Deconstruction is always the worst!

I think the part of doing the truck that I have been dreading the most was tearing it apart.  I have no sentimentality for this particular vehicle. We bought it with the intention of cutting it into pieces.  But I have been dreading it for months.  You see, I'm not a car guy.  Don't get me wrong...I absolutely LOVE driving a nice car, but I have never been one of those guys that likes to tinker with a car in his garage on the weekend.  I don't have a project car hidden away somewhere.  A boat is a different story, but never cars.  I just want one that is new, nice and reliable.  I don't even change my own oil or vacuum it out.

So, the idea of having to figure out how Nissan put this thing together and then reverse the process was not something that I was awaiting with eager anticipation.

FRIDAY
Friday evening, Melanie, Patrick and his girlfriend Shelley and I spent a couple of hours and got the shop ready to hold this thing.  The scenic shop is decent in size, but certainly not spacious.  We moved the last of the props from RENT into storage in the loft, rearranged wood, and shoved all of the tools at the end as far away from the garage door as we could get them and still move around.

Then we grabbed the keys and went to the parking lot, where our golden beauty queen has been sitting for the past 6 months with no license plates and a flat tire.

I fully expected it to be completely dead and to have to push the thing into the shop.  After all, it barely ran when I bought it and it sat outside all winter without being started.

The bed had about 6 inches of water in it. Leaves all over it.


So, I opened the door, climbed in and put the key in the ignition.  I pushed in the clutch and turned the key, and it fired right up with a beautiful cloud of blue smoke out the back.


It sounded just as bad as it did the day I drove it on to the shop parking lot.  Loud, rough, gravelly...











There is a small incline on the parking lot, so I pulled the truck with the nose facing uphill and the water poured out of the bed.

















I then turned it around and backed it into the shop.



SATURDAY

I decided that the only way that I was going to overcome my apprehension was to dive headlong into it. Saturday morning, Melanie and Shelley had to work. So, Patrick and I showed up at the shop around 10 AM, hell-bent on tearing into this thing.   Patrick removed the tailgate and doors.

The body parts on the truck are amazingly light weight. Not much between you and the other cars on the road!

I started on the front end, removing the grille, bumper cover, lights, etc.  After some fighting unsuccessfully with two rusted bolts holding on the bed, we turned our attention to the interior.

The "Hardbody" script really doesn't call for the interior of the truck to be heavily detailed, but because in our venue, the audience has to walk across the front edge of the performance area to get to their seats, they will be within touching distance of the truck. Likewise, they will be able to see in the windows.  So, we decided to pull the seats, steering wheel and dash and reassemble them in our prop truck.  That seemed simple enough. Well...


Compared to the exterior, the dash is put together like a Swiss watch.  I was amazed at how many little pieces had to be taken off to get to the next screw or bolt.  We managed to remove everything that we could find and still, we couldn't get the main dash skin off.  It appeared that the passenger airbag was holding it on.  Of course, airbags are meant to not be tampered with, so they are put in with mega bolts that require special tools to remove and a thick metal bracket. After what we had done, my saws-all blade was done and I had no new ones.

With that, we gave up for the day, but felt like we made decent progress.

We left the office and I made a trip to Harbor Freight Tools to get an air chisel, grinder, impact wrench, and more assorted blades and bits to attack tomorrow.





SUNDAY 
Sunday, Patrick was free until 4PM and Melanie was available after lunch and my brother-in-law and nephew were also available.  My nephew is a high school student in Festus and does scrapping for extra cash. He was thrilled to get to take the carcass of the truck that we didn't need. But the stipulation was that he had to come and help get it ready for him to take.

So, Patrick and I got back on the dash with a fresh blade in the saws-all and got the airbag cut free.  It was amazing actually, when you remove most of the useful components from behind, the dash is relatively light and easy to reassemble as a unit. It will go back in our prop truck in one piece.

Reinforcements from Festus arrived about 1:30 and we set about trying to get the bed off and then the most difficult and scary part.  We have to cut the cab in just the right places so that we can keep it in tact enough to put it back together with discreet seams, yet small enough pieces that we can move it around.  All of this while keeping the glass in tact. First part...accomplished...second part...not so much. The windshield developed a crack right up the middle.  I am going to see how it survives during reconstruction, but it may get replaced with lighter weight Lexan.

We spent about four hours but managed to get the cab cut off and setting on saw bucks.  Meanwhile, Melanie and Patrick began washing down the parts that we had removed.  15 years of smoker residue, road gunk, etc...it was pretty disgusting...

The bed finally came loose and now everything is off of the truck frame that we need to save to put it back together, except the rear bumper.


We have all of the parts stacked in the in the shop.

Wednesday evening, we will get in there and grind all of the sharp edges so that they are safe to handle and get the rest of the body parts wiped down and organized.

We have to make sure that we have removed all of our tools and then we will get the carcass of the truck ready for my nephew to come with a flatbed trailer next weekend and haul it away.  Then we will have enough room in the shop to start making the wooden framework that the body gets reassembled on to.

And that, my readers, is how you deconstruct a truck in a weekend!



More as it starts to go back together... R