Bumps on my 78’s rear tub/fenders?

[twoturtlesracing]

WOW!

This is a great thread guys, and beautiful work. I would definitely like to talk to the gentleman who built the rear sills when I do mine if he would like more business. Also, thanks for the welding tips and tricks. Doing this little sheet metal isn't much like welding a 3/8" bumper together! I'm subscribing and will use it often for reference as soon as I get the pennies together to buy a welder. Thanks Again!

 

[thecrazygreek]

nice work, keep us posted on availability of these sills...

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Gus,

Do you have any more suggestions regarding the sill? Now that I have seen the full sill assembly I do believe I could make a complete one if I had one in hand to measure and copy. I am going to ask around locally for a sill assembly to copy. I'll have to find out the major differences in model years.

Kevin

 

[Gusb]

Gus,

Do you have any more suggestions regarding the sill? Now that I have seen the full sill assembly I do believe I could make a complete one if I had one in hand to measure and copy. I am going to ask around locally for a sill assembly to copy. I'll have to find out the major differences in model years.

Kevin

Kevin,

When I realized the curved horns were factory welded to the main channels was when I decided to try a rebuild of the original - for some reason I had thought the whole thing was one big impossible to duplicate stamping.

Would you fab and then weld the horns (as I've done with the originals) or do you have something else in mind? Note the slight radius on the "face" of the curves. If it's helpful I can get a few additional dims together at some point. I may have a few scans of the horn/main radius (@100%) lying around. Just mapping out hole locations is a bit of work - I'll try to get a clean drawing up in future.

I cut away some more bad steel on the quarters and spent some time with rough sill placement on the tub using old body mounts today. Lots of little variables to iron out. Overall length of sill seems good, etc. I'll throw a few more pictures up over the weekend.

Gus

 

[Awl_TEQ]

My thought was to make it in one piece. If you take the horns and "cut" them where the top and bottom face meets the vertical plane the whole thing could be folded flat. That would allow me to punch the shape out in the flat and bend it up - then I would weld the afore mentioned "cut" and grind the weld to make it look like it was bent. I would need one in my hands to copy it perfectly but I think it could be done. There would need to be a couple of slits to make the extra bends for the door recess.

Here is a napkin sketch - dotted lines are bend lines...

 

[Awl_TEQ]

The internal hat channels would be separate of course - so not really "one" piece -

 

[Gusb]

My thought was to make it in one piece...

That's what I thought you might do after seeing your other threads.

I guess you could program all the holes and do the detail work on the ends of the cover piece, etc. too? Surprised you can roll the radius and still get the main channel bends together.

I've never seen a CCOT, etc. sill up close but I think the horns are welded in a similar way - don't know if it's a "one piece" or not. I guess the Toyota factory must have stamped those end horns out with a very large piece of tooling?

Attached is the rough fit - things seem to line up well.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

I would be surprised if Toyota didn't stamp it in one piece, but did you post above that you thought the horns were welded on? Are the horns the same thickness as the channel?

 

[Gusb]

I would be surprised if Toyota didn't stamp it in one piece, but did you post above that you thought the horns were welded on? Are the horns the same thickness as the channel?

More or less from what I can tell they are the same thickness but the horns seem formed with thickness variations due to the metal stretching in the tooling, etc.? And they have no sharp corners with fluid radius stuff going on all over - including a slight curve on face, etc. There were fine (but distinct) welds on the top and bottom - the same area I welded. But maybe the "face" was part of the main (all one piece)? My sill was too rotten to really tell what was going on with the face area.

So if Toyota did it from 1 piece/sheet, it must have been attached at the face and welded top and bottom after the ends were formed and everything else was done?

If you look back at the photo of the horn with clamps - you can almost see the factory weld areas.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-seri...my-78%92s-rear-tub-fenders-4.html#post4799080

 

[Gusb]

Bed patch channels…

More work for Awl_TEQ...

Kevin,

These dims are not finalized but I’m hoping there’s enough info here for a cost estimate from you?

“A” is patch channels for the front of the bed, the area right above the rear heater. Channels are 14 GA and 16 GA and around 40 inches.

“B” are small channels that go vertical above the sill at the back door frame/end of wheel cover area.

I’ll also PM you with a PDF.

Thanks,
Gus

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Looks like enough info there - I'll take a look tomorrow when I'm at work and thinking clearer - my pillow is calling me....

BTW - I can make them, nothing too difficult there

 

[Gusb]

Looks like enough info there - I'll take a look tomorrow when I'm at work and thinking clearer - my pillow is calling me....

BTW - I can make them, nothing too difficult there

Awl_TEQ/Kevin,

I think the dims are close enough to go - I'll drop you an email/PM with a bit more detail and a PDF that's more legible.

Gus

 

[kling-on]

WOW great work

 

[Gusb]

Got a few more channels from Kevin (Awl_TEQ) for the front bed support area - beautiful work on the parts!

Found a few hours to work. Started to weld the main sill structure to my crusty old bed - still trying to save as much original as possible.

Getting the outside sill cover ready - decided to go with some "drain holes" instead of sealing everything up.

 

[i1uhrace]

I'm getting ready to replace my sill as well I cut my sill out the other night and found areas on the flanged part of the floor that are pretty bad including the raised up areas. Did you have to rebuild any of the floor?

 

[Gusb]

I'm getting ready to replace my sill as well I cut my sill out the other night and found areas on the flanged part of the floor that are pretty bad including the raised up areas. Did you have to rebuild any of the floor?

Look back at post 115 and you can see the sill area where I've started to weld to the floor. My floor was toast around the sill and toast around the front floor support/body mount area - not pretty everywhere else but I've decided to try to use it to keep everything original. After-market don't seem to match stock - like the stamped pattern indent with the 2 + screws on each side (rear support area), heat shield brackets bottom side, etc. etc.

My stock floor looks good from the bottom, pitted and rough on top. I cut the floor back from the sill, made a 16ga replacement patch (joined to the 14ga sill) that the 18ga sill "cover" goes over. In other pock-marked floor areas I'm filling small surface craters with a plug weld and grinding them down. The front floor support/body mount area I'll try to replace with the channels from Awl-TEQ. This 14ga support (with 16ga over the top) will need the old heat shield brackets welded to the new channel.

This hopefully will get me a solid floor that is still more or less original. Still will have a bit of corrosion in the floor-to-wheel cover seams, which I'll clean and try to seal with POR15 and seam sealer before paint. I may try to pull the rear support (the one with 4 + bolts) to clean that area up - might just leave it and try to run some POR15 in the channel from below, etc.

 

[twoturtlesracing]

Gus,

I'm getting everything ready to start working on my rust soon, and was wondering what brand/kind of weld-through primer you were using. Any suggestions or tips?

TIA

 

[Gusb]

Gus,

I'm getting everything ready to start working on my rust soon, and was wondering what brand/kind of weld-through primer you were using. Any suggestions or tips?

TIA

I've been using 3M Weld Primer - II 05917. It's the silver stuff in the attached photo. Cost about $30 - I'm trying to find it at a better price. Everyone says you don't use much but it sure doesn't seem to last too long for me. It still splatters a bit. On a plug weld once the two pieces are joined together I wipe/acetone the paint off the hole area, and fight through the splatter on the weld until I get a good plug. Who knows how much this will help the hidden areas but I guess it's better than nothing. The U-Pol Weld-Through Primer stuff (zinc or copper) sounds good (less splatter?) but it costly too and I can't seem to find it anywhere. The sill and sill cover (image 2) were both painted with 3M before they went together - as well as those vertical channel lap joints. Doesn't smell great when it's hot so ventilation and maybe a good mask helps.

 

[twoturtlesracing]

Thanks for the info Gus. I'll do some looking around online and see what I can come up with. If I find a good deal, I'll pass the info along. Again, great looking work!

 

[Gusb]

quarter patch - radius area

Driver's side quarter radius area was toast. I kicked around a few ideas. Thought about a wood hammer-form but didn't think my woodworking skills were up to the task - and building the form would have been a lot of work.

No shrinker/stretcher/brake stuff in my garage. Ended up bending a piece of 18 GA to the radius, using a hammer and wood blocks to "brake" the 90 degree lip folds and then welding in the original lip around the curve/radius area. Looks like it might work at this point.

One can buy these patch panels aftermarket for a little over a $100 (CCOT, etc.) but again - who knows what you get, and you still need to do the mounting holes, etc. You can buy lots of welding consumables for $100.