New Life for an Old Goose

[Bluegoose972]

It is starting to resemble a truck again! The rear end is up off the shipping crate, the brakes are installed, the shocks are installed. I need to have longer u-bolts made. I purchased the u-bolt flip kit from Offroad Unlimited, but the u-bolts ended up being about 1/2" too short. A buddy at a local shop can fab up four new ones for me pretty easily. I also need to finish the gas tank installation. Having problems with the sending unit fitting into the new poly tank. For some reason, the retainer ring will not hold the float assembly in place. I'm still working on this and will have it resolved soon.

[Bluegoose972]

Here is the back end of the engine/transmission/transfer case. Looks pretty good. All the linkages are ready and I should be complete with this part of the installation. It is just all the small things that I'm working on right now....Such as getting a transmission filler tube, etc.

[JayDubBlazer]

looking good can't wait for it to warm up just a bit so I can start work on mine

[MAC67]

wow goose,, looks gorgeous

[Blue Beard]

Looks like sand racing time.......

[bouncytruck]

Very nice. When your done with yours, you can come make mine nice like that!

[Bluegoose972]

Thanks for the support guys. I've dreamed of doing a complete rebuild for many years. This is my first and most likely the first of many. This has been a great confidence builder in my abilities and hope to build a 32' Roadster somewhere down the road. Gotta love that big tire look in the back!

[Bluegoose972]

Well, it's time for an update on the progress of Goose. This was one of those bitter sweet weekends. I've had the chassis ready for the body for a few weeks now, but I didn't want to put the body back on until I had cleaned up the underside a little. The last few weekends have been spend lying on my back under Goose scraping, wire brushing, and painting. The good news about this weekend was that I called in a few favors and with the help of a friend and a subcontractor's crane, we set the body back in position. Everything went very well and shifting the engine forward 2" left my plenty of space between the firewall and HEI distributor. With the help of my friend and our two wives, we shoved the truck back into the garage (my driveway is pretty steep and yes, the girls jumped in and pushed). I was flying on cloud nine at this point.

[Bluegoose972]

Feeling like I had accomplished so much, I decided to pull off one of the rocker pans from under the body. This is the one area that I hadn't tackled during my initial clean and painting. The PO had welded the rocker pans in position and I didn't want to pull them off until I had the body back on the frame. After three hours of grinding, prying, and cussing, the pan finally came off....WHAT A MESS!!!! The PO had cut a few holes inside the rocker pan and injected spray foam inside to seal off mud and moisture from getting inside. Well, it didn't work very well, and about 25% of the foam was soaked.

Hmmm....What do you think is hiding behind all that foam???

[Bluegoose972]

As I started removing foam from under the flooring, since only about half came out with the rocker pan, I started discovering things......bad things. As you can see from the picture, the front support member isn't just rusted through, it is completely gone! The flooring looks good from above and the PO said that he had a backyard body man do some work on a few rust areas. Well, all he did was cover everything up with fiberglass. There's a hole in the floor near the outside of the driver's side that is about the size of a football. The metal all around the driver's floor area is paper thin if it does exist.

I would be willing to bet that the other side looks about the same. I'm a little nervous about tackling these major repairs myself, so I've been talking to a local body shop that does classic Camaro and Mustang restorations. They are most likely going to replace the whole floor, front to back and any damaged supports. After that, I'll be good as new and with a good coat of Herculiner(or equiv) I should be in great shape for the future.

Talk about one step forward and two steps back!

Needless to say, my wife is very happy that we no longer have a car body laying on our driveway.

[skid]

Man, that's a lot of work you're doing all at once! Keep up the good work!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Good job on getting so far that blazer is gonna be killer bummer about the floor though.... Great work keep us updated..

[Yukon Jack]

Wow, that is alot of work accomplished! I really enjoy seeing projects progress.

Too bad about the body problems. Ah, it's just money, right.

Here is a link to a page about the headers that I am using on my K20 with a 454. You may have seen this info before, but I wasn't sure. http://www.myoldtruck.com/modules.ph...&pid=12&page=2

[bouncytruck]

Looks like it is coming along nicely. Too bad about the foam in the rockers. Sounds like it caused a lot of problems.

[Bluegoose972]

Well, progress has been very slow lately! But I made a new friend....the EQUALIZER (2 lb sledge hammer)!!! Sorry, no pictures at this time. Tried to take a few, but they really didn't show much and it was kinda hard to see anything.

The tilt steering has been installed. Surprisingly easier than I expected. Purchased the column from a member and after a few modifications and some TLC, the unit bolted right in place. Getting the slip shaft to slide was the most difficult part, but the EQUALIZER made short work of it!

Installed four patch panels in the bed portion of the floor. When I started wire brushing the floor area, started finding lots of bondo. Most of the bondo was used to reform the dented floor sections, but there were a few areas where the metal was completely gone. Magazine articles make it look really easy....Simple cut the panel to fit and weld it in place. Well, IT ISN'T THAT EASY! LOL Of course, the quality of the patch panels can make a big difference. I purchase panels from LMC, but unfortunately, the corrugations (I guess that is what you would call them) don't match the original flooring. They are slightly wider, so after the first couple, things don't match up well at all. So, I ended up cutting out the cancerous areas, then overlapping the patch panels by 1/2" all the way around. Since they didn't match perfectly, I used the EQUALIZER! Since they are going to get a coating of Herculiner then carpeting over that, I don't really care about having the overlap joint showing. I fully welded the top section, then spot welded the underside. After a little wire brushing, I sprayed on some rust preventative paint. On the underside, I sprayed a heavy layer of rubberized undercoating around the overlap joint area to keep moisture out.

After the flooring section was repaired, I installed new rear wheel tubs. They didn't snug up perfectly due to the patch panel overlaps, but a little caulking applied to both the inside and outside joints fixed me right up.

I also tore into the driver's floor area. Whew...That was a mess too! There WAS a section of flooring the size of a football completely gone, with fiberglass replacing it. I cut out the cancerous flooring section and then had to replace front body support with a slip on unit. Again, magazines make these types of repairs look so easy, but they really are a pain. I again overlapped the patch panels and replaced the flooring. And once again, the EQUALIZER came in very handy, since none of the panels really wanted to fit right.

I purchased a set of seats from a local wrecking yard. I found a set of 2000 GMC bucket seats, tan, with full power, fold down arm rests, and the seat belt built into the seat back. It also included the center console. All this for $450. They were a little dirty, but overall in great shape. I set them on the new drivers floorpan to see how things were going to fit. The EQUALIZER came into play again, since I needed to flatten out some of the raised portions around the drivers floor area to make the seat fit flat. I shifted the seat as far back as I could, to give more room for the driver to sit. This shift required new brackets/plates to be welded on the bottom side of the floor with nuts welded on for easy fastening of the seat at a later date.

With the repairs complete and the seat brackets welded in place, it was time to reinstall the rocker box. Overall, the rocker box was in good shape, except for two large holes the PO had cut into the bottom for access. I repaired these holes, then wire brushed the inside of the rocker box. After a coat of rust preventative paint and a heavy layer of rubberized undercoating to the inside, I was ready to reinstall. Surprisingly, the rocker installed fairly easily. All I have left is tack weld the rocker panels to the rocker box and that installation will be complete. The EQUALIZER was feeling a little left out on this repair, so I beat on the side of the rocker box for a little while. This made sure it was good and tight before welding and while releaving a little of my stress, also made the EQUALIZER feel better too!

I still need to pull off the rocker box on the passenger side and replaced the cancerous flooring. I figure that I will also need to replace the front cab support, since the passenger side will most likely look just like the drivers side.

I am SOOO looking forward to driving GOOSE this summer. But I still have a long ways to go!

Till next time,
Rick

[1970blazin]

You are making some serious progress!! Nice job!! It never is as easy as you think with these things! My hubby and I spent at least 2 days just trying to get the body panels to line up! We learned a good newbie (1st restoration) thing---line up the body panels BEFORE paint!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Good to hear that you are making progress.. The patch pannel's look easy in the mag but I would agree that they are a pain in thew a$$...

[Bluegoose972]

Tried a different approach today. On the drivers side, I removed the rocker boxes before fixing the floor. Today, I tore into the passenger side starting at about 10am. After messing with the rocker boxes for about an hour and not making much progress, I decided to cut out the passenger floor section while leaving the rocker box in place. No big deal. Well, after cleaning out all the foam inside the rocker box, I started looking at how to get the rocker box easier.....Wait...Do I need to remove at all?

Work smart, not hard.....Well, smart and hard is good too! I decided to try and replace the flooring without the rocker box removed. There are already two large holes cut into the rocker boxes that I will fix later, but use as access for now. Needless to say, the installation went pretty well. My front support brace was again missing due to heavy rust. Since the rocker box was still in place, I could not slide on the slip over repair section. So, I cut it in half and that worked pretty well. Once in position, I welded it back together.

At 5pm today, I finished welding the panels....7 hours, which is actually a pretty good improvement over the amount of time I spent on the drivers side. I still have some more work to do, but the big stuff is done on the flooring. I figure one more good day and I should be finished....Maybe tomorrow.

Do you think the family will be pissed if I spend the whole day in the garage on Easter? I think I will finish up next weekend. Spending time with the family sounds like alot more fun!

[JayDubBlazer]

I have seen people fill the seats up with foam in a jon boat but never in a K5

[Bluegoose972]

I'm not really sure what they were trying to accomplish with the foam. One both the passenger and drivers side, there was a large area that had been rusted out near where the floor plan meets the rocker panel. They riveted light guage steel panels in postion along the rocker panel inside since the inside metal was completely gone. Then they filled the entire rocker box full of spray foam. Either it was an attempt to keep moisture out or to help out with the rigidity of the fiberglass repair.

Actually, the fiberglass repair was holding up fairly well. There was a little flex in the floor pan, but not much more than with steel. But I just couldn't leave that area alone without attempting to fix it. This truck will not be a show quality truck by any means, but I want to know that I have a sound floor for mounting the seats.

Thanks for all the support guys. Can't wait to show off the final product of all this work. BLAZIN has been a huge inspiration to me. But I can't seem to talk my wife into coming out and getting dirty in the garage. I just don't get it!

[Big J]

Thanks for all the pics and info. I'm getting ready to tear mine down to that level. Wish I had a buddy with a crane, lol. Its gonna look great when you get done.

[1970blazin]

Quote:
"BLAZIN has been a huge inspiration to me. But I can't seem to talk my wife into coming out and getting dirty in the garage. I just don't get it!"

Thanks Bluegoose!!!!

Us CRAZY women are hard to find....I think my husband likes me being a Chevy girl, but then again there are the downsides.... You know how your wife always tells you how to do things and questions how you are doing them...
I hate to say it, but I can be like that with the Blazer and it drives my hubby up the wall!:p He always apoligizes for "being a ba$tard" (s he puts it) when he gets done yelling at me. Ha!Ha!

Anyways you are putting in some great work in that blazer!!! Nice job!

[Swbman]

Hey Man, you are flying along there,my hat goes off to you for all the hard work you are putting into your blazer.For the looks of things you definitely going to have a very nice rig.For sure keep us posted of your great progress....

[Bluegoose972]

Well Guys, It has been awhile since I lasted posted an update. Was transferred onto a new project and everything came to a screaching halt for awhile. But I'll update you on what progress I have been able to make.

First....I finished the floor repair. You can see from the pics, lots of rust was found and patched. This included new wheel tubs all around and several new patches of floor. The PO has fiberglassed overthing all the rust...No wonder it the floor was so spongy! LOL

Once that was done, I ground everything down to a good base (either metal or base paint) then painted it with rustoleum.

Next, I applied two coats of herculiner. Really hid all the patch work and gave a great, stout surface!

[Bluegoose972]

The slowest part so far has been the wiring....Who ever came up with the name Painless must have been dropped on his head as a baby! LOL Well, it would probably be alot easier if I had did an immediate swap. But since I stripped everything down and now had no guide, it has been slow.

But you can see from the guage cluster that the end result will be really cool! Getting closer every weekend!