56 Chevy (RIP)

[dsraven]

man, those rear cab mounts. a rust sandwich.dunno what was actually holding my cab on the frame. front and rear cab mounts were both just rust formed into a shape.

[Snake72]

Dude, I seriously can't believe my cab didn't just fall off the frame. 3 of the 4 cab mounts were nearly non existent and such a critical point for safety and structure. The rear passenger side cleaned up really well and was solid.

[Snake72]

Seam sealer is done on the bottom of the cab. I didn't have time to spray epoxy yet, maybe this week. I did get a nice day for sandblasting the frame. I like to use black blast for a blasting media, leaves a very nice tooth for paint and primer. I decided to use POR15 on the frame, had great results doing the same thing with my '72 sandblasted frame. I know I'll have to grind some off the front frame rails to install the C4 crossmember but this way I'll have a clean frame to work on over the winter. I'll scuff and do a topcoat after suspension bits are all installed.

[Snake72]

Epoxy primer sprayed on the bottom of the cab, I've had good luck with eastwood epoxy in the past, if I ever do a higher end build I'd like to try SPI epoxy.

With the cab rust repair done, I shifted to the driver door. Rusted out door bottom and lower skin as well as the door hinge mounting bracket was completely disintegrated. I ordered a new lower skin, door bottom and hinge mounting bracket. The bracket is well made but fit like crap. I had to drill out the spot welds holding the bracket together, realign everything, and reweld but was easy. Watch this video if you're doing the same repair, it helped me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=940kzxK8BM4.

The door bottom also fit poorly and does not have the factory impressions on the hinge and latch sides. I wanted to use as much original metal as possible, so I did some slicing and dicing, a lot of stitch welds, and took a lot of time between welds to avoid warpage. I made cardboard templates to make sure the curvature of the door bottom remained the same. Don't judge my amateur welds, but it came out decent. Need to fit the lower skin and then I'll finish welding and grinding. Also, I've been using the Fitzee fabrication method of "cut and butt" for welding patch panels, watch his videos on youtube, it works really well.

[Snake72]

A little more progress...replaced the lower 4" of the outer door skin. I seam sealed the welds on the inner door bottom and primed it prior to fitting the outer door skin. I'll catch some flack on this but I put a flange on the new lower and used cleco's to fit the panel flat, then SLOWLY welded the seam solid. It did not warp the original steel but the new metal had some mild warpage still. I used a few skim coats of filler and it came out ok. Again, this is patina truck, none of the body work will be perfect and that's alright. I'm currently blending the patchwork into the original paint.

Also sprayed the firewall and pillars with epoxy primer, looks sweet.

I just ordered the rear kit for the corvette suspension from Flat Out Engineering. I haven't received it yet but I have to say, Don the owner of Flat Out is great, he answered the phone, answered all my questions, gave me pointers for install and was not rushed at all. Great customer service, super nice guy!

[dsraven]

If you have other panels to do you can use a clothes iron and a cold wet rag to shrink the high spots. Use the iron to heat up the high spots then the wet rag asap as the iron is removed to cool those hot spots quickly and they will shrink. Less bonds.

[6DoF]

Originally Posted by dsraven

If you have other panels to do you can use a clothes iron and a cold wet rag to shrink the high spots. Use the iron to heat up the high spots then the wet rag asap as the iron is removed to cool those hot spots quickly and they will shrink. Less bonds.

that's an awesome idea, way more control that with a torch