The wife is in charge of painting -- doing a much better job than I, and she put down a drop cloth. Too fancy for me! I prepped it with Marine Clean and Metal Ready as normal, but she is spray bombing it during the day while I'm at work. It's amazing how much better the paint turns out when you do a coat every hour or two instead of throwing 5 coats on in an hour after dark.
Got the spring hangers welded tonight, and gusseted. Welded tabs up front (actually shackle parts, 4 for $10 at Tractor Supply) for safety chains. I spent a lot of time cleaning the spring hangers and the welds came out great, but couldn't get an arc on the safety tabs. That's only happened once before, I went back and really cleaned them well with a flapper disc and then acetone, but still no go. Turned the heat down a notch and it welded fine, but by that time I had a bunch of boogers and junk on one of them so I've got some grinding to do to clean them up.
Anyway, she's painting the bottom tomorrow and then Friday I'll throw it on the tub and start welding it up. Have the tailgate to weld to the frame, as well as two tabs per side for the fender, and new spring plates on the axles. Should be done Saturday and back on the wheels. The only thing I haven't done with the frame is to put the receiver in the rear crossmember. I want to make sure the tailgate works properly first, and will either do it Saturday or a later date....have to see how the schedule goes.
Have a good idea for the receiver, I think....found a short (6") weld-in receiver I bought for a bumper I never built, and it fits perfectly over the stock receiver V. I have to figure out how to work a second bolt in though, probably use the other two shackle tabs I bought for the safety chains and tie it in somehow. Will be swappable with the Fordham (I think that's it?) hitch for around town or to look more stock, and then throw the receiver on for a six-axis coupling.
