One thing you don't see here is all the other pieces that were sandblasted before I took the truck in; the hose bed dividers, rear compartments, hose bed bulkheads and front bumper along with many other pieces were blasted and primed. The cab was not sand blasted due to the possibility of warping its thin gauge sheet metal. The fire body is 12 gauge steel, so I was not concerned with damaging or warping of the heavier material. I was however, concerned with damaging all the wiring harnesses that could not be removed, so I covered them with newer spilt plastic loom that I was able to scrounge out of the waste bin at work. The loom held up well against the sandblasting, but the duct tape, although it held, did not fair too well.

After seeing the results, I had no qualms about trading away the Mack. It also allowed me to focus on this very important project, especially considering at one time I possessed three other fire trucks, or should I say they possessed me? It's a good thing I do not have a large piece of property, because if I did, I'm sure it would be littered with a bunch of fire truck projects that I would "get to" someday. You know who I am talking about, the guy down the road with 30 fire trucks in his back yard....