Builds Wimberosa's build: The SUV of Theseus (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.

 

[wimberosa]

Just started installing my floor pans I received from topnault mid last year. This is the 14 gauge pan that fits my 1979.
I'm very very happy with these pans! They fit like a glove with very little trimming or force-fit. This is a superior product
to other rolled pans I received from another vendor. Thank you @tpclassic !

I had debated whether to install these pans while on my rotisserie as I was unsure if the tub would twist given the removal of significant metal. I decided to do some minimal prep to get ready for removal and then rotated the side to remove to the top (see pics). This looks like a good strategy and puts less weight on the removed area and more uncut tub mass underneath the work area. Hopefully the final result shows no twist.

 

[EWheeler]

Just started installing my floor pans I received from topnault mid last year. This is the 14 gauge pan that fits my 1979.
I'm very very happy with these pans! They fit like a glove with very little trimming or force-fit. This is a superior product
to other rolled pans I received from another vendor. Thank you @tpclassic !

You are doing some fantastic work on this tub!

Its great to see/hear some positive feedback on the Topnault stamped product. It's clear they are listening to customers and taking feedback and making changes. They seem to be fully committed to providing quality products, an effort that surely costs a ton versus the business models of the other aftermarket sheet metal stampers, which seems to be - "This is what we make. Deal with it".

Thanks for sharing your build!

 

[MOTOV8R]

Just started installing my floor pans I received from topnault mid last year. This is the 14 gauge pan that fits my 1979.
I'm very very happy with these pans! They fit like a glove with very little trimming or force-fit. This is a superior product
to other rolled pans I received from another vendor. Thank you @tpclassic !

I had debated whether to install these pans while on my rotisserie as I was unsure if the tub would twist given the removal of significant metal. I decided to do some minimal prep to get ready for removal and then rotated the side to remove to the top (see pics). This looks like a good strategy and puts less weight on the removed area and more uncut tub mass underneath the work area. Hopefully the final result shows no twist.

View attachment 3622765

View attachment 3622766

Did the pan include more of that skinny section beside the seat. Mine was completely gone there. Just curious if you have any pics prior to trimming/install. Also, fantastic work!

 

[wimberosa]

@MOTOV8R These pans are just slightly less than 2 feet at the side edge from the front lip to the end of the pan handle.
The front lip has about 1/4" to 1/2" inch of excess material. See photo.

 

[MOTOV8R]

@MOTOV8R These pans are just slightly less than 2 feet at the side edge from the front lip to the end of the pan handle.
The front lip has about 1/4" to 1/2" inch of excess material. See photo.

View attachment 3623711

Nice. My SA patches didn’t have the hole and recess for the drain plug. They did go back a little further which was helpful.

 

[wimberosa]

I suppose everyone has problems judging how difficult something will be. I had read threads on replacing
the pins in spare tire carriers with the pins available from city racer. I "thought" it would require a press and
lots of effort.... However for the 1979 spare tire configuration it turned out pretty easy and less than an hours
effort. Instead of using a press to push the bolts out, you can just cut 2 spot welds in the frame to pin attachment
and/or break the weld with a chisel and splay the piece apart a bit with your chisel (see pic 1). At that point you
have enough wiggle room to just use a punch on the end of the pin and hammer it out.

Put the new pins in....put the splayed piece in the vice and press it back together tight....spot weld the prior
weld you cut.

This thing is tight! No wiggle and the pins themselves are practically a piece of art in machining.

 

[wimberosa]

Well I asked the general question about cleaning and readying for paint in this thread

Prep before paint questions

This is posted separate from my build thread in the hope of getting more opinions. At this point I've finished all patches to my 1979 tub. I'm in sandblasted form but I have residual oil, white cruft from ospho, and other cruft hanging onto bare metal. I have basically two questions that I'm...

forum.ih8mud.com

I'm now 3 weeks past that question and it included around 11 solid days of cleaning
this rig for paint. I have a few points that I've learned.

1. One size does not fit all in regard to cleaning. Several areas I had to hit up to
three times with my toughest cleaner (Krud Kutter Rust Remover)
2. Cleaning with a power washer (water) didn't really result in the cleaning I needed
and just adds to the work.
3. Using any water based cleaner will result in a bit of flash rust that you have to stop
immediately.

Having said that...here are my preferred products for cleaning.
krud kutter rust remover (a mild acid with ability to inhibit flash rust also). Toughest cleaning required this.
krud kutter prepaint cleaner (this is like a water+tsp solution. It works well as a second step but since its water based
it can trigger light flash rust. I would follow-up with a spritz + wipe down of rust remover to stop flash)
final wipe down with prep-all and cloth rags (this gets any residue off from the cleaners themselves and produces no
flash rust.

I went through about:
1 gallon of krud kutter rust remover (I have the 5 gallon container from home depot)
2 full boxes of the scotch brite hand pads
10 to 15 rolls of paper towels
1 container of krud kutter prepaint cleaner
2 container of prep-all
20 to 30 rags (akin to shop towels)

 

[wimberosa]

Today I built my paint booth. Monday I head out in search of epoxy primer + high build primer + RM UNO HD top coat compatible products.

 

[White Stripe]

How many hours of labor do you have restoring the tub?

 

[wimberosa]

How many hours of labor do you have restoring the tub?

I have so many hours I'd never go into this again in 100 thousand years. Everyone has their own
time and effort calculus but it would be significantly better to just buy a tub.....but it doesn't
really solve the issue for me. I spent tons of times on the doors, quarter panels, front bib, etc.

I also have some extra ambi doors that I also solved issues for them in the same timeline.

 

[wimberosa]

Epoxy primer is now on the tub. For posterity these are the coatings that are going to go on this. These items are due
to necessity instead of desire. I could not find a BASF RM dealer within the 4 corners area and thus had to go with a local supplier
of PPG Deltron. Fundamentally I'd rather have a close by shop (English Color, Farmington NM) that I can get additional cans or advice
from than having to deal with remote access to other paint brands.

Epoxy Primer - PPG Deltron DP50 LF Activator - D402LF
High Build - PPG Deltron K36 Activator - DCX3030
Color - Delfleet
Clear coat - 769

The Toyota 532 Mustard Yellow has only been reformulated only into the Delfleet product line instead of the Deltron product line. These
old paint colors like yellow had some lead in them and had to be individually reformulated for each brand and product line.

Tomorrow the fiddly bits get painted. Hopefully thursday I'll get the doors, quarter panels, hood, bib

 

[newmexicokid]

That is so nice. I want to come see it in person. We were just up there at purgatory too.

 

[psmbfuer]

Really looking great - well done.