Rust Therapy - 62 C-10

[SkinnyG]

Sneak up on the 11-1/4 just to be sure, cut to fit.

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by SkinnyG

Sneak up on the 11-1/4 just to be sure, cut to fit.

I hear you, loud & clear. Thanks!

[53Sparky]

I shortened the frame today following the method outlined by SkinnyG on his thread. However, I only took 8" out of the middle section instead of the 12" he removed, and I'll take 4" off behind the axle once this is all welded up. I think his plan shows 8" removed from behind the axle. The end goal here will be to remove the same 8" and 4" sections from the bed sides which will result in a 7' bed on a 119" wheelbase. I've played around with some photochops and I think the proportions look right to my eye.

I didn't weld it today, but everything is back to square and level. I'll try to get that done tomorrow night or Tuesday after work.

[SkinnyG]

Excellent job!

I think the "X" makes the task considerably easier to keep things aligned.

[bsarts]

Glad your wife pulled through.

Cool project.

[88Stanger]

Prayers you all get through these crazy days, especially for your wife.
Nice work on truck. It will be nice to see more work on the truck done, that we can assume the wife is doing good.
God Bless you Both

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by bsarts

Glad your wife pulled through.

Cool project.

Originally Posted by 88Stanger

Prayers you all get through these crazy days, especially for your wife.
Nice work on truck. It will be nice to see more work on the truck done, that we can assume the wife is doing good.
God Bless you Both

Thanks! It was touch and go for a while there, but she's a rock star, and we had a lot of people praying for her/us. I'm glad to be blessed with time in the shop again.

[53Sparky]

This took longer than expected but I finished chopping the frame today.

[88Stanger]

Damn, awesome job on this Frame!!!! I had a similar issue with the idler arm on my 66 frame, thanks for sharing. I am sure that will be of some great help to someone. I eventually went for Rack & Pinion instead... cost alot more .... Anyways, your work on this frame is just outstanding!!! Great job!!! cannot wait for future progress....

[53Sparky]

Merry Christmas, friends!

[53Sparky]

Got this from my daughter today. Just in time to start some body work soon!

[53Sparky]

Got started today on some body work.

I think a lot of these trucks have the same crease in the driver side door panel from being opened too far, but I found a donor door that wasn't creased. There was enough rust in the bottom part of the donor that I didn't want to just swap the entire door. I was surprised by the lack of significant rust inside my door panels once I cut away the creased portion.

I'm waiting on some paint to treat the surface rust inside the doors before I weld the repair panel in place. Hopefully it arrives soon.

[roll_the_dice]

Nice build! I got the same dolly and hammer set for Christmas also!

[SkinnyG]

I blasted inside my doors as far as I could reach, and sprayed epoxy primer in there to try and stave off corrosion.

[cwcarpenter98]

Nice work!

On your donor door, did you cut through where the mirror mounts? Apparently the mirror arm on my truck held water there for a long time and rusted out right around the screws. If that part is still good from the donor door, would you be willing to sell it?

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by cwcarpenter98

Nice work!

On your donor door, did you cut through where the mirror mounts? Apparently the mirror arm on my truck held water there for a long time and rusted out right around the screws. If that part is still good from the donor door, would you be willing to sell it?

It's in very good condition. If you PM me with your address and pay for shipping, it's yours. Deal?

[cwcarpenter98]

Originally Posted by 53Sparky

It's in very good condition. If you PM me with your address and pay for shipping, it's yours. Deal?

That would be great, thanks! PM sent

[53Sparky]

Well, I'm slow, but at least I do mediocre work.

Today I patched mirror mount holes in the original doors to my truck. The passenger door had 3 different sets of holes, and the driver side had 3 different sets. Only 1 set of holes were symetrical to the other side, so I can only imagine what the truck looked like at various points in its history.

I set my MIG up for .023 wire instead of the .030 that I usually use. I had to run to the welding supply shop to get the appropriate tip for my gun. It took me a while to get the tension right on the drive wheel so that it didn't make birds nests inside the access panel. I've never really done any thin sheet metal welding so I burned a few welds on a couple coupons first to dial in the settings and then got busy. I patched up the holes in the driver door without any significant issues. I forgot to take pictures of the process, but you can see the result in the first picture.

I drilled 3 new holes in the passenger door to match the OEM mirror on the driver door, and welded some nuts on the inside. It was easy enough to reach after i cut an access hole from the inside of the door.

I struggled with repairing the holes on the A pillar on the passenger door. The holes were too close together to patch easily, and I kept blowing through when I tried to weld in the smaller patches I made, so i scrapped that idea and made a larger patch and started over. That worked better.

[53Sparky]

More Pics

Also, I found two loose brackets in the bottom of the passenger door. Any idea what they go to?

[cwcarpenter98]

That top piece is the stop for the window regulator to keep it from going too far down.

Also, that's some great work on the mirror hole patches

[53Sparky]

Getting better at not blowing through the sheet metal when I weld the patches. I spent some more time yesterday dialing in the settings on my MIG so that it wasn't so hot.

I probably won't grind off any of these welds since they'll be hidden behind the trim inside the door.

[53Sparky]

Spent the afternoon working on more body work.

I started with 2 small rust patches in the bottom corner of both doors. You can see why all trucks rust right here. Then I turned to shortening the first of the bed sides 8" in the front and 4" in the rear. I spent a lot more time measuring and planning how I was going to do it than actually cutting, but I'm pleased with the progress today. This method should help prevent the risk of warping when I weld it back together. Bonus: I was going to fill in the stake holes on the bed anyway but now the front and rear holes have already been cut out, so that's 4 fewer patches.

[53Sparky]

More pics

[88Stanger]

53Sparky - Damn fine work here sir. My skills are no where near that, i just have to pick up the phone and call in a new fender or door or .... LOL Anyways sir, you are an artist.

[53Sparky]

Originally Posted by 88Stanger

53Sparky - Damn fine work here sir. My skills are no where near that, i just have to pick up the phone and call in a new fender or door or .... LOL Anyways sir, you are an artist.

Thanks - I'm just faking my way through this. It's my first project of this scale and I'm making lots of mistakes, but that's what this is all about, right? If I wanted a perfect truck right now, I'd buy a boring late model POS from a dealer. But where's the fun in that?