Crusty Rusty Leaky Squeaky 67 Step

[jlsanborn]

Great write up on that process!

[Vic1947]

OK, back in the shop from a week in Houston, TX and early Christmas get togethers. Two down, two to go. We were late returning to KC from Houston due to all the ice in Dallas. Called best bud, Jay, a week ago Saturday and he said he had 1.5" of ice on his driveway in Granbury and they were iced in. So we had to skip a much desired visit to see his Chevy truck project. Definitely plan to reschedule, though.

Posted some photos earlier of the center caps I had CNC'd while in TX. Still haven't finished them up as I've been shaking off a bad cold. While we were in Sedalia this past weekend, I was able to sneak away from the Christmas mayhem and get Keith Daleen to punch some louvers for me in the heat shield. Turned out pretty nice.

Also managed to get over to Eagle and pick up the wheels, firewall and etc. last week. Threw the f/w up on the cowl to see how it matched up to the floor pinch weld flange. Don't know why I was so hopeful this would be an easy deal. As you can see from the photos below, between the frame supports the shape of the firewall and floor couldn't be much different. Outboard of the frame supports, the two panels fit fairly well but it will take major surgery to get the rest to fit.

I know because I trial fit the floor to the frame that all of work will have to be done to the firewall. Because I set the small block back in the six cylinder motor mount holes, the floor is already very close to the transmission case. So that means I can't move the floor down to meet the f/w. Time for the Sawsall.

[jlsanborn]

That looks like a challenge to me but I bet you make snappy work out of it. Heat shields look slick man! Still anxious to see how you get the POR clear coat sorted out too.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

That looks like a challenge to me but I bet you make snappy work out of it. Heat shields look slick man! Still anxious to see how you get the POR clear coat sorted out too.

Thx! I think the trick to making the POR15 work is thinning it with xylene. It's too cold for me to paint outside and since I don't want the mess inside the shop where it's warm, I'll probably haul it over to Mike at Precision Collision and see if they can squirt it in their heated booth.

Meanwhile, I have a ton of prep work to do before anything goes on the wheels. They came back from Eagle with the worst of the clear powdercoat removed. But in the lugnut recesses, the large openings and around the bolt heads, a fair amount of residual coating remains. To clean it up, I have to run a four flute mill down the recessed areas and turn it by hand to shave off what I can. Then I use a small flap disc to get the rest. Afterwards, I put the wheel in the blast cabinet to get the finish back to a satin look. I have some 2.5" flap wheels coming that I will use to clean up the large openings. Only thing that seems to work around the bolt heads is an Xacto knife. Taken together, it's very slow going. Wish now I'd never gone with the clear powder. Live and learn.

[knomadd]

sounds like an xacto knife would be a PITA... What about something like a dremel tool with some sort of sanding attachment? Or would that be too rough?

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by knomadd

sounds like an xacto knife would be a PITA... What about something like a dremel tool with some sort of sanding attachment? Or would that be too rough?

That's not a bad idea. I have several possible attachments for the Dremel that might work. Will give it a try and report back …tomorrow. Headed out for yet another family gathering in a few minutes.

[jlsanborn]

I'm hoping that fresh powder was a bunch tougher than an old OEM clear coat and I'll be able to blast - shoot with noooo touchy! I feel your pain on the meticulous scratchy/scrapy/sandy you've got ahead. At least you have the end mill to get at the lug nut cavities! Thanks for the updates and sand on!

[jaros44sr]

In post 505, IIRC, I had to do several pie cuts to get that area to lay flat....

Build looks great, enjoying your posts and pics.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jaros44sr

In post 505, IIRC, I had to do several pie cuts to get that area to lay flat....

Build looks great, enjoying your posts and pics.

Thanks, Jim. Do you have a link to the post you mentioned? I always like to look at what others have done to resolve a problem.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

I'm hoping that fresh powder was a bunch tougher than an old OEM clear coat and I'll be able to blast - shoot with noooo touchy!

The first time I had the wheels blasted, they came back very clean. The OEM finish gave up a lot easier than the clear powder coat did the second time around. I'd bet you'll have very little cleanup if you're only removing the original finish.

[sduckworth13]

Here is a floor pan install link Vic, not sure if this helps . Everything is looking great.
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...=311224&page=2

[sduckworth13]

Here is jaros44sr build he was talking about.
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...ighlight=Floor

[jaros44sr]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Here is jaros44sr build he was talking about.
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...ighlight=Floor

Yep, thats the one....thank you

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by sduckworth13

Here is jaros44sr build he was talking about.
http://www.67-72chevytrucks.com/vboa...ighlight=Floor

Thanks for pointing the way to the link Jim was referencing, Scott! Went thru the build but couldn't find any mention of pie cutting the f/w to make it fit. Looked like they screwed the f/w and floor pinch welds together and then fit the entire unit to the shell of the cab. They then attached the frame subs to the f/w after it was fastened to the cowl. The one photo I saw where the rear of the floor met the cab looked like they dispensed with the two, wide L-shaped plates. On mine, those plates have four bolts that attach to the floor and serve as locating points. They also have the captive nuts that the body mount bolts thread into. It's possible that by getting rid of those plates, it made it easier to install the floor and f/w as a unit. However, just looking at how their f/w and floor fit together makes me think they had a better initial line-up than I have. I'm going to scout out the forum a little more to see if some poor fella has run into the same situation as me.

[Low Elco]

Feelin' ya on the cold, Vic... I'm on the backside of round 2. Good lookin' work, can't wait to see what's next!

[Low Elco]

I think HF has a flap wheel that expands radially with a 1/4" shaft, for what it's worth. About an inch long.

[Vic1947]

Remodeling (basement this time) has once again cut into the truck build, so not a lot has been happening on that front. I did manage to finish cleaning the clear powdercoat from around the rivet heads on the wheels. I tried several things such as tiny sanding drums, mini carbide burrs, Cratex abrasives and etc., but nothing worked as well as the Xacto knife. So I painstakingly scraped every one of the 80 rivet heads and then hit them with the glass beads to remove the shiny places. I bought some 2.5" flap wheels from CGW and they work great in the big holes. Despite all of this, I'm still considering painting the wheel centers the Toxic Orange Pearl color to match the body. I'd leave the outer rims the aluminum finish with a coat of the Glisten PC over all of it. There are still a lot of warts on the wheels despite all the prep work. Painting the centers would hide a lot of evil.

I also did a bit of work on the floor. Pie cut the ends where they angled down and welded in some tapered material. The ends now go out straight and match the ends of the firewall. The rest of the f/w is another matter. I've laid out the cut lines I'll need to make to bring it in line with the floor. I'll have to remove a center section of the f/w completely, reform the bottom lip to match the floor and then weld it back in. Removing it will also allow me access to pull down and straighten the section that kicks up as it gets close to the tunnel.

As they say down in TX ...all that stands between me and the finish line is fear and thin air.

[jlsanborn]

That's a ton of fiddling around on the floor but you're making it look easy! Wheels look sharp too. I think you could pull off the painted centers. It'd be cool if you could leave the big holes natural. Wonder what'd take to polish the outers? It'd be cool if you could drill them phony rivets out, polish, then mash something custom back in to the rivet holes (polished SHCS or something)??? Just thinking out loud, no doubt about it, whatever you finish with is going to be trick and sanitary.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by jlsanborn

That's a ton of fiddling around on the floor but you're making it look easy! Wheels look sharp too. I think you could pull off the painted centers. It'd be cool if you could leave the big holes natural. Wonder what'd take to polish the outers? It'd be cool if you could drill them phony rivets out, polish, then mash something custom back in to the rivet holes (polished SHCS or something)??? Just thinking out loud, no doubt about it, whatever you finish with is going to be trick and sanitary.

It would be easy enough to mask the big holes. In fact, it might look better with the center caps which I'd planned to have clear anodized. As for the fake rivets, they're actually pressed in bolts with half round heads. During the cleanup operation, I removed the nut and washer off the backside of one and tried to drive it out. Did not budge even a whisker. So, drilling would be the only option if a person wanted to swap them out. I'm thinking doing 80 of them would make me crazy(er).

[Vic1947]

Today was slice and dice time. After laying out the cut lines, I made the two vertical cuts on each side as well as a short horizontal cut at the top. Turns out the horizontal cuts were not really needed. I was able to move the firewall pinchweld edges into position with just a few light taps from a rubber mallet. At this point, I could tell the area around the curve of the tunnel would need some serious hammer and dolly work to get it to fit the floor. I started by flattening the pinchweld lip and then folding it back opposite how it was originally formed. I then laid down some tape on the roughed in edge as a guide for the final lip.

[Vic1947]

The pinchweld flange now lays flat along the entire edge of the floor instead of kicking up on each side as it approached the curve of the tunnel. After some additional work with the dolly, the firewall lip now fits very close to the lip of the floor in the tunnel area. With all the flanges fitting nicely between the frame supports, I went ahead and stitched up the cuts with some spotwelds. When the time comes, I'll weld the full length around the tunnel and spot weld the rest of the pinchweld flanges. I should have plenty of clearance over the top of the transmission case by making the firewall fit the floor.

Before I can permanently attach the floor and firewall, I need to weld in the vent covers in the kick panels. They had been gutted previously and since I'll be running a Vintage Air setup, I'll just block them off.

[mcbassin]

Very nice work on the floor Vic! Looks like you have massaged it into shape. Keep the pictures coming.

[Vic1947]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Very nice work on the floor Vic! Looks like you have massaged it into shape. Keep the pictures coming.

Will do, Mike, thanks and Merry Christmas to you and all my other forum friends!

[jlsanborn]

Looks great! Well thought out and executed!

[Vic1947]

Made some progress on the vent areas today. Tack welded in a patch on the passenger side, but needed something a bit more exotic on the driver side. The plan is to re-route the wiring that normally exits out of the firewall near the brake m/c. I'm mounting the fuse panel right over the vent opening which will allow the frontend wiring to exit thru the vent and then out thru a hole hidden by the front fender. The removable panel will seal against some rubber weatherstrip. The wiring bundle for the headlights, fan, park lamps, etc. will be tucked up under the fender and inside the core support. Should make for a nice clean look that's impossible to service later on.

With the vents under control, I reinstalled the floor and firewall, clamped them together and welded out the alignment slits. Took a break from grinding to do this post. However, once the grinding is done, it all comes apart again so I can treat the underside of the dash with GEM Rust Killer and then spray a coat of epoxy primer.
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