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1982 K5 - Current project: 3/16" diamond plate floors

i would poke around a little yourself before i would give it to any body shop. Like i said, that underneath doesnt look like metal in the pictures, so check it out, if it is big time rust, it might be the original floors like you said. If i were you and you suspect it to be the original floors, i would take a grinder to it, grind off the rust and if you still have a solid diamond plate floor above it, just primer and paint it once you ground the rust off.

The top looks way too solid to be that rusty underneath, so im willing to bet it its just excess metal that you dont even need.

It all comes down to what you want in the end, if you want a really nice truck with perfect floors, give it to the body shop (that is a very expensive option lol) but if you just want a solid functional truck, theres no reason you cant do it yourself. Check out my build thread when you have a second, im just a 20 year old college kid that had very little welding experience coming into this project, but i refuse to pay to have something done if i can do it myself. Heres what i started with:


Heres what i have after patching, primer and bedliner:



In no way is it perfect, but its very solid, and cost me my time and about 20 bucks on sheet metal.
 
That looks pretty good! I read through a good chunk of your build thread. Impressive work. I definitely am not shooting for a show truck as it's already pretty "custom" on the inside.

Alright- so I'll take a look and get some of the underbody coating removed in the troubled areas, and grind away in the interior to see what I'm up against. Hopefully I can have some more pictures for you guys soon!
 
SafetyHelmet said:
That looks pretty good! I read through a good chunk of your build thread. Impressive work. I definitely am not shooting for a show truck as it's already pretty "custom" on the inside.

Alright- so I'll take a look and get some of the underbody coating removed in the troubled areas, and grind away in the interior to see what I'm up against. Hopefully I can have some more pictures for you guys soon!
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Sounds like a good plan of attack. Pretty much what i did, grind at it to see how bad it is. once you know that, then you can decide the overall plan.
 
I felt bad neglecting my 8 week old puppy for an extra hour, but got some initial rust investigation done.

So here's what I found in an hour:

Passenger side- both front floors have this stuff that I thought was like a fiberglass patch, but isn't. Is it maybe dynamat or similar sound proofing? It has shiny specks in it and is kind of like asphalt and rubber combined. Bizarre, and a real b!@#$ to remove in 34 degree weather!

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Drivers side, I started chiseling away at it with a cold chisel and a 5-in-1 paint scraper for a while. Made some progress.

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I was stoked to find two things. One, the panels of whatever-it-is pulled up in big chunks sometimes, taking things all the way down to primer and sometimes bare metal/rust! Two was that most of this looks like surface rust, at least so far.

Then I found this hole:

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Is that in a spot where I can weld new metal in, or would I need to take the body off the frame?

Next up, the paint was some kind of plastic bedliner type paint, with a thick coat of primer or some kind of filler under it. It was flexible. Also, under that, the metal smelled kind of like WD-40, so I wonder what methods they used on this thing.

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Here's about where I left off:

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This corner is the hole, cleaned up a bit:

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Looks like I have plenty of grinding to do.. any ideas on removing the plastic bedliner stuff? I was thinking a scraper and heat gun might be a good plan.
 
common place to get a hole, near the high beam switch, mine had one there. I just ground it down to good metal and welded a piece of metal over it and called it a day. Taking the body off is a ton of work, i would avoid it if at all possible.

Without seeing what that liner stuff is like, i would try taking a wire wheel to it.

You look to be in pretty good shape though really, grind the floors down, primer and paint would do wonders. Gonna run carpet or not?
 
It's definitely less rusted through than I thought at first glance. So is the body a hollow shell of two layers of sheet metal, welded together at points? That's what it seems like, at least.. on the underside, I don't see any diamond plate yet.

Oh- and on the underside things aren't looking horrible yet. I think you are right, most of what is peeling and nasty is just the strange undercoat they used. Under that it seems like pretty solid metal with surface rust.

For the interior, I've got a big can of herculiner and another container of UV coat for it, so I'm thinking I should use that, and then maybe put in some soundproofing/insulation, at which point I'd want to get some carpet in there. The cab doesn't need the heater even in this 30 degree MN fall weather once the motor is slightly warmed up. However, the diamond plate floor looks so beefy, it's kind of a high point of the interior... so we'll have to see!

I have to say, even though I probably paid a little more than I needed for this truck, it was love at first sight.. and even though I hardly know a damn thing about fixing up old trucks, I grin every time I drive it, and just working on little improvements has so far been a heck of a good time for me.

Edit: I forgot to add, I think I am pretty sure I figured out how that hole formed by the high beam switch. I have a leak in the lower driver side area of the windshield, like 2-3 inches to the right from the corner. I've tried sealing it up with some black silicone window caulk, which in retrospect was a bad idea, but I was desperate. It did help a little but it still gets water every time it rains.. which is why I shoehorned the Jimmy into my tiny garage for the time being.
 
yea around the window seal water gets trapped and rusts, but yea normally the floors are just a single layer, but it looks like yours they left the original and put the diamond plate over it. It looks pretty beefy i would probably leave it, especially because it was done nicely. Just cleaning everything up will do you good, dont just into welding and patching if you dont need to. Good luck and put pictures up! :thumb:
 
If the metal around the windshield is rusty is that a tough fix? I am pretty sure that it's rusted a bit in that spot.

Lunch break update: Went home, got 2/4 pass. seat bolts out, the other two got a hefty dose of PB blaster. Need to pick up an angle grinder, wire wheels and cup brush, and a longer wrench to get those other two bolts out. Might grab a torch as well in case some heat will help it come out.
 
if you put these trucks in perspective with other vehicles nothing is a tough fix, that being said, mine had a little rust there and i took the windshield off and ground the rust down and it wasnt really bad, so i just painted it and put a new seal on and it doesnt leak.

If yours is leaking, it may be a little worse than mine.
 
It does leak a little. Windshield needs replacing anyway from a few chips and it's old as heck, fortunately I have full glass so that's on the menu for next spring I think.

Picked up a nice 4 1/2" angle grinder, a wheel, cup brush, and a stripping pad thing to try out. Got 3/4 bolts out of the floor for the passenger seat. Last one is stuck and the damn corners are rounding off. Shot it with a ton of PB blaster, will try some more tonight. Any other techniques I should try? I need to get the seats out so I can tape off the dash and stuff before I go hog wild with grinding.

Also, bit of good news again- I got most of that dynamat or whatever stuff off the floor. It's brittle and a bear to get up, but it takes away the paint and primer underneath, leaving nice shiny steel in a lot of areas. Looks like I might not have to replace the entire floor after all!
 
One more question before I forget- can I remove my door seals without too much hassle? I didn't want to wreck anything, but I'd like to see how the metal looks near them. If I pull them somehow, can I re-install or should I just put new ones in later?
 
Thanks guys, that worked great. Actually reinstalled them and cleaned the scrapings from my progress so far up and took some buddies out for a ride.

I also finally identified my axles- I have the 10 1/2 inch GM 14-bolt in the rear and it looks to be a Dana 44 up front. Also, this is probably common but I figured out I also have an NP-205. Is that about what I'd want for a 454, or should I track down something beefier as I look at engine upgrades later on?
 
205 is generally viewed as the strongest t-case because the way the power is transfered is through a gear mesh, rather than a chain. so you are good in that department. 14 bolt is perfect and a dana 44 may or may not be good depending on how hard you are gonna wheel it. if it will see street time with the occasional trail, yes it will be fine, if you are going to get into serious rock crawling, you may wanna look for a dana 60.
 
The 44 will be the weak point with a 454. Depending on your style of wheeling, it could be made to last if your not driving it like you stole it.

And a FYI, but an idea some old timer taught me with door seals is pull them out like your doing anyways, and buy a thin wall vacuum tubing that fits inside the factory seals, and stick it all the way through the factory door seal. Soap and water is BFF in this. Once you reinstall the factory seal with the tubing inside it, the door wont rattle the least bit, and closes much more solid and the body creaks less. It worked wonders on my Suburban, and costed about 1/64 of new LMC door seals and probably works better.

And try cleaning out the cowling by the wipers. Leaves mud crap and whatever pile up in there and let water back up and come into the interior. I took the grate off, dug out most of it by hand and then shoved the hose in there for awhile on both sides, now it sheds water no problem and I dont get water by my trim plates anymore.
 
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Cool idea, thanks 454Sub! I didn't really get much time in on the Jimmy over the weekend- need to finish clearing the garage out a little.

The one stuck bolt on the passenger seat is still stuck, and rounding off.. I might just cut that mount out, as the floor there is really rusty, some all the way through. But, then I'm worried it'll be even harder to remove the bolt from the seat leg.

Once I get the garage cleared out a bit, I'm going to pull the seats, and tape off the dash area to keep dust down. Then it's grinding time for probably a few weeks!

Any pro tips on stuck bolt removal would be appreciated.. PB Blaster isn't getting the job done.
 
Small update, I finally got that bolt out!!! 3 days of PB Blaster on both the head and from underneath after scraping and wire brushing the captive nut area, combined with a big vice grips locked on tight and hitting the handle of the vice grips with a hammer did the trick. Passenger seat is now out! :woot:

A little tip besides the vice grips on the bolt head, put the bolt back in as tight as you dare on the other side of that seat bracket if you're having trouble getting it out. And don't forget it's spring loaded if your seat flips up like mine- tip it up before completely extracting the last of the bolts.

Next up (this week):

  • Remove passenger seat belt components
  • Finish removing floor insulation panels
  • Remove DIY wood center console
  • Remove drivers seat and components
  • Tape and plastic off the dash and doors
  • Remove rear bench seat and components
  • Grind all the floor paint and rust out

After that's done I should know how much floor actually needs replacing.

Picking up a Hobart 140 tonight, along with a little cart, a bottle, and some welding safety gear- mask, gloves, maybe a leather apron and/or jacket. Anything else I should have starting out? I'm just going to practice on scrap metals and stuff as a distraction between grinding sessions. :weld:
 
SafetyHelmet said:
Small update, I finally got that bolt out!!! 3 days of PB Blaster on both the head and from underneath after scraping and wire brushing the captive nut area, combined with a big vice grips locked on tight and hitting the handle of the vice grips with a hammer did the trick. Passenger seat is now out! :woot:

A little tip besides the vice grips on the bolt head, put the bolt back in as tight as you dare on the other side of that seat bracket if you're having trouble getting it out. And don't forget it's spring loaded if your seat flips up like mine- tip it up before completely extracting the last of the bolts.

Next up (this week):

  • Remove passenger seat belt components
  • Finish removing floor insulation panels
  • Remove DIY wood center console
  • Remove drivers seat and components
  • Tape and plastic off the dash and doors
  • Remove rear bench seat and components
  • Grind all the floor paint and rust out

After that's done I should know how much floor actually needs replacing.

Picking up a Hobart 140 tonight, along with a little cart, a bottle, and some welding safety gear- mask, gloves, maybe a leather apron and/or jacket. Anything else I should have starting out? I'm just going to practice on scrap metals and stuff as a distraction between grinding sessions. :weld:
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a lot of good things going on :thumb:

You have the welding bottle filled with 75/25? Something thats nice to have handy is a pair of welding pliers, to occasionally clean the nozzle out, and cut the excess mig wire. I just use a pair of dikes.

Make sure you follow the instructions to set up the machine for use with gas, the positive and negative wires get switched going from flux core to gas.

Other than that, mess around with it. :woot:
 
Just looked up the local deals ad for Northern and the closest one is selling the Hobart 140 with a free welding cart!

Yeah, I'm planning on using 75/25 for now. I really have no idea how to weld yet, other than what I've read online and seen on YouTube. But this truck isn't going to weld itself, so I'll spend most of the winter learning and prepping, then hopefully get the floor and body fixed up by spring. Hopefully I can fix all the rust spots without removing the body.. but I'm not positive on that yet.
 
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