72 C20 "Old Mustard"

[Mustard72]

I've been tempted by the copper spoons, too, Scott. I didn't figure I'd need it for lap welding, though. Plus, its the top panel that's burning, not the back on. Although, when I get the pics posted, the biggest hole is in an area that isn't backed by the back panel, and the copper spoon would have probably helped.

[Mustard72]

Originally Posted by mjensen

I was about to call BS...no pictures...no progress Just kidding, at least you're moving forward!

Hey, it could be BS. The welds aren't pretty. Fortunately, my phone cam isn't that great at the details. You'll see when I get them posted....hopefully this evening.

Yep, it's moving forward. Slowly, but forward. Got some tips from a welder here at work to try out on the next panel. This one will probably just take more bondo

[Mustard72]

As promised, here are the pics of the cab corner.

[mjensen]

Ok ok...I believe you now Looking good! I had a pretty tough time with mine as well. Biggest issue for me was the whole cutting 3 times and measuring once...or was that supposed to be measure 3 times...man, I always get that confused

You mentioned in my build that you were thinking of doing a Blazer tank like mine. hgs_notes did the same style as the one I'm installing in his and has posted some info about his starting on post 503 here

[gdavis]

you are coming alone great. I too am doing cab cornors, inter and outer rockers both side and pillars and front drivers side floor.

[Mustard72]

Got my engine block, heads, and a box of pistons/rods in the back of the mighty Taurus wagon today. I'm gonna try to get them dropped off at the engine guy's shop this week. He's gonna do the machining and go through the heads. If nothing else, it makes for some extra room in the garage

Also got the drivers side door put back on, the drivers side rear pillar bottom tacked in, and started getting the drivers side rear cab corner welded in before running out of time for the day. The piece I put in between the cab corners ended up being quite a bit too short, so I'll have to fill that in with some extra sheet metal, too.

Got along with the welder better today. Kept the nozzle pointed down a bit more than last time, which kept globs of weld from building up in it. That kicked my tail last time. Don't know what I was thinking. I'm still not much of a welder, but it's getting better. By the time I get done with this, I should be mediocre!!!

I must say that the doors work better now than they've ever worked since I've had this truck. I get a kick out of just opening and closing the doors at this point. You can get them to latch with one finger push. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to take them off at some point again, so hopefully I can get them back in the same spot. Where can a fella get the rubber bumpers that the doors close against (I think there's two on each door)? I can't seem to find them in the LMC catalog.

[Mustard72]

Woops. Found the door bumpers at LMC. Never mind.

[hydrojunkie]

was the rockers a pain to cut out. i need to do mine just havent looked hard at it yet.

[Mustard72]

Mine weren't, but mine were almost gone to begin with. Plus, the PO (and I've had the truck since 1986, so we're talking about a long time ago) had replaced the rockers at some point. He just overlaid the old ones, though, meaning I had two layers of rusted out rockers to remove. The only part that was really left on mine though was the tops of each rocker, and hte connections to the floor was shot, too. All I had to do was cut the tops of each end and off they came. Most trucks probably require a bit more work to get the rockers off than this one.

There's lots of info on this site and on you tube about replacing rockers, too.

Good luck.

[sduckworth13]

Looking good Nick, I know what you mean about the door. It is amazing that properly aligned you can shut it with your finger. Nick drill you two small holes in each hinge so when you put the door back on you take the guess work out of the alignment. I did the same to my doors.

[Mustard72]

Two small holes? What purpose do they serve?

[sduckworth13]

I think I used a 5/16 drill bit, drill two holes into the hinges thru the cab sheetmetal. When I put the doors back on, I'll find my alignment by putting the 5/16 drill bits in the holes I drilled and i should line me back up to where they shut just like they did when I took them off.

[Mustard72]

I'll have to do that, Scott.

Dropped off the disassembled engine at the engine guy's shop today. Good news is that the crank is in good shape and won't need a regrind, and 0.030 overbore will easily clean up the cylinder bores. He's gonna replace the valve seats in all of the exhaust valves and quite possibly the intake valve seals, as well. I was seriously considering reassembling the engine when he was done machining, but his labor for the machining plus the assembly is only going to be in the neighborhood of $1200. So now I'm considering just having him build it, too. I've got plenty of other stuff to do with Mustard, and there's some peace of mind in having an expert build the motor your wife and daughter are gonna be driving all over with. I'd then get it back to him pretty much ready to drop into Mustard, which would be awesome. So, I've got some decisions to make in the next week or so. Having him assemble would mean I wouldn't get it back until probably early March, but that is probably acceptable with the schedule. He also mentioned the possibility of breaking it in on an engine dyno which might be kind of cool, too. Sounds like a good way to break one in, as well.

[sduckworth13]

Good deal, your moving along with your project pretty good now
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[gdavis]

1200.00 that don't sound bad at all. Mine was 2700.00 but I had to get new heads and over size pistons rist pins and bore 30 over and all the parts to complets the engine. Two sets of timing chains. You see I broke the gear on the first set. Doing something stupid. Trying to turn it over with a large screw driver and broke the teeth on the gear. Got the right tool for the job. and now it is done.

[Rochlow]

Metal work in the cab looks good. Wish I would have done a full floor in mine.

[Mustard72]

Thanks, Scott. It's not going to be as nice as what yours is going to be, but Old Mustard will definitely be better than it was.

Gdavis, the $1200 would only cover the labor for the engine builder. The parts would still be on top of that. I'll be around $2000 by the time it's all said and done, I think. Probably pretty comparable cost to yours, minus the heads, I would imagine. Can't wait to drive this thing with a new motor, and it wasn't that bad before. I'll have two new timing chain sets, too. I went and quick bought a set back when I thought I was only going to replace it and not dig into the engine any further. The parts store didn't have the double roller, so I got the standard style chain. Brought it home and proceeded to make a giant mess of the box. Plus I actually had it on the engine just before digging deeper into it. Now I'm ashamed to take it back, so I'll have to eat the cost, as I'm going to get the double roller set now. So count me in for the stupid party, too.

Rochlow, this one definitely needed the full floor, and so far I'm pretty happy with how that went. The whole back of the floor was rotten under the gas tank. Come to think of it, most of the trucks I see getting parted out on this forum are in a lot better shape than what Mustard was. There's a message in there somewhere....

[Mustard72]

Got the drivers side front lower pillar patch in today. I removed the original steel as much as I could without getting into the caged hinge nuts. Unfortunately, this left some thinner steel and made burning holes kinda easy. On the surface with the hinge nuts, I did the first but joint. The rest of these welds have all been lap joints. Turned out pretty good, other than a little bit of burning from the aforementioned thin steel. I'm going to use the inner frame rust converter/sealer with the long hose and spray nozzle from Eastwood to seal the insides of both of the front pillars. Planning to go through one of hte inner hinge screw holes with the hose and just coat the insides of the pillars. Anybody else done this?

Also got the lower kick panel patched up on the drivers side. Forgot to take a pic of it before welding in the patch. Still got some more welding to do on this one.

Popped out my instrument cluster, too. It's the plain jane variety, and I'm planning to install some aftermarket oil pressure and water temperature gauges in it. Maybe voltmeter. Anybody measuring tranny temperature?

[sduckworth13]

Looks great Nick, I was thinking about doing the same with the sealer. Probably will see rust alot faster if you don't do it since nothing is coating your welds on the back of the pillars. I'm going to put seam sealer around the lower door pillars too. I already poured rust converter in the roof seam and let it run into the roof hopefully to keep any rust that might have been forming from getting any worse.
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[gdavis]

looking good there. Keep up with the good work and happy building.

[Mustard72]

Thanks, Scott. I'll probably post up how I go about using the sealer. Probably should shoot some inside the rockers, too. We'll see how for the one can I got so far goes. Hadn't thought of the rockers when I ordered it, and I'm pretty cheap.

Thanks, GDavis. It's all happy building. I still can't get over how rotted out this cab was before I started. If only I could stay home and work on it every day... Better be careful what I wish for and just be thankful to have a job, I suppose.

Got the driver side outer rocker on yesterday. Post some pics later. Really.

[gdavis]

Originally Posted by Mustard72

Thanks, Scott. I'll probably post up how I go about using the sealer. Probably should shoot some inside the rockers, too. We'll see how for the one can I got so far goes. Hadn't thought of the rockers when I ordered it, and I'm pretty cheap.

Thanks, GDavis. It's all happy building. I still can't get over how rotted out this cab was before I started. If only I could stay home and work on it every day... Better be careful what I wish for and just be thankful to have a job, I suppose.

Got the driver side outer rocker on yesterday. Post some pics later. Really.

You better thank your lucky stars on that having a job in today job market is a plus.

[Mustard72]

Plus I actually enjoy my job most of the time. The good Lord's been good to me, he just doesn't appear to make me get better at this whole sheet metal work thing as fast as I would like.

Here are pics of the driver side outer rocker install. I used the two alignment hole through each hinge trick Scott recommended and it worked really good. Just a little bit of futzing around getting the holes in the hinges lined up with the holes in the pillar, but still much easier than doing it without the holes. I used 1/8" holes, by the way. I also tried to use his dremel tool trick for grinding down welds. I'll just say that either I was using the wrong bit or he's just a much more patient man than I am. Of course, maybe that's why his work looks so good.

Anyway. I'm pretty pleased with how the rocker turned out. It doesn't line up with hte cab corner as well as I'd like, but the door fit well prior to welding it into place, and both ends turned out pretty good after a little hammer work to get the curves right. The before and after pics of the front of the rocker show how far it had to be worked into the correct shape. The back wasn't as bad, but still needed a little hammer persuasion to get right, or at least right enough.

I plug welded the top of the rocker to the new floor. This went pretty well. I also tried plug welding the bottom of the rocker to the inner rocker panel on the new floor. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get the right amount of penetration through the outer rocker and into the inner rocker doing this no matter how well I had them clamped together. So, I hammered the lip on the bottom of the outer rocker around the bottom of the inner rocker and welded it up along the hammered up edge of the outer rocker to the inside of the inner rocker from under the cab. I didn't get a picture of this, but should get one at some point to clarify what I did.

Dropped off the tranny at a tranny repair shop in Eau Claire this evening. Gonna get a rebuild and have a kit put in to boost the pressure a little bit and get less slippage on shifts.

[mjensen]

Looks like you're making some good progress! Good job!

[sduckworth13]

Nick, its looking like its coming together real nice. I'm glad that drilling the holes in the hinge worked out for the fitting of the doors . I used the flexible dremel shaft attachment with the reinforced cutoff wheel, its like writing with a pencil and alot easier to control. It makes a huge difference. I was having the same problem with welding the outer rocker to the inner rocker untill I drilled some small holes and I turn up the amps.