Here's some progress pictures from xmas & new years.
Frame after pressure washing, but before sandblasting:
It's in really good shape, quite a bit of original paint on it still. Little rust, but a few fatigue cracks near the bumpers & transfer case mounts.
Under-body prep & epoxy crack filler for the plywood:
I used some 'clear penetrating epoxy sealer' CPES before the filler, and then topped it all off with SPI epoxy primer. The CPES and filler supposedly works great for wood boats... but it's really nasty, a rash showed up on my arms a few days after all this. I'm more suspicious of the smiths filler since it started where some of it was stuck to my skin. It took a full week for it to get better.
Frame after applying SPI epoxy primer:
All the prep & paint application was A LOT of work for me... hoping never to do this again... maybe if i got one of those vacuum sand blasters. A 220v space heater and a propane bottle burner was enough to keep the garage ~75F for a couple days while it cured.
Custom trailer hitch that I made this weekend!
This one is a 3 x 3/16 square tube with a 2" receiver and 3/16 end plates. I think it could take 7500lbf before starting to bend... not sure if that makes it a class III or IV hitch? Either way, it's probably overkill for a truck this old. Here's how I estimated the yield strength:
https://www.amesweb.info/StructuralBeamDeflection/SimpleBeamConcentratedLoadAtAnyPoint.aspxI would be interested to hear how other people have set up suburban hitches as I have not found any pictures yet.
It will cost me about 1.5 degrees of departure angle... but that seems acceptable, with the napco kit and 32" tires, Burb should have 21.5* departure and 35* approach angle.
I'm really excited now that I have a solid recovery point and something to mount a bike rack on!
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