Project "Jezebel"

[sgaylord]

Finally the firewall going on for the last time.

It took a little bit of work to get everything aligned but it was time well spent. It took several hours to create the lip on the floor sections where they meet the firewall. My floor pans were made to extend several inches up the firewall (not sure if they all are this way or not).


Firewall held in with Klekos


This is the money shot just before installing the firewall for the last time. After this pic, I shot the entire overlap with weld thru primer.


As you can see here the firewall hump did not line up with the hump in the floor.


In this pic you can see that I welded a bolt to a piece of 1x1 square tube and ran the bolt through the floor. Then I attached a nut and washer from the other side and used this jig to pull the floor in line with the firewall. As you can see from the pic it worked pretty good.



Here is a better pic of the jig. I still have some welding to do but it's in there like it should be.

[sgaylord]

Here are the pics of the firewall all welded in from the front. Lots of spotwelds to grind down.... If I had to do that again it may have been better to buy an aftermarket firewall. This way it would limit the amount of spotwelds.







From there I sent to work on the cab corners!

[70stroker]

thats looking good man. keep it up

[sgaylord]

70stroker
Re: Project "Jezebel"
thats looking good man. keep it up

Thanks 70stroker, still a ways to go but I am progressing and that's the important part.

Steve

[sgaylord]

Now to the passenger side cab corner. Here I am going to have to replace the end of the rear brace, the cab corner as well as a small part of the floor.

Here is where we started after opening up the cab corner. As you can see the inner floor in that area needs replacing as well.


I guess the PO thought it would be easier to cut the corner off at an angle instead of replacing the corner correctly. As you can see there is an interesting mud job as well. I have seen worse, this mud was only about 3/8" thick.



Here is it ground down to to the area I will end up replacing anyway. No reason to clean all that off if I am going to replace it anyway. The black like is where I cut for the new panel to go on.


This is the floor section viewed from the rear of the cab. I removed the outer cab corner section. I will replace this entire section.


This is the same pic as the first one on this page, just with those previously mentioned areas removed.

[VA72C10]

Looking good...pretty soon you'll have a rust free cab!!!

[sgaylord]

Now I needed to remove part of the floor so I could reveal the floor brace so I could replace the end of it. I cut the spotwelds, then cut the floor to just above where the jack hold down is bolted in. This gave me the clearance I needed to cut the end of the brace off so I can add the new one.



Here I have the section ready to come out. It will go back in when I am done replacing a portion of the brace.


Revealing the brace below. Not too bad. Mostly surface rust, except for the first couple inches that needs to be replaced.


Side view


Bad section cut out.


Now I need to figure out what I did with those replacement rear floor braces... I know I put them around here somewhere.....

[sgaylord]

VA72C10
Re: Project "Jezebel"
Looking good...pretty soon you'll have a rust free cab!!!

Thanks Jonathan, I see your project is progressing very well. One day I will be where you are now. Hopefully it will be before I'm too old to finish it.

[mcbassin]

WOW! Have to admit that is a major project you have taken with the cab.
I am just about done with some of the same things you are doing but no where near the rust you have beat. I guess the donor cab was too far gone in other ares to use it complete?

PS. that is one bad Camaro you restored! Love it!

[sgaylord]

mcbassin
Re: Project "Jezebel"
WOW! Have to admit that is a major project you have taken with the cab.
I am just about done with some of the same things you are doing but no where near the rust you have beat. I guess the donor cab was too far gone in other ares to use it complete?

PS. that is one bad Camaro you restored! Love it!

Thanks mcbassin it's finally coming along. The donor cab in the 71 GMC was a patchwork quilt that needed quite a bit. The only good parts were the firewall and roof. I used the firewall and sold the roof. I have since purchased a few other trucks and cabs so the 71GMC will be my next project after Jezebel is done.

Yep, the Camaro was my first attempt at a full restoration. I learned a lot with that one.

Steve

[sourkraut]

wow you have really invested some serious time and energy into this cab! I thought mine was bad but wow, I got nothing on you! keep up the good work!

[sgaylord]

Thanks Sourkraut, Jezebel has been on the back burner for a little while because I am working on my burb so I can take it on the PowerTour. I plan to get back to Jezebel soon with plans to complete it this year. That's the plan anyway.... :-)

[sgaylord]

Now that the PowerTour is over I'm back on Jezebel. Made a little progress over the last couple of evenings. My camera is on the fritz and don't have any pics. I will get some posted soon. Back to welding and grinding... So much fun!

Steve

[Cole Trickle]

Originally Posted by sgaylord

Now that the PowerTour is over I'm back on Jezebel. Made a little progress over the last couple of evenings. My camera is on the fritz and don't have any pics. I will get some posted soon. Back to welding and grinding... So much fun!

Steve

Keep on grinding.....

You have alot of ability and talent. I would have moved on about 10 minutes after I started to dissasemble...lol

[mcbassin]

Need to see some pics man!

[bigguy69]

[sgaylord]

Good news! After my last post about the camera on the fritz, I went downstairs and my family gave me a new camera for Fathers Day (a couple days early)!

Here are some pics of the progress on the pass floor brace replacement.





In this pic you can see the coating of POR-15 inside to try and keep some of the rust from reappearing.


Replacing the part I cut out to gain access to the brace.

[sgaylord]

The weld in of the jack hold down area and the inner rocker.

To align the piece all I had to do was find where the spot welds we cut to remove the panel.






Plans are to POR-15 everything inside the rocker. If no treatment from the factory lasted 20-30-40 years, then this should last at least the rest of my lifetime.

[sgaylord]

Finally are the pics of the patch for the brace where it meets the jack area. Pretty strait forward drill a couple holes rosette weld and then weld in the edges where needed.

Now grinding, that is another story. Not my favorite job, but hey, it has to be done, right?

[my67chevytruck]

Nice progress!

[mcbassin]

Great work on the rust repair!

[VA72C10]

Coming along nicely!!!

[sgaylord]

Good progress this weekend. I was able to get both cab corners replaced. I would like to say it was done without incident however that is not the case. There were a few areas where I blew through welding the cab corners, as well as a larger gap in the right side cab corner than I had liked. To fix the abnormal gap I ended up placing a 1" backing strip along the inside and welded it in to bridge the gap. I figure that will not be an issue since it's inside the cab, away from moisture and sight. For the blow through's, I just waited for it to cool, lowered the setting on the welder slightly until I got past that area, then reset the amperage and moved on.

Other than the issues mentioned above there was really no other major incidents. Lot's of grinding. One of these days I hope to get better at welding so I don't spend so much time grinding...

I don't know the name of this piece, for the sake of this discussion lets call it a "B" pillar to rocker patch.


As you can see from this pic it's about 1/4 too short. Oh the beauties of aftermarket.... Not too big a deal. I will cut and form it to fit better after I install the door to mock-up the rocker. Then weld it back together.


Here is the cab corner just before welding. In this pic you can see the gaps mentioned above. This is why I needed the backing strip in the cab.


My welds in all their beauty. I have that issue when welding vertical. Horizontal, as long as it's not upside down goes great. Darn gravity.....

[sgaylord]

Drivers side

Where I started. Look abnormally smooth to you? Where is the bottom of the cab corner?


This is a pic with the 1/2-3/4" of filler removed.


Trying to show the gap that was filled with filler.


That section of the cab corner removed. The rear of the floor where it folds down is not in bad shape. What a find! I replaced it anyway, couldn't start getting soft now....


Last remaining cab corner piece removed.

[sgaylord]

More

I had to remove the "B" Pillar extension in order to gain access to the inner rocker/floor patch. and peeled back the floor a little.


Since the brace was not in bad shape I prep-ed and applied a thick coat of POR-15.




Inner Rocker/Floor patch welded in.


One more piece to go.