Your best bet is to mock up the cab on the frame to make sure you have your tunnel in the correct location. I designed the tunnel a little long (approximately 2-3" long on each end) so that I had room for error if I needed to slide it forward or backwards to fit properly. The mock up on the chassis is pretty crucial because there are clearance issues around the tranny and t-case - I have mine with about 3/4" of clearance around the t-case. You also need to make sure that the front of the tunnel isn't too high so you don't get heater core clearance issues.

I may be able to swing by the shop tomorrow to take some measurements for you, but I would worry about cutting the shifter hole later on when have the cab almost done and sitting on the frame so you get the location right.

Well then like you say maybe it is better for me to put the cab on the frame before welding in the tunnel, so then I would not need the measurements, I'll tack it in place when I'm sure the clearances are good.

So I couldn't get any help to put the cab on the frame and with the low garage roof and the unability to do anything outside (several feet of snow) I had to find another way to get the tunnel the right length. Fortunately I remembered I kept the old floor that I cut so I took the measurements of the tunnel and I was able to get the new one installed at the right place (hope so!)

Here a the front part of the rocker I had to build






My girlfriend and I bought this used 115v 105amp mig welder off kijiji (the canadian equivalent of craigslist) for 80$. She will need it to rebuild the floors of her sirocco and I will use it for anything 1/8'' and thinner. It works very, very well, especially with my 22g metal, what a great buy.



Floors tacked in place



Passenger side patched

driver's side




Floor 70% done





So it's not pretty I know, far from the quality work of other cab work going on here, but it is solid and for my first body work I am happy to get the job done, one patch at a time. I still have a lot of welding to do, and a lot of finishing work too to make it look as good as I can. I also have many reinforcements to add for the seat mounts, seat belts and cab mounts, I also have to repair the rear side of the cab, but at about 15 hours work a week it should be done kind of fast. I wanted to finish the cab work in a month but I was far off, I think it will take one more month for the body to be finished. Hope you enjoyed the progress!

I really enjoy reading you build thread. Good find on the MIG welder also. Are you using gas or is it a flux wire welder? I only have the flux wire kind and I will be starting body work on my bed very soon. I have been wondering if it's really worth it to pony up and buy a MIG with gas hook ups.

Anyways great progress and keep it coming!

Pump the breaks a minute! You need to clearance the floor where it meets the back wall to accomodate the cross member on the frame the arches upward.

You can see the crossmember I'm talking about here:




And here you can see how I clearanced mine:






Flat sheet metal from rocker to rocker will not clear that crossmember. Also, don't forget to check your heater core clearance. Other than that, it's turning out pretty good!

You might want to consider turning down your wire speed on the welder. The penetration is looking good, but the raised welds suggests that you are a little quick on the wire. Also, when tacking to a thicker metal, work from the thick metal to the thin metal pushing the weld pool onto the thicker metal. This will allow you to work a little hotter without blowing through the thinner metal. If you plan on dressing your welds then you are going to want a minimal amount of weld material to remove as possible since that 22ga steel isn't as forgiving as the thicker stuff when it comes to grinding off material.

Stephen, I would definitely get a gas hook up Mig. Welding with gas is way better than flux core.

83toyota88: Thanks man! I am welding flux core and it is fine for me (but it would be better and cleaner with gas), I think it has the gas hookup but it is missing something to make it work. The advantage with flux core is it is a bit cheaper for me and I can weld outside if I need to, but I think you can't go lower than 0.030'' wire size but with gas you can go 0.023'' which would be better for my thin metal or your bed metal (wich is also 22 gau).

Dave: Good catch! That's another thing I didn't think about, hopefully I can get some helpers over in the coming week to put the cab on the frame and do a mock up. For the welder the part you are talking about was the first welds done and the worse, I started getting the hang of it and the adjustment right the more I welded. At first it wasn't easy to weld the 1/8th metal to the 22 gau but using the trick you are talking about it got a bit better. It is an area that will need to be adressed later anyway. oh and heater core clearance is good!

The floor is looking pretty good! I second the GMAW, I used flux once right after I bought my welder and before I had a bottle, never again though... I hated cleaning off all that crap just to see your weld.

Thanks trail-outfitters

So I got some help to put the cab on the chassis before it is too late to make adjustments and sure enough there is still a bit of work to do but oh man what a sight! My truck as a truck!






Here you can see how much my tire sticks out with the ifs hubs on 15x8 wheels, about 1.5''

cool , nice milestone to have the cab back on for fitting .. congrats !!


.

Whoa now! You're going to have to slow down, you're getting too far ahead of me!!! I've got the whole weekend coming up to get back on pace - hopefully do a final sandblasting and start hitting it with some filler

Thanks corey it was a great moment!

Dave I'm a bit behind scedual but the truck should run in june if all goes well, it HAS to be ready by june 28th where I leave on a 300 mile roadtrip up north in the woods for 5 days of camping and trail riding with friends and their trucks.

I have a paint question, I have access to a gun but the compressor I have is too slow for me to paint with it. I have been told I can rent a gun with a compressor integrated in it, but how many days will I need to rent it for primer, sealer and paint? I have 250$ budget for paint, am I being realistic? Can I do something that lasts with spray etching primer and spray paint/clear? The finish doesn't have to be showroom, I just want something that looks good but won't hurt me if I scratch it, but also something that lasts, any advice welcome!

Depends on how far tou want to take the paint job, but $250 won't cover even the cheapest of paint jobs (using actual automotive paint). Ideally, you're going to want to do your filler, epoxy sealer (some people do epoxy under the filler), 2K urethane primer, 2K urethane base and clear. If you are trying to cut corners to cut cost then I would skip the epoxy sealer, go with a high build surfacer primer and then just a single stage 2K urethane color. Single stage paints will probably be your best bet for cost and time.

As far as time goes, it is possible to paint a vehicle properly in one day. Ideally, you want to get your bodyfiller as straight as possible, sanded and ready for primer before your worry about renting a gun or compressor. Once you shoot your primer, you'll want to block it before shooting the color. Some primers can be sanded within a hour or two, some much longer. If you go with a single stage 2K urethane color, you usually only have 30-60 minute flash times between coats. I would do as many coats as possible so that it can be color sanded and buffed out to a shine. Single stage paints can look just as good if not better than clear coats.

If you are trying to go on a budget, I would look at Eastwood paint products. You won't find anything much cheaper without extremely sacrificing quality.

Thanks, that eastwood stuff looks good, I can't help but to be intrigued at the rustoleom roll-on paint jobs too. No mess, minimal taping, no compressor or gun or paint booth, cheap and a good finish, apparently they last good too, we'll see.

You could also consider just rustoleum universal paint/primer with the weird nozzle on it. I know a guy where I work did his ranger with it and it turned out rather well. He did a few other trucks with a real paint sprayer but had since sold it and liked the rattle cans better because they didn't clog and were a lot cheaper. Did this three years ago and seems to be holding up well.

Sounds good, I didn't hear good things about spraycans though, that the roll on enamel turned out better without the additives put in the spray can (I think), plus there are a lot less fumes, taping and mess with the roll on (I do all of this in a garage I rent so I don't want to piss off the owner, she has her things in there as well).

I probably won't strip it to metal in all places, I just want to remove the brushed on red paint (I think it is home interior paint) that was done back in 1997. I am looking for roll-on primers, something like u-pol (automotive high build primer made to be rolled on), or there is always tremclad primer or eastwood. For the top coat the thing with the tremclad paint (rustoleum in USA) is to dilute it up to around 40%, do two coats, wet sand 800, then two more, wet sand 1000, then two more, wet sand 1500 and two more, wet sand 2000 and polish. Some people do more coats. I think it would be the same principle with eastwood products

Gives something like this


The finnish depends on how much time you put in wet sanding and polishing, I don't care if I don't have great depth. I still have about 3 hours of welding, then I'm guessing 4 hours of grinding and cleaning up welds and sheet metal, after that it's striping, sanding and prep time. I hope to paint before the end of the month!

that roll on sounds awesome, just more labor involved. But the finished product looks pretty good on that charger.

Yeah I think the finish depends a lot on the prep before, the sanding between coats, and how much time you spend polishing the top coat. I'm not looking for great depth in the paint, but not a dry wall finish either, so far this is what I've got

I needed to make seat mounts and I didn't want to use those rails since they are swift gt rails with samurai rails welded on top. I want something low to the floor with the front of the seat up a little.





I used a 2''x 1/8 flat bar welded on both sides on the top part of the rail, the one that bolts to the seat pan. It was fun to make nice deep continious welds after many hours of stitch welding thin 22gau.



Added an extra belt buckle mount support.



I used square tubing drilled to fit a good 14mm bolt inside which I then welded to make ''studs'', much easier to remove the seat, still not finished but gives you an idea, on the rear I will weld a support underneath the cab with the same bolt setup.



I will finish the rest up tomorrow. Today I went to get some of my body work products and tools from a bodyshop supplier, great place! I was looking for a more effective way of removing paint than sanding and less messy too, so I bought aircraft paint remover, this stuff is the bomb, but you must be very careful if you use it, since it is very cancerous if it gets on your skin it not only burns like hell but also gets absorbed quickly by the skin and goes straight to the liver. I also got body filler (the only format they had is a gal.), cheap paintbrushes for the stripper, scrapers and body sealer, all for 97$ tx-in if anyone is wondering.


We bought a harness for the dog to ride in the bed of the truck this summer, hope he likes it!

Apparently when you buy aircraft paint remover the first ingredient you are looking for is methylene chloride. I have found the pro-form stripper to be not effective and very expensive when I stripped my frame. tal-strip II is very good too.

Good progress! I love seeing that you are getting into stuff I'm about to get into sometime soon. I have two Chevy seats I want to mount in the same manner you did. I also plan to start body work before it's gets retarded hot and humid here. Good tip on the aircraft stripper, I was wondering how I was gonna remove my paint without hours of sanding. Keep feeding me good info!