaper steel in the industry for use when distortion won't matter.

I paint the inside of the frame with RustBullet, it is similar to POR15 but easier to use. Basically I am talking about a rust encapsulating paint. After doing this three times I found it helps to thin down the RB. Before applying the RB I do an acid bath. I use Metal Blast, a RustBullet designed product for use before their paint. The acid etches, cleans and preps the steel for paint. You simply put it on, I use a spray bottle, let it sit and then wash it off with water, by wash I mean wipe down not spray with water. It turns rust black. To get the RB inside the frame is a real nasty job but it does work and it works well. I use a honey bottle or a turkey baster and squirt the RB into the frame holes. I then make a brush I can get inside the frame rails via the small holes. It is simply a coat hanger cut up with a rag attached to the end of it. I work it hard and as best I can inside the frame. I also flip the frame as I am doing this and keep one end of the frame lower than the other. My buddy who did this on his 68 GTO calls it back flooding or just flooding the frame with paint and that is what I am doing. Once I feel it is coated right, I leave the frame higher on one end and let the excess drain out. What is really important is getting the seams that make up the c-channels flooded with paint. There is rust between these seams you will never get out unless you cut the frame apart so sealing the seams with the rust encapsulating paint is key to me. I also coat all seams on the outside of the frame, I even hit up welds. I do this to encapsulate the rust that is there. After it drys, about 48hrs I start sanding. The RB makes a mess and will be all over the outside of the frame, if you top coat on this you will have ugly marks everywhere the RB is located. So I smooth and blend the RB down in order for the top coat to look good. This can take a lot of work depending on how messy the RB was or if you did all the seams on the outside of the frame. A final note about RB, it will fill pitting if you have pits on the frame from rust. You then sand it back and the RB stays in the pits giving you a nice clean smooth surface where the pits are gone.

Once this is done and I am happy with it I move on to primer. I use a high quality 2K Epoxy primer I get at the automotive paint supply shop. You can get it in colors, I use black because it makes any areas you may miss with top coat harder to see or notice. I will lay down 2-3 coats of the epoxy, I may or may not sand between coats. Once I am happy with the primer I move on to the top coat.

For top coat I have used DuPont Imron and also on this truck Bill Hirsch chassis black. The Imron is super nasty stuff and I like how the Bill Hirsch went down and looks. Semi-gloss is what you want on the frame to look stock. High gloss looks bad in my opinion and flat black doesn't do it for me unless on one of my off-road trucks. Top coats are generally applied at 30min to 1hr intervals, how many coats you apply is up to you, I go 2-3.

So there you go, that is how I do it. Many other ways to do it out there, such as dipping, galvanizing or powder coating. I don't like powder coating because it will chip and touching it up just doesn't work. I like to be able to touch up the frame/chassis over time. Both the Bill Hirsch and the Imron match up very closely to a Duplicolor semi-gloss black in a spray can. It is also easy to touch up using a small brush with the BH or Imron.

Last bit, do not spray paints unless you have the right gear. I know painters that don't even get this. A canister mask is not going to cut it in terms of vapors and other nasty stuff in automotive paints. You must use a fresh air system, anything less and you are seriously risking your health. It costs money to restore a frame right, on the materials and time but also on the tools. If you don't have the right tools and are not willing to buy them, don't do it. Nervous system damage is no joke, there is a reason they put so many warning labels on these paints, they are super nasty. I repeat, only paint with a fresh air system, I have a Hobby Air full face mask, it only cost me about $500 and was worth every penny I spent on it.

Cheers

Excellent tips and descriptions. Very thorough!

This posting about chassis prep and painting should go on its own.

Prepping axles and related parts lately so that they can be fully rebuilt soon. Last weekend of the month I am heading to Boise to set up the ring & pinions with a buddy of mine who worked in a diff shop for years. I can do them myself but he does them much faster and easier than me and hey I just need an excuse to get out of town for a weekend.





All the goodies recently acquired from Australia. Front & rear axle kits and then some.



These axles from the 67 are in very good condition. After cleaning out sand from the housings, polishing the knuckle balls to 600g and sanding the housings they are ready for paint. I will be converting the top knuckle cap which is a brass/bronze bushing set up to the newer cap with bearing. Why not, I have all the parts and I believe it is a bit of a stronger design than the older style.

The fuel tank has also been ongoing. I had real probs getting a good tank for this truck, three from 66+ trucks were all pretty bad and the one from the 64 was completely shot. The tank I picked ended up being from the 67 but since the truck sat since the 1980's the tank had at least 1" of sludge in it. I had that boiled out at the radiator shop. However, there was still tons of varnish and surface rust inside the tank. To have good results with a tank resto kit you really need to get the tank very clean inside. After about a dozens washes to the inside, using a KBS wash, it finally started coming clean. It has now been treated with KBS rust blast and dried for 3-4 days. So now it is ready to seal the inside. It is a good tank for being 50yrs old, only light surface rust on the inside but letting gas dry inside it over 30yrs sure made a big mess inside the tank.

Cheers

RMP&O,
I understand why you resent the editing of your posts, but as the above (and hundreds of other) posts show, you understand these trucks as well as or better than anyone else and I and everyone else here really benefits from your expertise. I hope you stick around.
Soft60