New project! The "Red Herring"

[JJorgensen52]

Well haven't done much the last few days, been working on the '71 because I'm taking a 450 mile road trip tomorrow to pick up another driveline parts donor for Red Herring

Meantime, I did check glass fitment on the repaired windshield frame:


Gaps are looking good!

And my friends in the Brown and White trucks brought me some fun stuff today:

I will paint the center sections red to match the body color


These are Jeep JK lights (picked them up new take-out on Ebay) - I did this mod on my '69 and it was the best thing I ever did from a driveability standpoint. They may not be quite on par with Cibbies or the like, but for cheap money they're lightyears (ahem ) ahead of sealed beams.

Also got my rear fenders in (finally), and some new toolbox bling

[Advanced Design]

Cool stuff, enjoy the road trip!

[oldman3]

Yes, have a save trip, we'll be waiting for pics ...Jim

[JJorgensen52]

Thank the Lord, safe travel no mishaps! For a 3OTT truck, Merle did pretty well towing 6500lbs . Also got a chance to do a little sightseeing and pop in to see some relatives who weren't too far off the route, so in all a good day.



I bought the whole truck for the going price of a ZR2 rear axle ... trans is bad, high miles, generally beat. Going to get hacked up, with any luck the parts profits will pay for my new rear gears and positrac

I'll be turning and burning again on metal work tomorrow

[Advanced Design]

Glad you had a safe trip. Looks like a good score!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Glad you had a safe trip. Looks like a good score!

Thanks! Positive thoughts always help

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When I woke up for church this morning it was 28 degrees and there was ice in my driveway ??? I thought it was springtime....

Anyways, I didn't get as much done in the shop as I would like due to the cold, but progress made just the same:

I took more photos of my process, this time.

Flange section, simple 90 degree bend in the brake, and then notched to allow me to introduce curvature


Bent to mimic the old metal (there's about three dozen rounds of fitting and comparing in this stage)


Notches welded up, pre-cleanup


Notches ground, checking my profile fit


A little hard to tell, but I've filed the horizontal edge down to match the contour of the cowl and drilled for spot welds:


And clamped in place:


The upper lip will get ground down to a smooth contour after I weld it in place; that way, I have more meat at the ends and less risk of burn through on this thin metal. The flange on the dash (which I fitted up earlier in the week) has now been filed down to match the contour of the original metal.

On this side, I'm going to do a second 90 degree bent section and bring the repair out onto the flat part of the cowl, so that I can blend the joint better.

On a totally different note, my Dad and I were talking about antennas the other day, and we were talking about an on-the-glass marine style (about 3/8" wide element, would run the full width of the rear window along the gasket at the bottom), and he mentioned power antennas. Well, says I, I've got one on the Oldsmobile carcass out back, let's see if it will fit:


It would actually work out pretty well, with good access through the former heater intake panel. It looks like a B-body antenna has the right angled fitting for the shape of the cowl, here. Though I'm not sure it would clear the hood?? Food for thought

[JJorgensen52]

Well these things have been the bane of my existence for the last couple weeks, but they're done!

Fitted up patch with front portion tacked in


All welded up


And the two finished products, after several rounds of grounding, touching up welds, more grinding, and filing:



The important thing is, I think the windshield will fit, they're pretty strong, and 99.5% of this will be hidden

Separate question: Can I weld the seams in the pillars up solid? I would think either that, or fitting a sheetmetal patch over them ... but I don't want a bunch of filler in there.

[oldman3]

I welded mine solid...Jim

[Advanced Design]

Is that a lead joint from the factory?

Repairs look good JJ! Doing it the...I don't have a shrinker and am going to get this done!...way is pretty cool.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Is that a lead joint from the factory?

Repairs look good JJ! Doing it the...I don't have a shrinker and am going to get this done!...way is pretty cool.

Thanks!

The joint itself is seam welded, but it's pretty sloppy and then they leaded over it to make the pillars smooth. No spot welds on the outside of the pillar shell, for whatever reason.

[JJorgensen52]

I'm doing good this week! Progress almost every day. Have I mentioned that the planned completion date for this truck is ~June 20th, to be delivered to my parents on the 26th

Anyways, first here's my cowl patch just arrived, and a shot of the tray on my truck showing why I needed to cut it out:


It's perforated pretty much the entirety of the rear lip, and into the front face of the cowl

Welded in a 16ga spacer/reinforcement to the mirror mount (on this side, the cowl doesn't sit flush to the support for some reason)


Patch welded in


And all cleaned up with mirror holes drilled/filed to shape as original

I did double check that the mirror fits, and I'm 99% there with the profile - I think it's close enough that the gasket will take up the difference.

Also, more goodies came today from the packagemen



***EDIT***

I tried running a bead on the driver's side A-pillar at the base where the seam is - turns out my truck's joints are brazed, not welded. Since I can't weld to brazing, what to do?? Should I grind it out and then weld, or shape a sheetmetal patch and weld it over the brazed joint? The latter seems like it would be likely to create a rust pocket. But I'm not too keen on the former...

[JJorgensen52]

Happy Easter, all!

Haven't done much these past few days, but I did get the passenger's mirror holes relocated where they ought to be:


And I stripped all the brackets and seal-holders off the floor pan in prep for closing up all these holes and installing my new gas pedal and brake pedal hangar, as well as the new steering column (going to center between the gauges which means trimming the floor too, go figure!)


Big things afoot soon!

[Advanced Design]

Moving right along. Seems like a pretty tight deadline...a good challenge!

[7dee2]

At your pace I would not be surprised that you can make that deadline. Your work is excellent as always.

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Moving right along. Seems like a pretty tight deadline...a good challenge!

Originally Posted by 7dee2

At your pace I would not be surprised that you can make that deadline. Your work is excellent as always.

Thanks fellas! I'm doing my darndest to make it on time and under budget, but we all know how that goes

[JJorgensen52]

Figured y'all might get a laugh out of the project that's been keeping me busy the past few days.

I'm trading a friend of mine here in VA some parts off my S10 donor, and repairs on his John Deere (1970's model!) mower deck for help wiring up the Red Herring project.

This deck was probably 40% structurally made from bondo - Here it's all been ground out


All the rust cut out


And the new spindle carriers welded in, with some of the deck rebuilt. The deck is 14ga, I'm patching in 16ga but it's still a lot harder to form than the 20ga stuff I've been using!

[Advanced Design]

Wow, deck was more of an outline of a deck. Looks like a good process to locate the spindles. My 1992 Cub Cadet deck rotted out and I was able to find a solid used one.

Good trade outs with your friend.

[JJorgensen52]

Mower deck is done:


But more importantly, garage re-organized so I can begin the next fun phase of this project

[Advanced Design]

Deck came out nice! Engine install!

[Sim6]

Looking good!

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Deck came out nice! Engine install!

I'm close!!

First I need to get the front sheetmetal bolted back up. That way, I can get everything aligned now, while I still have the original chassis, and use that to set my new front stub when I do the swap - then the engine goes in.

[7dee2]

Look at all that floor space we always have to do the same thing so it can be filled back up. Your side project turned out great I'm sure your friend was pleased. The deck might outlast the rest of it now!

[JJorgensen52]

Today was a busy day. I did a lot of things. Almost none of those things had to do with the truck

Spent some quality time at the junkyard this morning hunting for random little things I need and can't find elsewhere. I also played musical vehicles (again) - the Olds is up on stands and ready to have its stub amputated as soon as I get some nice weather to do it.

On the truck, I patched up the antenna hole:



And I got the rusty cowl vent cut out.


I was hoping to have the new patch trimmed and in place tonight, but I spent a lot more time than I was expecting trying to get the rivets out of the cowl-vent pivot arms so I can transfer them to the new part... no idea why that took so long.

I also did a LOT of sanding and wirebrushing inside the cowls, I'm going to etch-prime and paint those in the morning so I can get the outer cowls installed.

Lastly, y'all may remember that I bought some adjustable shoulder belt mount points a few weeks back - well today I discovered that GM made a truck (95-99) called the "Price Leader" ... which was so bare bones it didn't even have plastic interior panels. I was happy to see that, because it has a nice little snap-on shroud for those belt adjusters:


There's about 1/4" gap between the bottom of the shroud and the metal. Perfect! All I need to do now is make up a couple anchor plates to slip into the pillar. Now if only they came in black...

[FarmerSid]

Good luck with that cowl vent. I know I'd be fighting shrinkage and warpage. My A pillars have lead in them. Not brazing.

[Advanced Design]

Nice job on the antenna hole. Looking forward to seeing how the belt anchors.