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Mon May 21, 2007 9:50 am

Had one small dent in the lower valance (lower right in pic) to take out.

Used a stud welder to attatch the studs to the valance and used compressed air immediately after welding to shrink the metal a bit, then used the dent puller to bring the dent out. Will do a bit more work to it but its fairly straight now.

Mon May 21, 2007 1:46 pm

Looking good Tim. Keep up the good work.

Geno
:D

Wed May 23, 2007 4:06 pm

Stripped the seamed side gates and both tail gates to see what I have to work with.

The rear gate off of the truck (without surface rust) has a couple of dents (one of which may never be right), the hinge area is rotted out, and its slightly bowed. I'm going to sandblast my singlecab rear gate and use it instead. It may look nasty in the pic but its just surface rust and the hinges are in nice shape. The minor dents on it will be easier to take out too.

On of the tie down strap thingies (anchors? have no idea what to call it) is broken. I vaguely remember someone sells them. Anyone know who?

Thu May 24, 2007 3:07 pm

Keep at it buddy!

Thu May 24, 2007 6:34 pm

That thing is coming along nice man. :wink:

Thu May 24, 2007 6:58 pm

TimGud wrote: Had one small dent in the lower valance (lower right in pic) to take out.

Used a stud welder to attatch the studs to the valance and used compressed air immediately after welding to shrink the metal a bit, then used the dent puller to bring the dent out. Will do a bit more work to it but its fairly straight now.

Man the stud welder is the hot ticket. I need one of those.

Mon May 28, 2007 8:41 am

Skim wrote: TimGud wrote: Had one small dent in the lower valance (lower right in pic) to take out.

Used a stud welder to attatch the studs to the valance and used compressed air immediately after welding to shrink the metal a bit, then used the dent puller to bring the dent out. Will do a bit more work to it but its fairly straight now.

Man the stud welder is the hot ticket. I need one of those.

It sure beats a screw and a slide hammer! And to remove the studs all you need do is put a cutting disk on the 4" Makita grinder and cut them off.

Mon May 28, 2007 12:56 pm

Keep up the good work Tim !!! Lookin Good ! And yes, those stud welders are a great thing if used correctly.

Steve

Tue May 29, 2007 6:58 am

Yesterday I welded two small holes in the dash shut, ground them down and applied a skim coat of filler. Also welded two large holes next to the ignition switch on the dash pod closed and did the same. Applied a skim coat of filler to the lower part of the clip and one small dent by the belt line. I'll post pics later.
Three of the four holes are visible in this pic.

Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:03 am

Heres the last pictures I have of the holes that were welded up.

Still need to fix one high spot on the dash pod and it will be done.

Almost didnt add this picture. It looks like a lot of filler but is super thin and I havent sanded the second skim coat or below the valance yet. Will be ready to block sand after the filler is sanded down.

Sun Jun 03, 2007 5:09 pm

Ok I could use some help from someone for a good close up picture of the rear door latch area. Some fool hacked this one out and I believe I can use this section off of a rear bus door, but would like to verify that before finding donor metal.

Anyone have a picture of this area?

Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:46 pm

Sanded the filler down , then decided to remove the dents on both headlight buckets.(forgot to take a pic of the bigger dent beforehand)
I was looking for a hammer to use that was deep enough and came across this piece of babbit that was long and skinny and decided to use it to hammer the dent back. Figured it would be soft and conform to the round shape of the bucket rather than add to the dent. The experiment actually worked. May try this trick in the future on other dents. At any rate it was fun.

before (smaller of two dents)

Tools used

End result

Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:43 pm

SWEET TIM cant wait to see it done

Fri Jun 08, 2007 6:29 pm

Had some rot on the floor by the cargo door so I cut it out.

Cleaned the excess metal off of a donor clip and cut it to fit as best I could.

This floor section isnt perfect but at least I can work with it. What I cut out looked like swiss cheese.

Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:04 pm

i always see those spot welders for sale at harbor freight. i can really see a use for them with your project im about to embark on alot metal work on my single cab and think ill buy one those.

I have a mig with gas now and im new to welding that spot makes it look alot better.

im sure glad you posted all these pics even all the clamps etc gives me ideas what i need to do

thanks

After you spot weld alot those things like rockers etc on do you have to add beads regular weld too ?or is that spot all you need ?

Your DC looks awesome .....

i bought my sc thinking it needed alot less then it does :) suprise SUPRISE

Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:09 am

miscreantgnomie wrote: i always see those spot welders for sale at harbor freight. i can really see a use for them with your project im about to embark on alot metal work on my single cab and think ill buy one those.

I have a mig with gas now and im new to welding that spot makes it look alot better.

im sure glad you posted all these pics even all the clamps etc gives me ideas what i need to do

thanks

After you spot weld alot those things like rockers etc on do you have to add beads regular weld too ?or is that spot all you need ?

Your DC looks awesome .....

i bought my sc thinking it needed alot less then it does :) suprise SUPRISE

Thanks for the props man, I appreciate it.

I think I wasnt very clear about spot welding after reading your post.
First type. I spot weld with the mig when welding on the rockers (butt-welds) Basicly I make a very quick weld (1/8 inch most times) then stop move to another portion of the panel to be welded on and do the same moving all around the panel allowing it to cool so it doesnt warp the sheet metal any more than necessary.

Second type. When using the spot welder on lap joints like on the front clip you use the spot welder to melt the two layers of metal together under pressure which welds them. You need to experiment with how hot to get it by increasing the time its switched on till it welds. I had a few welds pop loose at first cause I didnt leave the spot welder on long enough.

Found these pics online.
Butt welds. (substitute mig welder in place of torch and welding rod) I just dont do the weld in a continuous bead but weld in spots.

spot welds with spot welder.

Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:04 am

Very Cool thread! Your progress has been friggin amazing!

On the spot welder, what did that bad boy run you, and have you found it to be worth the investment? Seems like its use would be limited, with all the inaccessible (front and back) panels in these cars.

Keep the pics coming! 8)

Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:27 am

KantDriveFast wrote: Very Cool thread! Your progress has been friggin amazing!

On the spot welder, what did that bad boy run you, and have you found it to be worth the investment? Seems like its use would be limited, with all the inaccessible (front and back) panels in these cars.

Keep the pics coming! 8)

Your right ,its not something that would be used most times. I have always considered tools as an investment and factor in how much the work would have cost me had someone else done it. Plus my time is worth something as well, and what I spent on the spot welder is more than offset by how many hours of grinding I'm not doing. When I think of it that way tools seem very cheap, and I will use them in the future anyways.
On the front clip I wanted it to look a bit closer to what it would have originally and didnt want to do a lot of grinding in close quarters like plug welding would have required so the spot welder was a good tool to use there IMHO.
I purchased the 220v spot welder on sale for $149 at harbor freight, right now they are listed at $199. Its worked well but had to be assembled and adjusted like most harbor freight stuff.

Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:36 am

TimGud wrote: Ok I could use some help from someone for a good close up picture of the rear door latch area. Some fool hacked this one out and I believe I can use this section off of a rear bus door, but would like to verify that before finding donor metal.

Anyone have a picture of this area?

Hate quoteing myself but John Ghia sent me some pics to make smaller and post (thanks!), and it appears that the dc sheet metal is different than the same area on a rear door of a bus. Checked that on a door from a 58 and off of a 66 bus to make sure. The sheet metal on a bus door has a lip at the edge and a dc has no lip, so I'll just make it. Heres the pics. Thanks again John Ghia!

Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:47 am

The gate with the surface rust came out looking pretty good. Will decide which to use after both are cleaned up.