WTF Do I do now - 1988 K5

[Comatose Camel]

I suppose it’s a moot point now such that you have torn your truck down to bare bones but, as Vinnie mentioned, Jersey doesn’t perform a safety inspection anymore. Jerseys “standard” inspection is simply an emissions test now. They don’t care about rust, broken windshields, bald tires, burnt out bulbs etc. You will receive a valid inspection sticker if and only if you pass emissions, that’s it. Within the past 2 years, I have driven my truck thru inspection with practically non-existent rockers and Swiss cheese fenders without any issues.

The “non-standard” inspection would be considered the tilt test inspection but, by the looks of your rig you aren’t high enough to go thru the tilt test. When you go thru the tilt test (appointment only) they check everything by way of lying on a creeper. During that inspection is where the state starts caring about your safety and fails you for leaks, inconsistent tire pressures, excessive lighting etc. Root Breaker has been down this road and he would be the better one to ask about how meticulous the inspectors can be. http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=278317&page=7

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

LOL Yes the rocker panels were totally rusted out. When the inspector got in to move the truck down the inspection line and the seat rocked, the floor was VERY rusted is when the problem began. I guess I can't really fault him the truck was dangerous.

I just heard back from the welder. He saw my craigslist and thinks we can have it done in like 6 days full time. I told him I dont think so... But, even if it is 10 days, or $2,000 I think I will still be way ahead because I will have a great truck with all new metal.

Pics are hard because it it parked right next to my house and I only have 2-3 feet on each side. Cannot get far enough away to get pics. But we will have to roll it out to work on it. Will get pics then and share progress...

Thanks for all the support guys.

 

[Stomis]

Well if your welder fall through let me know. I couldnt do it in 6 days but a month may be realistic. I dont know what your idea of moving in the "summer" is.

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

The welder came over today. I think we can work this out. He talked about rebuilds he has done before. He seems very knowlegeable and as long as his welds are as good as the pictures he put on craigslist this will be fine. (Really nice overlapped ovals, did not look like they were ground down at all.)

Stomis, my move is a bit open. I have to find a house out in Vegas before I move. If this guy falls through I will get in touch.

Again, thanks to all for your spot on advise.

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

UPDATE: We started on the re-assembly. Wow these replacement parts all need trimming. But Boris, the welder who is helping me, is getting it to fit. I am very pleased with working with him. He is a very careful and very very safe worker.

We have done a lot of fitting... We discussed it and agree that before we finalize anything we have to get the height of the cab spot on. So I pulled the rear quarter panel and new post out of the shed, thinking that I will bolt the inner fender onto the 1/4 panel and use a jack stand to position it on the tire.

But... When I put the post againt the tailgate, it's a hook sort of item that is made of 1/4" steel. It goes into a slot on the post and 1/4 panel. I dont know what it is called so will call it a flange??? Anyway. when the post is positioned on the flange there is a 1/2 inch gap between the bottom of the post and the tail pan.

Also, the slot's on the post and the 1/4 panel do not line up at all. It looks like there is insufficient room for the tailgate latch to fit once assembled. and only one of the holes on replacement post line up with the bolt holes on the 1/4 panel.

I have confirmed that I have the correct parts from LMC. Is this lack of allignment that common?

Do I just make it fit ? Advise appreciated.

 

[Chevy305]

Reproduction parts suck. Plain and simple.

 

[y5mgisi]

Go read chief Brodys thread. Its a tell all guide to quarter panel replacement.

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

Royken's / Chief Brodays thread is hugh. I am about 1/3 of the way through it. Thanks for the referral.

Status update.
I should have never taken all the metal off at once. Should have done one side at at time. We are spending so much time trying to get the body aligned. It shifted and twisted to passenger side. Was not visible until we started putting stuff back on.
We got close when we put two angle iron posts bolted to the door bolts to lift the firewall and cab front and tried different heights. Then we put a come along from the 4WD shifter bracket to the main cross member under the rear floor. That pulled the firewall bottom back and the cap roof forward pivoting on the posts. The driveway not being level did not help either. Next we welded more angle iron from the frame to the new inner rocker panels to hold the correct side to side position, I hope they are supposed to be symetrical. They will be removed after floor supports are welded in place.

The new quarter panels from LMC (bought in 2009) are different lengths by 1/8". I contacted them and was told they no longer use the supplier they used in 2009 and are looking for a new one now. We fixed that by bending out the lip in the front of the 1/4 panel and welding in spacers on the piller to stop it from coming too far forward. Then we hammered the front flange to the inside of the door piller back down. It's not pretty but it worked. I plan on covering the shortage with a patch.
The front inner and outer fenders do fit correctly without cutting !!! ...

The floor panels are another story. Since they are made to fit 73 - 91 they need serious cutting to fit. Basically they are only useful due to the bends and ridges to give them strength. But I am optimestic !! Just ordered the finishing parts, New grill, weather stripping (wow there is a lot of that), floor coverings and other interior stuff to finish it.

Oh Important note. The seat belt floor mounting hardware is really expensive. Like 25 bucks for a set of mounting plates. I am so glad I saved all of them. It took a while to grind the old floor off of them and I am soaking them in PB Blaster to clean them up.

So with both quarter panels tacked in we are about to put the cap on to test the fit. But have to wait a bit because I never ordered the cap weather stripping. I am praying that the adjustments we made to get the panels to fit are right and that the window goes up into the cap properly.

Will advise more as I can... Thanks to all for your advise and positive comments.

 

[ryoken]

assemble the exterior.... put the doors, fenders and top on now while stuff is just tacked... even without the weatherstripping, your really just trying to locate it by the bolt holes..

since so much was apart, and moving around, you need to see if your in the ballpark.. even if it has no rockers or floors, get the doors and fenders on and see how they are lining up with the qrters... that's what's critical..

once that is all pretty close, you can go back in on the other panels, and finish weld what you've already started installing, do the floors, etc..

and work on getting some pics of the problem areas up.... it's VERY difficult to diagnose this stuff by reading...

I'll make sure to check this thread for updates/questions too..

 

[y5mgisi]

Well, glad to hear that something is happening anyway. Good luck!

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

I only have a camera in my phone. Will try to borrow one and upload some of where we are now. Thanks.

 

[chulisohombre]

Good to see some progress on this. Was kinda worried when you said you couldn't get ahold Of welder guy. Ryoken is right about trying to bolt stuff up and see if it is close. When I did my rockers and floors I left the top on so the door Openings would stay strait and to make sure the top was going To stay aligned withy the quarter panel tops. Even without the weather strip you will want to have the top and uarters square before you Final weld the sides back on. That way it Will bolt together correct when you are Done And close It up after. Instead of having to rework it later because it doesn't line up.

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

OMG... Did as suggested, doors fit except for where they bottoms had rusted away. Ordered bottoms and skins. Put them on.

Doors open and close, tops are fine but bottoms of doors are about 2 inches away from the rocker panels. These door hinges bolt to an inner frame inside the door. Aligned the new door bottom holes with the inner frame nuts.

Could these aftermarket bottoms be that much off ? If i move the bottoms any more than 1/4 inch they will be rubbing against the hinges.

I am about to go insane. 56 hours of paying the welder and not much accomplished. Fitting, adjusting, re-fitting again and again.

Sorry still not camera

 

[Chevy305]

 

[chulisohombre]

It's not the easiest thing to do for sure. You are basically building it back up from scratch. There should Be Some Gap between the doors and rocker. Mine is about 1/4-1/2 inch. Did you already put the rockers On and measure the doors before you cut them to put in the new lower skins? Mine was a lil long so I trimmed it to make it line up to the rocker and then shimmed the rocker up a lil before finish welding it to line up to the quarter and front Fender. I hope you didn't cut it too short and that is why the large gap.

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

camera on the way. Will post soon.

Chulisohombre, I see your in Bangor. My in-laws used to live in Saylorsburg. Have you used that junk yard off of 209 just south of route 80 ?

I saw a bunch of truck from 209 but it was closed whenever I went there !

 

[chulisohombre]

Nope never went in there. Seems to
Be closed a lot. Mostly newer vehicles in there so I don't need any of it. Mines a 72. Most anything else I need I go To Harrys u pull it place. I can usually find what I need there. Or I go To The local yard in Bangor capital auto parts and to Shaefers out in wind gap.

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

So i paid the $25.00 so i can upload photo's. But I get an error missing security token.

Any ideas how to fix this (sent msg to admin as well)

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

WTF DO... have some pics

Here are some pics ...

top pic shows red line traced where inside of driver side door ends up when door is closed.

Second pic is of passenger door showing new bottom is tacked in and is flush with old upper section.

3rd pic shows passenger door from out side facing rear of truck. Hugh gap between door bottom and rocker panel.

4th Pic shows passenger door from out side facing rear again, shows placement of hinge over the hinge nut hole. not much room to move the door in as you can see.

5th pic shows new door bottom tacked in and flush around the corner.


Given that the bolt holes indicate that the door is positioned correctly on the hinges and that the new door bottom is tacked in correctly why is there such a large gap (both sides) between the new door bottom and the new rocker panel ?

 

[THEMCGUIRE]

ANNOTATED PHOTO of how far door sticks out

attached is gap picture annotated with notes about the gap. Sorry the annotation is so little 1st time doing this. you need to zoom in to read the text.

Important is the blue line which shows the true gap if the outer skin edge was folded over and in welded in place.

The door is properly latched onto the striker.

We just tacked the outer upper edge of the outer door skin on the passenger door since we have the same problem on the driver side and want to make removal easier.

after posting this I had an idea... I put the new front fender back on. The line of the front fender is almost exactly as you see the line of the door skin in the attached picture. Actually the door skin is a bit closer to the body at the bottom then the fender is. So to line up the door to the fender I will have to pull the door further away from the rocker panel, increasing the gap.

To me this means that the rocker panel is simply not wide enough. Could I have gotten the wrong rocker panel from LMC ?

I ordered and received part # 38-6528 from LMC.. Here is link to their catalog page: http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/csb/full.aspx?Page=41 item # is: 9 on the page, in case you want to check on me.

If I figure a way to move the rocker panel outward, the seam line where the door moulding on the bottom goes will not line up with seam / moulding mount on the upper cab. BTW the upper cap is seated correctly.

Added a pic of the driver side rear floor support. Note how far away it is from the rocker panel. The one on the passenger side is about the same distance. If I move the rocker outward to meet the door this distance will be greater. fyi. This floor support is bolted to one of the cab body mounts so I cannot move the other end as it is determine by the frame.

Hope this makes sense....