Attempt/Mistake #2

[67c10rustbuket]

Looking good buddy, you are going full speed on this now! Just for fun, my idea for ideal blasting to remove surface rust inside the roof skin and pillars would be to remove the rusty rockers and then remove the roof skin and shoot down the pillars. Seems everyone, me included, starts repair at the bottom but a large part of the problem starts at the top. In my mind once I fix everything at the bottom then move to the top and clean up the rust I will trap sand and rust debris in the rockers and pillars therefore accelerating the rust process again. If we could just find a time machine and go back in time to when they had the old acid dip and dip the whole cab and we would be good to go but not anymore.

[El Campo]

Hmmmm now you ARE thinking outside of the box!!! I can ALWAYS appreciate and support that. You are talking about the front A pillar in particular are you not (as the B pillars are wide open at the approx level of the door handles)? If I understand you correctly you are saying that the sand accumulates down in the front lower A pillar (which is covered by the rocker panel and is often rusted out allowing sand to flow INTO the rocker) and initiates the oxidation process due to the sand, correct? I am planning on combatting this by hanging the entire cab upside down after blasting (with crane truck) and shaking it to get every possible grain removed . Will obviously spend about an hour blowing out ever nook, cranny, hole, crease, crevice, flange, depression, cavity , etc. Then will hose down the A pillar with either epoxy (if at that time I am comfortable about the rust removal performed in that area) or with POR 15 if I am not. Thanks to all for looking at my build! As always all concern, criticism and advice is welcome.
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[TchncnDen]

I got your parts all boxed up and I'll get them to the post office later today. After 40+ years that handle did not want to come out even after soaking with PB Blaster overnight. Ended up welding big nuts to the screw heads and then they just spun right out. Must have been from the heat. I cut the pull rods in half in order to not need a giant box. I saw the fancy welder in your posts so I knew it wouldn't be a problem and I marked and clocked them so you can easily weld them back up.

As far as sand blasting is concerned you definitely do not want to do it after putting in the sound barrier. No matter how good you clean up after yourself, anyone that has ever had anything blasted can tell you that years later you will be driving down the road hit a bump and have sand fall out from somewhere. That stuff gets everywhere.

[El Campo]

Originally Posted by TchncnDen

I got your parts all boxed up and I'll get them to the post office later today. After 40+ years that handle did not want to come out even after soaking with PB Blaster overnight. Ended up welding big nuts to the screw heads and then they just spun right out. Must have been from the heat. I cut the pull rods in half in order to not need a giant box. I saw the fancy welder in your posts so I knew it wouldn't be a problem and I marked and clocked them so you can easily weld them back up.

As far as sand blasting is concerned you definitely do not want to do it after putting in the sound barrier. No matter how good you clean up after yourself, anyone that has ever had anything blasted can tell you that years later you will be driving down the road hit a bump and have sand fall out from somewhere. That stuff gets everywhere.

Awesome man. I appreciate it very much. And I also am thankful for you lending your experience to me. This is why I love this forum! That sand falling out is EXACTLY what I do NOT want. Should be no problem to weld rods back together and make it work. Remember that the offer stands, if two days or two years from now you need something that I can help you with just let me know. Oh by the way this morning I ordered up everything else that I need to finish up my front end so it will be ready for some wheels and to sit on the ground shortly. My steering gear leaks so got a rebuild kit for it and will attempt to do that.
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[docstheman]

Following your thread. Ordered the spot weld bit directly from Blair today. Looks awesome. Thanks for the idea and good luck on the rest of your build.

[El Campo]

Originally Posted by docstheman

Following your thread. Ordered the spot weld bit directly from Blair today. Looks awesome. Thanks for the idea and good luck on the rest of your build.

You will NOT be disappointed with the weld cutters I can promise you that. I used to come up to Tyler and Longview all the time. Thanks for following along. So I got in all the rest of my steering parts but now that I am looking at them I think that I may have gotten the wrong upper ball joints! These are the ones I got and the studs look awfully small. I had years ago bought the 73-87 drop spindles from Belltech and these are what I had been using but now as noted previously in the thread I had to go to the 67-72 control arms. Does anyone know right off if the ball joints are different or the same for the 67-72 versus the 73-87? I will do some research also on this. The one website where I searched already says that they are the same.

[Xeen]

From what I understand the circumference of the base of the ball joint that presses into the control arm is different betwen 67-72 and 73-87, if I were you I would check into that to verify.
I don't understand why you aren't making this easy and buying 1971-72 drop spindles, you can always sell your 1973-87 drop spindles.

[El Campo]

Originally Posted by Xeen

I don't understand why you aren't making this easy and buying 1971-72 drop spindles, you can always sell your 1973-87 drop spindles.

That is a thought and something that I had only slightly considered up to this point. I maybe should put more thought into that though! The problem is that unlike some of the guys on here every time I sell something I end up losing my shirt on some part of the deal. My 73-87 spindles are already epoxied and painted with good paint and if they are only slightly different then I would like to stick with them. BUT those CPP nodular spindles are awfully tempting looking at times also. I was under the impression that the spindles were either the same or only very slightly different. Someone help us out here!

[El Campo]

So did some searching and lolife says this:

The only difference between the 71-72 spindle and the 73-87 spindle is the upper balljoint and the outer tie rod.
The lower ball joints are the same.


So I went onto moog-suspension-parts.com and ran all my part numbers. I had made this list of what I needed last October and made it into a wish list on Amazon and apparently I really did my homework back then because everything checked out perfectly! Rarely do I have this kind of luck but very thankful for it today.

[El Campo]

Got a few things in mail today. Got rebuild kits for the power steering gear as well as power steering pump from Gates (USA) and then got my steering paraphanelia all from 2002 yanks (board member on here). All polished stainless U joints! Did not expect that so was very pleased. Then I have to give another deeply sincere thank you to Techncden for his generosity in sending me all of the parts to fix my factory tail gate FREE OF CHARGE!!! Brian you are the man!!!!! He would not even let me pay for the shipping. Parts came in looking great too. Should be able to salvage this OEM gate with relative ease now. Cab roof skin is sitting at the Greyhound station waiting for me to pick it up tomorrow night. Pics of that to follow.

[knomadd]

That's awesome! I love this forum! I just wish there were resources like this out there for other cars. It would have been a lot easier to build my GTO if I had this type of resource for it. So much information and helpful members... This place rocks

Congrats on the parts. Now GET TO WORK!

[El Campo]

Thought you all might be interested in seeing what else is going on in our shop. This is what the rest of my family does for work. They move dirt around with these tractors. Well my dads transmission went out and my younger brother started getting metal shavings in the rear planetary so they are fixing that. My older brother is putting stainless exhaust on his. Over 400 HP in each tractor. Do you think that we may like John Deere just a little? On the very bottom right is my cab that I am working on haha
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[El Campo]

Got the Tabco parts and I am both very impressed and disappointed at the same time. The cab corner is not very well done. The flanges look terrible and there are two mean wrinkles on the outside of the panel immediately above and below the body line. Pictures to follow tomorrow as I am inside of metal building and Verizon
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[Xeen]

Originally Posted by El Campo

Got the Tabco parts and I am both very impressed and disappointed at the same time. The cab corner is not very well done. The flanges look terrible and there are two mean wrinkles on the outside of the panel immediately above and below the body line. Pictures to follow tomorrow as I am inside of metal building and Verizon

It sounds like you were unfortunate enough to get a defective part, unfortunately it happens you just don't want to be the one it happens to, call them up and tell them that it's messed up.
I can tell you that isn't the normal experience you can expect with Tabco.

[El Campo]

Here is the outside view
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[El Campo]

And the flange
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[El Campo]

The inner door bottom looks outstanding though. Looks as if it rolled straight off of the GM assembly line
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[El Campo]

Last one for now
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[Xeen]

Yikes yeah that cab corner looks terrible, like I said call them up and e-mail them a picture I bet they will ship a new one out to you.

[El Campo]

The u joints that I bought for steering are not the right ones apparently! The seller said they would work with my stock box but its def not going on there. The u joint package says that it is for a 30 spline shaft but when I count the splines on gear shaft there are 32!!! Any input?
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[knomadd]

It may be a mislabled part. I've had a few of those in the last couple of years. All different parts from different companies too.
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[67c10rustbuket]

That u joint will fit my steering gear. Mine is from an '84 GMC 1500. When I look up the rag joint or steering coupler they call it 25 spline. Used from 80-87 I believe. These have the o-ring beaded tube lines with metric hardware.
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[El Campo]

Hmm so what to do!
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[67c10rustbuket]

I think the joint you pic'd is what unisteer calls the 26 spline. Are the others splined the same? on both ends? Just thinking the PO may have opened them and put it back in the wrong package. is the column 26 spline?

Here is a pretty good vid on the gear overhaul I found on youboob, I am likely just going to do the exterior seals rather than a complete rebuild on mine. This one is a different model but they are all basically the same from what I have found.

Saginaw 800 Power Steering Gear Box Part 2 -...

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by El Campo

Got the Tabco parts and I am both very impressed and disappointed at the same time. The cab corner is not very well done. The flanges look terrible and there are two mean wrinkles on the outside of the panel immediately above and below the body line. Pictures to follow tomorrow as I am inside of metal building and Verizon

I seem to remember having to massage my Tabco cab corners on the flanges too. But, the main thing, they fit the profile of the truck better than the Key parts corners. I had both to compare and the Tabco worked out so much better. Mine were pretty old (from the 90s I think), so the dies may have been better than they are now. You might call there customer service to see if they can send you some better ones?
The lower door patch does look good though. Those are a real pain to install no matter who makes them.

I found it's easier to section the lower pinch weld seam. Those spot welds at the bottom are tough to get loose too.