Roostre's 1967 C20

[Roostre]

I spent last night cutting the driver's side rocker and bad patch job off my cab. It was the same story as the passenger's side, so I won't retype it. I need to get ahold of Bowtie Truck Stop and get a patch panel for the lower A pillar on the driver's side. I was talking to Kevin yesterday to order the passenger's side, and he asked me about the driver's side. I told him I didn't need the driver's side yet. Well, I guess I should have just gotten one. Oh well, the driver's side isn't nearly as bad as the passenger's side, so I should be able to get by with the older, less complex version of the patch.

Here's some pictures of the progress. Not very exciting, but it makes a good scrapbook for me.

[Roostre]

While I was changing the oil in my daily driver, I decided to do some more rust removal today. I cut the driver's side lower A pillar off. Only the lower part that sticks into the rocker needs replacement. While I'm in there, I will be replacing the bottom of the kick panel that is rusted through. For those of you, like me, who have never been this deep into these and have a lot of sheet metal missing due to rust, the bottom of the kick panel is sandwiched between the floor and the A pillar using the top 2 bolts of the 4 bolt pattern. Figuring this out took me finally just cutting the A pillar off, I couldn't tell how the kick panel was captured there until the bottom of the A pillar was completely gone.

Anyway, the plan now is to replace both passenger's and driver's side lower kick panels and lower A pillars, then replace the floor.

Her are some pictures

[raggedjim]

The dark before the dawn. I remember cutting into my jimmy and seeing the same thing, I felt like I'd been kicked in the groin. Stick with it, you will get there.

Good luck, Rg

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by raggedjim

The dark before the dawn. I remember cutting into my jimmy and seeing the same thing, I felt like I'd been kicked in the groin. Stick with it, you will get there.

Good luck, Rg

Thanks for the encouragement, it actually feels like I'm getting somewhere, so that feels pretty good. The rot I'm seeing wasn't unexpected, I just didn't pick up all of the patch panels right away because I wasn't sure what I could get by with making. I need to pick up a couple of kick panel patches and the lower A pillar patches, and I should be good to re-assemble.

[Roostre]

More progress tonight. I finished cutting out the kick panel on the driver's side of my cab. I cut out the patch panel and welded it back in. I then welded in the firewall patch I made a couple of weeks ago. They aren't the prettiest patches, but once the sound deadening mat and the floormat are inside and the fenders are installed, no one will see these patches, and the cab is solid through here again. Now I need to do the same on the passenger's side and weld in the lower A pillar patch panels. I think I'm going to wait for the bottom of the pillars until I have the cab sitting on the new floor to help locate them correctly.

Here are some pictures!

[Roostre]

Very small progress today. I went and picked up an old farmall B, and my buddy rode along. After we unloaded the tractor, I was showing him the progress on my cab. He has had a few square bodies over the years, and we started talking about radios and how we, as stupid kids, cut the dashes apart to get aftermarket radios to fit. The radio in my cab was an early 90's model that didn't fit and didn't work anyway. I always assumed that my dash was cut to make it fit. As we were standing around, I grabbed a pliers and pulled that radio out. Amazingly, my dash is in great shape and not cut at all! Small miracles and wins today!

[Roostre]

I started on the passenger's side today. Same story as the driver's side, I cut off the lower A pillar to access the kick panel then marked and cut the kick panel. Unfortunately, the kick panel patch isn't large enough to fix all of the rust, so I'll have to make a second smaller patch panel. I just got going when I ran out of welding wire and was forced to call it a day.

The lower A pillar will be cut again above the lower hinge mounting points, the patch panel I ordered has the captured nuts in it already, but hasn't come in yet.

Here are a few pictures.

[Roostre]

I bought a new spool of welding wire, so I was able to finish patching my passenger's side kick panel and firewall. As I said in the last post, the patch for the kick panel wasn't large enough to replace all the rusty parts, so I had to make a small patch out of some left over pieces of the driver's side kick panel. I need to grind down all of the welds yet, but I think it turned out ok, especially for a guy who had never done this before and has no idea what he's doing.

Unfortunately, I've fallen back into my habit of working away and not getting any pictures while I do. I need to get better about that. Here are a few after pictures and one of some of the rust I removed.

Up next I will be removing the floor. I'll fit the new floor so I can put in lower A and B pillar patches on both sides. Then I'll do final installation on the floor. I'm waiting on final floor installation for a couple of reasons. First, I ordered a patch panel for the passenger's side lower A pillar and that hasn't arrived yet. I want to have the lower pillars patched before I install the floor permanently. Second, I'm waiting for the weather to warm up a little because I think I'm going to use structural adhesive on the floor where it attaches to the fire wall and the rear of the cab. I'm leaning towards 3M 7333. It is an impact resistant structural adhesive, and it looks like a better product for this area than the panel adhesive I used on the roof skin. If course, this all depends on how well the aftermarket replacement floor fits my old cab. If it doesn't fit well, I'll have to scrap the adhesive idea and go back to spot welding to be able to better pull it into place.

[Roostre]

I had a late night in the shop last night, but the floor is cut out of my cab. I started out with the wire wheel to figure out where the spot welds were on the 2 braces where they connect to the ones on the firewall. On mine, there were 4 welds on the sides and 2 welds on the bottom, but I don't think the side ones were holding on the driver's side. After drilling them out, I started cutting with the plasma cutter. In the front, I cut from inside the cab on either side of the transmission opening to where I had cut into the floor earlier to patch the fire wall. Then I moved to the back. I decided to cut from underneath because I wanted to leave the 2 supports that the cab bolts go into in place to help position the new floor. This meant I needed to cut out what was left of my rear support so I could get the plasma cutter in there. I got that cut and lifted on the cab. With some prying, and a little hammering, the floor came out. Now I need to cut the spotwelds and remove the little strips of floor I left at the seams. I did get some pictures, but not as many as I should have because I was on a roll and it was getting late.

[Roostre]

Here are a few after pictures of the cab in the air, one of the old floor out, and one of how the cab is sitting now. All in all, I'm pretty happy with it this morning. I must say that I had a couple moments of doubt last night, looking at it in pieces thinking I really stepped in it this time. This is without a doubt the most intensive body part replacement I've attempted.

[Roostre]

I made a little more progress last night. I cut the spot welds and took it the remaining edges of the old floor from the firewall and rear of the cab. There isn't really anything interesting to photograph, so I just have before and after pictures of the driver's side. The rear and passenger's side look the same. I started fitting the new floor, but decided to stop and get the final prep of the cab and floor done because it's going to take some work to get the floor into the cab and I don't want to have to do it more than once if I can help it.

Up next is fixing a couple more rust holes in the back of the cab that appeared when I removed the old floor. I'm then going to clean the surface rust off the firewall and back cab sides of the seams and cover them with weld through primer. I will then remove the ecoat from the mounting surfaces of the new floor and cover them with weld through primer. I'm also going to scuff the new floor for painting because I think it will be easier than doing it when it is in the cab.

[Roostre]

I finally got a couple of other projects cleared up and was able to get back onto the truck project for a little while last night. I patched a couple of holes that I managed to punch into the back of the cab when I was removing the floor. It's not the most exciting, but it needed to be done and it is progress. Now I need to clean the rust off of the mating surfaces and prep the floor. The plan is to use 3M structural adhesive to bond the floor back into the rest of the cab. Originally, I was going to use a HF spot welder and spot weld it back in, but the floor being complete has the rear crossmember in it. Because of the crossmember, I can't get the spot welder electrodes around the rear seam. I was going back and forth on if I was going to weld the floor in or bond it in, and this finally made the decision for me. The adhesive has rust inhibitors, so the cab won't rust in the seams like the original; that's good. So I need to clean up the bonding areas, get the adhesive, and then line up a friend or 2 to help me. The goal is to get the floor in before the weather gets too cold to properly set the adhesive.

Here's a picture of the patches tacked in.

[68isgreat]

Originally Posted by Roostre

I resealed my drip rail tonight. Overall it went pretty well. I used 3M 08307. It has an 8 minute work time, 15 minute paint time, and 1 hour cure time. It's like squeezing syrup from a caulk gun into your drip rail. It comes in a 200mL 2 part tube, and i was able to do my entire rail with just a little left over.

First, I taped the body below my drip rails behind the doors on either side of the cab because I figured this stuff would run down the vertical part of the rails, and i suspected it would be a pain to try to clean up. I was right on both counts!

I then cleaned the rail with some 3M cleaner I had. After that, I went to town squeezing the sealer into the rail. I started in the center of the windshield and worked my way out until I was about 3/4 of the way down the vertical part. I then went to the other side and repeated. I worked in kind of a small Z pattern that seemed to work well. The instructions say to keep the application tip submerged in the sealer to limit the amount of air bubbles in the final product. This is a very important tidbit.

As it cured, I watched for any thicker gaps due to the after market roof skin, and filled them in with a little more sealer as they opened up.

As it got sticky and stopped flowing (about 6-7 minutes), I used a utility knife and cut it where it ran out of the bottom of the vertical part of the rail and pulled my tape. I don't think it would be a good idea to leave the tape on until it cures completely.

All in all, it came out well. Enough story, on to the pictures!

I just ordered a new roof skin for my 68, and will be using the 3M adhesive you showed in the previous post. Regarding this drip rail sealer 08307, would regular (thicker) seam sealer also work, or is this more liquid version preferable?

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by 68isgreat

I just ordered a new roof skin for my 68, and will be using the 3M adhesive you showed in the previous post. Regarding this drip rail sealer 08307, would regular (thicker) seam sealer also work, or is this more liquid version preferable?

The thinner drip rail sealer is used because it is self-leveling. It gives a nice flat finish without having to tool it while it sets up. It was not bad to use, just make sure to put some tape under the vertical rails behind the doors, don't go too far down with this sealer, and remove the tape and excess before it fully cures.

I've never tried it, but I would think getting regular seam sealer to give a nice, flat surface finish would be difficult in the rails.

[Roostre]

I made a little progress today. I got all of the rust, dirt, and primer removed from my cab and from the new floor where the seams are. For the adhesive to work, it needs to bond to bare steel.

Next I will begin test fitting the new floor. Hopefully it will fit pretty well so I won't have to massage it too much. Then I need one or two more warm days to glue the floor in.

Nothing really picture worthy tonight.

[Roostre]

I took a big step today. The cab is sitting on the new floor. It isn't fastened down yet, if I'm going to use adhesive, I really need to hope for a warmer day. The new floor really doesn't fit too bad. There are a couple of places that will need some massaging, but it is definitely close. Next I think I am going to bolt the doors back on just to make sure everything fits as I do the final fitting.

I'm very happy to be at this point, it feels like I've turned the corner on this project.

[Stephen717]

Who did you go through to get the floor, I'm eventually going to have to get one for my 69.

[Roostre]

Originally Posted by Stephen717

Who did you go through to get the floor, I'm eventually going to have to get one for my 69.

I got it from a local shop, Bowtie Truck Stop out of Springfield, MN. I get probably 98% of my parts from them because their prices are in line with everyone else, I don't have to pay shipping, and the couple who own and run the place are wonderful people. Going there to talk to them is always the highlight of my week. They are the definition of "small business owners" that I really enjoy supporting. I bought the floor about 5 years ago, and don't remember the brand, but they deal a lot in AMD, and I suspect that is the brand they sold me.