Wimberosa's 40 project (1 Viewer)

[wimberosa]

Speaking in my prior / alternate role of software engineer (programmer)....I have to say the 40 reminds me very much of how software requirements are piled on.

1). Drive at highway speeds
2). Drive places where no highway or road exists
3). Periodically leave half your truck at the house

Item (3) seems like a really bad idea from a consistency standpoint or performing auto-body work......But I made the rear fit back together after new quarters, new wheel wells, new sill, new ambulance door bottoms, reskinning an upper quarter panel and replacing the other upper with parts yard used. It actually doesn't fit half badly (which stems more from the ability to leave half your truck at the house than anything I did this round) Some minor fixup as I have the ambulance door bottom corners too square.

 

[wimberosa]

With many thanks to @zerotreedelta and @pb4ugo (which is a great user name now that I've had time to consider it), and others.... my rotisserie now
spins easily with one hand. This is built from the free rotisserie plans at red wing steel works. Note that you need almost every inch of adjustment
out of this thing to get the pivot arms near the 40 tub's center of gravity. My CG was slightly lower than probably the stock design because I used
slightly heavier frame attachment arms (reusing some metal I already had). One of my pivot point arms also had to be shortened up (the rear) to get
even more adjustment upward. Effectively I had to pull the tub bed to within 5 inches of the pivot point. Additionally you will want to align your
front and rear pivot points to be at the exact same height. This requires slightly more odd adjustments since at level, the rear tub frame mounts are 8
inches higher than the front frame mounts.

Note in these pictures the frame mount arms are flipped upside down from the original design. This gives you about 5.5" inches of more upward adjustment.

 

[Skreddy]

I have those rotisserie plans and want to make it one day. Looks great!

 

[wimberosa]

Well....I got it blasted clean and now its time to move onto the next patches (the floor pans). However this looks
trickier to me than I might have previously assumed. I've got holes in the pans, inside rockers (both sides), outside
rocker driver side, and some rust in the kick area and beam plate underneath. I've been thinking about this
for a few days regarding how I'd approach this.

1. I originally thought about just replacing the driver pan and trying to patch the passenger. Now I'm
leaning toward replacing both because there is some deep deep rust even where there aren't holes...and there
are plenty of holes.
2. The rust goes deep into the rear part of the panhandle of both floor pans. I have not found a patch panel that has a very
long pan handle ....thus I'm straight patching that with my own cut sheet metal.
3. At this point I have an unknown amount of rust inside those rockers but I have my suspicions.
4. The only reputable vendor I've found for 1979 floor pans is Real Steel Cruiser Parts. I normally
have gone with CCOT for all the other panels but they don't seem to produce the 79 year.

If someone knows of another reputable vendor of 1979 floor pans ... I'm all ears.

5. I have it up on the rotisserie now...which is great for examination and tricky bits but am unsure about
how much metal to remove at once since the mid-bed support is not there (not sitting on the frame)


I think my tactic / order may be.

a) remove the inside rocker panels and examine everything.
b) patch the rear pan-handle area with sheet metal
c) remove rusted bits of the kick area and patch in sheet metal
d) patch the area of the floor above the pan that no panel reachese)
e) move the tub back to the frame for full support in all areas)
f) FINALLY remove and replace the pan...and tie it into all the new sheet metal I patched in (a-d)

I have not spotted anyone on mud that really outlined a plan for patching floor pans. If there is a good plan
somewhere...I'm also all ears.

 

[Red Panda Roll]

Well....I got it blasted clean and now its time to move onto the next patches (the floor pans). However this looks
trickier to me than I might have previously assumed. I've got holes in the pans, inside rockers (both sides), outside
rocker driver side, and some rust in the kick area and beam plate underneath. I've been thinking about this
for a few days regarding how I'd approach this.

1. I originally thought about just replacing the driver pan and trying to patch the passenger. Now I'm
leaning toward replacing both because there is some deep deep rust even where there aren't holes...and there
are plenty of holes.
2. The rust goes deep into the rear part of the panhandle of both floor pans. I have not found a patch panel that has a very
long pan handle ....thus I'm straight patching that with my own cut sheet metal.
3. At this point I have an unknown amount of rust inside those rockers but I have my suspicions.
4. The only reputable vendor I've found for 1979 floor pans is Real Steel Cruiser Parts. I normally
have gone with CCOT for all the other panels but they don't seem to produce the 79 year.

If someone knows of another reputable vendor of 1979 floor pans ... I'm all ears.

5. I have it up on the rotisserie now...which is great for examination and tricky bits but am unsure about
how much metal to remove at once since the mid-bed support is not there (not sitting on the frame)


I think my tactic / order may be.

a) remove the inside rocker panels and examine everything.
b) patch the rear pan-handle area with sheet metal
c) remove rusted bits of the kick area and patch in sheet metal
d) patch the area of the floor above the pan that no panel reachese)
e) move the tub back to the frame for full support in all areas)
f) FINALLY remove and replace the pan...and tie it into all the new sheet metal I patched in (a-d)

I have not spotted anyone on mud that really outlined a plan for patching floor pans. If there is a good plan
somewhere...I'm also all ears.

View attachment 3303453

What's the yellow stuff between the two pieces of sheet metal in the bottom right corner of the photo? Is that some sort of sealant, or a shim, or ... ?

 

[psmbfuer]

I believe that is original caulk that didn't get removed by the blasting.

 

[Red Panda Roll]

I believe that is original caulk that didn't get removed by the blasting.

Okay. Thanks.