Project: Montezuma

[KMC3420]

Awesome job on making the patch panels work. Seems like all of mine will need pie cuts as well. Keep posting as I have the whole floor to do as well, and you going first and documenting helps us all.

[cornerstone]

Nice work man. It'll be worth all the extra time to do it right. Keep at it!

[May70]

Cab corner tweaks to get the gap right, had to split it and move it over towards the door. Also had to make a few cuts on the lip to get the curve right.

Pillar tweaks coming.

[gmc684x4]

Nice work

[May70]

Fender had some bad rust pitting. Did a patch on that and got it in sealer. Did some shrinking on the door, plugged up 3 point window mount holes and sealed the door also. Sealed the inside of the cab corner and floor pan where I wont have access to it once its welded up.

Now I can go ahead and weld the corner on and proceed with the I/O rocker. I plan to get the outer rocker in the right position, then build the inner to the outer.

[May70]

Continued

[Jason Banks]

Just found our build from your comments over in Paint and Body.

My truck had very similar rust to yours. I didn't opt for the full floor because it was a lot of money and I could just buy all the patch panels. After I got done, I said I should have got the whole floor. Now, I'm looking at the struggle you had and I feel better. ha

Just yesterday I redid the passenger rocker and cab corner. I'm pretty sure I didn't get the outer floor mounted far enough out. Even though I lined it up with (what was left of) the factory cab corner. There was even less metal on the drivers side and I put the outer floor in once and the had to take it back out and add a pie slice to move it out further at the back. Pretty sure this is what I should have done on the passenger side also, but I didn't know enough to know it at the time. It is what it is now, It's held in too well now and I may have to make a piece to seal the cab corner to the floor since it's not up against it by about 3/8

[May70]

Okay so cab corner is buttoned up. As you can see there was a stupid amount of slice and dice involved. First thing I noticed right off the bat was the curve on the bottom of the rocker was not very close to that of the lower cab corner.

At the time of putting on the cab corner, I knew my outer rocker was going to require a massive amount of work to get it right. I also couldn't get the rocker into position close enough to realize how different the curves were.... Since I burned in and did extensive work on the cab corner I was not going to cut into it, and worked with what I had.

I made a smooth transition between the corner/pillar/rocker. Even though its going to be filled with seam sealer, Im hoping my work will prove to last.

[May70]

Ill let the pictures do the talking. You can see how much splicing and adjusting this outer rocker has taken. Its basically in position now with the right gaps and alignments, I just have to finish welding/grinding this up. Im hoping the drivers side is a bit better stamping, probably wishful thinking i know.

That corner where the corner, door corner and outer rocker meet is a dead giveaway to the amount of detail someone poured into a restoration. Getting that right takes a whole lot of patience...

[May70]

small progress..

Adjusted the gap between the rocker and corner to match door line. Will fill with seam sealer later but it will still be noticeable and wanted it to look good.

Had to do a lot of splicing on the rear side of the rocker to match the rear pillar.

Also had to split the rocker all the way down and push it in to match the door edge (which I now filled that gap in).

I cut the end cap out of the front side of the rocker and remade a new cap so the rocker would fit right up in the position I wanted it (when taking it on/off). I plan to weld all around that seam to hopefully prevent water/dirt getting thrown up in that area from the tires. Put weld thru primer on it before tacking it in.

[May70]

Continued: Once the forward cap was tacked in I proceeded to get the top part lined up with the forward pillar with a few splices/tacks. Will need to seam that up and sand flat.

My existing PS fender is in bad shape at the bottom next to the cab, so I may have to do some tweaking later to get them to line up.

[rechinca]

Keep up the work, once I am done with my work this year it’s on to kick panels and rockers next year.

[May70]

Needed to fix the bottom of the fender to make sure all my alignment is good.

Shrinker came in handy on this one, only had to make one cut in the flange...

[May70]

Fender support continued...

Also had to drill out the threaded plate that captures the lower fender bolt. The original bolt broke off when I was removing the fender. After removing the plate (with the bolt still attached), I sand blasted all the rust from the threads/rest of piece. Then I clamped the bolt in the vice and used an adjustable wrench to turn the plate and remove it. Surprisingly I didnt need any heat or penetrating oil... Just have to give it a little tap action and weld it back up in place.

I also picked up a harbor freight 36" brake on sale. I have been using their 18" benchtop brake but this is much quicker to use. Also it will allow me to make the inner rockers without having to splice two pieces together.

More to come..

[KMC3420]

Nicely done on the lower fender patch. The brake looks like a good tool to have around as well.

Were you required to remove the kick panel to put your floor in? If so, why? Thanks.

[May70]

Originally Posted by KMC3420

Nicely done on the lower fender patch. The brake looks like a good tool to have around as well.

Were you required to remove the kick panel to put your floor in? If so, why? Thanks.

Yes, if you see the first picture below, that was the floor pan snagging on the inside of the pillar. I knew after the first attempt to fit the floor the kick panel needed to come back out (thats why you only tac stuff in!!).

So basically I found out there is typically a 1/8" to 1/4" gap between the green edge and the floor pan. That gap is seam sealed like the rest. I was actually going to try and weld that seam shut (so I wanted a really tight gap). Obviously that didnt work out in the order I thought it would. I think most people do the kick panel last anyway.

My plan now will be to cut off the rest of that lower flange (marked with red 'X's) and put it in place after the floor is in.

[KMC3420]

Originally Posted by May70

Yes, if you see the first picture below, that was the floor pan snagging on the inside of the pillar. I knew after the first attempt to fit the floor the kick panel needed to come back out (thats why you only tac stuff in!!).

So basically I found out there is typically a 1/8" to 1/4" gap between the green edge and the floor pan. That gap is seam sealed like the rest. I was actually going to try and weld that seam shut (so I wanted a really tight gap). Obviously that didnt work out in the order I thought it would. I think most people do the kick panel last anyway.

My plan now will be to cut off the rest of that lower flange (marked with red 'X's) and put it in place after the floor is in.

I will proceed in removing the kick panel area on both sides that is bad on mine before attempting to fit the floor in. Appreciate the info.

Did you cut the inner rocker off your new floor in an attempt to make it longer with a new patch piece?

[May70]

Yes I cut out the inner rocker and am just going to make my own inner rockers. It will be easier than trying to make that one fit. Actually that is the reason I bought the 36" brake because the distance between the supports is aprox 36". I can now make it with one piece.

[May70]

Made a little more progress today. Ran the tap through the bolt capture plate and cleaned that up. Also made a patch for the fender brace itself. Then welded that all in together.

Moved on to the skin repair. Once again the stretch/shrink machine came in to make a much easier job out of that. Not finished yet but pretty close.

[May70]

Well I thought I would make the bend in the outer skin patch piece in order to do two things:

A: Be able to use the shrink/stretcher to control and create the curve
B: Fold it over for the factory skin fold over look

What I found was the bottom of the door is on a slight angle and I could not keep the curve and the angle. It was fighting me a lot, so I actually cut it all back out and said "oh ill just use the patch panel....". That was going to be even more work HAH silly me.

So I cut the bend off my original skin repair piece and put the angle and bend in it... Now im going to use the little crescent shaped piece on the inside to come and meet the outer skin. That will allow me to build an edge up with filler ( to contour the door/cab/rocker gap and look somewhat like the factory skin fold over.

My plan is to tac the crescent piece onto the inside pillar and then use a body hammer to bend the edge out to match the edge.

[May70]

Also, I picked up a fender and a repro core support.

What's interesting is this fender (with the body lines lined up) is that the fender is about 1/2" short. The bottom is about 1/2" taller than the rocker..... I assume its a difference in stamps/factories. Anyway, I think what ill do is try to get the lower patch good enough on my original fender then address the cup.... Ive seen a couple posts on the forums which showed how bad the repro cup is. I think I may cut the cup off the fender I picked up and try to make it work on mine.

[KMC3420]

Originally Posted by May70

Also, I picked up a fender and a repro core support.

What's interesting is this fender (with the body lines lined up) is that the fender is about 1/2" short. The bottom is about 1/2" taller than the rocker..... I assume its a difference in stamps/factories. Anyway, I think what ill do is try to get the lower patch good enough on my original fender then address the cup.... Ive seen a couple posts on the forums which showed how bad the repro cup is. I think I may cut the cup off the fender I picked up and try to make it work on mine.

I used a good cup from an OEM fender on my 68, worked very well, versus hacking up a reproduction cup..Less work and correct lines as well.

[May70]

Originally Posted by KMC3420

I used a good cup from an OEM fender on my 68, worked very well, versus hacking up a reproduction cup..Less work and correct lines as well.

Do you have any pictures of that?

[KMC3420]

Originally Posted by May70

Do you have any pictures of that?

I think so, on my computer. I will try to locate them tomorrow.

[May70]

Originally Posted by KMC3420

I think so, on my computer. I will try to locate them tomorrow.

Did you find any KMC?