1950 3100 Truck Project

[shadams]

Originally Posted by sfort

For your trans. vac. why did you not use the man. vacuum behind the carb?

Thats what I am going to end up doing. I thought that on the front one was for the dist and one for the trans, but the directions clarified that for me. Of course, I looked at the directions AFTER I installed it, as usual. Dont need no stinking directions...

[shadams]

So last weekend I finally broke out the sand blaster. Went through SIX 50 lb bags and did an ass load of little parts, and 1 door. My plan at this point is to try and get the inside of everything cleaned up and painted nice like interior cab, door james, firewall, inside fenders, etc. That way I can put the truck together and drive the sucker, then down the road when I am ready for paint I dont have to take the whole damn truck back apart. Anyway, here are some pics of my progress...





So after I took the bottom door seals off I found this mess. I dont see that being to hard to fix, of course they sell patch panels for the lower door area.



Finished blasting one door, well mostly anyway. Gotta fix the rust then get after it with some sand paper, treat the inner door with rust spray of some sort.



Aftermath, I should get some beach chairs and a couple of umbrellas for after I am done.

I was able to save both front side window frames, cleaned up real nice and even saved one glass. Looks good, the other had a bullet hole in it, so its in the trash...



Had two giagantic boxes in my driveway when I got home!!!

First pic has the firewall, inner cowl panels and inner to outer cowl panels




Second was the complete floor, and I mean complete. It has all the body mounts, the seat riser, gas tank straps(which I will take off) and rockers with inner cab corners all ready to go.



Fits like a glove!!






Man they package this stuff very well. Full of that expanding foam stuff, damn near had to cut the parts out.



The firewall is killer. In the pics it showed it with a bunch of holes, but when I got it it has one hole in high up just to the right of the recessed area and the steering column hole, and thats it. I thought I was going to have to fill a bunch even on the new one...



Lastly, a customer of mine brought me this cool tool box. Said it was from the late fifties early sixties. Either way, I am going to clean it up and use it the the truck...



So I know I am cheating a little. I have been messing around for a few weeks trying to make the firewall look good and I just dont think I have what it takes just yet and totally ran out of patience. I sure as hell hope I can put all these new parts together though.

I bought some angle iron the other day and will frame up the inside of the truck, then start removing the old floor and firewall. Then I think I will try and clean up all that I can before reassembly since I will have the extra room without the floor in, then start reassembly. I'll get a bunch of pics and update later.

[oldman2]

Looks like Santa was late with the Xmas stuff (ha ha). Got some nice panels and lots of work to install, keep us posted and good luck with the work.....Jim

[sfort]

I wonder if there is a sequence you should follow to help keep the squareness. Like (floor first firewall last or the other way around)??

[shadams]

Probably. I thought about leaving the firewall in for support and do the floor, but then I figured with the dash and cowl still in and all the angle iron I am going to put in I would be fine. I am really unsure about how its going to turn out, but then again I was unsure about everything else and it all worked out bad ass.

In hindsight I wish I had kept the other frame around for a while, It would be cool to bolt up the floor and lower the cab back down onto it, and without anything else on the frame I would of had all kinds of room to work.

[Murch]

Man what a tough road full of trials and tribulation you went through, but look at where you are now, great to see you preserver, and look at how far you've come! Great work, keep on truckin'!

Murch.

[Murch]

That actually sounded a little dramatic sorry, a lot of people may have given up and moved it along, but you didn't, so I guess it's warranted .

[3Kidsnotime]

Just read your thread, great project!! Next time you have to install coil springs this will help you out ALOT!! you will need some 1/2 all thread and some scrap steel to make a washer. unblot the whole lower control arm use some all thread drop the all thread from the top down through the shock bolt hole with a nut on top, slide the spring up lift the lower control arm up and install the washer and nut, hit it with the impact. You want to do it with the control are unbolted from the rear as well then it is a srtaight up pull not angle pull on the spring. Install the nut on lower ball joint loose and then put the rear two bolts in and tighten things up. With this method it usually take about a 1/2 hour to assemble a whole front end control arm assembly both sides. Also GM makes a Tall and Short block plate (the plate that connects the engine mount to block) assembly one is for truck and one is for car, you need to make sure you have the correct block plate to engine mount for correct install height. Keep up the good work looks great!!

[shadams]

Originally Posted by Murch

Man what a tough road full of trials and tribulation you went through, but look at where you are now, great to see you preserver, and look at how far you've come! Great work, keep on truckin'!

Murch.

Originally Posted by Murch

That actually sounded a little dramatic sorry, a lot of people may have given up and moved it along, but you didn't, so I guess it's warranted .

Thanks man, after looking through Lordz of Kustomz thread it has given me a lot more confidence in doing this floor. We'll see how it turns out...

Originally Posted by 3Kidsnotime

Just read your thread, great project!! Next time you have to install coil springs this will help you out ALOT!!

Thanks for the tip!!

[shadams]

So I finally thought of a way to get the floor out of the truck. I am sure someone will chime in with something that would of been easier, but this is what my brain came up with. I made them just a hair taller than my cab dolly, that way when I get the cab ready for the new floor I can put the new floor on the dolly and roll it back under, then lift it slightly and clamp it into place before welding. That way I wont be struggling with the 100 lbs of floor the whole damn time.



I bolted them to the angle iron and slid the dolly out of the way. I was supposed to borrow and guys plasma cutter but couldn't get him on the horn so I went out a bought a Dewalt recip saw and started hacking away.



Clangggggggg... Big ol rusty piece of shit fell out. Well, after drilling out bunches of spot welds.



Need to clean up all the pillars and rear cab braces and put the new floor back in. I am not too worried about things staying square, my thought is the firewall can only go in one way and the pillars go in certain spots on the rockers and the floor is already squared up, so it should be fine. I guess I'll find out soon enough.



So then I slid the dolly back under and took off the stands so I could roll it back in the garage. Should be able to get it all cleaned up tomorrow. Have put some thought into paying someone to just go ahead and soda blast everything I got now while its all apart, that would be the easiest and best time to do it. Just dont know if I want to spend the money on that or just buy the conversion kit for my sand blaster and do it myself. Then I will need to invest in some spray guns to prime everything...

Oh btw, I sand blasted all behind the dash and under the cowl, as well as the upper firewall area. Then sprayed it down good with this rust spray/metal prep I found at home depot, all looks real nice and left and kind of film on everything that will keep it nice until the time comes to paint it. I will probably have to wash it down real good I am sure.



I never gave it much thought but since I was back there I started wondering why the back of the cab as rust red and not green like the rest of the cab. Turns out it has been worked on before and has some filler and rthen sprayed with red primer. No biggie, dont see any real damage on the inside so not sure whats going on, but wont be hard to redo when the time comes.


So thats todays progress boys, see you tomorrow...

[oldman2]

tha'ts a lot of work, looks real good.....Jim

[shadams]

Well, have done quite a bit of work but not a whole lot of progress. Every time I plan on doing a certain repair, I think of 20 things that need to be done in preparation for the repair. Very frustrating and tedious. I'm just going to post a bunch of pics, hopefully you guys can make sense of them...

Backside of dash cleaned up and primed, looks nice and much easier to do with now firewall in the way..



RH outer cowl is in good shape, drilled out a shit load of spot welds to get the rusted out inner to outer cowl panel out



Sprayed it all down with the phosphoric acid spray



Cleaned it up and primed, then taped off and undercoated. I thought the undercoating was tan, then realized it must of been too cold because when I checked it today is was all flaky. Apparently the rubberized part wasnt coming out of the can and was seperated out. Have to re spray it later.



LH cowl had a bunch of bondo, decided to cut it out and start over.



Tired of drilling out spot welds so I took it out in pieces. Found lead in the seam of the cowl panel, really f'd up the upper cowl getting the lower cowl out. Ended up cutting it off above the lead and will have to weld in a patch piece.



What I figure happend was the door was over extended as the pliiar was bent inward once I got the cowl panel off...



nice and straight now



new bottom pillar welded in, bottom of outer, inner and pillar rusted through or very thin.



Floor panel. Sand off the areas where the cab pillars bolt up and spray with a primer that I have been told works well as a weld through. I have done a few welds and it seems to hold up well. I planned on seam sealing the entire underneath of floor and then undercoating or roll on bed lining it, but cant find my damn caulk gun after I went out and bought some seam sealer.





So I am test fitting some pieces and am kinda concerned. They don't really fit exactly right, but my thought is that is normal. I probably am given a little extra material to work with and once I get them in where they go I can just trim them up. But I really have no idea....You can see how much extra sticks out from the outer cowl area where the fender bolts up. I guess it doesnt matter anyway, you will not see that area when it is back together.



From this pic you can see it fits the contour of the outer cowl pretty well...



But at the bottom the piece hits the door hinge pocket and doesnt fit flush where the orig piece did.



The other thing is the replacement inner kick panel piece is pretty much flat. The place where is needs to go is curved. I am guessing I just start tacking it in place and bend it to fit as I go. I have to get the whole kick panel area done because it fits in between the pillar piece and the rocker panel, but nothing lines up for squat. Seems I bit off a bit more than I can chew, but I am determined to figure this out. It can't be that hard to do dammit....

[pottsie454]

Looks great man. Keep up the good work!

[oldman2]

Feel for you dude, most of the aftermarket stuff just doesn't fit that well. You are replaceing so much, it makes it ever harder. Just keep at it, hope everything turns out to your liking.....Jim

[shadams]

Floor completely seam sealed and undercoated. Used the 3M Fast-n-Firm Seam Sealer and Rustoleum Leak Seal, the texture looks exactly like I wanted it to. I am going to use this throughout the build. Stuff isnt cheap but is the best I have used so far.



Close up of texture

[oldman2]

Looks great.....Jim

[Chevy54]

Wow...just caught up from my last post months ago! you have done some work brutha! That cab looks great, its to bad the floor had to come out. My floor pans fit well tho so im sure yours complet floor/firewall will work fine! My truck is from TX, Whats up with u guys having rotten floors only! So IM nominating you for the most challenging build of 2011/2012!

BTW.....damn...I want the tool box!!! So bitchin man!

[lordz of kuztomz]

looking really good bro..you can do alot once you put your mind to it...

[shadams]

Appreciate the comments guys. Really do. Last night right as I was dozing off I thought about my choice of undercoating. I wonder how it will hold up against the heat from the exhaust/engine etc. Didnt even think about it at the time....too late now so we will just have to see...

I ordered an assembly manual just so I could double check what I am doing. I hope it includes cab measurements. I want to double check everything before I weld up the floor. I am going to put the floor aside for now and work on the doors a bit. Get the bottoms cut open and clean up what I can inside, then spray it with the same undercoating before I weld them back up.

[shadams]

So I started working on the door this morning. I ordered the bottom patch panels but didn't want to cut out that big a piece as only the bottom was rusted through, so I measured up from the bottom 2" and scribed my line using the angle iron as a guide, then used the magnets to hold it down and cut it out with a cut off tool.



Then I cleaned all the gunk out and spray the whole door down with phosphoric acid. Let it sit all day while I was working on the floor.



Then hit it with the pressure washer and air dryed it out, I have a heater on it right now to make sure it gets dry, then I am going to spray it with primer for now. Almost hate to, looks kinda cool....



Door is primed..



Floor is in!!!! I didnt fully weld it yet, I keep having nightmares about the doors not fitting so I want to get them in and make sure before I final weld.



Got all the bracing cut out so I can have some damn room.



Before I put the floor in, I tried my hand at some metal work. Right in the center down low there was a lot of filler. I sanded it all out and messed around with a dolly and hammer and had a huge outward dent that oil canned in or out and stayed either in or out. I had another small dent that I got out perfectly.

I started reading about shrinking with a torch and tried it out, and holy shit, it came out just about perfect!! I heated one spot at a time in a circle around the center of the high spot, then hammered on it with a slight angle toward the center. The grabbed a soaking wet rag and cooled it down, lastly did the center and when I was done it was nice and tight.

So I welded the back panel to the back of the floor, and hit it with some primer for now.



One thing I probably shouldnt have done was weld it up with these rust pin holes that appeared after I had sandblasted the area. I really didnt want to try and replace any metal before putting the floor in because the back panel was super floppy. Is there anything I can use over these spots here instead of cutting them out? Any kind of metal filler or whatever? I hate to do that after everything else I have done, so I guess I will have to just replace it..



Anyway, I worked on this thing literally from sun-up to sun down, I hope it was all worth it. It sure would suck to have to cut the floor back out because the doors dont fit....