Angie - 71 GMC C25

[7dee2]

Yep, I understand dawdling! Takes me forever to get things done these days.

Do you still have your 69 Camaro project?

[Gregski]

hey another '71 GMC, luv it!

[rgunlock]

Originally Posted by 7dee2

Yep, I understand dawdling! Takes me forever to get things done these days.

Do you still have your 69 Camaro project?

I do still have the Camaro Brett, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a project. I'm not even sure it qualifies as a parts car. This thing has a LOT of rust, to the point I'm thinking I need to go the route you did. I just need to convince myself that a) I can afford it, and b) I can figure out how to deal with the delivery.

Originally Posted by Gregski

hey another '71 GMC, luv it!

Thanks Greg! I am following your Dusty build (as I did Rusty and Busty!). You're stepping out into a bold new world on Dusty!

[rgunlock]

Been fighting covid the last few weeks, and finally got over it so I can get back to work on the truck. First the inner roof. Got it blasted and as I mentioned it isn't any worse looking now than what I could see earlier. I have the parts to fix it now. Just need to figure out how to take it apart. The last picture shows rust through the edge of the inner roof. I'm going to attempt to fabricate a patch for that spot.

[rgunlock]

And some of the bad spots in the floor I'd mentioned earlier. This was both corners where the flat portion of the floor joins the sloped part that goes up to the firewall. And the bullet holes. The welds that you see are from a PO's patch repairs. I've got these spots mostly repaired but I need to get pictures.

[rgunlock]

After blasting the floor, I did find a couple of spots I hadn't noticed earlier. One was a simple repair in one of the cab braces. The other is rust all down the passenger side edge of the floor. I thought I could just patch the bad spots, but it's in too bad shape for that. The driver side floor edge had already been replace. I've got the patch panel to do the passenger side. I also found a little rust in one of the cab corners. Hope to get that done this weekend.

[7dee2]

Originally Posted by rgunlock

I do still have the Camaro Brett, but I'm not sure it qualifies as a project. I'm not even sure it qualifies as a parts car. This thing has a LOT of rust, to the point I'm thinking I need to go the route you did. I just need to convince myself that a) I can afford it, and b) I can figure out how to deal with the delivery.

I can tell you it's not the cheapest way to go for sure. Glad to hear you are beating the Covid and back at it.

[rgunlock]

So, it turned out that the right inner rocker/floor edge was pitted. The left side had been previously replaced. I'd butchered the cheap replacement rocker on the right trying to get the inner out, and the metal was too thin for me to be able to weld so it came out too.

Got the new inner welded in, sprayed the underside of the cab in epoxy and then raptor liner. I'm calling the rust repair on the floor done, but still need to replace the right rocker and cab corner.

[kev2809]

nice progress..

howd those inserts work for the mirrors? i welded mine up a while back and i want to add my mirror back, and add one on the passenger side (67's only had driver side). i never even thought of the insert idea

[rgunlock]

Thanks Kev. These haven't had road shaking and rattling time yet, but I did the same on my '78 and they have held up very well so far.

[Dieselwrencher]

Very nice work on this 71. I've got a cab I'm working on right now that has rust in weird spots too. Just when you think you're done you find another spot. Keep at it, you're getting really close. The bottom is looking great!

[rgunlock]

Thanks Ryan! Yes, for a cab I thought was pretty much rust free, it has turned out to be a lot of work and I still have the roof to deal with. I don't spend a whole lot of time in any given week on this, but I'll get there. Slow but sure.

[7dee2]

Looks really good, nice job Rick!

[rgunlock]

Picked back up on the roof. This structural piece over the door is a real pain to remove. Spent the better part of this afternoon on it. I don't think I am going to use the whole patch. Just square up my cuts at the bottom. Felt like I needed to go this length because I also had to deal with the inner roof edge rust. What I've cut takes care of that too.

I plan to fab my own patch for the inner roof edge. Then its more blasting of the newly exposed area and primer for the whole inner roof. I will do the same repairs on the other side before I do blast & primer.

Oh, and started buying new exhaust starting with some manifolds. Some PO thought that welding the pipes to the header was a good idea. Maybe it was... but I don't like it.

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work Rick. It's good to know that patch panel is available. I agree, the header having no flex spot may not be a great situation long term. I've un headered the last 2 4x4 trucks I've had. I just went back with ram horns on them. That no exhaust leak thing for months and years is nice.

[7dee2]

I'm a big fan of exhaust manifolds.

[rgunlock]

I like the ramhorns as well, and are what I went with. LMC specials. I have to admit that before I sprayed some high-temp exhaust paint on them I felt compelled to grind off the country of origin. They did bolt up easily and seem to be pointed in the right direction though.

It didn't even occur to me that manifolds would need different bolts than the headers. I probably have all the correct bolts in my unsorted buckets of thousands of bolts from part-outs, etc. that I am genetically unable to throw away. I just didn't feel like sorting through them now so waited for an order of exhaust bolts before mounting these.

Last picture is of this year's bluebonnets in my backyard just because I can post 5 pictures and really only had 2 that were relevant

[Dieselwrencher]

My wife and her sister went to Texas 2 weeks ago hoping to find some Blue Bonnets with no luck. The Ram horns look nice.

[dug224]

Rick: This project is looking good! Just finished checking up on some of you guys that I've learned from over the years. Did you get rid of your '59 or is still in the line to be built? dug

[rgunlock]

Hi Dug, good to hear from you. I do still have the 59 and the idea is that it comes next. When that will be, who knows? I've ended up spending a lot of time on several projects that are smaller than a truck restore and haven't made much recent progress on this 71 so that pushes everything out. I do hope to finish up the work on the cab over the next couple weeks while my work is shut down for the holidays.

[rgunlock]

Ok, been way too long without an update to this build, but there hadn't been much noticeable progress due to life and a couple supposedly "smaller" projects that got prioritized.

I did get the inside of the roof and skin blasted and in epoxy. I got the ceiling patch fab'd and in, as well as replaced the bad sections of the gutter and the upper doorframe structure. Those last needed some trimming to go in, but I think they'll be fine. Rinse and repeat for the other side.

[rgunlock]

Then the fun part. I couldn't figure out a way to weld the back of the new roof skin to the cab, so decided to use 3M panel adhesive. The roof skin came from Auto Metal Direct and I've got to say it was a pretty good fit. The upper doorframe structure came from GMCPaul's (site vendor).

After cleaning all the bonding edges to clean metal and wiping with Eastwood prep I did the bead on both surfaces, spread it then another bead on the roof panel. I thought I had only 30 minutes work time and was by myself so didn't get many pictures. I got some of those windshield installation suction cup thingies and stuck them on the top of the roof skin, then flipped it over for this. Once I had the glue on just reached under, grabbed the handles, flipped it over and dropped it into place. I agonized a couple hours over a few beers figuring out how I was going to do that without messing up the glue!

All clamped up and used straps to hold the rear tight. I thought I had more of the spreader clamps than what I could find. I thought they were all in the same place so didn't look for them before spreading the glue. So a bunch of little c-clamps to the rescue. Only managed to glue one of them to the roof Paint sticks under the straps kept the straps from being glued on, but as expected I'll have to sand the remains of the wood off.

Overall, I see a pretty even squeeze out all around so pretty sure it is sealed. I'll still do seam sealer to be sure, and for the look. Where the back of the panel meets the top of the cab rear did not come out totally even. I'm not sure if extra filler is in order or not. I'm inclined to think nobody will notice with white paint. Anyway, the roof is done other than some cleanup, filler work on the inner door frame and the seam sealer so mostly past this hurdle - yay!

[7dee2]

Nice work Rick!