68 Second Chance

[May70]

Watching... Im in deep with mine also

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

I can't wait to see what it looks like and keep up the good work. I was looking at that gauge cluster again and that turned out really nice.

Here is what I used- Micro mesh kit Link Here to polish out the gauge lens. Small bottle of acrylic florescent orange paint from craft store and some 000 steel wool for the back side.

[Chevys4life]

Originally Posted by landarts

Here is what I used- Micro mesh kit Link Hereto polish out the gauge lens. Small bottle of acrylic florescent orange paint from craft store and some 000 steel wool for the back side.

Thanks for the information and the link. I have to do mine one of these days and your turned out really nice.

[landarts]

Finally got the parts I needed for the cab corner repair. Began working on the cab corner a bit on Saturday afternoon. Had to finish making the final cut on the truck so I could start matching up parts and begin to make things fit the best I could. The rust in the cab corner was minimal compared to some I have seen, however that does not mean there is other damage or previous repairs to deal with. After tearing into the cab corner I noticed how the P.O. had replaced the outer rockers at sometime in the trucks life. From what I could tell the outer rocker was replaced by doing an overlap weld instead of a butt weld. Then the area was seam sealed and painted. It is not how I would have done the repair and it looks like they probably did not hang the door to see where the rocker laid in comparison to the body lines. So after looking at that I decided to go ahead and leave the rocker alone and just work with. I have to remember I am not doing a full blown restoration here, just trying to fix the rust areas and get here back on the road to live another day.

So I proceeded to cut out parts and and work my way out to the cab corner. First thing I did after getting the parts cut out was to treat the metal with a solution of Rustoleum Rust reformer a brush on solution that converts rust to a metal and seals it up. The areas are surface rust only, not flakey rust through the metal areas and usually areas that are hard to get a die grinder or sandpaper on. After that was cured up I tacked the rear floor section that does the turn down into the cab corner. Then tacked in the portion of the rear cab support and drilled a few holes from the support into the rear floor patch and spot welded them together to make it rigid. Then I made a few cuts on the cab corner part enough to get it fitted to the outside but overlapping the metal. Clamped it to the area and tried to get it as straight as possible then marked from the inside with a silver Sharpie on the cut line of the cab metal. Cut the part and clamped it to the body with body panel clamps.

After taking a break and coming back to this part of the project later in the afternoon I can see where I need to do some fine tune grinding to get a better fit for the weld. Also noticed that the bend on the repop part is not a match with that of the cab. So after getting the part to fit as best I can I will tack it in a few places then slice into the cab corner bend and work the metal to match. It seems that every repop part that I have touched on rust repair has had to be modified in order to make it work. Oh well like I said this is the first cab corner I have done and now I know what to expect what has to be reworked in order to do the job. Just like on the passenger front fender cup that is 1/2" inch to short vertically. Which added double the welding, grinding and prepping because the part is to short.

I have to admit it was probably not the best fitting cut I have ever done on a repair like this. But it is just metal and I will need to cut and patch in two small areas. I will tack in the large part first and rework the cab corner radius before I make a template for the two small areas that will need attention to complete the cab corner. On areas like this I will usually put a few strips of green masking tape over the area to be templated and out line the edge then pull off the tape and put back down on some flat sheet metal and cut it out following the lines. I used this method before and it worked out really good for getting the part cutout done right the first time without so much grinding.

[landarts]

Got the corner tacked in and started working the cab corner. After tacking in a few places I made two cuts in the corner of the bend and worked getting both of those lined up with the true cab radius. After getting them lined up I tacked them in a few places to hold the cuts. Then moved on to cutting a small piece to fill where I made a over cut and had to much space to fill in with a weld. Once I got around the corner I did phase one of the grinding to see what is left to fill. Needed to take a brake since I just spent a little over 2 hours today to get to this point. I figure I will have at least another hour or so just in finish welding and grinding the metal so I can get to a point where I can start on the filler work.

Next go at it later today I will try finish the welding and grinding. Drill holes that are marked for spot welds into the support and tack those in. And last would be to cut a small section that needs to be patched on the far left close to the frame.

Pict 1 - Shows where we are at after the first break today, and the marks to be drilled for support spot welds
Pict 2 - Shows the close up where I had to make two slits in the corner

[Chevys4life]

Looks like the cuts you made worked out fine from the pictures. The corner radius looks
good.

[landarts]

Got some time at lunch today and finished up the cab corner welding and rough grinding. Took way more time than I thought it would of coarse. About 45 minutes of welding and another 30 minutes of rough grinding. I used a air die grinder with a metal cutting blade to knock down the spot welds. Still need to go over it with a flap disk and fine tune a few areas with a body hammer with a pick end for a few high spots.

By the time I get this corner done I will have about 10 to 12 hours into it, which includes the (rear turn down floor portion into cab corner, rear cab support section, cab corner and then the body, paint and some 3m under coating). The interesting thing is when I first saw the truck the rust showing in the cab corner was only a small area about 2x3 inches and I thought it would be a piece of cake. Again this was the first time I have done a cab corner and I am sure I can shave a few hours of next time with what I have learned this go around.

Photo 1 - shows the mess I had going on under the truck where I was working
Photo 2 - Cab corner all welded and rough grinding done
Photo 3 - The other side of the truck that I have done nothing with except remove a mirror and get the window regulator working again

[landarts]

Back on the cab corner and getting close to wrapping it up. Finished up welding the turn down and grinding down the welds. Then moved onto getting the old seat belt nut cut lose from the old piece of metal. Then ground down the bottom and sides on a drum belt machine. Got it welded in and then went back up to the top and started drilling through holes where I had originally drilled out a few of the spot welds when removing the old support to. Drilled in the same location to pierce the new support so I could do a build up the spot weld. Finally all the welding on the cab corner, rear floor support and rear turn down are completed and ready to move on to the next step.

Pulled out the filler and tools to start getting the body work done on the cab corner. After two rounds of Rage filler I am just about ready for a little Pro Gold skim coat. Hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow I will be ready for a little paint on all the items that have been rust repaired.

Photo 1 - The seat belt nut still on the old piece of floor that was removed
Photo 2 - Red circles show where I need to drill into new support to do th spot welds
Photo 3 - Corner ready for filler
Photo 4 - Second coat of filler
Photo 5 - Inside floor area with a round of filler

[Chevys4life]

That cab corner repair turned out nice

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

That cab corner repair turned out nice

Thanks for the kind words!

It was an adventure but I can feel that I am getting close to wrapping up the cab corner repair then onto the "To-Do" list to get it ready to sell.

Photo 1 - Inside cab repair of floor primered with red Rustoleum rusty metal primer
Photo 2 - Cab corner sanded down after Pro Gold glaze and ready for SEM black high build primer
Photo 3 - Cab corner primer drying

[landarts]

After I put down coat number three of the filler primer I decided to try and knock out an item on the list while it was drying. About a month or so ago I was looking for an additional hubcap since the truck only had three on it. they were the period correct 68 caps that are silver and black with the red bowtie center. Well I did find one finally on Ebay and the patina was a very good match of what I already had on the truck so win win. After receiving it in the mail it was as if they pulled it off of my truck and resold it to me.......then I flipped it over and it was the nub style back. Well that will not work so I thought I would hold onto it and possibly later turn into a clock or some sort of wall hanger.

Then about a few weeks later had read a build thread where the guy had the same type of hubcaps and trimmed of the nub metal portion and rolled over the metal and made it work like the others. So I grabbed the two hubcaps, one for reference and the other to start cutting on. I used and air die grinder with a 3" metal cutting blade and went around it and left an additional 1/4" or so left over from the seam. After that I knocked down the burrs and grabbed an body shaping hammer and a lip dolly that I had and started hammering. Test fitted a few times, then hammered some more. After the third time hammering the metal over it was really close so I grabbed the rubber mallet and with a good tap or two it went right on.

Pretty pleased with the outcome and now that will be one more thing that I learned how to do and one more thing of the check list.

[landarts]

OK first of all decided to go for a little drive on Christmas eve over to the local store to pick up a few items need for dinner makings. This is the Fixrupr truck I finished last year right round Christmas time. I have replaced the starter in this truck twice in a year and I have probably only drove the truck a couple dozen times or the last year. The starters re Napa Auto remanufactured starters and that is my problem I am sure. So anyways when I got over to the store and ready to come home I tried starting and all it would do is spin but not engage. Rocked it back and forth, said a few cuss words, hopped on one foot while crossing my eyes and nothing worked so i had it towed back to the house. Pulled the starter off and the Bendix was not engaging from what i could tell. So I decided to search the forum here to see what a better solution was and it came up a few times to try this AC Delco starter that is half the size made for 71 Corvette. Part number was for AC Delco # 3737-1022 and Gm # on box is 88877121. Bolted it up and the cool thing is that it is now not so close to the headers and really light to install.

While waiting for another coat of filler primer to dry I decided to finish working in some patina sanding with a Scotch Brite pad and 600 wet/dry paper on the newly painted side mirrors. Also got a chance to try out my new rivet nut tool since I broke the old a while back. I think I like the look of the patina mirror and it seems to go well with the patina on the truck. I did knock down all the shine a bit and will buff over when I do the other side of the truck.

Photo 1 - Comparison of the two starters for size
Photo 2 - Using the new rivet nut tool for the mirrors
Photo 3 - Mirror after painting and doing little patina work

[Chevys4life]

Thanks for the information about the smaller starter. I have headers on my truck and when I need to replace the starter, I'm going to use one of those. I thought that you needed to use those plates on the inside of the doors to install those mirrors. I see that if you have one of those fancy tools, you can use those inserts and they seem to work fine.

[dmjlambert]

I like this thread very much. I look forward to seeing pictures of your work with the Utech paint on the patches.

[landarts]

Originally Posted by dmjlambert

I like this thread very much. I look forward to seeing pictures of your work with the Utech paint on the patches.

Thanks I hope anything I put in the build thread might at sometime help someone else down the line or inspire someone to just try doing something that they have never done before.

Hopefully after I do some touch up sanding on the seam sealer I applied a day ago it might get some color on News Year day. I also had a few minutes of spare time at work today so I whipped a rendering of a shop truck logo on the a door.

[dmjlambert]

That looks quite fantastic. If you're going to go ahead with that, I would be very interested pictures and description of how you put it on the door and gave it the aged look.

[Ptjsk]

Good work! Looks great! Love the shop logo on the door too.

Pat

[landarts]

Originally Posted by dmjlambert

That looks quite fantastic. If you're going to go ahead with that, I would be very interested pictures and description of how you put it on the door and gave it the aged look.

I will be doing a shop truck logo or pinstriping. Which ever route I go I will document it and it will be weathered using a combination of using a buffer and compound. Also will use reducer on a rag and rub the outer edge to create a worn look.

Originally Posted by Ptjsk

Good work! Looks great! Love the shop logo on the door too.

Pat

Thanks I appreciate it.

[landarts]

Well I started out the day thinking I was going to sand down and smooth out some of the seam sealer i put on a couple days ago. Seems there was issues with the seam sealer not setting up properly so I removed it all off the areas and prepped it again to use a new tube of 3M that I just bought.

While I was prepping I noticed an area on the rocker that looked like it was bubbling up under the paint so I tapped on it with a screw driver and punched through a rust hole. Since the Utech paint I bought is a 2K paint that has a bladder in the aerosol can you have 24 hours to use it then it hardens in the can. This means I will need to cut out the metal area, treat the metal behind it and patch it up like all the other areas.

Photo 1 - shows the area cut out, about 5" long by 1 1/2" wide
Photo 2 - holding new metal in place with magnets
Photo 3 - welded and tacked in, ground down and ready for filler
Photo 4 - first coat of Rage Extreme filler, used a large pop sicle stick for smoothing the lower radius

[Chevys4life]

I'm interested in the shop logo myself. That is the same thing I want to due to my truck.

[landarts]

Originally Posted by Chevys4life

I'm interested in the shop logo myself. That is the same thing I want to due to my truck.

Here is a LINK to the process I will be using, it is the condensed version. I actually have the magazine somewhere at home and will try to get it scanned and posted here in a PDF for anyone that would like to try this themselves.

Basically what they are doing is creating the graphics digitally, then having it cut on a vinyl plotter machine. Apply the vinyl as your template to paint on with a lettering brush with either a One Shot type of paint or some use a urethane with an hardener. There are several ways I found in my research to give the weathered look on the lettering. In one case the painter used One Shot paint and added a One Shot clear to the mixed up paint to help give it a transparent look and applying in a dry brush fashion. Others were rubbing the freshly tacked paint with reducer on a rag and using a buffer with compound.

Since I already have some One Shot paint, brushes, vinyl and vinyl plotter and work in the Adobe Creative Suite programs daily I thought what the heck lets learn something new and give it a shot. I will be doing some testing on a spare door I have to see what works for me.

Here are a few more I mocked up this morning.

[Chevys4life]

I will read that article tonight and see how the process works.

[68Gold/white]

Originally Posted by landarts

Finally got the parts I needed for the cab corner repair. Began working on the cab corner a bit on Saturday afternoon. Had to finish making the final cut on the truck so I could start matching up parts and begin to make things fit the best I could. The rust in the cab corner was minimal compared to some I have seen, however that does not mean there is other damage or previous repairs to deal with. After tearing into the cab corner I noticed how the P.O. had replaced the outer rockers at sometime in the trucks life. From what I could tell the outer rocker was replaced by doing an overlap weld instead of a butt weld. Then the area was seam sealed and painted. It is not how I would have done the repair and it looks like they probably did not hang the door to see where the rocker laid in comparison to the body lines. So after looking at that I decided to go ahead and leave the rocker alone and just work with. I have to remember I am not doing a full blown restoration here, just trying to fix the rust areas and get here back on the road to live another day.

So I proceeded to cut out parts and and work my way out to the cab corner. First thing I did after getting the parts cut out was to treat the metal with a solution of Rustoleum Rust reformer a brush on solution that converts rust to a metal and seals it up. The areas are surface rust only, not flakey rust through the metal areas and usually areas that are hard to get a die grinder or sandpaper on. After that was cured up I tacked the rear floor section that does the turn down into the cab corner. Then tacked in the portion of the rear cab support and drilled a few holes from the support into the rear floor patch and spot welded them together to make it rigid. Then I made a few cuts on the cab corner part enough to get it fitted to the outside but overlapping the metal. Clamped it to the area and tried to get it as straight as possible then marked from the inside with a silver Sharpie on the cut line of the cab metal. Cut the part and clamped it to the body with body panel clamps.

After taking a break and coming back to this part of the project later in the afternoon I can see where I need to do some fine tune grinding to get a better fit for the weld. Also noticed that the bend on the repop part is not a match with that of the cab. So after getting the part to fit as best I can I will tack it in a few places then slice into the cab corner bend and work the metal to match. It seems that every repop part that I have touched on rust repair has had to be modified in order to make it work. Oh well like I said this is the first cab corner I have done and now I know what to expect what has to be reworked in order to do the job. Just like on the passenger front fender cup that is 1/2" inch to short vertically. Which added double the welding, grinding and prepping because the part is to short.

I have to admit it was probably not the best fitting cut I have ever done on a repair like this. But it is just metal and I will need to cut and patch in two small areas. I will tack in the large part first and rework the cab corner radius before I make a template for the two small areas that will need attention to complete the cab corner. On areas like this I will usually put a few strips of green masking tape over the area to be templated and out line the edge then pull off the tape and put back down on some flat sheet metal and cut it out following the lines. I used this method before and it worked out really good for getting the part cutout done right the first time without so much grinding.

Help, me, first, (top) picture is complete rocker/cab corner assy, you decided to cut cab corner off it because of previous repairs?
I have not seen such a piece, in all the rust repairs here if it is as I described. Where did you purchase?

[landarts]

Originally Posted by 68Gold/white

Help, me, first, (top) picture is complete rocker/cab corner assy, you decided to cut cab corner off it because of previous repairs?
I have not seen such a piece, in all the rust repairs here if it is as I described. Where did you purchase?

The part is a rear floor patch panel. I purchased it at Summit Racing, here is the link CLICK HERE. It looks like at sometime the P.O. had a a rocker replacement and it was not done properly as far as lining up the rocker with the body lines. The rocker was to far in toward the interior which throws off the corner support. The corner was also rusted out and missing metal from the deterioration of the bracing. So I ordered the part to cut of the section that I needed instead of trying to fabricate one. After I received the part and started looking at where to cut it for the repair I remembered that I had some scrap parts from previous repair panels that I bought for the last build. I looked in the box where i keep scraps and already had that section from a outer rocker/inner floor repair panel. When I use repair panels I very seldom use the whole panel. Usually I just cut the part I need and patch it in because the panels never fit properly and take a lot of modifications to make them fit. The less I have to modify the better and the original metal on the trucks are way better than the repop metal.

Photo 1 - is to show where the rear floor patch panel goes on a complete floor
Photo 2 - shows what I used, both pieces have the corner turn down of the floor and the corner support section

[68Gold/white]

Thanks, I was lost...