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

In reply to tuna55:

Good job making some progress happen despite the odds tuna.

4cylndrfury wrote:

ClemSparks wrote:

4cylndrfury wrote: I took a simple cut off piece of 2x4...maybe 8" long, and cut a green scotch brite pad...snip...can cover large flat surfaces evenly.

I'd appreciate a photo or two of this if/when you get a chance. Thanks, Clem

sorry, I dont have any pics off hand, but here is a pretty clear sketch...

That did the trick...thanks!

Javelin wrote: In reply to tuna55: Good job making some progress happen despite the odds tuna.

and tonight I disappoint. Sick wife = Mr. Mom plus I am dizzy due to tunakid #2 being up for 6 hours last night. I'll try to redeem myself tomorrow.

tuna55 wrote:

My kids are asking what this is a picture of. LOL!

Really throw them for a loop:

In reply to tuna55:

Do what you gotta do. I'm not disappointed. You've made really good progress on the truck, it won't backslide while you take care of the family and yourself.

In reply to tuna55:

Hey man, this is only the second night you've had off since starting this thread. That's nothing to be ashamed of!

I went out, but I was tired and wasn't going to stay long.

Look what I can do!

And that's before I finished. I still have some work to do. I stitch welded the underside to the inner rocker. Here's me welding away.

That's done, but I really can't take pictures of it.

So I have two trouble areas. One in the door jamb area of the rocker panel and the other at the back of the cab corner. Here is the cab corner. There is a giant gap because I had to rotate the cab corner to make it pretty on the other side. I would appreciate any ideas on how to attack this. My personal idea is to carve that out with the cut off wheel to make more of a straight gap, maybe 1" wide or so. Then I have an added issue of making sure I don't weld the cab corner to the cab support, or maybe I don't care...

And then the front. The door jamb is such that I can't really get in there to weld properly. Not only that, but I had to section the rocker panel to get it to fit, so there is a lot of banging around to be done and then I'll have to weld it all shut with some pieces I'll have to make. I'll obviously have to remove the door once more and then to grind this all flat. Those welds on the left look terrible, and they probably are, but they are not that bad, the flash makes them look 2" high.

Tomorrow I think I'll attach the cab corner. One thing at a time.

Any progress is good progress. I think your plan of attack on both issues is sound.

So I got a section but out of it like so

And then made a cardboard patch like this

And then transferred it to steel like this

and then welded it in, a little at a time, with lots of hammer/dolly work, like this

And then I got here. It's OK. I needs to be ground flat and then I can inspect. It got done later than I thought. It was 11:15 when I decided to start cleaning up. That's about an hour in the garage.

After replacing the furnace filters, disassembling the kids toys, cleaning the floors and finishing the taxes, I finally got out there and had to work on a monster truck. Here it is:

Tunakid #2 broke it. I "fixed" it with some wood screws boring into jagged die cast zinc for now until he breaks it again. It was actually pretty involved.

All fixed, ROOAWWR!

So then I had to start grinding. In go the ears.

And off go the welds. Obviously some filler will live here, but I am trying to be gentle, and I have a large area with lots of potential for warpage. This is as far as I got tonight.

i couldnt grind with my daughter asleep. it would wake her up. well, it has before.....

looking good man. youre gonna have that side finished soon. and THAT will feel like a huge accomplishment.

i like the monster truck. fixing kids toys is harder than fising cars....

Looking good!

Its really looking great!

Love to see projects with daily reports.

If I may make a suggestion, try welding up one notch hotter or slow the wire a bit. Will save you some time on the grinding.

NOHOME wrote: Love to see projects with daily reports. If I may make a suggestion, try welding up one notch hotter or slow the wire a bit. Will save you some time on the grinding.

Thanks for that suggestion. The welds are indeed too high. I wasn't sure how much leeway I had on the wire speed. Right now it's around "30" whatevers. I'll try backing it off next.

No welding today. I did a lot of grinding, and a lot of pounding. It's good, though. I have not much to report, and a lot of questions. A lot. Listen up, folks.

It's flat, see?

So, question one. Since I am not a great bodyman, this joint will need a small amount of filler. Do I put filler on now, and sand it and get it right, or do I finish the entire metal work and do the fillerwork at the end for every joint?

The rocker/B pillar junction. Do I put filler here? I want to, but it seems like it's anal.

The rocker/corner/B pillar interface. Do I put filler here? It needs more welding before it's done, but I kind of want this to be filled smooth. It won't be thick, I promise.

Here is the inner portion of the cab corner joint. Do I grind this flat? Filler? Seam sealer? Thick POR15 type stuff to cover it? Spray on heat insulation?

There is a gap between the rocker and the cab corner. You can see daylight. Seam sealer? Weld it? Leave it?

I really need some guidance on some of that.

Thanks in advance, folks.

in a factory application, they would have ground it mostly flat and seam sealed those interior spots. depends on what interior you will have. if hidden, id seam seal it, paint it, and forget about it. if showing, well, thats your call. on teh gap: fill it with steel.

mudwork: when that end is done, prime it, mud it, and block it. not so much as the proper sequence of events in a production shop, but proper for getting it checked off the list and out of our head.

looks good, man.

michael

Looks great.

+1 to fill the gap with weld.

On the inside, if it were me, I'd shoot over it with the grinder, paint it and be done. Assuming you're going back with the stock fuel tank and bench seat, you'd have to be looking to see that weld.

Door jamb: seam seal it or apply a thin layer of dope. I'd be for seam sealer though, as that's a spot that subject to repetitive vibration/impact (slamming the door), and sealer should have a bit more flex than bondo.

Ok folks, I took the door off and attacked the rocker panel gaps today.

First off, nohome, I learned something with that speed. I didn't realize that was a variable I could change given a material, prep, wire, and amperage. That made things way easier tonight. Thanks for the tip.

Before (notice John Deere yellow hinge outlines for alignment)

close up of the mess. I had to massage the stock repo piece a bit to get it to fit.

Add some metal, and BAM

I want to wait for a slightly warmer night before going into mud on it. Does anyone have a source for good seam sealer that won't cost a fortune?

The next step in this process is to tack the rocker/cab corner together from the inside and then get the bottom of the fender fixed and get the fender/inner fender bolted on. See the fender pic below. I am not sure what the best approach is, any suggestions?

One more item. In the front of the door I attempted to bring the edge out to make the seam of fender/door more flat. Let me explain.

The door bends in from the top view. Both do it, I couldn't knock either one straight. It makes the seam look sloppy. I added filler to see how it would look in terms of thickness, and that's too much. Does anyone have an opinion? Sand it all off and leave it as GM had it?

You have choices as to what to do after welding. In my mind, I decide if the vehicle is meant to last forever, or just the next five-ten years.

If it is a forever vehicle, then you want to be epoxy priming all metal after it is welded, and sandblasted on both sides.

The thing with welding is that on the backside, you have molten metal and oxygen mixing. This is known as "Instant rust". The good news is that it is on the surfce of the joint. For this reason, it is a good idea to clean up the backside of your welds. Certainly you should be top-coating with some kind of rust preventative as a minimum.

Over all welds, I like to use a fiberglass re-inforced filler. I cover and smooth all welds that might be seen. I then use Evercoat body filler over that, then Evercoat glaze putty, then featherfill, then primer sealer, then color then clear.If you want the final results to look good, buy a set of durablock sanding boards, combined with the featherfill, they are the answer to flat paint.

On that door to fender gap, if that's how it was at the factory, then I would leave it.

The front jamb area looks kick-ass tuna!

I got reacquainted with the fender today. First to fix Tunakid #2's bike.

Tunakid #1: We were throwing sticks in it and the chain fell off. I tried to fix it, that's why my hands look like this :: shows hands ::

Makes a Dad proud.

So off to the fender.

Cut off the rusted on inner fender bolt

Got it flatt(er)

See? Pretty flat.

The inner portion looks crappy, too.

Time to make that bottom flange out of more then just broken dreams and promises.

Welded on the new plate and ground to size

And then did A TON of welding up holes in the inside. I still have some more to do.

It's ugly. I am kicking my four-years-ago-self for getting this call wrong. Oh well, I'll make it right now.

I also fixed the original seam. I had some iffy penetration, so I just touched it on the backside......... and set fire to the filler on the front. Oops. Put it out with the glove and I'll have to put some more on there later.

One or two more days on the fender, then they all get filler and this side is done. Then on to the floor and then I spin it around.

im learning a lot from watching you do bodywork. ill be in the same boat before too long, but ill be farming out the quarters and hood repair. just dont trust myself there.....

Wanna do the window channels and lower quarters on my Javelin next?