New project! The "Red Herring"

[JJorgensen52]

So this weekend a buddy of mine came up bright and early Saturday to install a new stainless exhaust on his Sonoma. Long story short, turns out you can't actually get an exhaust for his truck, so he got what was close and I cut and welded the tailpipe to work - here's the rear half of the system, all welded ready to install

I was just happy for the opportunity to practice MiG on SS before I start building my seat mounts. Between the exhaust and a bad starter solenoid on my '69, I lost about a day and a half for this truck.

But tonight, progress! Windshield section patched, finished and drilled for spots:


Clamped up


And burned in and MOSTLY cleaned up


I think, given how much trouble I am having getting the body line at the base of the windshield (where I welded) to look right, I may actually cut further into the cowl on the other side to alleviate this problem. Is there some secret to this that I missed???

[Advanced Design]

Nice work, the gauge design looks good.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Advanced Design]

Deck came out nice! Engine install!

[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!

[Sim6]

Looking good!

[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.

[Advanced Design]

Nice, you fit the new piece in really well. Never be able to tell it was replaced.

[oldman3]

Looks good...Jim

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

Nice, you fit the new piece in really well. Never be able to tell it was replaced.

Originally Posted by oldman3

Looks good...Jim

Thanks fellas! There's a lot of backstory to that photo. I bought the patch one ebay. When I started cleaning it up and trimming to fit my cab, of course I found a couple pin holes I want to address ... and it went downhill from there . I also found a pocket of rust in the bottom of the passenger's door right under the hinge. I figured it was about time my old friend Murphy poked his head in to demand to know what I thought I was doing!

Here's the cowl after the final fit, a whole lot of wire brushing, and a good coat of etching primer:


While I had the cowl out I cleaned and primed the section of the firewall you can't reach when the cowl drain is in there:


Patch clamped up:


And final product



Also got the inner cowl voids cleaned up




And fitted up both cowls for hopefully the last time. The driver's door is a little wonky on the front edge but I think the gaps are okay. Three of my four hinges have damaged mounting plates ... almost like they were forced too far closed ... anyway, debating if I should replace those.

[JJorgensen52]

Today I was at work a lot later than expected, and I took an hour or so to get my road bike out and dusted off for the season, but I did get into the garage a bit:

First off, the Olds met with a rather unfortunate accident:


The stub is excited to get installed!


Also, got the passenger's cowl about 90% welded in (all of the spot welds, I still need to do a few seam welds at the bottom and make a filler where it meets the firewall)

[Advanced Design]

A good evening of progress. Cowl looks good!

[oldman3]

Everything is looking super, nice work...Jim

[JJorgensen52]

Originally Posted by Advanced Design

A good evening of progress. Cowl looks good!

Originally Posted by oldman3

Everything is looking super, nice work...Jim

Appreciate the kind words, as always!

Worked on the driver's cowl tonight. I had to section the inner cowl AGAIN to get the body line to fit at the bottom of the door:

Oh well, better to measure once and cut five times, right??

But the good news is, it's burned in:


Shifting gears a bit, my cowl vent hinges were seized, so I ground off / popped out the rivets and replaced them with these stainless shoulder bolts and nylon washers (the holes are actually conveniently #10 and 1/4" sized, thanks GM!) - fits snugly, no slop, and since the metal parts aren't touching anymore, no more rust!

One of the reasons I was so intent to keep the cowl vent is that some of my earliest car memories are riding around in my uncle's '60 Corvette, and thinking that cowl vent and the dash mounted rearview mirror were the coolest things since sliced bread!

I couldn't resist

The ZR2 tires happen to be exactly the right height to hold the fenders up, so that was convenient.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll rehang the doors again (they've been on and off at least a dozen times this week) and make the little door-pillar to inner cab corner braces, and then probably work on the dash, steering column and brake booster bracket installs.