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70 Jimmy--Rusty Rebuild

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70jimmy said:
In the pics it looks like your tranny tunnel cover is still on. Taking that off makes the upper bell housing bolts easier to access. I see you braced the passenger side door, but not driver's side yet.

You work pretty quickly. Looks like you have a nice space to tear it apart!!! I will be following this thread!!
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I was actually going to reply to myself about bracing the drivers door, thought about it while I was in the shower.

I put the transmission cover back on to help locate the new floor section inplace. Going to leave it on while I pull the body. Idea is that it might provide some strength for the floor, the drivers side is still pretty soft.

I'm getting all this progress done despite the fact I'm also working 60+ hours a week. The one other person who shares morning shifts with me just had a baby, she'll be away for atleast another 6 weeks. On top of that, my boss is having health issues with both of her parents, so I'm having to pick up some of the slack there too. I start work around 6:30am, usually try to get out of there by 3pm. Most days I have to do some running for the place, so that puts me home after 4 or so. I've found out that if I go home and sit on the couch I'll fall asleep, waking up around 8, then he up all night laying in bed not being able to sleep. If I start doing something, it keeps me awake and tires me out. By the time I get cleaned up, eat and get in bed I about pass right out. Progress will slow eventually, probably once the budget catches up with me (strictly cash build here). But in the mean time with me getting 20+ hours of overtime, it should help push the project along.

Barn space is 30x36x14. About as big as I could get it with where I put it on my lot. I try to keep one bay open for the odd job or two I pick up durring the week. Once the Jimmy is all blown appart, most of it will probably end up on the loft or shelves. Whatever I build to wheel the body around on, I'd like to be able to wheel it outside if needed. Thinking of some casters with inflatable tires, or build my own with some lawnmower wheels.
 
So this happened today.




Body came off fairly easily. I think it may have been off before. The bottom of the tub is actually pretty decent, considering the rest of the truck. Some of the crossmembers will need a little work though. I did brace the drivers side door before I started lifting it.


Through together a cart to move it around. Had I actually bought some wood for it...it may have turned out better. Used 2x6x6's that I had laying around. Had to join them in the middle, which is why it looks bent. If I was thinking, I would have moved the casters in from the edges a little too and maybe put a third one near the joint. It moves around way easier than I thought it would, even with my skinny ass pushing it.





How it sits now. The pieces of square tubing were between the body mount and the tub at the rear most position, not sure why, will figure that out when I go to put it back together.







Before I get going on the frame I need to clean up and organize the barn some. There is a shelf on the bottom of the tub cart, so some of the parts can go on that, others might go inside or get hung on the walls. Frame is going to get stripped down bare. Made a call to a friend who has the hook up for sandblasting. I think there is a 4" lift on it already (thicker than normal pack in the front, block and looks like add-a-leaf in the back), The springs will get taken apart, cleaned and reassembled with new bushings. New brake/fuel lines will be ran. Axles will most likely be the 10bolt from my old K5 up front and a 6lug semifloat 14b I pulled from a truck awhile back. The front axle has a locker in it already, along with 4.10 gears. The locker might be a bit much for this build....but I have it already and I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point. Rear axle will get re-geared to match the front if needed, spring perches and shock mounts will be moved as well. Transmission is going to be an Nv3500 with a 208. For a daily driver that won't get abused I think it'll be perfect. I have an extra Nv4500, but I feel that would be overkill. Motor, going to pull the stock one down, re-ring/bearing, bore if needed. Small cam and an intake probably too. Not sure if I want to use the stock style manifold or go with a set of headers yet. I do plan on replacing the stock engine crossmemeber with a Diy4x one.
 
Woke up this morning thinking I would be working the normal 7-3 shift I'd been doing, well one of my coworkers came through and I was able to get most all of the day off. I was out by 8am. Went home and started cleaning the barn. Rearanged a few things, hauled out some scrap and swept up real well. Put the Jimmy's motor on the engine stand so I could shorten up the cherry picker (will need it again when I pull the trans/case). Was able to get pretty much everything I've pulled off some far onto the shelf under the tub or in the tub....atleast the stuff I know I will be reusing.

After that I started pulling parts off the frame. Rear bumper, rest of exhaust, shocks, wiring, misc brackets, body mounts that were rusted in place, gas tank, wiring and fluid lines. I was actually surprised that 11 of the 12 spring bushing bolts came out (or will once I get it on stands). One will need to be cut as it's seized into the sleeve/rubber. Beating and pounding on the frame knocked loose a ton of the rust that was on it. Somewhere along the line this thing was undercoated. I think that did more harm than good (especially for the body). That coating is like a rusty rubber sheet. It's coming off in chunks. The rust is the flaky/scaley kind, and the normal surface stuff. Found out the rear of the frame has two thin spots that have been plated over. Will take a better look at those once it gets cleaned up.


Some of the rust that was falling off. Probably swept up close to 40lbs by the time I was done.






After I was done for the night and had everything cleaned up again.






Next time I'll pull the rest of the bolted on stuff off. Set the frame on some stands and drop the axles and springs out. Debating on cutting all of the rivets out to get down to bare frame rails. I originaly wasn't going to, but I've come this far so it be almost stupid not to.
 
I didn't get nearly as far as I'd have like on it tonight.

Started out around 2:30 on it after work (I get out at 1 on Sundays) and almost immediately I have to stop. My uncles van broke the steering box off of the frame. So I load up the trailer to go haul it home for him. Well that turned into a 3 hour ordeal. The van fit between the fenders fine, but the running boards didn't fit over the fenders. Being we only had 3 blocks to go to get to his house, I strapped it down like that and used the trailer like a dolly. I didn't think of the fact that leaving the steering column unlocked would let the rear of the van track differently than the front. Not really a problem until one of the running boards pushed in my fender and set it down into the tires. We were about half way there at this point so I decided to keep going and just idle the rest of the way. We get there and I pull into the field across from his house, I wasn't going to try backing this thing into the driveway. With the steering box hanging free, it pulled both tires inward....like 8" of toe in. We disconnected the tie rods and pushed/pulled/kicked the tires in the direction they needed to go. Somewhere along the line one of the front tires got a hole popped in it, so that needed to be changed before we could move any further. Eventually we get it into the driveway and everything picked back up/put away.

Was around 6 when I got back home and started back at it. Had to stop again to run to the store for the wife. Why she couldn't have asked me when I was out before is beyond me. Then around 9 I had to go back into work, which I knew was coming, so I was ok with that one. All in all I got around 3 hours of work done today on it.

Managed to get the trans/t-case/driveshafts and steering box off. Then cut the u-bolts and dropped the axles. Was working on getting it on a set of sawhorses before I called it quits for the day. It's on them, but sort of half way balanced. Will need to get the cherry picker out again to lift the frame up higher so I can roll the axles out, then set frame on the stands properly. Springs should come out real easy, only need to cut one bolt. Did a quick count of the rivets, 106 that need to be cut/pounded out. That'll get everything off of the rails.


465/Dana20 and steering box. Will probably be putting this up for sale.




How I left it. The jack wouldn't lift the frame high enough to get the sawhorse underneath the frame in front of the rear springs. Putting it behind the axle wouldn't let me roll the them out either. I do have an "I" beam with trolleys/chainfalls to go on my ceiling, this would be a perfect application for that. I might get up there and rig up one of the chainfalls just so I can lift the frame easier, or I might be lazy and use the cherry picker.

 
Pulled the springs and trailer hitch off tonight. Rolled the axles out of the way as well. All that is left is the crossmembers and brackets. Going to try doing those before the neighbors get home tomorrow, grinder and air chisel aren't exactly quiet.




Jimmy kit...some assembly required. Most all the parts are shown in the picture.





Going to leave a few random pictures of the frame here too. For my future referance.

















 
It took entirely too long (4hours), but I'm glad it's I did it and it's done. There are a few thin areas that need to be addressed. The top of the frame under the crossmember that runs between a set of body mounts (second from back, you can see the missing areas) on both rails. One side needs to have the bottom side worked too. I still need to separate the engine and transmission crossmembers from their smaller side pieces, Will clean them up even though odds are neither will be reused, Diy4x parts for the engine and probably a later K5 transmission crossmember.





Waiting to hear back about getting parts blasted. Going to start cleaning up the small brackets (body mounts, spring mounts, etc...). Order some hardware so I can reassemble everything.
 
My connection to getting the rails blasted fell through. So I did it the hard way used a few wire wheels. Took about 2.5 hours for each rail. Haven't done any of the crossmembers or brackets yet.

Got my moneys worth on these ones. Not wanting to get the barn all dusty, I did them outside. Wasn't fun in the 90* heat and sun wearing jeans, welding jacket, gloves, hat and welding helmet (set on grind). But I got it done, with the pleasure of having to do it again soon too.




Because it has been so humid, the bare steel started to flash rust in short order. I had originally planned on getting the rails cleaned, repaired and in primer within a day or two. But some more important things came up and I wasn't able to make it back out for quite a few days. There isn't too much rust, but enough that I want to hit everything again. This time I'll start with a flapwheel then finish with the wire wheel.





I was able to finally make it back out there today to start fixing some of the bad spots. Got the passenger rail finished, the drivers side is in a little bit better shape. Used some box tubing I had laying around. It's a little thicker than the frame. I decided to use that so I could weld the top flush, and get a good bead on the inside too. I wasn't too concerned with doing any type of fish plating with these repairs. I know the pros/cons of doing it that way and the way I did it. I feel that it will be fine with how I did it. Who knows how long it was rusted like it was...can't be any worse than that.

Measured for my patch. Cut that out, then used that as a template for the frame side of the cut. Used the edge of the box tube so I could get around the corner a little bit with the patches. Couple heavy tack's, then finish welded. Followed by flapping the welds down flush with the rest of the frame. Left the patches long when I cut them from the box stock, trimmed that off after everything was in place. I left the inside as is because nothing will be butting up against it...so no need to be flush.


Tack'd




Welded




Flapped out





This is about how the top side looked before I cut it out.




And finished out.





Ordered the hardware to reassemble things last week. Went with 7/16-20 grade 8 bolts along with the corresponding pinch style lock nuts. A 7/16 bolt almost drops into the stock holes, a quick pass with the unibit cleans up the hole nicely for a tight fit.


Did pick up some body mounts from a guy over at 67-72. Was going to go with factory style rubber ones, but for the price I got these for....it was worth the trade off. The box has been opened, but none of the bags inside had been yet...so brand new still at less than half retail price.

 
70jimmy said:
Now that is truly tearing it all the way down!!!
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I plan on keeping this one. No sense in doing anything to the body with the condition that the frame was in. I'm not going for show quality on anything, but I want something solid that looks decent and performs well (for what I'm going to use it for).
 
Finished the other frame rail over the weekend. Going to hit them both one more time to knock the flash rust off before shooting them with some primer.

Have a slight change of dirrection with the transmission choice too. Sunday I sold one of my extra 465's with a drivers drop t-case. That case came off the back of the Nv3500 I was planning on using. Well, turns out that trans might be FUBAR'd. The input shaft only turns about half way around and has a ton of up/down play in it. So....I dug out my extra Nv4500 and will use that instead.

I liked the idea (better shifting) and gear ratios of the lighter transmission. With the 4500 I'm basically getting a 465 with an OD gear (which is what I really wanted). Don't really need the strength of the 4500 for this build.

Also dug out my Sf14 to pull the cover off. Mainly to see what gears it had. This was in the time between deciding on sticking the 465/Dana20 back in or going with the 4500/208. It's got 3.42's in it, which with no overdrive wouldn't be too bad, 2475 @70mph. With the 4500 and 4.10's I'd be at 2225 @70mph. Being I have to buy a set of gears anyway (my front axle already has 4.10's), I decided on going with the 5speed. If anything it should be a little easier to drive.


Pic of the 465 I sold along with my dead 3500. This is after I swapped cases between the two of them.






My extra Nv4500. This one is a later style with the internal slave cylinder. I have the bellhousing for it up on the loft. Need to dig up a shifter for it yet....or make one.





Sf14 w/3.42's. I think this one has seen some water before. It's getting new gears/bearings so no big deal really.

 
Cleaned the rails one last time and shot some primer kn them. Going to try getting a top coat on them sometime this weekend then I can start working on all the brackets/crossmembers. Might try ordering some parts from Kert tomorrow too.

It looks like I didn't get good coverage, but it's just the camera playing tricks. Sun was setting behind me and I was getting some weird shadows.

 
Are you just going to bolt it all together where it used to be riveted or do you plan on welding also? I saw a guy do some additional welding to all the seams on a derby car frame once and you wouldn't believe how much it stiffened it up.
 
Truckman4life said:
Are you just going to bolt it all together where it used to be riveted or do you plan on welding also? I saw a guy do some additional welding to all the seams on a derby car frame once and you wouldn't believe how much it stiffened it up.
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I plan to bolt it together. Using grade 8, 7/16-20 bolts with pinch lock nuts. I probably could throw a few welds on the crossmembers that shouldn't be coming back out. As it is, the frame resembles a wet noodle. There are only lkke 5 crossmembers between the two rails from the factory.


jekquistk5 said:
For future reference MI sand blasting quoted me 150 to blast a frame.
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That isn't too bad. I know some people that work in the paint/powder coat industry, was always told if I needed anything blasted they'd "hook me up". Well, we see how well the turned out. With the time frame that I wanted to work with and the "friends" price of $200...I didn't think it was worth it. Having done it the hard way, paying someone else to do it looks like a better option now. But I'm only out $40 and some time.
 
Put some paint on the rails today. Used regular oil based Rustoleum and brushed it on. Would have been nice to use a fancy two part epoxy paint, but I can grind on this and touch it up as needed real easily. Did one thick/heavy coat. Has some runs, but I don't care....it's a frame, I was going for good coverage vs looks on this part.


Hard to get a good picture with the lighting I have and the shadows from the sun.

 
sreidmx said:
Awesome, I dig your style. I kinda fall in the middle with this sort of rebuild stuff also, nothing too ocd but workmanlike. This is gonna be a nice rig.
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It's too easy to get cought up in making everything perfect. Before you know it you have a ton of money into the thing, and still are no where near getting it completed. And while I can appreciate those types of builds, it's not something I wanted for this. I'm going for "driver quality" fit/finish. I think a good way to put it would be, equal to or slightly better than how it left the factory when it was new.
 
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