Well, since the weatherman was saying that it was going to start getting much colder here, with a strong chance of snow, I decided early in the week that I'd take a vacation day today to get the side panels cut off the LWB box, since I'd have to be outside to do it. However, the cooler weather couldn't hold off for one more day apparently....it was just too chilly to work outside today. Therefore, I decided to just work inside, and do what I could with the bed.
Pic. 1 - I drilled out the spotwelds holding the front support and got it removed, so now it was time to get started on the cleanup. I spent the entire day today cleaning the bottom side of the bed floor. The first picture is a shot taken just as I was getting started.
Pic. 2 - Because of the dust and debris I was kicking up, I'd have to take fairly regular breaks, so I could throw open all the doors and windows to let the shop air out. This composite shows why...the first pic was just before a break, the second was taken about 10 minutes later after I opened all the doors and windows and fired up a couple fans. I tried just using a cheap dust mask at first, but that just wasn't cutting it....I had to dig out my paint respirator just so I could breathe in there! So occasionally I'd have to go outside to get some fresh air....and have a smoke.
Pic. 3 - Here's a shot of the day's progress. I was planning on getting this completely finished up efore heading home, but my angle grinder had different ideas. I've been using this thing so much over the past few months that I completely wore the brushes out. The last hour or so it was loosing power, until it finally got to the point that it would barely spin. So I guess I have to see if I can find some brushes for this thing locally.
Anyway, the nooks and crannies I wasn't able to reach with the wire wheel will be cleaned up with the sandblaster. You might ask why I'm taking the time to do this if I'm going to sandblast it anyway. Well, I've found that using a wire wheel beforehand really speeds things up in the sandblast booth. For this job, I could either spend three days in the sandblast booth working the heck out of the air compressor, or one day with a wire wheel and one more sandblasting.
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