Great build. This is exactly what I was shooting for when I started my Harvester project. But, I took too long to strip it down and the truck grew on me and I had to keep it all intact. I actually liked it better right after you chopped the top before you channeled the rest of the cab. To me it was a better balance of height to length of the truck. But I still love it just the same.
Can I ask you for some advice. I really want to add the brass touches to my Binder. Just the Cab cranks and handles and maybe the headlight bezels and tail light bezels as well. It's the finish I've been looking for but didn't know it can be done on the cheap. Can you please tell me exactly how it's done and where I find the brass brushes with wood handles?????
To each is own ehh
I REALLY like extreme chops that are basically unrealistic to make anything but a show piece that you trailer to the show, then scoot around, but i also wanted to make this truck half usable. Heck, im so lazy that i don't want to take the topper off my ram 2500 long bed to haul over sized items, so i figured id make the rat so i can do just that
As far as the brass accents, its actually pretty dang easy!
I found brass brushes, REAL brass that is, at home depot. It comes with a 3 pack and the other two aren't brass. I have found the wood handle ones work best as the plastic handles ones get hot and fall apart after a while.
I thought maybe id be smart and buy a real brass wire wheel (which are pretty hard to find) and mount it in my drill but the brass is so soft, that doesn't work well either.
Look around at your local home improvement stores for the right stuff. MAKE SURE that your actually buying actual brass and NOT brass coated steel. You'll know the difference because the coated steel is much stiffer (just as stiff as normal steel wire) then brass. Also, I noticed that the real brass brushes bristles are packed much tighter then steel.
I got on ebay and found TONS of brass brushes and i spent time asking the seller if they knew if it was real brass or not. Most sellers don't know since the product isn't in their possession.
With all that behind us, heres how you do it.
Get yourself a plumbers torch and a small can of MAPP gas. Home improvement stores will have these as kits for pretty cheap.
On bare steel, i ran it through my bench grinder with steel wire wheels to clean off all the milling oil.
Now, heat a spot thats a couple inches wide for a bit with your torch in one hand, and the brush in another. Start rubbing the brush over the hot metal and you'll start to see the brass transfer once the steel gets hot enough.
Ive found that hotter isn't any better, so just heat, brush, heat, brush back and fourth till you get the coverage you desire.
Its going to be very time consuming if you want to do alot! It took me about 45 minutes for a headlight trim bezel.
For chrome, REAL chrome, i didn't grind or wire wheel anything off. Heck, i didn't even take my handles off the truck. Heat and brush, that's it.
There's a video on you tube of a guy showing how its done.
This is the brush you want:
Here's the video. Don't make fun of the pour guy, hes onto something here
http://youtu.be/mFK9H4AG_Ww
