Finally an update!

Not as much progress as some months, but I did get a little done. My apologies for the crappy pics. The light is low in the garage at night and my camera doesn't play well with others in the dark LOL Maybe I will retake them later, but I hate posting updates without pictures to go along with it. And I was excited to finally be able to update.

I was able to Mig weld for the first time ... a bit sloppy and I burned through a few times, but I manage to get the cracks welded up and a few of the bolt holes bridged back.  I did not attempt to fix the gap in the top of the grill. I would prefer to have a lot more practice before attempting that!

I did weld up a small crack at the middle bottom of the shell.

Messing around with some 00 steel wool ....

I also fixed the shift mechanism. It was a little easier, since the metal was so thick. I used the arc welder for that. First time for that too.

I'm trying to come up with a plan for the bed. I still have to grind off and remove all of the old board bolts. Dill out the rivets from the bed from the floor. ( I should have done this instead of cutting the bed out, oh well). I hope to get some use out of the metal. There are also a couple of areas that need attention on the bed frame. then I need to put a floor back in and fix the tail gate so it will open and close (it's welded shut now).

I decided to take the cover off of the transmission and have another look to see if I could figure out why it will not go into first. I played with the gears and found when attempting to go into first it seems to stop dead too soon. I'm going to pull the transmission back out and check out a suspected area. I'm pretty sure it will be a fairly easy fix. Once that is solved, I should be able to get the clutch adjusted. Crossing my fingers!