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Project Eat Soot

Thanks -G for the advise, I bought a new welder and it will be in next Wednesday. I'm gonna run over to Chevy Metal and pickup the rockers and the rest of the parts tomorrow. Try and get ready to tackle this lovely project. Not sure where to start yet but I should get it in a few months! Ha.
 
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Given the skills you've already shown on this build, I have no doubt you will be able to tackle that rust repair successfully....

It's mostly psychological, once you realize that "it's only metal" it's amazing what you can accomplish.


-G
 
Gents, I have been feeling my way through this rust like a blind man in an orgy! Slowly... Got my new welder setup hopefully it will work out. It had great reviews so for $299 and free shipping couldnt pass it up. Also got a very stout built HF cart!:rolleyes: It should work for what I need though. Anyways I have a question about the front floor support I was able to save it with getting the bolts out of it. It appears to fairly strong still even though it has a fair amount of rust. Should I replace it? Also seems to me that alot of people are using POR15 for a coating. Any other product you can recommend would be helpful. I need to coat the torsion box inside and out, it feels pretty solid but it does have a couple small holes. Please let me know if you see anything I'm missing. Virgin body guy here.

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please get some better, close up shots of the "4-bolts" area (your front cab support)... I'd like to see what sort of rust is going on there, especially where it meets the torsion box.

It's hard to believe that the floorboards are swiss-cheese, but the area directly below it is still structurally sound.


PS. That bottle of shielding gas is adorable! :D I did the same thing when I first got my welder....got a nice small 40 CuFt bottle. It doesn't last long, so you'll probably end up with the larger 80s before you are done with your rust repair. There is nothing worse than running out of shielding gas (or wire, or tips) on a weekend when everyplace is closed.


-G
 
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You know -G I could have went the distance on this build thread without the word "adorable" in it. LOL you did good. Thanks for that! Yeah I was thinking those pics where crappy. I will get some close ups for you to see better. Thanks for the help. I better look at getting a bigger bottle I'm 45 mins to town now.
 
I have that same welder myself and I really like it. of course I built my own cart, but that adorable blue one looks nice too.

:P
 
I would say go ahead and replace the front cab support, if its rusty and loosing some structural thickness. Like Greg said, "It's hard to believe that the floorboards are swiss-cheese, but the area directly below it is still structurally sound". They are cheap, and I know I personally would want to know the integrity of all my structural pieces were 100% sound. You're diving right into it so it seems, so that shouldn't be much to replace. I guess it depends if you are trying to keep things as "original" as possible. Definitely need to see some closer up pics though.
 
Ok got some pictures taken this morning before work. Hopefully they turn out, get home it's dark and leave when it's dark. Upon further review i will have to replace the floor support. (apparently you have to bend over to actually inspect):whistle: It has a pretty big hole in it. I will cut some more floor out and snap pictures later. As far as the floor itself goes it only has the holes by the door sill the rest seems solid. As far as the rocker box itself goes seems fairly solid although it has 2) 3/4" holes in the back. I should do those as well like -G said...image that! :D I will take some more pictures this weekend as I cut up my ride. I tried to get a couple pics of inside the rocker box.
Thanks guys.

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Don't get discouraged.....they call them "Might As Wells" for a reason! :)

I had a nice simple plan to cut out a rusty floorboard and replace it with new metal and that would be all that was needed. :rolleyes: Boy was I wrong.

Truth is.... if you can fight the nausea for a little longer and cut the spot welds that hold the torsion box up to the floor and inner rocker you can get it onto a workbench (or better yet have it sandblasted) and see what condition it's really in. Then, patch it as needed, give it a good coat of Ryoken Green as your base coat, then topcoat with a nice durable topcoat of your choice. POR-15 is a rust encapsulator.... you're always better off removing the rust instead of just putting a barrier over it.

Secondly, there really isn't any valid way to replace the front cab support with the torsion box installed... and you need at least 1/2 of it replaced from what I can see. That works out well for you since the reproduction parts are lousy up near the body mount bolt area... but you probably won't have to go quite that high when you graft in your part.


-G
 
....Oh, and if you haven't done it already.... WELD A DOOR BRACE INTO POSITION NOW!!!!

The more you cut, the more likely you will get a sag in your cab and your door gaps will never be right after you are all finished with the rust repair.


-G
 
Also... buy the truck version of the inner rocker when you get your parts. It's actually the vertical "inner rocker" combined with a few inches of the tapered floor section (including that little bump where the seat brackets bolt down).

You will want to have this part installed BEFORE you cut out the cab support... otherwise there won't be much left to use as in "index" for where things go. Your current "4 bolts area" is rusty but it will help guide the new inner rocker into position. Once that's tacked into place you can cut out the cab support and more of the footwell flooring.

Be sure to study the order that parts were assembled in that area. Its a bit of a puzzle but not too hard to replicate if you pay attention. I've got a substantial number of photos of this exact process in my build thread... so check that again if you haven't already.

-G
 
Great info thank you! I thought I was safe with the "body sag" with the top on. I will get one welded up. I did buy the truck inner rocker like you said earlier seems to be a nice piece. I have already cut it down some now. I will go and study your thread some more. Man... I don't want to touch the torsion box although I know I should! Thanks again.
 
Don't let that inner trick you. It was about 1/2" to long for mine and IIRC Brian ran into the same thing on his too. I just looked back in my thread and it was post 38 that shows it.


Good luck, ES.
 
NorCal69 said:
Don't let that inner trick you. It was about 1/2" to long for mine and IIRC Brian ran into the same thing on his too. I just looked back in my thread and it was post 38 that shows it.


Good luck, ES.
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Yup, same here, I was confused why that inner rocker/outer cab floor patch extended so far back. Past the B pillar when I did mine, if I recall it was well more than 1/2" too long though. At least you have a floor support and torsion box in place from the beginning to get an index from! I did not have such things in existence when I did mine, haha.

Just take your time, have patience, and you'll make it through to the other end!
 
I got some garage time this weekend and made some good progress...right or wrong! I had a tough time getting welder dialed in and not exactly knowing what I'm doing but I think I got it close! I have to do some more fitting and final welding. The cab support was tricky getting it to line up right especially with the rocker box installed just like -G said. I hope it will be solid enough I still need to grind and do some more bird sh*t welds..ha! First time I struck an arc was two weeks ago, hopefully it will get easier! Let me know if you see anything that need attention. thx

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ES,

Be sure to clean the metal where you plan to weld. It looks like you might be leaving that black coating and just tacking on top of it. You'll get nicer results with fresh clean metal. It doesn't take much....even 1/4" is plenty and the fumes won't be nearly as bad!

The trick with sheetmetal is a a setting that lets you pull the trigger for a "One Mississippi" count without burning through. Play around with the settings until you can get a somewhat flat profile on the weld, and when you look at it from the opposite side you can see that the base metals appear to be well-melted and fused. If you can still see the "seam" of the two original panels it's still probably a bit too cold.... if that makes sense.

Once you get a setting you like, write it down on a piece of green tape and stick it to the side of the welder so you won't forget it! (I've got about 6 tape strips on my welder for the different materials I weld regularly)


Also: Since you didnt remove the torsion boxes you only have access from the top side. Drill a few holes in the sheetmetal that is laying down on top of the front cab support flanges and do some plug welds to achor those two parts together. The factory spot welded those together originally, you should be trying to do the same thing. I have a good photo of my replacement floorpan in my build thread just before I dropped it into place for welding. It was drilled with about 2 dozen holes and looked a little like swiss cheese but it gave me the ability to really secure the floor correctly to the cab support and that structural rail that runs parallel to the frame.



-G
 
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