1980 1/2 ton shortbed

[Dusty4x4]

Ok well for the the last two years I have been seaching for a truck and I have found a few and went and looked at them but it seemed that none of them would work out till I called a local relative that has a few junk yards and asked him what he had and he said that he had an 86 2wd short bed, but when I asked him how much it was over my budget. So I asked him again if he had any other trucks and he said that he had a 1980 1/2 ton short bed custom deluxe straight 6 350 automatic for $800 bucks so i started gathering up some cash and i thought it was going to be another 3 weeks but yesterday my dad went and talked to him and gave him $200 down and brought it home for me and i dont have to give the rest till the end of march.

[Pyro]

Congrats on the new purchase! Looks like a fun project, what are you plans for it?

[Dusty4x4]

The truck needs a new floor, rockers, cab corners, kick panels and the firewall needs patched plus the bed needs some attentation...But the frame only has surface rust that makes me feel alittle better lol anyways my plans are to change the headlight bezels to 73-78 and grille and do maybe a bed gas tank filler conversion to match the bezels and just maybe lowerd some because i live on a mtn so not sure on that one and also a paint job...

[Dusty4x4]

Well for the last two weeks i have been inspecting the truck for things that was not working right or did not work at all, So yesterday i starting on it and found out that my dash lights was not working but my warning lights was so that told me that some of the bulbs was bad so i changed a few and presto dash lights and my radio was not working so i looked and it was not hooked up so i wired it all up and nothing so i change to a jvc casset player that i had laying around and it works great...

[Dusty4x4]

Ok it been a while but heres a update i started putting my cluster back in and getting things back in line but I ran into a problem with my gear inducter and column, someone broke the bottom housing of it so now I have to fix that and I think I have a pretty good idea how, till I get a replacement. I did fix my horn or should I say horns. I was testing my horn relay with a test light and it was clicking so that told me the relay was not bad and the test light was lighting up so I thought the horn was bad, but nope. I tested the horn with a wire to the battery and grounded it and it went buzzzz and then beeeeeeeeeeeeep lol so i guess it just needed the crap blowed out of it but i also hooked another horn up that I had on the passenger side so now I have an A note and F note horn...

[Dusty4x4]

Cleaning up pics...

[Dusty4x4]

Here I ran into a problem with my heater controls, someone put bolts in the lens so the bezel was not lining up correctly. So I got a heater control, but it was from an 85, and my cables would not work with it. So I rigged up the old controls with a little JB weld, lol. So now everything is working correctly...

[Dusty4x4]

This is where i have been for the last mouth or so, I have got my interior cleaned up and back together and i gave the truck a wash job of course I ran in to some problems with the heater switches, but I fixed that and everything works nicely. Anyway, now that I have my interior back together, I have started on rust repair, starting with the firewall. It has some nasty rust that I am going to try to fix for now, but I am going to need a new front clip and cab. The front passenger side of the truck has been wrecked and that ruined the radiator support and lower panel. The radiator support was not even bolted to the fender it was welded to it and the hood has braces that someone welded to it. So I think it was in the wreck or it was from weak hinges or springs and someone grabbed it and bent it trying to shut it, plus it has a softball size amount of bondo on the driver side of the hood. So that is why I need a new front clip. Now for the firewall, I did not think it was that bad until I started wire wheeling the rust and I found that the holes were a lot bigger than what I thought and that the inner coil and under the dash had rusted though, The lower part of the lip of the firewall has some nasty rust there to I would have to fab up all the replacement parts and i dont have a welder or the tools to do So it would come out alot cheaper just getting a new cab.

[Dusty4x4]

Here is some pics of the rot...
























Where i am now..

[Dusty4x4]

OK I know I have not updated my thread in while been busy with other projects. But now its time to keep yall updated. So here ya go.

[Dusty4x4]

OK this is where i got the fenders back on and hood, I had a battery tray that i had made for my pontiac a while back so i thought i would use it because mine on the truck was rusted out but the pontiac tray was too short so i added to it. Also my headlight houseing had been welded to the core support so i cut the welds and rivetted it to the support. After i got the front clip back together, I started on the windsheild with taking it out and cleaning the channel and wire brushing with a angle grinder and it was not that bad, a little surface rust. After the channel was all clean i taped the opening and then i sprayed rust converter and let that dry then masked it off and primed the channel and top coated it ater that was all dry. I started putting the windsheild back in and almost had it in; when I was almost to the corner of the passenger side, I put my knee on it to try to hold it down while I popped it in and it CRACKED down the middle. I guess it happens to the best of us lol!!!

[Dusty4x4]

Update! When I took out my windsheild and I put it back in, I did not have the lock strip tool to put the lock strip back. So last week I ordered the tool and put it in and the tool worked great! Very easy, just took a little soap and water. Now that I got that done I can move on to more rust which I have already worked on a little. More updates to come...

Installing the lock strip












Lock strip is in...

[loosenut]

like the truck man where is brevard NC located?

[Dusty4x4]

Thanks. Well i am not really in brevard. I live about 2 mins from there in cedar mtn lol...

[loosenut]

still never heard of it haha

[Dusty4x4]

Yea i am up in the boonies lol...

[Dusty4x4]

Ok another update, This is where I was working on the firewall and cowl, which I had already sanded and primered, but left the holes and they are fixed now. I riveted up some peices of sheet metal and sealed them with silicone but I am not sure if I am going to leave the sheet metal or not because I might just fiberglass the firewall the same way I am doing the cowl, so it looks a little better. Besides that I am getting good with fiberglass. Lol.. This is all temporary, so I dont want to do to much work and just have to take it all back off, but I want it to look good for the time being.

[Dusty4x4]

More pics. Here i was fixing the cowl...

[Dusty4x4]

More fiberglassing pics...

[Dusty4x4]

More pics...

[Dusty4x4]

More pics...

[Dusty4x4]

This is where i am now... Ok to start off, I had to take my gas tank out because it has a leak and I did not want to blow myself up and also I took out my seat so that I would have more room. Ok now for the update. The whole upper toeboard that goes up in the firewall is mostly gone. Except a little bit of the middle and the driverside. So you can sit on the seat hump and you can make the whole floor go up and down. So, I thought I would make some brackets out of 24 gauge sheet metal to give it more strength and I plan on building a floor pan and inner rocker, that will give it strength also. OK here is some pics enjoy.

[Dusty4x4]

Update on the old 80. Well I got the pass side floor all sanded and primered and sense I got that done I started on removing the old support and getting ready for the new one, well new to me lol. I was going to order a new floor support from chris but a buddy of mine brought me a firewall that I am going to use to rebuild some of the 80s cab and it had a good pass side floor support that I am going to use as soon as I get it cleaned up and primered and painted and the cab ready. Theres a lot more work to go but she is getting there...

[Dusty4x4]

More pics...