Rusty Wagon Rebuild

[jaxonm]

On a more serious note, the passenger front door is newer than all the others and is actually in farily good shape if anyone needs one:

I actually do need a PS front door. Can you send full res versions of those pics? They posted pretty small.

Also, how much? For the right door and the right price I'll probably get the door and a TG lid at the same time and save myself some shipping.

Let me know Kevin!

Thanks,
Jaxon

 

[kevinmrowland]

Good Grief that thing is rusty! Did your rig come out of Canada? Just curious how it got so rusty since you mentioned you rebuilt it 10 years ago. That new body will look great! Keep it up.

Nope, just upstate NY. They dump an astonishing amount of salt on the roads.
Got to use up that capital budget! And yup, it was a clean body 10 years ago, there is no saving them if you drive in the crazy salt.
Thats why I moved.

I actually do need a PS front door. Can you send full res versions of those pics? They posted pretty small.
Also, how much? For the right door and the right price I'll probably get the door and a TG lid at the same time and save myself some shipping.
Let me know Kevin!
Thanks,
Jaxon

Give this a shot, all the photos from the thread are there:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wagongear/RustyRebuild?authuser=0&feat=directlink
The door is free, especially if I don't have to ship it! I don't know about strapping a tailgate lid to it though, might do more harm than good, I find that awkward packages incur the most damage. :whoops:
Also take into account that the lower part of the door has been undercoated, that stuff is a bear to get off.

KR

 

[NM Frontier]

This looks like the ultimate project/swap/test the neighbors thread! Keep up the good work and great pics of the progress.

So far I have learned never to drive in the north east!

 

[esh]

He is overstating the neighbor thing, at worst golfers with binoculars would see some welding flash and investigate, probably suing him for some kind of environmental impact breach (it is Eugene after all).

 

[klinetime574]

Good stuff.

We painted my brothers engine bay of his 240sx in the front yard of our nice sub-division. Neighbors probably weren't happy. It sat there for at least 24 hours

I'm glad to know if I ever need to take my body off I can do it with my engine hoist.

 

[gregnash]

Yeah I have one cranky-@ss sent of neighbors next to us that will probably throw a fit when I run seafoam through my 60. I will just plan to do it at night so they are less likely to see it. These are the same people that walked over to our house 2 days after we moved in to tell us that we couldnt leave out dogs outside (they were outside because the electrician was working inside) because every time they walked by the fence they couldnt be barked at... LOL Let me just say that not many people in the neighborhood like them.

 

[06reg4x4]

A few more updates, rust, rust and more rust.

At this point pretty much everything is apart now though, spent the weekend completely striping the axles down.

It's just a nightmare taking everything back apart with all the rust, even though this was all stripped clean less than 10 years ago.

nothin to add but i love reading on these builds! and i have the same hammer lol!

 

[kevinmrowland]

This looks like the ultimate project/swap/test the neighbors thread! Keep up the good work and great pics of the progress.
So far I have learned never to drive in the north east!

Good, I'm glad I could help in some small way.

We have surprisingly nice neighbors really, just trying to keep them that way is the challenge.
Luckily they love the dog, so we are good to go there, and we are on a little dead-end street with nobody in the vacant lot across from us. On the other side of that vacant lot is the golf course though.....

nothin to add but i love reading on these builds! and I have the same hammer lol!

Home depot special! It's actually a good little hammer.


Nothing too exciting to update with, had a lot of other work to get done this weekend so all I was able to do was a little bit of body work on the new truck.
Everything is apart that can come apart at this point so it's the turning point in the project, from destruction to construction as of now.

So, I don't like sheet metal work, and I'm not very good at it, so please don't use any of this as a guide, but here is what is done so far:

I knew that the corners of the new windshield had some small rust spots to deal with, but when I pulled the windshield I found an old repair that really needed to be re-addressed.

You can see the old patch someone welded in.

Out to the grey truck.

At least the windshield on my truck was in fairly good shape, not much I could do about the salt on the roads, but I never ran the heat on recirculate in this truck without the AC on (key to dehumidifying the air) and I also super-insulated the roof to keep any condensation to a minimum, both these efforts paid off, unfortunately the POs of the tan body had not taken the same precautions and I have condensation rust to take care of. SO DON'T RUN YOUR FREAKIN HEAT ON RE-CIRC WITHOUT THE AC ON!

New patch part.

 

[kevinmrowland]

Whats wrong with these two pics?
One of these things is not like the other....
It's in the body work where the human side of the otherwise god-like japanese engineering really starts to come through. Working on enough of these trucks you start to see all these little discrepancies and production mistakes, I've found things not welded, mismatched parts, general production differences and things like this, a panel without the reinforcing holes stamped in it, the locator holes are there, but somebody forgot a step.

 

[kevinmrowland]

And another area where the Japanese engineering falls flat on it's face, all these overlaps are the death of these cruiser bodies. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do about fully preventing rust since there are so many areas where multiple layers of metal are sandwiched together, condensation collects in there and rots it out from the inside.

One of the worst spots for that is right here on the top of the windshield.
You can see how the roof comes down to meet one of the interior pieces of the pillar structure, they meet at an acute angle and the roof is braised onto the pillar. This leaves a sealed channel that collects all the condensation from the roof.

Same thing on the tan truck.

And on the other side.

With these spots I will actually drill a drain hole in the covered part of that pillar metal and pour a bit of ATF down the rest of the seam before sealing it back up.


Both the lower corners are swapped out as well due to some rust spots.

 

[kevinmrowland]

Cut a patch out of one of the rusty doors to use as a blank for the side vents, it is a diesel after all, no need for them....

I'm welding the parts like this in with bronze rod, more of a braize, lower heat, better flow, easier to file down, less warpage. (it still warps though).
Here it is with a few initial tacs:

Also bronzed in the name plate holes, going logo-less, can't seem to keep those things glued on and they just make a place to catch dirt anyway.

 

[kevinmrowland]

So at the end of the weekend this pile of scrap is what I have to show for it:

KR

 

[rapovt]

nice work Kevin

 

[beaufort-fj60]

nice... french in some drain vents on the d pillar...

 

[NorCalBorn]

He is overstating the neighbor thing, at worst golfers with binoculars would see some welding flash and investigate, probably suing him for some kind of environmental impact breach (it is Eugene after all).

Nah, those old fogeys are too busy watching the wanna-be-a-hippie coeds rocking boxer shorts and sun dresses.

I'm welding the parts like this in with bronze rod, more of a braize, lower heat, better flow, easier to file down, less warpage. (it still warps though).

You're beginning to sound like a bike geek talking about steel frames now?

 

[gregnash]

There is nothing with being a bike geek. I have a steel 29er hard tail that I love. Steel is where it is at.

 

[kevinmrowland]

nice... french in some drain vents on the d pillar...

Huh? I'm not aware of any major issues on the D pillar? Am I missing something?

You're beginning to sound like a bike geek talking about steel frames now?

I WISH I could weld like a frame builder.......
Plenty of time spent working on bikes, but I never made my own frame..... yet.

 

[beaufort-fj60]

Huh? I'm not aware of any major issues on the D pillar? Am I missing something?

I'm not familiar with Oregon.. It's hot a steamy here which leads to water collecting in the areas you just fixed. A and D pillar corners were the roof pinches onto the pillars. I just drilled weep holes on those spots. It helps the roof "breath" or drain the collected humidity/condensation.

 

[esh]

Here (Western Oregon) in the winter (Oct-June), there is just water in the air from so much rain. When the sun is out things dry, but we can go for 7 days of steady medium/light rain. I can get moss growing inside my shop if there is a hint of a sun crack through a gap in the door or wall, just from the moisture around. That's a worst case, but my '82 BJ42 is nearly a natural art car now with all the moss growing on it from sitting outside for 8 years.

 

[Hugh Heifer]

And another area where the Japanese engineering falls flat on it's face, all these overlaps are the death of these cruiser bodies. There is absolutely nothing anyone can do about fully preventing rust since there are so many areas where multiple layers of metal are sandwiched together, condensation collects in there and rots it out from the inside.

One of the worst spots for that is right here on the top of the windshield.
You can see how the roof comes down to meet one of the interior pieces of the pillar structure, they meet at an acute angle and the roof is braised onto the pillar. This leaves a sealed channel that collects all the condensation from the roof.




Same thing on the tan truck.


And on the other side.


With these spots I will actually drill a drain hole in the covered part of that pillar metal and pour a bit of ATF down the rest of the seam before sealing it back up.


Both the lower corners are swapped out as well due to some rust spots.

Those area that become enclosed after welding, I usually hit with at least some weld through primer before closing up. Just to have something on the metal.