1978 Pickup, giving her some love...

Started by Jims5543, January 20, 2014, 08:22:02 PM

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94touring

Ha, well had I not needed to drop the subframe I would have just driven it as is.  The good thing is I can just slap it all back together fairly quickly.  Depending how I do for time tomorrow with roof paint jobs I'd like to chisel off the cross member to start cleaning up the load floor.  To get things aligned before welding it back together I'll mount the subframe attach panel ends and the cross member subframe attach piece to the subframe without the swing arms temporarily.

94touring

#576
It's official, the Skip guy who did this truck up didn't know what he was doing.  More double layers of crap hidden.  The cross member where the seats attach are custom made and I'm debating removing them.  So far this is what has fallen off as I chisel my way around.

94touring

The crossmember isn't dimensionally correct and must have been made specifically for these seats since they are a bit tall.  They also weigh a ton and my other low back mini seats will replace them.  I will order a new crossmember.  It appears he replaced the floors in 2 halves or perhaps 4 sections of floor pans.  Aside from the back corners where water collected they are solid.  Unfortunately he layed them overtop of the old inner sills.  Given how much surface rust accumulated on the inner sills with the oversills and the double layering, I'm probably going to add replacement inner sills to an order and then cut out this pancake of rust situation.  I'll end up doing a lower side replacement panel from the front of the rear wheel arch to front of the lower door frame to be able to access what I need.  The door frame is rust free from the inside but the lower rear quarter panel area isn't great and has over a quarter inch of body filler where he couldn't weld.  It will allow me to fix up the subframe attach panels where they affix to the inner sill and stiffener panel.  I began to chisel out the load bed frame but stopped halfway through.  The load frame definitely needed replaced, but what I'm discovering is it's going to be more work than it's worth.  Instead of chiseling these out, having countless spot weld holes to clean up, fixing or accepting a bent up load floor that's been well used, cleaning the bottom up, welding full length side repair sections around the arches...well to hell with that I'll replace the bed and it will save time and be better.  He also did some wierd crap with the floor tunnel.  Custom made so it's wide and boxy for a section.  I'm not sure why he did that.  I'm leaving it there.  I took out all this vinyl covering he had in the cab.  I was a bit worried it was covering some nasty rust or something, but it was just covering fabric sound deadening. He had tons of it inside various places.  The floors had a layer of the dynomat deadening. I removed a few areas with the chisel to inspect for rust but none to be found luckily. I was going to respray this in red or perhaps a nightfire red to mix it up since I'm quickly owning cars that are solid red.  But with the extend of what I'm doing I do believe I'm going to resort to what my plans were for my other pickup, which is tangerine orange. 

94touring

#578
Some pics.  First one is layers of inner sills with the stiffiner panel being on the outside. 

MiniDave

100lbs of Bondo over the whole Pup? That and the 100 lb seats means you'll be getting some weight off of it!  ;D
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Just bondo on those lower rear quarters luckily!  I should weigh the seats!  Thought the first one was hung up on something when I was pulling it out, but it was just that heavy!

94touring

Well some not great news in panel news.  I had emailed and gotten nothing back from M-machine, so called to place an order for the load bed skin.  Have been waiting for a quote for over a week.  Emailed and nothing.  So went to Somerford to get a quote and got into a short convo with the person working there and apparently M-Machine hasn't sent them any large panels, including these load beds for 18 months.  Said don't hold my breath!  So...probably going back to plan A and just cleaning up and will have to make a few patches where the cross member being chiseled off is created some larger than anticipated holes.  There's one bed rib that's looking pretty rough where it was used as a work vehicle that I'll need to get my metal brake out to fab up something to fix that section up.

94touring

Fantastic turn of events today.  A van load floor became available through Somerford, so I jumped on it.  I've been looking everywhere and they simply aren't available.  The only difference between the van and pickup is the pickup has the holes cut for the tailgate hinges, which I can easily do myself.  Pete over there said some guy bought it but then decided he didn't need it.  Shipping of course will be astronomical. 

94touring

Looks like 5 days from when I placed my order till these panels arrive via Dhl from Somerford. Customs fees came on to $47. Not bad! 

94touring

So this is what I have in mind for the truck.  Going to do that tangerine kandy orange and have a pressed grill that I can make detachable. Thinking maybe go with a narrow steel wheel and forgo the flares.  Maybe these wheels.  Roof will be a slight off-white that it currently is.  I have my old seats from my blue mini that are black with off white centers, which also matches with the white gauges.

Willie_B


MiniDave

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring


94touring

Panels arrived today according to DHL.  I'll have to snap a pic of everything once I get home.  Work extended me another day and I've already been out about 20 days!  One thing I'm trying to determine in my head is how the load bed fits past the side and rear corners.  I think the bed is wider than they are at the top, plus it extends past the rear cab bulkhead.  I am guessing it's going to be tricky. My other pickup I bought it in halves and they went in no problem.  Suppose worse case I cut it in half and weld it back up once its in place.  :017:

BruceK

I love those steel wheels.  Without the flares will look great.
1988 Austin Mini
2002 MINI Cooper S
1992 Toyota LiteAce (JDM)
1997 Jeep Wrangler Sahara

94touring

I think so too. I have my old 6x10 mini lights and the flares for them but mixing it up to steel wheels and pressed grill seems like a good idea.  Also I accidentally posted reverse steels wheels which have the incorrect offset, I'll be using the standard 36mm offset so they don't stick out too far.

cstudep

Yeah I like the steel wheels. I have them on my car, found 5 - 4.5x10 mini lights for fairly cheap a few years back and bought them thinking I would swap them out onto my car. Bought new tires, got them all installed, put them on the car and didn't care for the look so I put the steel back on.

Still need to swap the new tires to my steel wheels though because the others are pretty much shot.

94touring

Came home to boxes of panels and one HUGE load bed box.

MiniDave

Now, you just need to be home long enough to do something with them!  :great:
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

Yeah we've been abnormally busy.  Just did 20 something days on the road/sky.

94touring


MiniDave

#596
You got all that sheet metal shipped for $100????

What a project.....it's like a giant jigsaw puzzle.   :grin:

I wouldn't know where to begin......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

94touring

I wish it was 100!  Turned expensive really quick.  I had to work almost the whole month to recover these panels and whatever my bus transaxle may end up costing.  Hurts to think about.

94touring

Played around with some test fitments.