Hey, new here but ive been hanging around here for while. anyways i have this 82 4x4 i picked up for nearly free. the catch was it needed floor boards done.


upon further investigation i discorverd that it needed all 4 cab mounts and 1/3 of the floor to be fixed. Ive always though these trucks were BADASS so instead of parting it out im gonna take advantage of my 110mig and go to town



you get the idea...

firstly I started with the right rear corner seemed like a good place to start. first thing was the rocker panel

i bent that bad boy up with some sharp cornered square, clamps and a hammer aka poor mans break
and tack tack i wish i would have got used to my welder befoer i went ahead and did the only piece you see all the time.. oh well

once that was on I decided to ditch that cab mount cause it what about to fall off and found a big piece of 3/16" or so plat iron that was bent at a 90 and the right length on one side so i chopped it up and added some braces. and now have these

with that i needed new inner piece to the rockers that i cut out to remove the old

i got kinda horny and forgot to take pics but i drilled holes in the new mount and plug welded it to the inner rockers the welded that to the truck



BTW all the mating surfaces were coated in weld through primer


new floor plug welded at the outer end of the cab mount
so at this point i did a piece on the outside of the cab to meet with the cab corner and one on the inside and i decided i wanted the cab mount and the rear to be attached



the back wasn't pretty but ˟˟˟˟ it, im not building a show car the corner turned out well IMHO


once that was all done i put seam sealer on it and now i will move ahead a foot to the right front cab mount
pictures will be up soon.

 

good start on a great generation of Toy .. keep at er'



.

 

if i could weld, my cab would be a bit sturdier like yours

 

well this corners gonna be a PITA the inner rocker was rotted out at the mount aswell as half the floor and a couple inches were the fender bolts up

Solid cab mount eh?

this is what i have to fill and i think i will need to grab some more sheet metal cause on the last corner i burnt through the better part of a 3'x4' sheet


forgive the blurry pictures my phone doesnt react well to any movement what so ever

 

dang that cab looks pretty rough, whats the frame look like on that? how about the bed?

 

the frame has a little rot in all then normal places. when i get the cab patched & painted im gonna bring it to the shop. i plan on doing 63" and RUF the hangers for the 63" will be right at the rot so ill probly just overlay a patch or maybe cut it out and put a new piece in.

the box it pretty rough,but covered up. one on the previous owner really liked rivets, so there are aluminium patches riveted on. OH this used to have a sun roof, and was patched with a sheet of metal and 12000 rivets ... i guess its well sealed and all but damn

ill throw some pics up later

 

the frame is in pretty good shape from some of what ive seen on here and pirate, the worst spot is by the exhaust and then its just starting to come through on the other side and on the front right were the bend is.



and the roof


i dont like it.. but who knows how long its worked for so ill let it be. i just gotta deal with the body filler on top cause its real thick and has a lot of cracks

 

finally got some ambition.... and another sheet
inner rocker

placed

outer and corner that needs trimming


all done... need a patch past it was nooooo metal to weld to

inside the cab ready for the new floor. i put a 1"x1" with a 90 in drilled holes to spot weld it to the inner top of the rocker then the new floor will attach to the inner rocker with the holes drilled in it for spot welds and then to the door seem with spot welds

first part placed second will be tomorrow ..... its getting very close to being half done the welding portion
ill have updates soon

 

Lookin good, I feel ya on the poor man's brake, I bend a lot of sheet metal that way!

 

That roof is scary! Do you think it came with a sunroof but someone didn't like it? If it has filler cracks you'll have to sand the cracks right out other wise they'll come back again in no time.

and make sure you use a waterproof filler as your first fill over the welds. Polyester filler absorbs water and will cause rust and fall off if theres even the tiniest little pin hole for moisture in your welds. Waterproof meaning fiberglass (kitty hair) or an "all metal" filler.

 

it had a sunroof at one point, one corner was rusted out. as for the hack job roof patch, ill be taking the wire wheel and clearing off all the filler because its was cracked.... i did the hammer test... it failed! big thick chunks off body filler flew off with a little tap. I will por15 the surface rust that will be chillin underneath and topping it off with raptor liner.

I would like to avoid body filler. from past experiences, it seems to crack if its more than say 1/4" thick. If the roof needs to be build up to keep the water from pooling ill give one of those a try.

Thanks for the advice!

 

The "All Metal" filler is really good stuff, check that stuff out for first layer filling over patch repairs.

 

well its been awhile since an update. i almost always forget to take pictures of the work done. so the drivers side was about the same as the passenger just bigger. but to sum it up theres been about 40 square feet of sheet metal. i used POR15 on the floor
boards and the underneath of it and anywhere there was rust. btw i bought a gallon and i still have about a gallon which im gonna use on the frame. with por15 a little goes a long way! then a primed it with self ecthing primer and then used tintable raptor liner with custom pignment i based off of krylon ultra flat camouflage paint.

 

That's gonna turn out killer.
Update pics when its all done!

 

Yes please update when done! Thanks for documenting this...this thread will serve as my howto/template/guide when I finally work up the guts (and get the time) to tackly my rust issues!

 

Glad to see you are stick working on this project. Not a lot of them left north of the border.

 

this is great coming along pretty good keep it up

 

spent a couple frustrating hours lining up the hood and fenders on this tired cab. put the seats in. dropped the can back down. installed the new prothane cab mounts. I also decided to por15 the frame even though there are some small holes and thin spots in all the normal places, i cant justify fixing them yet. i may just make a new frame with the a lift already installed on it in the future.

whole frame, 1 thick coat of por15 = quart

 

Nice work!

 

thanks! i appreciate the responses. i've been trying to finish it up quick but i threw everything in the box and put it outside. now i have to sift through 1 1/2 feet of snow to find dash pieces and what not