It’s Just A Pickup

[Bruce88]

The puzzle peaces are beginning to come together
Starting to resemble the original floor before all the rust

Many pictures taken and only a few will be posted, as I’m including the maximum number in this post. Hopefully you will find them interesting and as you progress thru them see how I’m progressing. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words but just felt the need to add a few words to mine (smile).











Where most of the welds will be hidden under the floor mat, I just did a quick knock down with a sander not looking for visual perfection and keeping the welds as strong as possible. Possibly a little more fine sanding in the mid kick panel area and bondo before painting.

For what my opinion is worth, I’ve found the FWD Foot Well panel, AFT Cab Mount support, & Outer Cab Floor Extension very good quality and fit, a rating of 9 out of 10. Even with the minor short comings noted in the prior post that can be overcome relatively easily and the added benefits of the dips & drain provisions that possibly would not be found in another repair panel. Where there is always trimming and bending of repair panels the closer they match the original the easier it is to have a good build. Thanks to Wess at Classic Heartbeat Pickup Parts for supplying the Triplus repair panels of good quality. You may have noticed that the FWD support shown in the prior post is not a Triplus part and where it’s fit and quality is acceptable, it’s finish and material thickness is of a lower standard I have no doubt that the Triplus part would be better.

Now it’s time to move onto the cab corner panel and FWD pillar repair

Have an enjoyable thanksgiving with family & friends and throughout the holidays, I also expect you will always make time to enjoy your build during this time of year.

[VA72C10]

NICE work. And as usual, very informative writeup. Thanks for taking the time.

[vk_chevy]

looking good, I really enjoy reading about your build...

[mcbassin]

Very informative thread!

[gcburdic]

Bruce, it must take you weeks to get this all organized and up on the site....fantastic job as usual, and I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by gcburdic

Bruce, it must take you weeks to get this all organized and up on the site....fantastic job as usual, and I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Some time it feels like weeks of work. But in reality I’m just slow, a good thing that I’m retired and definitely not trying to make a living at working on cars and trucks (I would go broke). Also thanks to digital cameras relatively new to my generation, I never go out to the shop without the camera and definitely take more pictures (two or three of the same item at different angles) than I would with film and generally being able to preview the pictures on the camera helps a lot. For example the above work and post took about 20 hours of work and composing over about a week (did I mention that I’m slow [HA HA]). Just a guess on my part but an average person would be able to accomplish it in 10 -12 hours.

I know that you ( gcburdic ) was not asking for this response, just thought that others might be interested into a little insight on how I put my posts together and why they don’t progress as fast as others.

I know I don’t say it enough on this thread (thank you all) for the encouraging and complementary posts. Enjoy the holidays.

[lax54650]

bruce i must admit your skills and attention to detail FAR exceed mine. keep up the excelence. i will be watching

[Byronic]

This is the most detailed write up I have seen on this site. The only question I have is what are the cleckos? Are they magnets that hold parts together for welding? Your build helps me in so many ways.

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Byronic

This is the most detailed write up I have seen on this site. The only question I have is what are the cleckos? Are they magnets that hold parts together for welding? Your build helps me in so many ways.

Clecos were designed mostly for aircraft skin but work great for sheetmetal in general. They are spring loaded and keep the two pieces of metal clamped together through a hole drilled in both halves. Here:http://www.skygeek.com/ats-25cl-3-16.html
Here:http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/pro...sp?Product=645

[lax54650]

think of them as reusable non perminent pop rivets

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by Byronic

This is the most detailed write up I have seen on this site. The only question I have is what are the cleckos? Are they magnets that hold parts together for welding? Your build helps me in so many ways.

(mcbassin) & (lax54650) are right
Cleckos come in many different hole sizes, I tend to use 1/8 inch size the most and they definitely help in holding all the parts in alignment before I start welding. In general I put them in where I’m going to create a kind of a spot weld using a MIG welder. Since I don’t have a spot welder to create the nice factory style spot welds after all the metal seams are welded up I pull one clecko at a time and drill the hole up to ¼ inch and weld it up with a copper backing plate and if possible go to the other side of the metal remove the copper backing plate and put a small button weld on the other side. I’ve found that any hole size smaller than ¼ inch does not have a good weld thru to have a solid simulated spot weld with a MIG welder. Grind the welds smooth on the finished side and possibly a little bondo and it’s ready for painting.

There are many different uses other than welding metal together and a nice tool to have in your arsenal to accomplish a rebuild or modifications. They can also be found at Summit Racing or Eastwood Company. (note spelling of the work could be different with different suppliers)

You might have also noticed that I’m also using Panel Clamps to aid in butt welding two panels together and help in keeping everything in alignment and with a proper gap for welding, they can be found at the Eastwood Company or Harbor Freight.

Hope this gives you a good idea of what cleckos are and how I use them

[Byronic]

Thanks for all the info. Sorry to interupt your thread. Please continue...

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by Byronic

Thanks for all the info. Sorry to interupt your thread. Please continue...

No interruption as far as I’m concerned. If there questions as to what I’m doing or what tools that I’m using I will give my best effort to answer it and it just aids in clarifying my build thread. Of course this is just the way that I’m doing it and there may be better ways to accomplish it. Just working from my personal knowledge base.

Thank you for asking the question

[Bruce88]

Spent a few days taking measurements and looking at how all the aftermarket patch panels are going to work together. Not a lot to show or write about concerning that installation at this time. Wanting to give a small break from the brain cramps with the fitting of panels, decided do and show the gas pedal conversion from 67 – 70 mechanical rod to 71- 72 cable actuation.

The extra cab that I have for my rebuild came stripped with no ID plate so I narrowed it down to a 69 -70 cab thru small changes that can be noted throughout the years. It was setup with a mechanical rod gas pedal and I wanted to convert it to a cable style of my 72 original truck.

I obtained a Gas Pedal conversion kit from Lewis Fabrication Design (a site vender) but decided to install it a little different than the installation instructions. I decided to weld in the mount instead of bolting it in. The kit is well worth the money compared to the time measuring and fabricating the mounting plate if you want to convert your gas pedal to a cable style with a stock cable gas pedal.

Fallow the pictures and you can see how I welded it in instead of bolting it in per instructions.







The next post will be back on putting the patch panel puzzle together no two trucks are the same and all require a little different work to do the repairs. Enjoy your build

[VA72C10]

Cool!

[landarts]

Bruce, I want to say you are doing a great and informative build. I like your style of attack on the task at hand you face. You will have a solid beautiful truck when you get it done. Once again you are an inspiration of how I would want my project to be done. Can you let me know where I can purchase one of the rivet nut guns and the threaded rivets when you get a chance. I would really like to try that on my truck.

Jim

[FLDBRED]

I am almost at a loss for words...AWESOME!Please keep posting

[Bruce88]

Originally Posted by landarts

Bruce, I want to say you are doing a great and informative build. I like your style of attack on the task at hand you face. You will have a solid beautiful truck when you get it done. Once again you are an inspiration of how I would want my project to be done. Can you let me know where I can purchase one of the rivet nut guns and the threaded rivets when you get a chance. I would really like to try that on my truck.

Jim

The rivet nut tool that I have, I’ve had for so many years that the manufacturer is out of business. If you do an internet search for rivet nut, rivnut, or nut insert you should be able to compare a number of different manufacturer models (you’re probably looking for a hand operated one). As far as the inserts they come in many styles aluminum, steel, cad plated with flush (countersunk) fit or thin head above the surface fit, smooth finish or ribbed for extra grip. Sizes range between #6 to ¼ inch course and fine thread (probably most used #10-32 or #10-24 size). As you can see there are a lot of choices to make in what insert your planning on installing, some of the insert tools can handle all the different types of inserts (mine can and came with all the different rod/thread pulls for all the sizes course or fine thread)

JEGS, JC Whitney, Harbor Freight and others have the tools and inserts recommend you look around and find one that meets your needs.

Hope this helps you out

[landarts]

Bruce thanks for the information on the rivet nuts -- I will look at those suggested . Once again great job on the truck!

[Bruce88]

Robbing from Peter to pay Paul
A number of times any adjustment to one panel affects others not directly in contact with it

After 35+ years of truck use and abuse the cab is probably not sitting the same as it came out of the factory (twisted, tweaked, sagged) and then add in rust, cancer or damage, its very unlikely that the cab is perfect. The mission I’ve decided to accept (smile) is to bring all the panels together on this truck to be as good as what came from the factory or better.

With all the repair panels and after market doors and fenders that I using, it would be impossible for me to say which ones are a perfect fit and if any problems that exist would be caused by the panel or the factory metal that I’m installing it on. One part installed on one truck could fit perfect and on another truck require bending, forming, and shimming, each truck is different as every build is. So with that being said I’ll be showing the problems that I’m encountering and how I’m working at salving them. Along with throwing in a few of my thoughts in on how I’ll be approaching the task.

I spent a few days fitting the door to what was left of the cab that is not going to be replaced as well as the front fender temporarily installed to bring the parts in alignment and have the door as close to the final position as possible (will show how I temp fit the front fender in the next post). Needed to make some shims for under the hinge to move the door aft to line up with the aft pillar. With the door set I’ll start fitting the rest of the repair panels around it.

The lower edge of the floor extension that I installed is not straight across the bottom and needed to be shimmed out 1/8 inch for the rocker and corner panel to sit right and have a place to weld them to. Welded in a 1/8 inch thick x 48 inch long x 1-1/4 inch wide shim along the bottom edge (will cut the forward end to length later).

Fit and cut in the corner panel then clamped in ready for welding. The more clamps along the butt seam will aid in preventing panel warping during welding (plenty of spot welds between them before I start removing them).



Welded in the butt seam first then the spot welds a long the back side. Then the forward edge and finally the spot welds along the bottom edge to the shim. Not that it was really needed (might say a little bit of overkill) ran a weld bead along the inside of the butt seam after all the outside welding was accomplished. Note welding in the long butt seam first complete before the spot welds because the panel can grow a slight amount a long the seam and if its welded at other locations may create warping in the panel (I’ve learned this the hard way on other welds)



The rear pillar repair panel is not welded in complete at the butt seam or to the floor extension panel (might help in positioning the rocker panel). Note with the corner panel welded in the gap between the corner panel and door is set and will not move.

I was told a number of years ago that using flap discs to take down welds and are more forgiving than stone discs and less possibility of gouging. I have to agree they work great and come in many diameters sizes and grits. I use a 36 grit to bring the weld close then an 80 grit to smooth it out.



The door lines up with the rear cab lines and gap is with in range. Now onto the forward pillar repair.



May you keep track of the big picture of your build and not get what some might call tunnel vision on one area that might cause you problems in other areas. Enjoy your build

[dccarpenter]

Bruce ,

I read through your entire thread the past couple days. Amazing info and a great detailed write up, I'm working on my '67 pickup have learned a lot of helpful information.

[VA72C10]

Once again, awesome pictures and writeup. Thanks for the info!!!

[my67chevytruck]

great progress bruce!

[glimmertwin01]

NICE JOB ..kudos!

[sourkraut]

Awesome build, tons and tons of useable info. Great job!