Builds Putting the rust demon at bay (1 Viewer)

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Good news badness day today.
Good-Stripped more bits and pieces off the the windshield and bib. Windshield appears to be in good shape. Got the stubborn bolts out of the windshield using the welder trick. Bib, bezel and screen came alert with only one troublesome bolt, but even that succumbed to heat and pb blaster.
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Bad news:
Windshield is toast- I was so encouraged by how easy it was going that I rushed it and it shattered in the middle. I’ll save it for a template.
Bottom of bib is worse than I thought, but I think it’s fixable.
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I think I will start with this as it’ll be hidden andI can work on my skills. I’ll take any tips people have for this job. I’m guessing I’ll need to drill out the soot welds and clean and replace the rusted section and weld it back together. It appears the bib is in reasonable shape, it’s the brace that really rusted.
 
I got a bezel question as well- I’m relatively sure my ‘73 bezel is body colored (beige 416). Is this factory, I know the common thought is they’re supposed to be cyngus white (and possibly chrome). Judging by where the rust is pushing the paint off mine is body colored from the factory. I’m relatively sure it’s original paint.

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So is this right color for my year/color? I like the look, but I could be swayed to white for breaking up the beige A bit.
 
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Good news badness day today.
Good-Stripped more bits and pieces off the the windshield and bib. Windshield appears to be in good shape. Got the stubborn bolts out of the windshield using the welder trick. Bib, bezel and screen came alert with only one troublesome bolt, but even that succumbed to heat and pb blaster. View attachment 2491936View attachment 2491935Bad news:
Windshield is toast- I was so encouraged by how easy it was going that I rushed it and it shattered in the middle. I’ll save it for a template.
Bottom of bib is worse than I thought, but I think it’s fixable.View attachment 2491937
I think I will start with this as it’ll be hidden andI can work on my skills. I’ll take any tips people have for this job. I’m guessing I’ll need to drill out the soot welds and clean and replace the rusted section and weld it back together. It appears the bib is in reasonable shape, it’s the brace that really rusted.
I replaced the bottom section of the bib in my ‘81 thread, that might help you
 
So I'm getting my ducks in a row for the winter resto project. Anyone got a good lubing method for the windshield hinges? Mine are in decent shape, but they dont pivot terribly well. Mounted with the windshield in place they will hold the assembly up at a 45* angle. Off the truck I can almost make them pivot. If they need to be soaked, I'd prefer to do it before I get everything soda blasted.
 
I made my own hinge pins and got the brass sleeves from a mud vendor.


Mine aren’t loose, but they are freely moving either. If possible I’d like to try and save them with a penetrating oil or the like. If that’s not possible I would be interested in the replacement hinge pins/bushings.
 
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Squirt some penetrating oil in the hinges and see if that helps. I removed the old hinge pins and replaced with new ones as I was going to sandblast, prime and paint the hinges and I wanted to be able to paint the entire hinge. I also replaced the hinge pins on the hood pins as well. I bought my brass bushings from Boston40.
 
Another good day. With most of the parts I have at home stripped and ready to be blasted, I started looking my driver fender. Both fenders are off other rigs and show it. This one is in descent shape, but someone had coated the underside with a bedliner (to mild success). Google said the blaster was going to have trouble getting this off, so I decided to give it a shot. Started in with a hammer and chisel in the heated garage. This worked well on the thicker places. Pulled the multi tool out with a chisel on it. This worked, but not any better than the chisel. Then moved on to the wire brush in the grinder. Probably the best for the thinner spots.
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Life interrupted at this point. When the kids wanted to go sledding in the driveway, I brought the process outside. This turned out to be the money! The rumors are true, this stuff is brittle when cold. Two taps with the chisel and a chunk flies off.
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Thankfully, this was the only piece that has bedliner. The paint looks like hell now, but that’s going away soon anyhow.
The capper on the day- I sold the old engine for what paid for the new one. And then Brown Santa dropped off enough new parts to negate the sale today.
 
Got some garage time today- fun with fenders. Drivers side isn’t to rusty, but with the steering moved forward the old opening had made contact with the tire one or twice.
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That area was tweaked pretty bad, fortunately I had the old fender that had classic support area rust. This would be my donor for metal patches.
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Took a couple tries, but eventually I had a shape that’ll fill in the old steering box hole. I’ll wait for a brass backer plate to finish burning this in.
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Moved on to the passenger side at this point. This one was also a recycled fender (take another look at the old fender if your wondering why). The deal on this one was someone had blasted it down to bare metal and then put a bit of bondo here and there, but never painted it. Lots of patina! It was time to find out why- Man it was a good day for grinders. I was planning on filling the blinker hole in anyway, but I can’t say I loved what I saw under the bondo here. It has an ugly patch in the hole and a silver dollar sized spot of rust beneath it. Fortunately, the donor fender can supply a decent patch in this area. Hope my patch looks better than this...
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There’s also some lip cancer on the outside edge near the support. Once again the donor fender will sacrifice a piece to repair this spot.
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This’ll be my first foray into repairing body panels, so I’ve been leaning pretty hard on what I’ve learned from others on Mud. Wish me luck.
 
There is one other spot on the trailing side on he fender. It’s the area braced for attaching to the cowl. Not sure if I’ll be cutting this part out or not. This is a trail truck and I’m really just trying to get ahead of the rust - not looking for a show truck. I’m more tempted to treat the rust in place.
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I’m pretty sure it’s the spot welds underneath that allowed the rust to start. I’m tempted to drill them out and clean up the brace and fender. With that cleaned up, I could simply weld the brace back in place. And have a solid fender again.
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I also started looking at the tranny hump’s cancer. Not to bad really, but once again it has the classic rusty spot by the gas pedal. I reached out to @secretsquirrel on how he made the patch piece for his tunnel and he said he had chunk leftover that he’d send me. This’ll save me some serious time trying to replicate the lip of the tunnel. Thanks again squirrel.
I’ll still have to move the shifter holes due to my drivetrain swap. This is complicated by the fact that my chassis is at work still, but I’ll take it in and slip away to figure the alignment out this week I hope.
 
Brought the cowl home yesterday.
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I have a love/dislike relationship with this minivan. Wish it got better mileage and it’s not the quietest ride(220k), but awd and there’s no fear of damaging it hauling stuff. Oh and it starts every time (knock on wood).
Anyway, that was last of the body to come off. Now I need to strip it down to send out to a blaster. Things that need attention:
  1. Rust repair- floorboard where it meets the Aqualu tub
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    The bright spot on this repair is the channel seems to be rather solid, so might not have to fab this up. We’ll see after I get it blasted.
  2. Wiring harness will be interesting- mice got in there and several switches are nonfunctional
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  3. Dash pad is probably a 7, but I need to repair a couple spots
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  4. I’ve been following the revived thread on dash know refreshing and that’ll be a little further down the road, but lots of good info.
 
If you get some spot weld drill bits and some cutting oil each fof those cowl pieces should be easy to take off for repair, then just weld back on. Maybe you know that already. Would be cool for repair and modification convenience if you were to remove the welds on the whole dash panel and make it bolt on instead of welded. I hate working up under the dash, so hard to reach back their.
 
If you get some spot weld drill bits and some cutting oil each fof those cowl pieces should be easy to take off for repair, then just weld back on. Maybe you know that already. Would be cool for repair and modification convenience if you were to remove the welds on the whole dash panel and make it bolt on instead of welded. I hate working up under the dash, so hard to reach back their.
The separating of the fender skirt from the top would have been a great and it occurred to me a little late. I was piecing it together and realized it might have saved time. Oh well, live and learn.
The removable dash is an interesting idea. I admit I haven’t fixed the wiring until now, because it was easier now to get to the backside. Out of curiosity - is yours spot welded? Mine has a bead laid down on the outer edges.
 
The separating of the fender skirt from the top would have been a great and it occurred to me a little late. I was piecing it together and realized it might have saved time. Oh well, live and learn.
The removable dash is an interesting idea. I admit I haven’t fixed the wiring until now, because it was easier now to get to the backside. Out of curiosity - is yours spot welded? Mine has a bead laid down on the outer edges.
I think all the factory dashes have a bead along both sides and then spot welded at the top of the dash. Mine has the bead on the sides, can't see the top of the dash since I have the dash pad on. Grinding the welds off wouldn't take long if your careful. Since you have the cowl off it may be worth beefing up or replacing the a pillars with thicker gauge steel to help strength of the aqualu mating.
 
If you get some spot weld drill bits and some cutting oil each fof those cowl pieces should be easy to take off for repair, then just weld back on. Maybe you know that already. Would be cool for repair and modification convenience if you were to remove the welds on the whole dash panel and make it bolt on instead of welded. I hate working up under the dash, so hard to reach back their.
I think removing the dash and making it bolt on requires a bit more work. The dash is a structural part of the cowl and only using bolts would not regain that stiffness. I like the idea though.
 
I think removing the dash and making it bolt on requires a bit more work. The dash is a structural part of the cowl and only using bolts would not regain that stiffness. I like the idea though.
I agree with you on the structural part. It may be some additional bracing would be needed if bolted on. You would know better than anyone.
 

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