Builds 3 days and 3300 miles later

[thecrazygreek]

ahhh.. thx.. missed that piece of info...

This is a great read, really an inspiration.

 

[yotamotive]

This is a great read, really an inspiration.

I agree!! I check it daily. It is the inspiration to a project I have in the works. If I only had a garage bigger than a shoe box.

 

[Marcfj-45]

Frame question

I know that a bit soon but...................

Matt do you found how to buck rivet the frame together after separate the two channel........

Thx for the inspiration and all those pic . Marc

 

[buckroseau]

Got about 3 hours on the lpb tonight.

Took a dremel took with a reinforced cut off wheel and ground the seam seal out of the upper cowl. It was really dry and a little crusty underneath there. After I got it all ground out I fired up the sandblaster and blasted right down in there to clean it out and get it down to bare metal.

I got a hair up my ass and blocked out the rockers, front and rear quarters with 80 grit. Went really good.....I am 92% sure I am not going to need any filler. It is really close after one pass and I think with a few more coats of primer sanded out it should be extremely straight. In fact....I think it will be straighter than stock...most of what I'm sanding now is the feel of the spot welds of the floor pan to the rocker.

Opened up a can of Zip strip and slathered it all over the back where I didn't sandblast and still had green paint. After about a 1/2 hour had it all cleaned up and DA'd with 80 grit.

Mixed up a little bit of DP50LF and shot a couple coats on the rear, front cowl and 1 coat down the side again. Might come home tomorrow afternoon and shoot a couple coats of ureathane primer on the quaters and sides again, get ready for more sanding.

Matt

 

[buckroseau]

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[buckroseau]

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[buckroseau]

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[Radd Cruisers]

Nice work Matt, just caught up on the restoration.

I have played around with a hammer and anvil contour bending and putting a flange on a curve, tough to figure the stretch a and curve.

The curve on the tub with flange, I tend to weld it fron the outside and give it a nice curve as I feel duraglass on a edge is dangerious, also I then seam seal the inner edge. Just the way I do it, not that its the right way or anything.

Next tool to buy is a shrinker stretcher, bead roller.

Rob

 

[buckroseau]

I know that a bit soon but...................

Matt do you found how to buck rivet the frame together after separate the two channel........

Thx for the inspiration and all those pic . Marc

You can buy steel buck rivets, just as the original. There cheap and plentiful...in fact Cruiserbrett posted a couple links to some places that supply them.

But, then you need the buck rivet tool.....and they don't give those away. I've seen air ones for 5/16" and 3/8" domed buck rivets for $600 to $800 bucks....ouch...... I figured I could make a hand one out of a chisel, cut off the end and then machine the dome into the chisel. You could heat up the buck rivets and then hammer them down my hand. I think it would work and it would be cheap, but would take a while if you had to do a lot......like an entire frame.

I am going to do something different since I have exactly 16 to do as far as I know. 12 in the front x-member and 4 in the steering pedastal I have to swap out.

I am going to use a carriage bolt and a flanged serrated nut. I am going to machine the square off the carriage bolt in the lathe. Insert the carriage bolt from the bottom up and tighten the flanged nut with the impact. Cut the excess bolt off flush with the nut. Drill out the bolt into the nut about half way, not to much so it doesn't pop loose. Weld what I drill out and then grind the nut down into the shape of a buck rivet head.

I think it will work good since the flange nut has that little 1/16" step up on the edge. So once it's ground down into a dome, should look factory and be just as strong.

Hope this helps, Matt

 

[fjwagon]

Sweet, It's looking like new Good work Matt.

 

[bsevans]

I am going to use a carriage bolt and a flanged serrated nut. I am going to machine the square off the carriage bolt in the lathe. Insert the carriage bolt from the bottom up and tighten the flanged nut with the impact. Cut the excess bolt off flush with the nut. Drill out the bolt into the nut about half way, not to much so it doesn't pop loose. Weld what I drill out and then grind the nut down into the shape of a buck rivet head.

I think it will work good since the flange nut has that little 1/16" step up on the edge. So once it's ground down into a dome, should look factory and be just as strong.

Hope this helps, Matt

Make sure you use grade 5 carriage bolts and not grade 2.

 

[buckroseau]

Managed to get about 2 hours on the frame this evening. I would have done more...but, I ran out of Oxygen on the torch Going to call some friends tomorrow and see if I can borrow a tank.

Hoping to start taking out the x-members and pedastal mounts tomorrow, if I can round up a bottle. I'm also planning on using my rear x-member now also. Someone along the way notched the rear x-member to make room for a home made bumer. Mine is actually straight and all there, so it should work out well.

Also, can anyone take some detailed photo's of the new style rear spare tire carrier mount. I'm missing some of mine and most, if not all, is rusted away on the old stuff. Really not sure how this was in there?

Thanks, Matt

 

[buckroseau]

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[cruiserdan]

How close are the pick-up boxes? The one photo of them side-by-side appears as though they are almost identical. Do you plan to use box #2?

 

[buckroseau]

How close are the pick-up boxes? The one photo of them side-by-side appears as though they are almost identical. Do you plan to use box #2?

The pick up boxes are pretty much identical as far as I can tell? The only difference is the rear valance below the tailgate. The seafoam box has the older style taillights in them, since it's a 66.

I plan on drilling out the spot welds and swapping them out. I want the pick up to be all 78. If I change the valance out it will also go from a 3 hinge to a 4 hinge.

So yes, I plan on using box #2

Matt

 

[buckroseau]

Got about 8 hours in on the lpb today. Worked all day on the frame.

I had some really good photos of both frames side by side and a couple minor, minor differences, but my camera screwed up and I lost about a dozen photos Kinda bummed about that.

Anyway, this is what I got and what I did. Started torching and grinding buck rivets off this morning. 3 main parts that got removed were the front x-member, rear x-member and steering pedastal....and about a dozen misc. brackets that had been scab welded on all over the front of the frame. Everything went ok, just takes time to punch out some of those buck rivets. On the front x-member after I punched out all 12 buck rivets, I used the porta power to spread the frame rails a couple inches. That actually worked extremely well and I was able to slide out the front x-member very easily.

I torched off all the rear x-member rivets, punched those out....and the steering pedastal. Then, I had to drag out the other frame and start removing parts off that. Same thing on the rear x-member and steering pedastal, buck rivets punched out and parts off the 78 frame. I was planning on using the front x-member off the 78, but the more I looked at it....the thing was just to rusty. It had perferated in several areas and was growing between the other buck rivets. So, I used the one out of the 73 parts rig that was on the front of the trailer from B.C. It was clean, straight and rust free...and that rig was never going to be built back up anyway. Took a while to get all the rivets out on that one, but got it.

Did some welding of holes that were on the 66 frame that are not on the 78 frame. Also cleaned up where all those brackets, sandblasted and primed. The whole frame is going to get blasted again anyway, but wanted to get some primer in between the frame rails. Also welded the lower front hole on the frame. That is the only hole that doesn't line up with the new x-member. Plan on drilling a new hole where the x-member hole is, so it''s like the 78 frame. Only about a 1/2" difference, but I wanted it to be the same.

Doesn't seem like a lot, but was hard work all day. Hopefully start machining some carriage bolts tomorrow and start bolting some of this stuff back together now. Might be done in another 8 hours......then the frame gets sandblasted and painted.

Matt

 

[buckroseau]

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[buckroseau]

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[buckroseau]

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