Project 30 years sitting

[Dale99]

Working on the passenger ball joint. Going much easier!!

I went to replace the oil in the front differential. Crack it loose and its dripping water. Keep going, more water. Knock the cover off, it was nothing but 100% water in it!! Even more blows to the mess, the teeth on the gear are chipped, and the differential has had some type of damage before, guessing snapped a ring gear at some point.

[Dale99]

Ball joints in, new spindles on, hubs are in, diffs are filled with lube, transfer case drained, filled. That chapter of the project done! All that I want to do more here is get some GMC decals made and put on the diff covers.

[jaros44sr]

Nice work. You shall overcome....lol

[Dale99]

Alright, so I got the rear lug nut studs replaced, and adapters on it so the wheels will quit coming loose as I drive it. Also have the whole hood primed, and my temporary passenger fender on it.

[Dale99]

Alright, next step is fixing my rusted drivers floor. It QUICKLY escilated into a larger job then planned. Ive done a search and it ques up to many post and crashes the search feature. If you know of a post that heavily details the repair of the floor, rocker, and bottom of the a-post. Please link it. I need some good pictures as I see parts listed in the lmc book that I am not finding on my truck.

I have......
38-7940 left floor
38-7910 left rear panel
38-7970 left foot panel

I now need to order/replace...
38-7962 pillar repair left
38-7950 cab support left
38-6534 rocker panel (I cant find it on my truck)
38-7944 cab support (this is truck only, I want to put it on my jimmy for bracing)

Have some ecklers rockers, which appear to be same brand parts as lmc. But it doesnt go up all the way in the rear, and it has a wing at the rear, rather then rolls back. Can anyone confirm if lmc's are/arnt this way?

[bruceman1968]

Nice work Dale, your jimmy is looking good!

[Dale99]

So I went and bought a new daily driver today. But weather is to be nice tomm, so I may take this out and just drive it around, since I havent drove it more then 20 miles since I have owned it. Enough working, Its time to enjoy it!!

[Dale99]

So I went and took it out into town and drove it around. Then onto the trails at the back of my neighborhood that never got developed 20+ years ago. Since I didnt have backup I didnt get to crazy or go far. It did start running a tad hot on the trails, so I think I will look at some electric fans for pushers. Also learned, dont leave spare parts in the bed, they will go flying and scare the crap out of you.

[hgs_notes]

Congrats on getting it out there and getting some payback for your efforts.

[hilljob26]

what kind of decals you need, i can hook you up with whatever you are looking for

[Dale99]

Hilljob, you have a pm.

[Dale99]

I took it on another rock adventure, and a mudding adventure. Got it stuck in the mud, to find out later nobody has made it thru that hole. Mudding was not as fun as I thought it would be, so doubtfully no more of that.

Good news. I dropped the seats off at a local upholstery shop. Getting some slight custom work done. Vinyl outsides, and modern fabric inserts. Price is about average for what I have seen mentioned on the board.

A local acquaintance had some rockers that would fit this. Picked them up this week. So I have almost everything to fix the left floor.

[Dale99]

Ok, so the malibu I was to work on never provided me the money to finish the job in almost a month. So I had to return it back to its owner unfinished. I hate doing that, but I have enough cars of my own around my yard, I dont need others.

I brought a neighbors car over for a headgasket job. Finished it in 4 days. But my job has been slow so I took a few hrs off and did the car.

New truck I have installed step bars, new speakers, brake controller, and tow bags.

The jimmy I have been driving around, its started a good sputter. I changed wires as one looked damaged. Didnt fix. One of the pump arms was tight, adjusted it. Still hasnt fixed it. Not sure whats going on.

I did get one side of the hood thru all this sanded down, rust cleaned, neutralized, and primmed. Going to try for the other side tomm.

[Dale99]

Also forgot to mention, I got my stickers from hilljob. They looked great and were exactly what I was going for. However, the axle covers have more curve then I thought, so they wrinkled when going on. But from a distance you cant see that.

[Dale99]

Thank You!! It doesnt feel like it has come very far. But I guess it has. Still has a long way to go.

Hopefully my seats should be back soon!

[Dale99]

Still pecking away at rocker area. Called on my seats, they are saying I still have about 1.5 weeks yet on them.

[jaros44sr]

Clecos help with aligning panels, makes for fast asembly and disassembly. Sometimes you just cant get a clamp where you need one. You have a little more rust then i had.....

Also, cut proof gloves will save your hands

[Dale99]

I'm not having problems cutting my hands. I will look for the device you mentioned for panel alignment.

:Edit: Ok, Ive seen them, never knew what they were called. That wont work in place of a bolt for permanent use will it?

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by Dale99

I'm not having problems cutting my hands. I will look for the device you mentioned for panel alignment.

:Edit: Ok, Ive seen them, never knew what they were called. That wont work in place of a bolt for permanent use will it?

Didnt mean to offend you

No, they just hold it in place until you use a plug weld to fill in the hole at final assembly

[Dale99]

You didnt offend me. I'm not cutting my hands like I have on other things which is surprising actually. Plus we have a running joke that I'm not working tell I have hit my head, or drawn blood.

I'm trying to figure out how to put the bolts in place w/o removing the rocker box? I thought I mentioned that here, but that was post in the general section.

[fxdxharley]

maybe put bolt in and weld it from back side then use a nut on outside rather than welding nut on outside and screwing in bolt. result is the same.

[Dale99]

I got my parts in tonight. 1 part is not what I expected, but I can make it work.

So, with all this in. I can weld the rear patch in, and should beable to reach the rear 3 bolts by reaching in from the front under the patch.

Now the front 2. I'm thinking weld a nut on the inside before I button everything up. Then run bolt in. I need to test fit parts together to see if thats possible. Or why gm didnt do that from day 1, and ran the bolts from inside-out.

[jaros44sr]

To answer your demension question on the outside drivers side seatbelt mounting bolt. The easy one is to the stepup, which is 2 1/4" to center of bolt.

Trying to find a proper place to measure off of for the second demension is more difficult. The only place i could come up with is the flat plane where the seats bolt to. At the crease, where the angle bends down, and the top flat plane intersect, to the center of the bolt is 3"

lmk, if doesnt make sense, and ill take a pic

The 'A' post bolts probably didnt affect the assembly line, since they put the torsion box in last

[Dale99]

Thanks Jaros. Pic attached is what your saying correct?

[jaros44sr]

Yes, good luck