Not Another Rebuild Thread....

[flips72]

your getting real good at the metal work cant believe you would rather ski than work on your truck though

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by chevy_man5

Been at work for a couple of hours now. Just taking a break, and catching up! LOL

I get up at 0400 every day, which gives me about 2 hours before I have to get ready and go to work. Not too common to see someone up that early, even for you guys in the lower 48.

Originally Posted by chad64chevy

cab floor looks good! very nice progress

thanks Chad !

Originally Posted by allaboutchevelles

Very nice looking welds!! Your doing a great job on the metal replacement. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look !! Those drip rails are in the mail. I sent them both so as to minimize risk of them getting bent. Sorry but I did not see the mailing tubes until I turned to leave the counter so they are padded and in a box. You should get them soon sir!

Originally Posted by flips72

your getting real good at the metal work cant believe you would rather ski than work on your truck though

I know, right??
And to think golf season will be here right after the mosquito swarming/feeding season!! But working on the truck is still more fun than playing World of Warcraft on the computer all weekend !!! Thanks for stopping in Flips, always good to hear from you.

[66ChevyMax]

Nice patch work on the cab Murph!

[Modges'66]

Hey!...Cool-it a bit, you're making me look bad!
I feel as though I am cheating, with all of the repair work that you are doing.
I am thinking about fixing my old fenders instead of using the new ones that I have, just so that I can say that it has all of the original body panels on it.

Seriously, nice job!
I'm sure that you are proud of what you have accomplished so far...Keep at it!
Modge

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by 66ChevyMax

Nice patch work on the cab Murph!

Thank you sir, always glad to see you stop by to look at my simple efforts!

Originally Posted by Modges'66

Hey!...Cool-it a bit, you're making me look bad!
I feel as though I am cheating, with all of the repair work that you are doing.
I am thinking about fixing my old fenders instead of using the new ones that I have, just so that I can say that it has all of the original body panels on it.

Seriously, nice job!
I'm sure that you are proud of what you have accomplished so far...Keep at it!
Modge

I am a total newb man, what I have done is nothing compared to some of the builds I have seen on this site. One guy turned a rig that was more rust than metal into something drivable!
It will be a while before I am up to the level of quality you and a lot of other guys on this site are doing.
I am just happy they dont seperate us even more.
Most of you would be in the Elite Builds section while I would be in the Scrub Build area.

But as much as it is a learning gig, it is fun.
Part of what makes it worth while is the kind comments left in the threads by some of the guys you envy....

Thank you for taking a look, I really enjoy the build you are doing!!

[k1rodeoboater]

Well to be honest, just like the military, everyone started at the bottom at one point or another. Your body work is looking better and better. Looks way better than mine. I can tell I'm more at the, "F*&# it, it's close enough <zap>" point LOL

I'm still plugging away at mine....albeit slowly. Been busy with work, going to schools, going to the promo board, and an additional detail I was put on about 2 months ago.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by k1rodeoboater

Well to be honest, just like the military, everyone started at the bottom at one point or another. Your body work is looking better and better. Looks way better than mine. I can tell I'm more at the, "F*&# it, it's close enough <zap>" point LOL

I'm still plugging away at mine....albeit slowly. Been busy with work, going to schools, going to the promo board, and an additional detail I was put on about 2 months ago.

I hear you brother.
I had to force promotion by maxxing out to 798 on the old system, and I am glad I did, the new system is even more difficult to work with IMO. I will get one look at E7 about 6 months before I retire because of some of the changes they made in the past few years, but I am not complaining, I should have stayed in the first time!

Hope to see pics of your truck soon, want to see how you are getting along on it in that tinyass garage !!!

[McMurphy]

Ok .... so.
There I was, I knew that gas pedal section of the floor was going to have to go. If you look 2 pics up from this post you can see my first attempt at a patch for it, but you know,,,,, I just wasnt happy with that.

So I made a second.
In making the second one I learned how to make my third one. Let me just tell you that with all the contours to that one little section you have to be pretty determined, or really know what you are doing, to fab a patch for that.

I am usually more determined than smart, and today it took me all day to get that patch at least close to what I wanted.
But it was fun anyways.
A good thing for me to keep in mind is to know when a piece is just not workable and it is best to just put it down, and start making a new one. I think I am learning that it is better to grinder down a few welds than it is to do a whole long line of them. I am going to try that next time.....

This was back in October 2011 when I first found the problem.


This is my basic outline for the patch. After my dissatisfaction with it, I cut this out larger. Welding rust is frustrating.


Remember that long line of welds I mentioned a moment ago, well this was todays.


And.... done. Welds ground down, then a few passes with the DA sander with 80 grit. After this was some bondo to make it pretty-ish and I let it sit for the day.....


Well dinner time now, more later.
As always, thanks for taking a look, I really do appreciate it!

[Alan's Classic]

Determination goes along way doing this stuff. Which paid off here. Looks good.

[daverod]

great job. I agreee welding rust sucks. Takes alittle while to learn how much to cut out. You should be getting close to a rust free truck.

[ddubbs]

Truck and your welds are coming along great. One of these days I'm going to get over and check it out. Keep it up!!!!!
Posted via Mobile Device

[flips72]

looks good to me, iwould be extremely happy with it. your doing a great job.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Alan's Classic

Determination goes along way doing this stuff. Which paid off here. Looks good.

Alan, you have got to be psyched about your rig.... All these years and, wow, what you have done!! Thank you so much for even looking at mine !
Aye the other side of determination came into play today, I had to just put it down and walk away, maybe I will mess with it some more tomorrow.

Originally Posted by daverod

great job. I agreee welding rust sucks. Takes alittle while to learn how much to cut out. You should be getting close to a rust free truck.

Yah,,,, the rust was all free, came with the price of the truck LOL. Just kidding, I never would have thought I would put this much into it, but these trucks get better no matter what you do to them, so I feel pretty safe with what I am attempting.

Originally Posted by ddubbs

Truck and your welds are coming along great. One of these days I'm going to get over and check it out. Keep it up!!!!!
Posted via Mobile Device

Dude, I almost called you today, then I remembered it was Easter!! LOL .... maybe this week you can slide on over, but if you are going to wait till the weekend then you better let me know what beer you like!

Originally Posted by flips72

looks good to me, iwould be extremely happy with it. your doing a great job.

Thanks Flips, man yours is almost too sweet to look at ..... Hahahaha

[McMurphy]

Well it being Easter and all... Happy Easter !!

Last weekend it was a struggle to get motivated, and I have little patches for the kick panels I had to put in. I will post pics of that mess, when I finish the p-side.

Right now we still have about 6" of snow on the ground but it is melting off more and more each day. Despite the fact it was snowing yesterday....
Who knows? Maybe Spring is coming LOL ???

So today I decided to tackle my transmission hump.
Someone in the course of this rig's history decided to cut up the hump to take a shifter, but didn't do much of a good job with it.
Me thinking I can make an access door, decided this was my next big project for the floor before I coat it and call it DONE.

This is my hump with the PO hack job, and the start of my outline for my access panel-door.



I am learning that making patterns is my friend, and my friend says cutting paper to fit is better than whacking metal and coming up short, wrong, or stupid.... especially with contoured surfaces !!



As you can see, the actual grew 1/2 inch from the pattern! Still good though, the pattern was the key!



With Hammer and dolly I beveled the edges of the hump, the concept is to keep as much water out as possible.



This is where I had to put the tools down and walk away. As you can see I split the fold on the metal on the forward (toward the engine) edge, but I can weld that up no problem. As you can tell I did a fit/drip lip along all 4 edges, again to help keep water out. I am learning too that what I envision sometimes surpasses my skills !! LOL
But what finally got me was the gap along the p-and d-sides of the hump, I am struggling to get that to conform. I was contemplating anchoring it at the rear and leading edges where it almost fits perfectly, and beating it into submission with my body working hammers....
Something told me not to be rash, and just let it go for the day!



So this is where I am at.

I also measured my dash from side to side for a 2" extension like some fellows here have done. 66" from kick panel to kick panel, sadly I only got a half sheet of rolled steel for this project, so I am thinking of doing the extension in 3 parts.

Yeah, more to follow on that mess!!

Thanks for looking!

[Alan's Classic]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Alan, you have got to be psyched about your rig.... All these years and, wow, what you have done!! Thank you so much for even looking at mine !
Aye the other side of determination came into play today, I had to just put it down and walk away, maybe I will mess with it some more tomorrow.

Yes , I can't believe I actually almost have it done. There were several times I almost gave up.

Your making some good progress, stay focused.
Posted via Mobile Device

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by Modges'66

One step at a time...One step at a time. You are still moving forward at a pretty good clip!!!

Yeah thanks, sometimes what I do all day isnt worth posting about in my opinion. Like today a large part of the first half was making a card board pattern for my dash extension.
I really dig your build though, I look at it every time you update too!! You are doing some mad stuff over there too, keep it going!

Originally Posted by flips72

yeah, what he said, one step at a time sometimes there just bigger steps than other time, but there still steps

Thank you Flips, someday I will be close like you are right now.

Originally Posted by Alan's Classic

Yes , I can't believe I actually almost have it done. There were several times I almost gave up.

Your making some good progress, stay focused.
Posted via Mobile Device

I can only imagine Alan!
I know it took you 5 years to build your thread on your truck, and like 2 weeks for me to read it all... it must have seen its fair share of ups and downs!

Always a pleasure when you guys stop by to take a look, thank you for that!

Now... what did I get done today other than playing cut-out with card board?

I took the heater controls out of the donor 85 Sierra (Ok fair to say I took everything out of it....) and started looking at my dash for installation. I like the cleaner look and adjustment options with the newer controls. I pretty much knew it was going to be the stock radio spot, or the ash tray that were going to house this unit.
I decided today it was going to be the radio.

The Sierra had all kinds of screws in the dash holding stuff where it needed to be, but I didn't want that in this truck, so I had to start with fabbing a mounting braket.
Guess I forgot to take pictures of that.

This is my dash before I started my hack job on it.


This is with the mounting braket welded in behind the dash, and my welds cleaned up a bit. I am at an impasse now as to whether I want to fill those knob holes and clean it up, or use the plate I made to fit in that space to clean up the look of it. I am leaning towards filling it and going from there.


Anyways, more later !!
Thanks for looking

[C@rnut001]

It is looking good, so don't dispair or give up...that trans hump looks like it will come together fine, keep at it. This is the hardest part of any build, when parts are hard to get to fit together the way we envision them. Good luck on your dash mods. Keep up the great job and thanks for updating your build here.

[McMurphy]

Well got a little bit done.
Got that last bit of the kick panel patched. Still need to smooth down the bondo I pasted up in there, but even with just the metal patch it looks a lot better!




I finally convinced myself that I wanted to cover those cab corners by extending the floor. So I made my pattern, and cut one out.


Laid it in place to check the fit....


Then welded it in....




If anyone wants a copy of this pattern just shoot me a PM with a good mailing address. Be happy to save you the time to reinvent this little wheel!!

Lets see what I can get done tomorrow !!

[Modges'66]

One step at a time...One step at a time. You are still moving forward at a pretty good clip!!!

[flips72]

yeah, what he said, one step at a time sometimes there just bigger steps than other time, but there still steps

[baggedbigblock]

Looking good McMurphy. Keep on plugging/welding away!

[McMurphy]

Thanks guys, but I am not going for the camera side views on this build. It was a museing on my part.
I already have too many ideas for this rig that I mistakenly think are within my abilities ..... LOL

[**grumpy**]

I just read all 15 pages.
Great job on your truck!
-40
-50
Wow...

I came in whining it was too cold a few weeks ago when it was 44 out.

[McMurphy]

Originally Posted by flips72

hey McMurphy, you seen any grass yet or is it still snowing? just curious, and by the way, i would like to see the camera idea..i belive you could pull it off

Last years dead grass that died too fast to lose its color is out, new growth not so much yet, but the growing season here is about to go crazy with 24 hours of day light coming in June.

Originally Posted by **grumpy**

I just read all 15 pages.
Great job on your truck!
-40
-50
Wow...

I came in whining it was too cold a few weeks ago when it was 44 out.

Well thank you much for taking a look at my build !!!
I have been following yours since you started it (the 12 week build)
it was 44 degrees here today, we are in shorts and t-shirts up here in the sunshine that is....


Wow... I am up to 15 pages already?
Good thing they dont charge by the post around here !!

[65 old school]

I also went through your thread, look's great! COLD weather? no way!... I wear short's all year long, last time I had pant's on was at my son's wedding about a year & 1/2 ago. and that was under protest!... Hope you get a lot done with the total daylite and warmer temp's. It's going to be 100 saturday here, I will have to turn my garage a/c on.