My 1970 GMC “Project Splice”
 

Hello everyone. I have a very rusty 1970 GMC Sierra that I bought off my grandpa a couple years ago. These 67-72 trucks have always been a sweet spot with me. As far back as I can remember, my dad had a 1970 Chevy pickup that he daily drove. Somewhere along the way he sold it but bought a 1969 Chevy CST which has since been totally ground up restored. My uncle who some of you may know as chewychevy67 has been in a very long, very interesting restore of a 1967 Chevy SWB. And my brother daily drives a 1969 GMC pickup. Needless to say these trucks run in my family. So when I heard that my grandpa was selling his I just knew I had to have it. It has been a long time now of slowly collecting parts and dreaming of the day I could finally start the restoration. Well that day has finally come. I didnt get much done, but its a darn good start. I ended up cutting off my drivers rocker, cab corner and some of the inner rocker and floor pan. This cab is actually a donor cab as the original is in far worse condition. Anyway enough of my story for now, lets get some pictures going.

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Before someone else points it out Ill just say that chewychevy67 is working on a 67 GMC SWB** *dohh*

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Well I got a bit more done on the cab tonight. I realize now that my cab support brackt is very rusty. I am going to have to remove the entire piece to do this thing right. I have been drilling spot welds for hours and still have many more to drill. Luckily I have a whole cab support that is rust free that came with the truck so once I get this one off, reassembly SHOULD be smooth sailing. I know, I know these are very boring pictures but I will be posting a build list of my plans soon.

Re: My 1970 GMC Project
 

Nice to see your finally working on the old truck I think its getting lonely sitting out there. Ill trade you rust problems mines all somewhat good down there. Wanna part out some inner roof skin pieces off your other cab??

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Haha not sure as of yet. Might become part of a throw together and recoop some loss of money truck from spare parts. I know that the truck is lonely. Still hoping to sell my 98 one of these days so the 70 can finally come to its home.

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I spent another 3 hours in the shop tonight drilling spot welds and now I really feel like im getting somewhere! This new spot weld driller I spent $60 was actually worth it. And I'm darn glad about that, thats alot of money for a drill bit! Got a large portion of the drivers side cab supports off. Couple more evenings and I should be ready to start putting in some new sheet metal. Excited with my progress so far! :metal:

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Welcome from Texas.......:gmc2:!!!

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Thanks!

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I havent been able to get anymore welds drilled out yet. Hopefully I can get some time in tomorrow. Anyways as I said a few posts back, I wanted to get some of my ideas for this truck posted so here goes.

My plan for this thing is to cut it down to SWB. Disc brakes up front. I want to go two tone on the paint, something with Med Olive and perhaps white. Not totally decided on that yet. I have a 396 Big Block that will be going in. Automatic trans, probably Th400. I would like to go posi rear diff. Rims will be the factory steel rallys. Hopefully tires will be a little wider in the back. Not sure what I want to do with bed floor yet as I want to actually drive this thing to work in the summer so I dont want it to be too fancy or I wont want to put anything in the box.:lol: Interior will be mostly stock. I have factory buckets that I will cover with a houndstooth upholstery. Also have the factory console.

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I got some more rusty crap removed from my cab last night. Gonna go pick up all my new metal today after work and hopefully I can be putting in some new stuff soon!:metal: For some reason I cant upload my pictures, just keeps telling me there is a security token missing? Ill try to figure it out and get some more pictures going soon.

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Hopefully this works. Apparently my pictures are too big even though I have not changed them since I started my thread?

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Lookin good.

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Thanks!

I have collected most of my parts now so I figured why not just jump right in? I drilled out all the spot welds along the driverside floor pan at the front and cut out the pan. :metal: Now I need to determine my next course of action. Im thinking that I will need to do my front pillar and footwell panel before I go welding in my new floor pan. These floor pans that came with the truck are not the best but after looking at the situation a little closer, I think I can make them work!

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I got an evening of work in last night on the cab and thanks to my dad, we got one rusty piece of the firewall near the floor pan cut out and replaced. I just need to work on my welding. All I do is burn through everywhere. :waah: Might need to get diffrent wire.

Re: My 1970 GMC Project
 

Nice project

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Thanks!

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Ok so after looking at that crap I was calling a weld last night, I knew it wasn't going to fly. So after a much needed chat with member Originalthor about welding, I ran down to princess auto and picked up some butt welding clamps. These things are AMAZING and combined with the technique tips that Originalthor gave me, I was able to produce a MUCH nicer looking piece. Just tacked in place for now but Im now confident that I can make it look right. So here are the progress pictures. :metal:

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There ya go man looking great and good progress aswell. With all the learning experiences on the drivers side the passenger side will take you no time at all.

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Found a little bit of time to get in the garage this weekend so I finished welding in my piece. It needs a bit more grinding yet and I need to weld it from the other side as well, but I think Ill do that later when the cab is upright again. Also finalized the size of floor section I'm replacing. Now I have to trim the new part for fit and get my footwells and lower pillar sections ordered up soon. Hopefully they come before the end of the month.

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Nice

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Kyle, nice work! If you want to learn some welding skills use this sites search engine. I found a thread from MP&C where he walks you through an easy way how to butt weld patches. It makes for a nice patch job without the use of much filler. I tried it, and it works for me.

I'm nearing my cab as well I want to know how you flipped your cab! Also how much different are the spot weld drill bits vs a regular drill bit? I've just been using a normal drill bit and they have been going pretty good.

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Right on man thanks for the info on the welding thread, will definatly have to check that out. I managed to flip my cab with the help of my brother and dad, 2 of us grabbed by the rockers and the other one pulled it down from the windsheild, my temporary support made things a little easier as we could hold it easier there. And as far as spot weld bits, they just give you more control over how deep you go, you can usally feel when you have cut through the first layer leaving the underlying panel untouched. They are also flat on the top unlike a regular drill bit, only downside is the price, I paid $60 for the one I'm using but so far it has been worth it, it says that it will last for hundreds of holes. There is also refill cutter heads available for it.

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Cool! I might have to do it that way when I flip mine. Where did you get the bit from?

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I bought it from the local autobody supply store.

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Well I got the remainder of sheet metal parts that I needed on order to finish up the cab. They were in Canda on the 22nd so maybe soon but it is christmas so who knows. I havent worked on it for about a week now due to being sick but Im finally starting to feel better. Anyway, just wanted to wish everyone and their families a merry christmas and a happy new year! :ennyd:

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I went out in the garage again for a bit after work and tried my hand at some more welding. The results are very discouraging, I had a few small pin holes to weld up but when I try to weld them, my welds just seem to sit on top and and not get good penetration then the next one I try just burns a hole without even changing the settings. I dont know if it is my lack of skill or my welder or both but now I dont know what to do. I would like to get a tig welder but I cannot afford it. Maybe I should try practicing on some scraps and see if I can come up with some better results. Until then I dont really want to touch my cab again because Im just making things worse. If anybody knows of any good welding how to's, I'd greatly appreciate it. Here is what my welds are looking like now. :help:

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Kyle spend some time on YouTube checking out "how to's" it might be worth it and it's free. You can always search this site for some welding tips as well.

I can't see your picture that well, but if it's not sticking, either the metal isn't clean enough or your settings are a little bit off. Like you said maybe you want to just practice on some scrap. You could even weld some of the metal you cut out of your cab which would be able to dial in exactly the right thickness.

Just play around with it until you feel comfortable. Also what size wire are you using? .023 is what I use for anything smaller than my frame basically. I use .030 on my frame. If you are using too big of wire it could cause either too much heat which would burn through thin metal since it requires more heat to melt or its not enough heat to fully melt and penetrate into the metal. Try even tilting your gun at a little angle - this might prevent the blow throughs. Btw I wish I had a tig welder too! What kinda mig welded are you using?

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Thanks for your feedback. I will definatly have to do my reasearch now lol. I am using .030 as that is the smallest size flux core wire you can get to the best of my knowledge (which isnt very good when it comes to welding...yet lol). My welder is an ancient hobart 140 handler but I do not have the gas hookup. There is the place for the hookup but I dont have the tank or gauges. Might be more worth it to spend some money on a newer welder before I get the gas. As far as tilting my gun goes, I've tried so many diffrent angles but it almost seems like my wire speed fluctuates while I am welding so it is very difficult to be consistent. I have had a few very nice tacks but they are far and few between. I am also going to be picking up a new auto darkening helmet because mine is in very bad shape (my dads old one lol) It probably is not helping that I cant see very well. Im not giving up, I will figure this out! :metal:

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Yea I hear ya! Man if I was you I would try to swing some new equipment. It makes the job a lot easier. I think I spent a little over 1000 on all my stuff for welding - welder, tank, cart, helmet, jacket, wire, tips, and some random tools with it. So it's definitely an investment, but it sure is a cool one!

You wouldn't have to buy everything I did so it wouldn't be that much. You could get by with just the bare essentials for now and slowly get more tools/equipment that will help you get the job done easier. You could save some coin by just putting a spot light on the area that your welding and you should be able to see good enough. It is nice to have an auto helmet though!

I guess as far as flux core and all that I don't know a lot about it, but the wire size seems like an issue to me... I think that is one of your problems, but again I don't know a whole lot. I would search the internet on the how thin of metal to weld with .030. Good luck! Hurry up though so you can post more pics!

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Well I have done some research and found some solutions to my welding problems. :) Firstly, I put a new plug end on my welder because the one that was there was missing the ground pin (Thanks to Scott aka OriginalThor for pointing this out) then I got a new wire feed roller for the thing because it had a v groove .045 roller, which was the wrong size for the wire and the wrong type. :rolleyes: It is supposed to be a knurled flux core roller so I got that sorted. The next thing I did was head down to my local Princess Auto and pick up an auto darkening helmet on sale for $70. :metal: And with all that I was able to make some good progress. Now that Ive made a disaterous mess of my welds it is a very tedious process. :waah: lol I still have a bit of welding to do on this piece yet.... ok a lot ;) but now that I have an idea of what Im doing, I can accomplish anything. :lol: anyway, here are some pictures.

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Looking good!

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Thanks uncle! I finally got the welder all dialed in and working nice.



I was finally able to finish my lower firewall piece off today. I did end up having to cut out a section in the middle and replace it due to warping from my poopy welds, but I managed to get it completed.:rolleyes: I also got started on my foot well. I was able to clean out the inside of my front pillar quite nicely but I don't have any weld through primer. So I figure that's ok, Ill go raid my dads shop.:devil: Turns out he only had a quarter of a can and I could not get it to spray. More or less just spits out so I was not able to weld in my piece.:waah: Haha oh well, hopefully I can find some tomorrow. Anyways I will get to the part of my post that keeps this site going!:lol: PICTURES!

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More progress today. I did some measuring from my exsisting passenger floor pan up to underside of dash and when compared to the new pice of the drivers side it was 3/8" higher so Im pretty happy I caught that before I started welding. I cut 3/8" of of my new foot well piece but then it wouldn't line up by the door jamb. So now I have cut 1/4" out of that piece and tacked in a filler piece. Now I've got alot of tack welding to do but im ok with that, gives me some practice on a piece that is out and easy to access :lol: Here are the pictures:

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Looking good so far, I remember the days of starting out. We may have a how to weld series at the shop here soon.

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That would be pretty awesome! I am slowly getting the hang of it here. It would probably be a huge help if I had gas for my welder but Im not sure I can afford it right now. :waah: We will see what happens here.

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Ok so I was welding again tonight and trying to figure out why my welds seemed to be piling up on the surface rather that melting in. So I figured I would give it a little more heat and cranked that sucker up to 2 :lol: And next thing you know, BINGO now the welds are heating up and laying much flatter and geting much nicer penetration. I know, I know thats what she said. :D So Im sure by now you guys are getting sick of looking at my crap welds so after these couple, I wont post anymore till this thing is in! :metal:

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Well I just found out tonight that I clearly didnt do enough research on flux core welding. If I had, I would have know that the polarity needs to be switched. So I have that done now but before I could grind down my mess that Ive created to try out the welder, my compressor started to sound a little off. So I glance over to see this mess. (Picture 1) So then I decided to do a little investigation which lead me to this mess. (Picture 2) Which in the end lead me to this beauty. (Picture 3)

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We have some welds that Im finally pround of:metal: OriginalThor was out for the evening and we tried the thing out with the reverse polarity and what a DIFFERENCE! I cant believe how much nicer it works, Id have to say that was the vast majority of my problems this whole time. Just goes to show that doing your homework pays off, but you should probably do it before you start:lol: I know I said I wasnt going to bore you guys with any more weld pictures but I just have to show the diffrence so here it goes.

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Now that I am sure that this is a good welder and that I want to use it, I cant just have the heavy beast sitting on my work bench. Mostly because I cannot always get the thing to reach what Im trying to weld but also, I need my work bench clear for other activities.:) So I decided that tonight I would build a little platform with wheels to keep it on. Pretty happy with my results and I will throw in a close up on the welds on this thing. I know you guys must really be getting sick of all the pictures of welds that Ive posted but this one really shows what a difference switching the polarity makes when working with flux core. Also you will have to excuse my mess, I am in the process of hanging as many tools as I can for quick access. :lol:Hoping to weld in my footwell next week. Thanks to everyone who has posted and the ones who have been watching silently, I know theres gotta be some you out there based on my views and you guys are keeping me inspired on this rust repair.:canada:

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Nice welds- looking good!