Corny truck

[Kaiser2boy]

Just a little humor here about life in the country. My truck has been sitting a few months waiting for the engine to get rebuilt ok.
While it is sitting I figure this is a good time to go over a lot of stuff.
I noticed that every time I lower the tail gate I hear a sound like tiny pebbles shiftting place. I took off the gate and tilted it on end and out poured about a pound of dry corn kernels.
I thought ,what the !!! I found more in the tool box under the driver seat. Then it hit me,,,mice!!
I checked every place to see if there was a mouse nest and ,BINGO I found it.
They were in the cross member that runs under the bed.
It was cramed full of chewed up stuff that looked like cotton. I spent about an hour working with a section of stiff wire shaped with a hook on the end to pull it all out.
After cleaning it all out and blowing it clear with an air gun I pumped it full of that spray in foam called GOOD STUFF until it came out the other end.
I waited a day for it to cure and sliced it off even and painted it with undercoating.
Sorry Micky and Mini Mouse

[Bruce]

Uhh-Ohh?

Man I hope that doesn't come back & bite you, that stuff will hold a lot of moisture, don't you think?

[sixtyninegmc]

I`m with Bruce

The only thing I`ve ever seen spray foam do on a vehicle is cause rot.....

[Bruce]

Sand

All of my hat channels, cross members were full of sand, the first one at the bulkhead was packed tight full and concrete like, needless to say it was stuff/swiss cheese.

[Kaiser2boy]

I too had the hat channels full of dry, rock hard sandy dirt. I cleaned , rust treated each and reinstalled them. And like you the front one was the worst but not rotted out. It did have one bad spot and I ground it out and welded in a plate.
The cross member also had a large amount of packed in dirt. Dirt holds moisture also.

As far as the foam holding moisture. It first has to get in.
I did read the can first and it says it is water repelent.
After I let the foam cure a day or so I sliced off the excess flush with the sides of the suport and coated the 4 openings with a liberal amount ruberized undercoating. I also undercoated the entire cross member. So I figure if any water manages to get in , by the time it would cause any real damage I will have been dead several years.

The foam is better than mice nests and mud.

[Gordon Maney]

I too had the hat channels full of dry, rock hard sandy dirt. I cleaned , rust treated each and reinstalled them. And like you the front one was the worst but not rotted out. It did have one bad spot and I ground it out and welded in a plate.
The cross member also had a large amount of packed in dirt. Dirt holds moisture also.

As far as the foam holding moisture. It first has to get in.
I did read the can first and it says it is water repelent.
After I let the foam cure a day or so I sliced off the excess flush with the sides of the suport and coated the 4 openings with a liberal amount ruberized undercoating. I also undercoated the entire cross member. So I figure if any water manages to get in , by the time it would cause any real damage I will have been dead several years.

The foam is better than mice nests and mud.

I agree.

[Charles Talbert]

I wonder also about moisture issues. I'm not convinced foam was the ticket, moisture will get to it if only by condensation. I've seen many a case where I thought no way, but in time I saw yes, way. Time will tell.

Just a side note. All the chemicals that are out there now that are rust convertors, rust inhibitors, etc., well we've tried several of them in various applications. My findings are simply, STAY AWAY, one particular product caused us a redo on a $25,000 paint job. Oh yes, I got convinced quickly, and so will you when you get to do a few of these over out of pocket. By the way, we didn't try to re-write the instructions either, but simply followed them to the letter. Compensation from the chemical Company, yeh right. I want no more of these products.

[Gordon Maney]

I wonder also about moisture issues. I'm not convinced foam was the ticket, moisture will get to it if only by condensation. I've seen many a case where I thought no way, but in time I saw yes, way. Time will tell.

Just a side note. All the chemicals that are out there now that are rust convertors, rust inhibitors, etc., well we've tried several of them in various applications. My findings are simply, STAY AWAY, one particular product caused us a redo on a $25,000 paint job. Oh yes, I got convinced quickly, and so will you when you get to do a few of these over out of pocket. By the way, we didn't try to re-write the instructions either, but simply followed them to the letter. Compensation from the chemical Company, yeh right. I want no more of these products.

What is your thinking on how to deal with his tailgate issue?

[Charles Talbert]

What is your thinking on how to deal with his tailgate issue?

That's a good question, not that many good answers though.

What we normally do to a tailgate is this, first it's blasted back to clean metal in every area that can be reached. Then it gets a phosphate solution dip which reaches all areas. That helps to kill any active rust in between panels and places impossible to reach, keeps surface rust from forming on the clean metal for a while, (several weeks) and can be primed directly over.

This works well as we can't get to everything to perform needed repairs and priming right away. I always fabricate covers and weld or braze over the ends of top and bottom tubular channels. This closes the interior to moisture and debris for good and it's quick and easy to do.

We have had the best result doing this of anything we've tried, other than if any areas of the gate are to be powder coated like many times the in bed side will get wrinkle coat, it's easy to spray powder on the inside of openings. Powder is drawn to the surface magnetically as the piece is electrically charged during powder application so the powder adheres to the metal.

During the heat cure, the powder flows out coating the interior surfaces with a highly durable finish, about the only way to do that successfully. Then when we get it back from the powder coaters, we fabricate and braze in the end covers like I mentioned previously.

Various chemicals or so called miracle remedies have not worked well for us, and the one cost us dearly as I mentioned in a previous post.

[Kaiser2boy]

What I did with the tailgate was to tie a small round wire brush on a wire and pulled it back and forth until no red powder came out. Then I blew it out with 100 psi air then ran a clean rag through with the pull wire until it was clean.
Then wadded up a rag that was a tight fit and stood the gate on end and poured a few ounces of rust killer in the open top end and slowly pulled it up so the rag would coat the inside. I cant think of the name of the rust killer right now but it is about $5.00 a pint and looks like a vanilla milk shake. I let it set a day then did the same thing with paint. The area around the pipe was harder to clean but I did the same thing there.

I am surprised over the controversy about the foam. It is not a sponge rubber foam it is water proof poly urethane type stuff that does not absorb water.

I understand that just closing off the open end would trap air inside and may cause condensation.

That is why I just kepy pumping it in from one end until it purged out of every little opening. The channel is solid form one end to the other. The foam expands as it cures so it squeezed out evry tiny crack. I trimed it off and plastered it with rubberized undercoating. If water does get it , it earned the right to be there.

I figure it has an added plus, if I get in very deep water it will act as a flotation device.......just kidding..

[Gordon Maney]

I think you should be fine.

[Kaiser2boy]

I think you should be fine.

Thank you.

[Paul Cook]

Corn!

Some friends had spent several hours trying to get an M43 running. It ran when parked. But is this case, it was running when parked just several weeks earlier.

It would start and then die in less than a minute. All the various starting methods - choke on, choke off, pump pedal, hold pedal open - had about the same result.

I arrived after they had been attempting to get it started for about half an hour. They were both crowded into the space under the hood. I was standing alongside the right (passenger's) door.

After each brief start, I heard the sound of escaping air coming from under the truck. They could not hear this from where they were. I pointed this sound out to them. They both were able to hear it when they got their heads out of the engine compartment and listened from my location.

The M43 owner was a nice guy. He regularly bought corn and put it out for the many dear who roamed the area around his house and his workshop. He let the corn bags lay on the floor in a corner of the shop. Mice had packed corn into the tailpipe so tightly that I was hearing the escaping air that built up pressure during the short moments the engine was running.

There was so much corn that we had to remove the muffler and tailbipe and blow them clear with compressed air. Without the corn blockage, the truck started and ran perfectly. We were all pretty surprised since there was no other indications of mice. Usually they modify the upholstery first.

I wonder if these mice would have done the same trick if they could have found a potato.

[Gordon Maney]

My mother feeds animals and birds, feeding them seeds of various sorts and corn. One day her car was running very poorly. She took it to the dealer. When she want back to pick it up, they handed her a 2 pound coffee can brim full of seeds. Mice had hauled all that into the air filter assembly.

With that out, it ran great.

[Kaiser2boy]

We have a motorhome and last year we drove to Lubeck Main.
The thing was just drinking gasoline like it was free. It normally is thirsty with the monster 460 cu.in. engine but this was real bad.
At the camp site I removed the filter cover and found it to be packed with peanut shells and peanuts.
I still have no idea where they came from.
Oh yes , my milage went right back up to 9 MPG..yahoo!