ramses Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 Man, you are really making progress! I'm impressed. As for the map, do you have a city where you'd like to be shown? Bayamon, Puerto Rico Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Bayamon, Puerto Rico You are on the map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramses Posted May 28, 2020 Author Share Posted May 28, 2020 You are on the map. Sweet! First one in PR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 First thing off the cab was the bench seat. Spring bed had rusted out. Previous owner had shoved some closetmaid mesh. Ended up reusing but fitted and attached to the frame. Replaced some rusted and broken parts of the frame. Rust converter and paint. Loosened tracks and installed wire to operate track mechanism. Stored for now until I'm done with the cab interior. Didn't have 5/16" hex socket to remove side bolts of seat frame so had to cut tip of hex key to use with regular 5/16 socket. Those bolts were seized too. Heated them up and still had to use impact drill. One of the parts in worst condition was the steering column firewall mount. Hard to find, so made a flange and slowly welded the cone section to it. Had to grind carefully, reweld and regrind, but it ended up nice. Also made some flages that were missing And reinstalled four (4) missing bolts and two (4) nuts on the transmission crossmember So the roof was badly warped, had a bunch of holes and the top corners had no seam sealer (guess it cracked and fell off) but water was getting everywhere, especially the rear glass frame, bottom cab corners and the entire back panel. The driver's side floor pan was also shot. Doing body work and welding sheet metal was new to me. Did a lot of research and watched many youtube videos. Honestly didn't want to get to this point but figured if its not done now the rest of the repairs would be for nothing. So got in there and did my best. As I was cutting and replacing covered all I could with rust converter. It's not showrom quality, but all I wanted was to take rust out and have it look decent for a work truck. So all in all, feeling proud of how it turned out. Finally the roof, as I sanded it down there was so much body filler it was scary, but I couldn't reach underneath. So reluctantly cut out the inner roof. But now I could hammer and dolly the outer shell and prep the area around the cab lights. Its now on primer ready for paint. But first I'll reinstall the inner roof so no welding spatter would mess up the paint. The other big problem area was the cowl trough which had completely rusted out one end to the other, between 1/4" to over 1" gap. Ended up using epoxy to fix it following suggestions from another threat in the forum (sorry dont know how to add the link yet). But after removing the entire dash, scraping loose rust and adding rust converter, made a dam with gorilla tape, spread epoxy on top, and when it cured, removed tape and spread underneath. As I took the dash out, I also gave some care to the dash frame, pedals, and anything that had any rust on it. Wire brush, rust converter and paint. Next on the list is finishing the inner roof so I can get going on painting the roof and glass frames. The front glass needed replacing anyway. Once glass and cab lights are reinstalled, I'd say the cab should be watertight and the interior can go back in. Then come the doors. Will keep posting. Your welding skill is really apparent, especially on sheet metal using flux! Glad to see you're making good use of the Covid downtime. I wish I could say as much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swampedout Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Your welding skill is really apparent, especially on sheet metal using flux! Glad to see you're making good use of the Covid downtime. I wish I could say as much. Very nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1986F150Six Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Very nice work! Very impressive! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Very impressive! I saw what you did with the column flange and then you said you were worried about body work welding I knew you had the skill before you started the body work welding part. As for cutting that inner roof out I bought a stud welding gun kit to pull dents. My roof looked like some one walked on it, used a screw in dent puller and then filled with body filler. Rust was under the filler and making it crack so it all had to come off and that is when I found the dents. They were so bad it bent the inner roof down. You can just make out the studs welded to the roof You are doing a great job Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramses Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 I saw what you did with the column flange and then you said you were worried about body work welding I knew you had the skill before you started the body work welding part. As for cutting that inner roof out I bought a stud welding gun kit to pull dents. My roof looked like some one walked on it, used a screw in dent puller and then filled with body filler. Rust was under the filler and making it crack so it all had to come off and that is when I found the dents. They were so bad it bent the inner roof down. You can just make out the studs welded to the roof You are doing a great job Dave ---- Thanks guys. Since I usually weld thicker material where warping is not as big an issue, I was worried. But after setting up the welder right it worked out. Very good vids on youtube helped a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramses Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Thanks guys. Since I usually weld thicker material where warping is not as big an issue, I was worried. But after setting up the welder right it worked out. Very good vids on youtube helped a lot. So this morning I was able to give the roof and glass frames a first coat of paint. Got to say it felt great to finally be painting. Waiting on a care package from Scott (thanks again, man!) with clips to install cab markers. Once they are in, and the front and rear glass, the cab should be water tight. Then on to reinstalling interior. Getting ready for that I painted around the cab interior, but got too dark for a picture. However I was able to paint the cowl trough and the firewall. Still need to weld and finish two patches inside the cab, but should get those done tomorrow. On the interior, one thing that I worried about is reinstalling the steering column. When I took it out the inner rod was loose (?) and couldn't see how it came apart, so I don't know how it goes back together exactly. But there are a lot of other stuff I can get done before tackling that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 So this morning I was able to give the roof and glass frames a first coat of paint. Got to say it felt great to finally be painting. Waiting on a care package from Scott (thanks again, man!) with clips to install cab markers. Once they are in, and the front and rear glass, the cab should be water tight. Then on to reinstalling interior. Getting ready for that I painted around the cab interior, but got too dark for a picture. However I was able to paint the cowl trough and the firewall. Still need to weld and finish two patches inside the cab, but should get those done tomorrow. On the interior, one thing that I worried about is reinstalling the steering column. When I took it out the inner rod was loose (?) and couldn't see how it came apart, so I don't know how it goes back together exactly. But there are a lot of other stuff I can get done before tackling that. Looking good! Well done. On the steering column, we have the instructions for it here: Documentation/Interior/Steering Columns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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