Build thread for the 72 GMC, finally. Thanks John!

Mad_Ratel wrote: NO DG near you?

DG?

Anyway, we're really picky about our food.

tuna55 wrote:

Mad_Ratel wrote: NO DG near you?

DG? Anyway, we're really picky about our food.

Dollar General

yeah.

Our publix is in duncan so it's a good 15 min haul each way.
If you are where you said you are (or at least I picture you). You should be durn close to a publix and get you some horizon.

Unless you drove all the frigging way to Whole Foods... (yech). Happy Cow is some good milk too. (locally farmed.)

Mad_Ratel wrote: yeah. Our publix is in duncan so it's a good 15 min haul each way. If you are where you said you are (or at least I picture you). You should be durn close to a publix and get you some horizon. Unless you drove all the frigging way to Whole Foods... (yech). Happy Cow is some good milk too. (locally farmed.)

Happy Cow is my favorite. I typically pick it up at Earth Fare for $5/gal. I went out that way, but EF was closed, so went to WF and got their 365 brand for a touch under that. Publix is a little closer, but not that much.

Publix does carry HC occasionally.

ouch. that's a haul man. OT again...

Speaking of off topic... How much does Publix charge for HC? I never go in there.

bah my post got deleted...

I'm not sure on teh cost the wife does that. However we do costco most things. FYI, the diapers at costco are made in the same plant as Huggies and are usually much much cheaper...

Gah, two days of nothing due to garage sale prep, which fills the garage with crap that I must sell and cannot get all messy, set on fire, or trip over.

Set it on fire. Then hope it takes the house with it. Claim insurance. Move to Alaska. All problems solved.

So a lot happened.

VCH came down to retrieve his trophy... and I couldn't find it. I dropped it off at his temporarily living arrangements at something like 9PM without waking up his little one or angering Mrs VCH (I think; you can never be sure).

I cleaned up after the garage sale. We cleared enough to keep the tunakids in gymnastics for another month.

I swept and cleaned the mess. Which was no small thing.

Then I started planning the fuel line. I have the flexible line, the hard line, and the clamps. Since I have the parts, and no money, I'll do that next! It's going to travel along the whole length of the passenger framerail and exactly mimic the GM stuff from the cab forward. I looked into purchasing a good 3/8" prebent section for the forward section, but it's too expensive, and would require a joint, so I'll make it up from scratch.

Pics to come after I get it closer!

OK fellas. Did I just ruin my cab, or demonstrate bodywork brilliance?

Assuming you have a plan to fill the gap, then you are golden. Going to take some skills to keyhole weld that gap.

So. I'll let the photos tell the story.

(Not drill bits, they are door gap spacers)

Happy face!

Happier face!!!

SAD FACE. Now I have no mig wire. Maybe I'll work on that fuel line after all.

We have a cool thing at work where colleagues can reward us with stuff. I recently got one from a fantastic individual, and had some money left, so I did this:

Because even I can afford that.

Win.

Wow. .023" stuff. Is that hat you were using? Curious to hear your thoughts on it vs the more common 0.030 and 0.035" for various applications.

I used .030 previously on my last two rolls but I want to try the .023 for the rest of the bodywork I have to do. GM stretched the sheet metal super thin (remember that the next time you hear people talking about old cars and their thick sheet metal), so the 19 gauge stuff is much thinner at the curves and bends. The tendency is there to blow through, leading you to sort of weld a bridge and then fill it in which leads to a lot of grinding and pinholes, more welding, more grinding, etc. I am going to try the 0.023 in an effort to mitigate that.

Any idea why the door gap was so big? Was it always like that or did it grow during other bodywork operations?
Good work by the way. Your step by step body work is going to provide me with a good template for when I finally move the wagon indoors.

mazdeuce wrote: Any idea why the door gap was so big? Was it always like that or did it grow during other bodywork operations?

I am pretty sure the doors are stock, and original to the truck. This is based on the condition of the paint, hinges and hinge bolts.

Obviously, there were no rocker panels and the floor was junk. This leads you to the new bodywork being the culprit. I don't think that's true, though. The bodyline along the B pillar from the rocker up to the window frame is pretty good. It seems that the window frame is dramatically more sloppy than the door skin. bear in mind that I also removed the drip rail along the top edge, so we're just focusing on the B pillar in this discussion (plus, the top edge of the window frame is actually pretty good).

Here is a stock drip rail. This is not a trim piece, it is actually the pinch weld for the upper cab.

So, you could think that Tuna messed up the perfect GM door gap when he removed the drip rail, BUT the upper door frame horizontal section is actually quite strong. I bent the roof panel to meet it. It could have moved a bit during welding, but more probably, in my opinion, is that GM had a rather crappy door gap there in 1972 and it was covered up with a massive drip rail.

mazdeuce wrote: Good work by the way. Your step by step body work is going to provide me with a good template for when I finally move the wagon indoors.

Thanks!!!!

More evidence of GM just having terrible panel fitment in that era.

(Not original to that particular truck, but orig GM doors on an orig GM cab with no drip rail shaving)

GM at the time: Hey it seals why bother going further!

Mad_Ratel wrote: GM at the time: Hey it's painted and put together and ready to ship why bother going further!

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

Mad_Ratel wrote: GM at the time: Hey it's painted and put together and ready to ship why bother going further!

Sounds like a former employer of mine........

volvoclearinghouse wrote: Wow. .023" stuff. Is that hat you were using? Curious to hear your thoughts on it vs the more common 0.030 and 0.035" for various applications.

0.023" is pretty much the "Go-to" wire for doing tin work.