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71K5 - BP71K5's Just for fun build

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Just to wrap this up, the vinegar finally did remove the majority of the rust, about as good as all the other stuff. It just took several days longer.



I've also learned through some research that using the phosphoric acid to cleanup inside hidden areas might take some careful washing if I want to add any coatings over it. I have an order for some Eastwood internal frame coating that's a converter and a separate thing of waxy sealer stuff that I plan to use to seal it up after removing as much easy rust as possible. Plan is to remove all the rust I can access since I have holes cut open in the metal. Follow that up with all the patch repairs, then use the rust convert or and sealer after its all done.
 
Update 05/28/2016: Happy Memorial Day

Spent the morning with my kids and bunch of other scout troops placing flags on all the veterans graves at the large cemetery this morning. Pretty neat seeing a few graves of men that served during the civil war era.

I've been cutting, hammering, welding, brushing, all kinds of chunks of metal to seal up the first area I cut out. Here's how it went:

I had to cut some more out just to be able to get the gun oriented well enough to weld up the inner layers correctly.


You can see that the hole goes all the way through to the inside of the cab.

Here's my first patch piece: even after watching 8 hundred YouTube videos of how to form sheet metal, it was still hard and not perfect.


Got some ryoken green on that layer.


Then formed the lip on the windshield seal to join than piece and seal up the inner layer. I tried hammering this part from one sheet, but gave up after a few tries and decided to cut out three separate parts and weld it up at the seams. Works much better for an amateur.


All tacked up and sealed.


And ground smooth. This part isn't seen at all so I wasn't too worried getting the shape exact.


Now starting on the "cosmetic" outer layer. You can see how this will be made from several different pieces.




Add 35 tack welds:


Dressed down the tack welds to see how it was fitting:


Missed a few pictures, but added another section on and smoothing out the seams.




Got most of it smoothed out and primered up. It was nighttime when I finished so no good pictures of it before primer. If you see earlier pics of this side, GM left a big gap between the panels in this areas that was filled with seam sealer. My guess is that the sealer failed adter and eventually left rust creep in. But since I'm not restricted in how I patch it, I decided to seal it up completely. This was all the rusty part. The part that's left was fine but needed to be removed in order to have room to repair the other stuff.
 
And continuing on


Rebuilding the factory lip joint:




Looks like I forgot to take a picture of the rectangular patch process, but I think you get the idea. It took lots of hammering and forming around different forms in my garage.


Oddly enough, the only visible part of this whole repair is the thin lip near the windshield seal once the cowl is out back on. But I think it's worth a little extra time and effort making it look nice.



 
Great work Brian. :waytogo:

You made me laugh with your comment about 35 tack welds....I lost count when I flipped the wheeltub sheetmetal on my new bed floor... But it was a mind-numbing amount of tacks go get the job done. :)

-G
 
Greg72 said:
Great work Brian. :waytogo:

You made me laugh with your comment about 35 tack welds....I lost count when I flipped the wheeltub sheetmetal on my new bed floor... But it was a mind-numbing amount of tacks go get the job done. :)

-G
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Yea, that picture has a few fewer than 35, but yea, it only seems like it's a lot until I start comparing. :waytogo:
 
Update 6/16/2016

Really long few weekends...

Finished the driver side rust, it was about the same but not quite as bad. Second one goes faster than the first.





The big hole was cut out as one piece and just welded back in when I was done. No pics of that.

Rather than seam sealing these joints, I decided to weld them up, and use a little glazing putty to smooth it out.




There was some deeper than normal pitting in the center of the windshield. I soaked a shop rag in the rust remover and let it sit overnight. Worked really well.



Then i discovered that acid I was using to derust part of the windshield, dropped down and ate through the polyurethane sealant I used in the door jambs. It's a good thing though because as I was removing it to fix it, I saw that it was allowing rust to form in that channel. So I spent many hours with a wire wheel on the drill to remove it all and ryoken green it instead.





Then I spent the next few weekends stripping the interior, sanding out and putty-ing any minor dents in the dash, and then masking it all off. The masking took all day today.



Everything got 80 grit sand paper.


Even prepping the cowl.


Once all that was done, sprayed down two wet coats of polyurethane primer.







Plan is to color and clear this area in the next couple of weeks so the windshield can go back in and get back to semi-weather proof status.
 
NorCal69 said:
Very nice work, Brian. Your rig has to be close to rust free now?
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Oh there's some rust, but it's all on the visible parts that are easier to remove. Quarter panels have just had primer on them the past few years and it's let some moisture through and a haze of rust is visible. Those will need to be stripped down after I finish opening up the wheel wells to clear the tires.
 
I'm kinda curious. My VIN plate is riveted on and I was tempted to drill them out and remove it for this. Does anyone have a nice way to do that? I didn't want to damage it so I just masked it off for now. I may leave it since the color isn't going to be much different than the original.
 
bp71k5 said:
I'm kinda curious. My VIN plate is riveted on and I was tempted to drill them out and remove it for this. Does anyone have a nice way to do that? I didn't want to damage it so I just masked it off for now. I may leave it since the color isn't going to be much different than the original.
Click to expand...

You can buy the rosette rivets you'll need from eBay......


....allegedly. :wink1:



-G
 
bp71k5 said:
Haha, does "allegedly" means you already have a set in a nice Tupperware tub tucked away? :bow:
Click to expand...


Let's just say that if you intend to "tamper" with a VIN tag, you probably don't want to discuss it on the interwebs....

:wink1: :deal:

-G
 
Update 6/20/2016

Did some seam sealing this morning before it gets too hot.

Had to get a new gun to dispense it.


I got it mostly to seal up the upper windshield joint that seemed to be filled with "bondo" type sealer. Not sure if it was original or not, but since it failed in other areas, I didn't trust it. Just squirt it right out and it self levels into a nice smooth bead.


Since I had plenty, I sealed up the joints on the rocker and the quarter panel. Note to self, self-leveling sealer works by gravity so not the best choice for vertical seams. :) I was able to tool those a bit with a finger until it started to set up. Should sand out ok I think.




 
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The level of work you are putting into this thing is pretty incredible. If I ever get over being scared of fixing the rust in my windshield frame I'll definitely be looking through your build. Probably pm'ing you too. :)
 
ashman said:
The level of work you are putting into this thing is pretty incredible. If I ever get over being scared of fixing the rust in my windshield frame I'll definitely be looking through your build. Probably pm'ing you too. :)
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Thanks, and feel free to ask away. It's taken a long time, but I have learned that it's just metal. If a bunch of guys with slide-rules and a pencil back in 1967 can build something, it's certainly not impossible to do the same now given enough time and resources. There's even a bit better technology available to make it easier.

I'm much more scared of the paint type I'm planning to spray on it than any rust that's left. :)
 
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