Desert Turquoise 69 D200 Camper Special 383/Auto

[MOPARHOUND]

Had not started a thread about the truck itself, thought the Photo Gallery would be a good place for it, and to provide updates as improvements are made. Also, this post was buried in another thread here on the board, thought it good enough to be it's own thread...............

Purchased 2 trucks here on the board so far, and dealing on more, but the higher transport/shipping/gas costs these days are killing the feasability of many deals.

Medium Green(?) 69 D200 Camper Special 440/4-Speed from Colorado. (Ad has since been purged from the board.)

Desert Turquoise 69 D200 Camper Special 383/Auto from Wyoming. Link to Ad here on board with some before pic's: http://www.sweptline.org/modules.php?na ... pic&t=9314


Originally bought the Wyoming truck as a parts truck, but it is in better shape than the Colorado truck.

Polished the rusty chrome wheels on the Colorado truck, turned out surprisingly well. Thought they were hopeless. Am in the middle of transferring the chrome wheels and new lugnuts onto the freshly painted brake drums of the Wyoming truck.

Brake drum before:



Brake drum after Duplicolor Semi-Gloss Black High Temp Engine Paint. Wanted some good paint that could stand some heat. Some Harley motorocycle guys taught me about using black to set off chrome well:



Here is the rusty chrome wheel while still on the Colorado truck. This is before polishing, and before the bald bias ply tire was dis-mounted:



Chrome wheel after polishing, installed with new chrome lug nuts (old ones were junk), and one of 2 out of production Cooper 16.5 tires I bought locally on Craigslist, $75 for the pair. I scrubbed the tires, and then sprayed Meguair's foaming tire cleaner/shine on them:



I have also been working on the heavily oxidized paint with Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound. Would like to touch up the paint, if I could get some touch up paint that matched. Front half is as found farm truck, painted rim and untouched paint. Back half (bed) is after polishing, and polished chrome wheel install, may get to a local show yet:



Another shot of progress. Thinking of repainting the rear bumper and mirror brackets, just to get by for now, with Rustoleum White spray paint (any thoughts on that?):



It has been a lot of work, hand polishing and prepping stuff for paint, but the results have been encouraging. Need the exercise anyway......LOL.

[Hobcobble]

Great progress pics! I had "dreams" of
buying that Wyoming truck.... it was definitely at
the right price but, alas, freight to NY State would
have killed me Did you iron out the shifting
issue with the tranny?... I seem to recall that it
had difficulties up-shifting or something of the like.
Its amazing that, with a bit of elbow grease, you can
bring back rusty wheels to look like those.

I use Rustoleum paints on truck parts and on frames
and have had good luck
John

[wide65]

That was great!!!!! What did you all use on the paint? Basic turtle wax or?? The truck is coming along nicely!

[MOPARHOUND]

Shipping was a big issue with this truck, but was fortunate to catch a mopar guy with a multi-car trailer in Colorado to run up and get it. A bit of negotiating, and $400 shipping later, it was in my driveway. Seller was very helpful, agreeing to drive it over a Mountain to Interstate 80 to meet the driver. Saved the car hauler from having to go over the Mountain twice with cars on (once going in, and once coming out).

Seller was confident the truck would make it over the Mountain, so that encouraged me that the tranny was not entirely toast. It still will not shift in Drive correctly. You start off in 1st, get up to 15-20, and bump the shifter to Drive, and it will make the 2nd to Drive shift on it's own. Coast back to a stop, and truck will set there whirring in Drive, going no where. Put it back in 1st, and off you go again.

Truck's high idle was way high, nearly impossible to kick it down to normal idle tapping the foot feet. Initially I was opening the hood, and manually "taking it off high idle". If you were impatient, you could drop the truck in 1st, kinda like a neutral drop, and take off. But this would be killing the trans. I backed off the high idle to just above regular/normal idle, and it works like a champ now, idling a tad above normal for warm up, and then coming off high idle with a tap of the pedal.

Discovered driveshaft is not fully engaged in trans IMO, need to solve that problem. Occasionally hearing what sounds like the clang of a U-joint, but they feel tight:

[MOPARHOUND]

That was great!!!!! What did you all use on the paint? Basic turtle wax or?? The truck is coming along nicely!

I used the basic $2-$3 Turtle Wax (Brown) Rubbing Compound on the chrome wheels and the heavily oxidized paint. Tried the Turtle Wax (White) Polishing Compound, but it was taking forever. The Rubbing Compound is coarser than the Polishing Compound. It got to the point on the wheels in spots I had to use ultra-fine steel wool to get the rust off, scratching the wheel. But I'll take a few dulled chrome spots over brown rust any day.

To do it right, a guy would go back over the truck with the polishing compound, then use a swirl remover, and then wax. But on this old truck paint, think I'll go straight to wax .

[MOPARHOUND]

I use Rustoleum paints on truck parts and on frames
and have had good luck
John

Do you use the rattle can spray, or use the canned stuff with a brush/roller?

[Hobcobble]

Do you use the rattle can spray, or use the canned stuff with a brush/roller?

I've used both spray and brush. For the frame, I start
with the Rusty Metal Primer [2 coats] and finished
with Semi Gloss or Satin Black [brushed it on].

For a bumper, I'd go with spray paint over spray
primer..... but that's just me.... [My
friend who restores Charger R/T's & Superbirds
shudders when I say the word Rustoleum]

From the looks of that driveshaft pic, I'd say you're
lucky to have splines left on the tail shaft & yoke.
John

[69D300]

Good job! Did you use a buffer with the polishing compound or did you do it by hand? It really brought the shine back to that dead paint for sure

[cudajimmy]

I almost bought that wyoming truck. I think it's a VERY good example of our era trucks.


I'm green with envy!

[nfury8]

I have used the Rustoleam quite a bit on my cars and trucks. I have had good luck with the rattle cans and brushing, but I prefer to spray it with a $15 Harbor Freight HVLP. The semi gloss has to be sprayed to get a consistent coat. The HVLP is great for this and lets you use $10 quarts verses $8 rattle cans. You can't bet the rattle cans for small parts though.

The steel rims I recently put on my W200 crewcab were sand blasted, shot with Duplicolor's rattle can etching primer and finished with the Rustoleam Satin Black from the HVLP. They look great and are holding up well, but it has only been since spring.

[muddyoldman]

I just recently baught a truck the same color.but I call it Torque-oise. I hope mine cleans up as well as yours.