Roostre's 1967 C20

[dagnabbitt]

I think I will do the same for sure, I used to be a chrome guy but its too hard to take care of in my climate.

Doesn't help that the cheap repop chrome is paper thin.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by dagnabbitt

I think I will do the same for sure, I used to be a chrome guy but its too hard to take care of in my climate.

Doesn't help that the cheap repop chrome is paper thin.

I hear you about polishing the chrome. Plus, new, shiny chrome would look out of place on my worn truck.

The Rust-oleum can claims it's a paint and primer in one, but I don't trust that and use the same brand of primer before the paint.

[Roostre]

I was able to get some work done on my truck tonight. My core support is rotted out under the battery tray, especially the bracket that holds the inner fender. I ended up cutting it out and using my harbor freight brake to bend up a patch. I used 22 guage steel because that's what I had laying around. It should be just fine. I ran out of ambition before I got the patch welded in. This gives me time to decide if I want to make another patch for the bottom of the core support that is bent for my new patch to weld to. It's pretty thin there.

Pictures are what I started with, my patch, and where I stopped tonight.

['68OrangeSunshine]

I guess good radiator bulkheads are like hen's teeth in your neck of the woods, and the repops are all crap. Do what you gotta do.
'67-'68 are different, slightly from'69-'72 in the mounting, iirc.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by '68OrangeSunshine

I guess good radiator bulkheads are like hen's teeth in your neck of the woods, and the repops are all crap. Do what you gotta do.
'67-'68 are different, slightly from'69-'72 in the mounting, iirc.

Yes, all of them I have seen are either the same or worse than mine. This is the only bad spot on it. The wonderful Minnesota salt rust makes spare parts a real hunt.

I also like to reuse if I can make it work. I figure I'm not out much other than time and some scrap steel in this case. It is also not a very visible area, so close will be just fine.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Well, we used to have a lot of rust-free 67-72 truck parts in here Southern Arizona. Sadly most stuff has gone Northeast, sold to greedy hot rod rebuilders. The unnatural popularity of the 67-72 line coincided with the blossoming of the internet. The other causal factor is the land junkyards were on, has become more valuable for real estate developers. So one by one they sell out, the stuff is crushed, and up pop new condos.

[Roostre]

I decided to patch the bottom of the core support that the bracket for the inner fender welds to. I got most of the rot cut out and a flat patch fabled up. It is welded in, but a very ugly weld. The whole thing is pretty thin, but should hold and won't be visible when the inner fender bracket is welded back in. It's now covered with the rust covering paint and waiting for the inner fender bracket to be welded back in. Pretty ugly, and not very interesting, so no pictures this time.

[Roostre]

Well, I hit a setback tonight. I was working on filling the rear seam on my roof panel when I saw what looked like the new seam sealer in the drip rail coming loose. Sure enough, I was able to peel it out completely from over my passenger door with just my fingers. It looks like it didn't bond to the e coat primer on the new roof panel. I guess I'll have to regroup and try it again. That's annoying.

[Roostre]

I decided to put a new coat of paint on my grill inserts. They didn't look too bad, but everything around them will be fresh paint so I wanted them to be the same. They had 4 coats of paint that I ground off. Black, red, black again, and white. I came back with primer and some Rustoleum satin black. I like the color and think my radiator support will end up the same when I get to it.

Before and after pictures.

[Roostre]

A friend came over last night and we pulled my cab off the frame. I needed to do that to replace the floor, and I'm thinking about putting the frame and box in another shed for the winter so my shop isn't full if something comes up on my or my wife's daily drivers. Removal was pretty straight forward. I managed to get the right front mount nut loose with a 3/4 drive impact, snapped the left rear bolt off, and abused the plasma cutter for the other 2. The chain hoist built into my new to me shop worked great for pulling the cab off. I have to build a stand for the cab now, and think I'm going to build it onto my car dollies so I can move it around.

Now I'm going to clean up the frame and throw some paint at it before it goes into storage.

Here's a picture of how it sits tonight and some of why it's getting a new floor.

[Roostre]

And a few more pictures of the rockers and cab corners that will be replaced while I'm at it.

I know we've all seen bad rockers and cab corners before, but this helps me see progress when I review the thread!

[Roostre]

I haven't done much with the truck lately, it has been a cold winter. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it here in the near future. In the meantime, the new shop cat was checking out the new roof skin. I think he approves.

[toolboxchev]

Originally Posted by Roostre

I haven't done much with the truck lately, it has been a cold winter. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it here in the near future. In the meantime, the new shop cat was checking out the new roof skin. I think he approves.

Haha! Cool looking cat. Is he a mouser? A good friend of mine whom used to make the wooden aluminum skinned canopies for these trucks had a cat running his shop. He named her Tinker!

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by toolboxchev

Haha! Cool looking cat. Is he a mouser? A good friend of mine whom used to make the wooden aluminum skinned canopies for these trucks had a cat running his shop. He named her Tinker!

Thanks, he is a great mouser. My wife and son would like him to be an indoor cat, but I'm resistant because he's so good at mouse control. We got really lucky with him. He just wandered up one day and was already fixed.

I named him Garbage because the first time I saw him, he was jumping out of the dumpster and because my wife and I are fans of The Office.

['68OrangeSunshine]

Cool Cat

[Roostre]

I finally got back to doing some work on the truck tonight. I decided that I would replace the cab corners before I replaced the floor. Like most things on this poor old girl, the cab corners were questionably repaired before I got to them. Like everything else I've touched on this truck, the cab corners were covered in Bondo. At some point, someone riveted some sheet steel over the original rusted cab corners and then filled them with expanding foam. So I fit my corner patch over the right hand corner and traced around it. Then I put some tape around it and cut a half inch away from my tracing. After I took the corner off, I was able to clean out all of the old expanding foam. I'll do final trimming and then weld in the patch another evening. Here's some pictures for everyone's enjoyment!

[Roostre]

Here's the big block of foam and after the cab corner is removed. The amount of floor rusted away can be seen. If you're going to rivet tin over a rust hole, don't fill it with expanding foam, that just traps moisture and makes the problem much worse! I think next to be replaced will be the floor, I have a complete to put in, and then the rockers. The rockers seem to have the same treatment in that there was some sheetmetal riveted over them and a generous layer of Bondo applied.

[LockDoc]

Originally Posted by Roostre

Here's the big block of foam and after the cab corner is removed. The amount of floor rusted away can be seen. If you're going to rivet tin over a rust hole, don't fill it with expanding foam, that just traps moisture and makes the problem much worse! I think next to be replaced will be the floor, I have a complete to put in, and then the rockers. The rockers seem to have the same treatment in that there was some sheetmetal riveted over them and a generous layer of Bondo applied.

That would be a lot of work. Looks like the complete floor would be the way to go.

Glad to see you are back on it......

LockDoc

[dagnabbitt]

Great to see you picking up where you left off, because we have similar projects but you are one step ahead of me and I like being one step behind!

Presently doing more or less the same rad support fix that you did, before moving on to my own spray foam cab corners lol.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by dagnabbitt

Great to see you picking up where you left off, because we have similar projects but you are one step ahead of me and I like being one step behind!

Presently doing more or less the same rad support fix that you did, before moving on to my own spray foam cab corners lol.

I'm glad to share the adventure! Hopefully I can share what not to do!

I'm really happy with the way my rad support turned out, it isn't perfect but will do its job and isn't something that is very visible.

It was much easier to pry that block of foam out after the corner was cut out than trying to get it out before, it was really stuck in there.

Good luck with your project, I need to go look at your thread.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by LockDoc

That would be a lot of work. Looks like the complete floor would be the way to go.

Glad to see you are back on it......

LockDoc

Thanks, I hope I can stay at it. This cab needs help! I'm a little confused as to the previous repairs. The amount of work it would have taken to rivet the metal over the rust then shape it with Bondo would have been more than just putting in patch panels to start with. Maybe it was done when patch panels weren't readily available?

[Roostre]

I haven't made much progress. Since I have the one cab corner cut out, I've been looking at the cab and trying to make a plan on how to fix all the rot. I've got a complete floor, cab corners, rockers, and RH lower A-post to put in. Now that I'm inspecting more closely, I see the bottom of both B-posts are rotten to the point that the bolts to the floor are missing, see the picture below. I'm debating how to fix this, as it looks like there is not a patch panel available for this area, and complete B-posts are $300+ each. That's way too much to be buying just to cut a patch out of. I think I'm going to brace the cab and cut the poorly done rocker panels out so I can get a good view of the area. I will then cut the floor out and get the new one positioned so I can tell what the patch I need to make for the bottom of the B-posts will look like. I was hoping to leave the rockers in place while I did the floor, but I don't think that's an option anymore. Anyone who has done this and can give some tips would be appreciated.

[LT7A]

Good work man. That's a big undertaking. That truck is lucky to have found you.

[Stephen717]

Even if it isn't much progress it's still progress friend, keep up the good work on it.

[Roostre]

Thanks! I'm certainly getting an education on rust repair, and fixing bad patch jobs. Not that I'm necessarily doing it completely right, but it is better than it was.