Roostre's 1967 C20

[gmc684x4]

Nice start on your truck

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by gmc684x4

Nice start on your truck

Thanks, I'm making slow progress.

[Roostre]

89 spotwelds later, my outer roof skin is off. Hopefully this week the new skin will be glued on.

[Roostre]

Dupli-Color's version of Por-15. It was the best I could find without having to order it. I figured I'm pretty safe with it being inside the roof.
Also figured out how to hold the new phone to get the pictures right! It's a right handed world!

[Boog]

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[Roostre]

Originally Posted by Boog

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Thanks!

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Roostre

Dupli-Color's version of Por-15. It was the best I could find without having to order it. I figured I'm pretty safe with it being inside the roof.
Also figured out how to hold the new phone to get the pictures right! It's a right handed world!

Yep, I've had to learn how to so many things with the wrong hand(right). LOL

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by Ol Blue K20

Yep, I've had to learn how to so many things with the wrong hand(right). LOL

It's the things one would never think of that really make the difference. I'm looking for a good left-handed digital caliper. It's really annoying to have to flip a normal one over to read the measurement.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Roostre

It's the things one would never think of that really make the difference. I'm looking for a good left-handed digital caliper. It's really annoying to have to flip a normal one over to read the measurement.

I know the feeling well...

[Boog]

You fellas could come over to the right side.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Boog

You fellas could come over to the right side.

Never!!!

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by Boog

You fellas could come over to the right side.

I've been told that before, but I rarely had to use hand-me-down sports equipment growing up!

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by Roostre

I've been told that before, but I rarely had to use hand-me-down sports equipment growing up!

How true, I forgot about that little tidbit.

[Roostre]

Haha, OK, back to the truck, temporarily.

I was waiting for the oil to drain out of my daily driver, so I figured I would work on my truck for a while. I'm still waiting on the adhesive to show up so I can stick the roof skin back on, so I decided to tackle more of the right fender. After I replaced the front cup, I found a suspicious amount of bondo behind the wheel well. It looks like it was hit on the body line. Someone pulled it back out and carved the body line out of bondo. I swear a previous owner of this thing must be the Michelangelo of bondo, there's so much on this truck and intricate carvings. It would be impressive if it wasn't coming loose and rusting the metal under it. So I lined up the patch panel and cut off the skin. I found a small rust hole in the inner structure, so I cut that out and welded in a piece of the old outer roof skin. Then, since the can was sitting there, I painted the inner part of the structure with the Dupli-Color rust inhibitor.
Enough typing, on to the pictures!

[lil hoodlum]

Originally Posted by Roostre

89 spotwelds later, my outer roof skin is off. Hopefully this week the new skin will be glued on.

I would be interested in seeing your process for gluing the outer roof skin back on. My outer roof skin has hail damage on it, so I'm thinking of replacing it at some point.

[BigBird05]

Can you weld on the Rust inhibiter that you used?

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by lil hoodlum

I would be interested in seeing your process for gluing the outer roof skin back on. My outer roof skin has hail damage on it, so I'm thinking of replacing it at some point.

Stay tuned. I did an initial fit up of my new roof skin last night. Like most aftermarket panels, it doesn't fit as well as the OEM, but I think I can get it to fit well enough for my purposes.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by BigBird05

Can you weld on the Rust inhibiter that you used?

I don't know. I plan on cleaning down to bare metal anywhere that I need to weld. The 3M adhesive I plan to use says that it needs to bond bare metal, so that will need to be cleaned up also.

[Roostre]

A friend came over last night and we glued the new roof skin on. Because it is an aftermarket panel, it didn't fit perfectly, but that was expected. I also suspect that the rear panel of my cab has been tweeked in the 50+ years of the truck's existance. It went together well enough in the end for my driver quality truck. Here's an overview of what I did.

I used 3M 08115 structural adhesive. It comes in 200mL tubes, and one tube was enough to do 1/4" bead all around the skin with enough left over to kind of fill the rear gap. It has a 90 minute work time, a 4 hour clamp time, and a 24 hour cure time. The instructions say to scuff down to bare metal with 50 grit sandpaper. I could only find 60 grit, so I went to town to remove the e-coat on the panel and the surface rust on the truck. I then wiped everything down with some 3M surface prep that I had. We then test fitted the panel and got our clamps set up. After that, we applied a 1/4" bead of adhesive to the truck and carefully set the outer skin in place, front first. We clamped down the front and sides, then squeezed the rest of the adhesive tube into the gap at the back. We rachet strapped a 4x4 to the back of the roof to press that joint down a little bit. We then walked away and it currently is sitting with the clamps still on it.

I will have to put a little more filler in the rear seam, but I think it will be good enough. I could probably have worked with the replacement panel and gotten the back to fit better, but with the twist it had, I'm definitely time ahead just getting it to bond to the cab and then filling in the seam wherever there is a little more of a gap. This is definitely not going to be a show truck.

Here are the pictures!

[BigBird05]

Just for my education, is that how the factory installed the roof panel?

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by BigBird05

Just for my education, is that how the factory installed the roof panel?

No. Mine had 89 spotwelds in the drip rails and rear seam where it met the back of the cab. I figured this would be easier and more than strong enough to hold the outer roof skin on.

[Roostre]

Clamps are off, and I have to say that I think the structural adhesive is the way to go here. Roof skin is nice and tight and I didn't have to drill any holes to spot weld it or worry about too much heat or burn through. I will replace the seam sealer, but that would have been done if I had welded it as well. I also didn't have to figure out how to spot weld the rear seam, or clean it up to weld it solid and again worry about too much heat or burn through. I'll have to put a little filler in there to even it out, but no big deal.

Long story short, I'm a fan of the adhesive for this part.

[54blackhornet]

Congratulations ! I admire your abilities...

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by 54blackhornet

Congratulations ! I admire your abilities...

Thank you! I'm certainly not very good yet, just learning as I go. There are some truly talented people on this site that I take a ton of inspiration from!

[Roostre]

I resealed my drip rail tonight. Overall it went pretty well. I used 3M 08307. It has an 8 minute work time, 15 minute paint time, and 1 hour cure time. It's like squeezing syrup from a caulk gun into your drip rail. It comes in a 200mL 2 part tube, and i was able to do my entire rail with just a little left over.

First, I taped the body below my drip rails behind the doors on either side of the cab because I figured this stuff would run down the vertical part of the rails, and i suspected it would be a pain to try to clean up. I was right on both counts!

I then cleaned the rail with some 3M cleaner I had. After that, I went to town squeezing the sealer into the rail. I started in the center of the windshield and worked my way out until I was about 3/4 of the way down the vertical part. I then went to the other side and repeated. I worked in kind of a small Z pattern that seemed to work well. The instructions say to keep the application tip submerged in the sealer to limit the amount of air bubbles in the final product. This is a very important tidbit.

As it cured, I watched for any thicker gaps due to the after market roof skin, and filled them in with a little more sealer as they opened up.

As it got sticky and stopped flowing (about 6-7 minutes), I used a utility knife and cut it where it ran out of the bottom of the vertical part of the rail and pulled my tape. I don't think it would be a good idea to leave the tape on until it cures completely.

All in all, it came out well. Enough story, on to the pictures!