bwilli2's 51 5 window

[bwilli2]

Got the last of the 'forever gone' rivets off. Did some primary blasting to see what works. Borrowed a HF sand blaster, and I bought a soda blaster a while ago. Finally broke that puppy out.

The media/sand blaster had media (looked like sand) in it, so just ran it out. Did a fantastic job. Cleaned the rust off down to metal super fast. VERY slick. (Made sure to wear my hood and respirator as I'm not sure if that's low-silica sand or what in there.)

Tried the soda blaster. Does a great job cleaning and stripping paint. Handles surface rust, but not the tougher stuff. Tried it for grins on some pretty rough vette wheels that I picked up for rollers when I got my suspension parts. Looks like that'd clean them up nicely.

I'll be refilling with aluminium oxide and trying that, then glass bead to see what is the best balance.

[bwilli2]

July has been a rough month for getting out to the shop. Too much other stuff going on.

I did try my hand at crack repair. That's the first scary thing I've done. Everything up to this point was either reversible or on something I didn't plan on keeping. Taking a grinder to the frame to widen a crack for weld is a bit unnerving. I know that it's always repairable, heck absolute worst case I cut out a section and replace it, but still...

Here are some pictures I took along the way.

Drilling the end of the crack to stop the spread (sorry for the blur, cell-phone cam at the time)


In the progress of widening the crack for weld fill. For the others I'm going to switch to a smaller diameter and thinner wheel to give me more control.


First and 2nd pass (I didn't take one post grind.)



Came out pretty good. I did have a little burn through on the hole on some of the back fill not-pictured (because it's embarrassing :-). I'll need to fill that in a bit more then re-drill it.

[bwilli2]

Tried some more blasting. This time with Aluminum oxide. It works very well. Seems to do a better job than the sand that was left over in the hopper. I think mainly as it's finer grained and actually meant for this use. I think the sand that was in there was just play sand.

I'm using the 40LB Harbor Freight blaster. It's really a two man operation, one to handle the business end and one to continually shake the blaster to keep the media flowing. I also highly recommend installing the dead man valve instead of the regular nozzle. If for no other reason than you can stop blasting instantly when you want vs. having to reach for one of the valves on the tank.

Progress. You can see the enormous mess it makes. The white stuff was the sand, the black stuff is the Aluminum Oxide.


Closer


It's surprisingly fun to do. Watching the 'clean line' progress is satisfying. The only real drawback is it's 100 degrees and wearing the safety gear makes for a less than ideal experience. ;-)

Still getting the hang of fine-tuning the flow so I can optimize media consumption.

[bwilli2]

Long time no check in. Not much to report until today. I've been blasting and blasting and blasting.

Lesson learned. While it was fun and interesting I would have been better off dollar wise and saved a ton of time if I just bit the bullet and hauled the frame to a blast shop and had it done.

It wasn't hard work, but had to blast, clean-up, refill, blast, clean-up, refill over and over and over. Took waaaay longer than I thought. To finish it up, my buddy and I just burned an entire Saturday to get the last half, but it's clean! The cross members that are not cleaned are coming out.


Also did the last bit of crack repair:



The BIG news (well to me) ... I passed a major milestone.

I put the first boxing plate on the rear:


And after I tacked it on I realized... this is the first think I've put ON the truck! I've officially finished tear-down and am now building! WHOO HOO!

[hotrodtim]

Looking good! What are you going to do for rear suspension?

[bwilli2]

Originally Posted by hotrodtim

Looking good! What are you going to do for rear suspension?

Flatouts' independent rear c4 vette kit. I have the front and rear out of an 88 that will be going in.

There's something appealing in keeping it all Chevy.

[bwilli2]

My new job is burning my time super fast.
A little progress.

Added the drivers side boxing plate on the rear:



Cut down the front cross member so I can box the front:



And trimmed the front rails so they can be boxed evenly.

[bwilli2]

The front boxing plates from the kit are not an exact fit. I'm actually not going to use them and just get some oversized stock and cut it down to fit.



Not a big deal.

Also, oddly those cracks on the frame by the rear cab mounts... are intrestingly symmetrical. Same number of forks in the same places.

[bwilli2]

Got the driver side front boxing plate built and on. I need more plate for the passenger side. Coming along!

[bwilli2]

Got the passenger side done. Here's a shot of the drivers side:



Took some shots of the template process, but my camera crapped out.

Traced on plate with the one from the kit for comparison:


After the rough cut.


Cut one on top of the kit:


The rail prepped:


I'll have to take my other camera out to get more shots. Got it back on the jack stands so I can get it ride level.

Moving forward!

[bwilli2]

Got the rear cross-members tacked in. Next to bolt on all of the various brackets and such.

[_Ogre]

making progress
boxing the frame will keep the frame from cracking more.
nice work so far

[xpickup]

bwilli2, good to see another C4 suspensioned AD on here. Hope to see some pictures. I am doing one too. I am building the rear set up. But the front is Flat Out. Your blasted frame looks great.


Shannon

[bwilli2]

A couple of really really bad cell phone pictures.

[bwilli2]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

making progress
boxing the frame will keep the frame from cracking more.
nice work so far

I'm going to box around the cracked areas for sure. I'm debating about doubling up a bit of plate under the front cab mount section where it cracked across the top. We'll see what I think when I get there.

[bwilli2]

Not posted for a bit. I've been super busy, and not getting the quality shop time I wanted.
I did test fit the rear end with those wide-wide vette wheels, and got the front cross tacked in. I tore down the corvette parts and took them to the car wash for a quick bath. That aluminum stuff is LIGHT and sure cleans up pretty.

I've been trying to get time to finish weld everything so I can move on to getting the motor and trans positioned then ready to go.

Then it's paint the frame, and move on to stuff like plumbing for the brakes and fuel system. I'm still undecided as to exactly what kind of tank I want.

I know it's easy to just sling a cell up under the bed and put a filler in the bed floor, but I'm really thinking I want to run the neck out the side. It's not like I'm going to be hauling anything in it, but just strikes me as wrong to have to keep the bed empty if you want to fill it up... Weird I know, but just the way it strikes me.

I don't want to tub the bed, but man, those wide rear wheels are sure tempting...

[bwilli2]

Shot of the rear with the full wide vette wheels...

[Kabwe]

Everything is looking good man, really good. Keep up the good work and keep the pics coming.

[bwilli2]

Got the frame flipped, and the welding is almost all done on the underside. A couple of tricky areas left. Going to have to think on that.

I am also thinking about fabbing up some different back cab mounts. I have the kind that semi suspend the cab, but I'm thinking I'm going to either find some of the other 'solid' style or make some up.

[bwilli2]

So, my truck has this style mount:



It has two very closely spaced bolts on each side to hold the cab, which is where the cab cracked on both sides. So It's not a great mounting method.

I'm thinking of trying to find a set of the other style:



My frame has the correct bump out for this style, so it'd be a bolt on. Although no one carries them, so if I can't find a good used pair, I'll have to make something that will work. I just want to spread the load over more than two bolts on a side.

[bwilli2]

Finally got the 'notches' in for the rack and pinion.

I'm going to steal a page from xpickup's build and add some additional support from the radiator support to the cross member.

Almost a roller. Hopefully next week!

[slydogg76]

Subscribed...nice work! Looking good!!

[bwilli2]

Kind of stalled out a bit. At that 'wow, I have a ton ahead of me' point.

Put the frame on the rotisserie to paint, then realized that "uh, not even close" took it back off. Sigh. Jumping ahead...

Been working on the front end mainly. I'm at the point where I need to drill out the vette a-arms, so I need to get a drill press for that. I want to be 100% sure those holes are straight and true so I don't mess up a pair of spendy aluminum a arms.

Got a trans cross-member from Brothers, a solid unit. I'll need to narrow it a bit once I figure out exactly where the engine will sit.

Of course this means putting the cab back on long enough to ensure clearance. This leads to a relatively unique wrinkle...

A feral cat has decided that climbing up into the cab under the tarps is a dandy house. I didn't want to not give the thing a place to be so I ended up getting side tracked and making a cat shelter for it. Then a heated bowl and feeding box so the thing won't starve in the single digit nights. And a heated pad...

Being a tech guy of course that meant I need a video camera so I can keep an eye on it. The infrared LEDs really reflect. Gives it a awesome look. Heh.

[bwilli2]

Quick update: (Pictures eventually)

In the process of building a custom front radiator cross member.
Then I need to build some rear-cab mounts, but I think I'll drag the cab in and sit it on the frame to mark up for motor and transmission cross member mount points.

I've been kind of 'bleh' on spending time in the shop over the last few months. But gettin' there.

[STOCKISH]

Progress looks amazing man. We all need a break at some point or another. Take your time then jump back in with both feet when you feel ready. Cant wait to see more progress, this is going to be an amazing build.