Rat repair.

[swamp rat]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

More progress today, got the passenger fender and inner fender off today, I forgot you have to pull the radiator out of the way to get to the 3 inner battery bracket bolts, I was able to get it done without dumping the coolant but I know I need to do it anyway soon to work on the heater box.

The cab may look better on this side (not by much) but the fender is another story, I think I may have pushed some battery acid around with the water hose some years back cause do I have some rust pitting!

[DD1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Thanks for the compliments guys!

More progress today, got the passenger fender and inner fender off today, I forgot you have to pull the radiator out of the way to get to the 3 inner battery bracket bolts, I was able to get it done without dumping the coolant but I know I need to do it anyway soon to work on the heater box.

Glad to see you are back at it. How's the shoulder doing? You can't possibly be 100% yet, can you? I had less work done on mine and it took me longer to get back to normal, or as close to normal as possible.

What's wrong with your heater box? If you need another one, I think I have a couple to spare, assuming it's a non-a/c cab.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by DD1

Glad to see you are back at it. How's the shoulder doing? You can't possibly be 100% yet, can you? I had less work done on mine and it took me longer to get back to normal, or as close to normal as possible.

What's wrong with your heater box? If you need another one, I think I have a couple to spare, assuming it's a non-a/c cab.

No not 100% yet, still have some range of motion limitations due to the rotator being too tight, still not as strong as before yet, but gaining ground, feeling good about going back to work without restriction next Monday.

As per the heater box I keep hearing story's about it being a mouse haven so I want to give it a good looking over and check the core ect. And check for any cab rust that may be inside as a precaution. I also hear that the AC motor spins a bit faster than the non AC unit so I want to test that out, I have a working AC motor sitting in the garage complete with metal squirrel cage fan, I read somewhere that non AC uses a plastic one but not sure.

Low and behold I found a couple mouse droppings on the top rail of the bed today, so I may have to booby trap the place with peanut butter and 5 gallon buckets of water!

[swamp rat]

After the pic's I blasted a bit more, then cut out some rot. The outer cup actually looks to be solid, there are a couple pin holes in the lip. But some rust through in the lower rear part.

MY biggest concern is the upper part by the bolt holes, see the last post, there are about 7-8 small holes in the area where it is double walled, not sure if its worth trying to cut a bit of the top layer out and lay in a patch or just spot weld the pin holes.

Now with some rot out of the way I can blast a little more tomorrow.

So I had a thought, does anybody know if coal slag blast media (from tractor supply) will kill grass?? Yea fine time to ask LOL!

[swamp rat]

Went to PT again today, then people are sadists! LOL! couple that with drilling spot welds........

Todays slicing and dicing, not done yet, but going little by little, looks like i'll have to remove a strip along the upper firewall too, not sure about the outer section where the kick panel resides just yet.

I succeeded in getting the outer floor and kick panel out from between the cab support and lower A pillar, but it was a pita! there were 2 spot welds on each outer cab support flange, very hard to get separated.

I'd like to be able to leave both the lower A pillar and the cab support in place if possible, but the only way I can clean the inside of the support is to peal back more floor. I can run a wire brush on the inside of the lower A pillar tomorrow and decide if it needs to come off. I went under the cab with a dotco and maroon pad and I cannot see or find any weak areas on front or aft supports so far.

Guess a storm front may be moving in tomorrow, Oh joy!

[skyjgmc]

excited to see all the progress your making even with a sore shoulder. I may have to copy your blasting cabinet idea

[rgunlock]

Glad to hear that your shoulder has recovered enough for you to start getting after it again. Looks like some fun patchwork ahead!

[DD1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Went to PT again today, then people are sadists! LOL! couple that with drilling spot welds........

Todays slicing and dicing, not done yet, but going little by little, looks like i'll have to remove a strip along the upper firewall too, not sure about the outer section where the kick panel resides just yet.

I succeeded in getting the outer floor and kick panel out from between the cab support and lower A pillar, but it was a pita! there were 2 spot welds on each outer cab support flange, very hard to get separated.

I'd like to be able to leave both the lower A pillar and the cab support in place if possible, but the only way I can clean the inside of the support is to peal back more floor. I can run a wire brush on the inside of the lower A pillar tomorrow and decide if it needs to come off. I went under the cab with a dotco and maroon pad and I cannot see or find any weak areas on front or aft supports so far.

Guess a storm front may be moving in tomorrow, Oh joy!

How are you planning on replacing the kick panel (I know you mentioned it a couple posts ago) with the A pillar in place? I had to remove the A pillar or drop my floor - of course, I replaced the entire floor pan and had not permanently attached it as yet, so it was kinda easy. I spent (wasted) many hours trying to figure out how to get it in there before that.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by DD1

How are you planning on replacing the kick panel (I know you mentioned it a couple posts ago) with the A pillar in place? I had to remove the A pillar or drop my floor - of course, I replaced the entire floor pan and had not permanently attached it as yet, so it was kinda easy. I spent (wasted) many hours trying to figure out how to get it in there before that.

I have absolutely no idea! Just gonna see if its possible....

If you haven't seen this thread yet you ought to go have a look!
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=705214

[swamp rat]

So I suppose I already know the safe bet answer but wanted some opinions, I sprayed down my battery tray with Super Clean and scrubbed it with a brush, do you think that is enough to rid the tray of any residual battery acid, or should I follow up with a bath in baking soda before I put it in my media blast cabinet?


So the weather forecasters were saying we were going to be in for a pretty big storm, it rained for 3 days and got a little windy but after all the prep for the "big one" it ended up being for nothing, oh well, the house is well stocked, gutters are clean again.. 😎

Well back to work tomorrow, still have about 5 more weeks of twice weekly PT. I truly got a taste for what retirement would be like, I can almost taste the freedom.

[Hewfil1]

Originally Posted by swamp rat

So I suppose I already know the safe bet answer but wanted some opinions, I sprayed down my battery tray with Super Clean and scrubbed it with a brush, do you think that is enough to rid the tray of any residual battery acid, or should I follow up with a bath in baking soda before I put it in my media blast cabinet?

If you're worried about it, do the baking soda just in case.

[swamp rat]

The last 4 days have been rain city, coupled with the body shock of going back to work and basically being trashed for a few days no work done to the truck.

After 4 days back at work I was able to swing a vacation day today LOL! all morning and afternoon no rain in the forecast so I couldn't pass it up.

I cut out more of the floor enough to determine the cab support is really solid so I wire brushed it and put a coat of Por 15 on it, will do a second coat tomorrow. I know the floor has some pitting but I cant ice pick thru any of it so i'm electing to leave it, i'll scrape each pit thoroughly then cover with Por 15

I found a small thin spot in the lower A pillar, about the size of my little fingernail, so I can reuse the original after I repair the small area.

I cut and fitted the inner rocker section into place and located it with a couple screws, then did the same with the inner kick panel, I can get ether of these between the floor support and A pillar but I cannot figure out a way to squeeze the two of them in at the same time, I have one more idea to investigate tomorrow, it would involve slightly bending the forward flange leg of the cab support forward then bending it back after the inner rocker and kick panel is in place, the only other option I can think of is the usual lower A pillar removal.

Went and bought some 16 gauge sheet and started fabbing some 90 degree angles to start rebuilding the firewall, I really wish I had a real breakform so I could do angles closer together, looks like i'll have to weld one angle leg to another to duplicate the firewall flange lip, more time, more heat.....

[swamp rat]

I got the angles welded to the firewall, but before I did that I decided to apply a second coat of POR 15 to the inside of the cab support, that we a mistake that I didn't realize until about half way done with the spot welds, sigh, without gloves on..... Anybody knot what takes POR 15 off of skin? I don't know how that stuff jumped out of that cab support.

I succeeded in finding a way to get the inner kick panel and inner rocker both in place without having to remove the Lowe A pillar, tight squeeze.

I got the replacement floor panel off the shelf and promptly started to trim it down, too far in fact as I cut the bend transition for the firewall clean off...... Well nice day for a drive to Olympia for a new one, my dog thanked me for taking him for a ride. Got home and got the new one roughed.

So I'm dwelling on going ahead and doing a larger area of the floor anyway to get rid of the worse of the pitting.

[swamp rat]

Pic's

[swamp rat]

Todays carnage, cut out a good portion of the floor, cleaned up the edges and spot weld flashing ect, then roughed the repair panel down a bit more, got some locator screws and the cab mount bolt in. Time for some Sunday night Football, Go Hawks!

[DD1]

Nice progress. I am impressed you got the kick panel in. I would suggest trying gasoline to remove the POR15 if you have not gotten it out as yet.

[First c10]

Hey Mike. Looking good. How are you feeling? Back to work?

[7dee2]

Nice work getting that inner rocker in there!

[swamp rat]

Yet again, 3 posts and no email notification!

Well the POR-15 is long worn off with daily showers LOL! Yes i have been working, today marks 2 weeks back on the mill, shoulder is still a bit sore but making ground, next week is my last PT sessions (2) I'll kinda be glad to stop going as it cuts into my truck time.

Not much done since the last pic, as i have only had a couple hours to spare this week to work on the truck, just slowly trimming the floor panel out, i have a tendancy to accidentally cut too much so slow and steady... I almost called in sick cause it was a barn burner of a day today, i have plenty of time to use as i just passed my 28 year date with this company, plenty of sick leave and vacation time under the belt, but i always have a tendency to use it too much in the fall and winter, then scrape the barrel in the spring and fall, gotta stop doing that..

[mcbassin]

Nice progress on the rust repair.

[swamp rat]

From my last post until today not a lot done just the final trimming hole prep and some weldable primer on some edges, one thing I have come to the conclusion I will NEVER buy SEM weldable primer again, this stuff spits and sputters and I think even promoted blow outs in the welds, I had some copper looking stuff before and it worked great, don't recall what it was.....

It rained, rained and dumped some more most all day (and the better part of the last 1.5 weeks) so I ran the 220V extension cord out the garage window into the car cover then covered the exposed 2' with a tarp to keep the water off of it. Standing on a kinda not too dry sheet of plywood while welding.. Worked on her from about 10am till 6:30pm.

I will admit I averted a disaster today, while cleaning up I coiled the live extension cord and balanced it on the pickup bed while getting ready to feed it back thru the car cover wall and into the garage window, when I opened the window from the outside the coiled part of the cord fell into a puddle of water below, the corner of female plug end box was in the puddle about 1/2" deep, but thankfully no sparks as I walked off to flip the breaker, did I mention I was also standing in the puddle???? I think in the future I best pull my head out and flip the breaker off when I setup from now on..

Here's todays carnage:

First 2 pic's are about 3/4 welded, the last is done less grinding and searching for spots I missed, the inner kick is tacked in about 5 places

[Vic1947]

Looks good, Mike. Grinding... my least favorite part, but the end result is worth it! I've never used welding primer, just the spray on spatter inhibitor. Seems like from what you've experienced, the downside outweighs the upside. Keep those pictures coming. Progress is great despite the rain. Rick's getting soaked up in Seabeck also. Just that time of year in the great Northwest.

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Vic1947

Looks good, Mike. Grinding... my least favorite part, but the end result is worth it! I've never used welding primer, just the spray on spatter inhibitor. Seems like from what you've experienced, the downside outweighs the upside. Keep those pictures coming. Progress is great despite the rain. Rick's getting soaked up in Seabeck also. Just that time of year in the great Northwest.

Splatter inhibitor?? Never heard of it!! Now I have to try all my grinder options again to find the best.

So I didn't sleep well last night, back in the chair at about 530am, wake again at 8 and the sun is burning bright!

[Hewfil1]

Progress lookin' real good!

[swamp rat]

Originally Posted by Hewfil1

Progress lookin' real good!

Thanks!