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Fixing fire damage

Blue85

Blue85

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I'm looking for advice on repairing burned areas of sheet metal in the cowl area and under the dash, such that it's protected from rusting. I prefer not to trigger a sandblaster in the interior, but if that's the only way I may have to figure something out.

Then what? Self-etc primer and finish with the regular paint the truck is painted with? My plan is to re-spray the whole truck (as it has been for several years!), but need to get it driveable again before that which means a lot of work under the dash, so I was hoping to get this done after fixing main wiring but before re-installing the HVAC boxes.
 
About the only thing I can think of besides the sand blaster is a lot of hand sanding. With the foam sanding blocks would probably be best. Sounds like a chitty couple days to do so. But much cleaner than the blaster
 
^^^ agree with hand sanding or wire wheel in the places you can. If you can get it reasonably clean then good quality epoxy primer followed by basecoat
 
With out decent photos, this post is a waste of space
 
I’d scrap off the melted plastic and goo first. Then I’d try CLR and a scuff pad to remove the charring. Prime/paint the bare metal areas. I use CLR regularly to remove rust and other contaminants from old parts and it does not hurt the paint.
 
For the hidden, hard-to-get-to under dash areas, I'd scrape the most scaly stuff off with a wire wheel, and then coat it (brush on) with POR 15 and then rattle can a top coat over that....
 
Except under the dash is easily accessable.... Inside the cowl is the monster lurking to clean up.
 
CT-BLAZER said:
Except under the dash is easily accessable.... Inside the cowl is the monster lurking to clean up.
Click to expand...
I totally understand that, as I just cut out the inner cowl and inner lower cowl panels on my 72 K5. About to replace them with new panels as soon as I'm finished de-rusting all the small pieces, and repairing kick panel and floor rust. This is way out of my level of expertise, but I'm gonna do it anyway... I'm adding the Blazer re-do vids to my yt channel, feel free to watch and comment if it might help you. There are 3 blazer vids on there so far. Here's the first of the three:
 
I've put this off for more than 1/2 a year while fixing other cars and remodeling the house for the in-laws, keeping the snowblowers and appliances running, etc. We're typically buried in snow half the year. Now it's back in the attached shop and IT'S TIME.20240427_165125.jpg
 
My dad had the heater motor wire for High speed short and start the under side of the dash to melting.
If he hadn't thrown me his knife to cut it fast it probably would have ended up the same.
That was a 72 though. No idea of the wires are the same route.
 
swettysblazer said:
@Blue85 did you ever find out what caused this? Sorry to see it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it was me welding. The truck was undercoated multiple times with the sticky grease. I was getting the truck ready to lead the U.P. overland trip a couple days later after I had explored and scouted the whole thing. It was just one broken tab on the fender I was repairing. With the auto-helmet, a fire just can't be seen next to an arc. Also, the fire extinguisher in the garage (1 of 2) failed to work, even though the gauge was still in the green. The new thing to me was that factory plastic parts in the 80's sustain flame even with water squirted on them. I can't count the number of things I've welded on this truck.
 
I'll probably start a thread on this work. I have a DIY4x dash here and some RAM-track and mounts to go on it, so I'm looking forward to having all the equipment and switches in an organized fashion. I have a RPi running a digital dash, connecting to my ECU on the bench (it was encased in melted plastic, but it still runs) and the 1000nits auto-dimming screen has cleared customs so I should have that soon. The interior wiring and cleanup will be a lot easier with no dash.

#1 is make it run. Then I can move it around and sandblast outside (plus put the windows up!) Probably sandblasting the interior is no more sand than a few days at Silver Lake. :surepal: I have a lot of melted wires to cut before I dare connect the batteries again, but it should be mostly stuff to the passenger door, the stereo and the CB radio in the overhead console, plus the UHF radio wiring that was installed for all of 2 days :doah:. I haven't checked the fusible links, but in theory the fuses should have saved them. I have replacement stock harnesses for the interior.
#2 is fix the metal (after pulling the HVAC boxes off)
#3 is get enough interior to drive
#4 is fix the transmission leak (front seal)
Then I can use it again, which helps the motivation. I don't know how far I'll get this summer on making the interior nice again. It needs the headliner fabric replaced and new carpet, but I have replacement kick panel, A-pillar trim, sun visor, seats and HVAC boxes.

The thing is, I need to go back and make the original build thread from the many pieces I've posted here and there. We didn't have build threads when I started this. Then this can be the next chapter.
 
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