1976 Chevy Truck 3/4 ton 4x4 - 2nd rebuild

[jdl71]

Only thing I might have done differently is welded the holes shut before you bondo'd. Otherwise looks good!

[firefighter]

My old cab did not have AC so my wiring harness, controls and and heater are set up for heat only.
My new cab was an AC cab so I had to do a bit of work on the firewall. I had to do this exact same thing 15 years ago when I rebuilt this truck last time.
I know you can buy the special firewall box from that online company but this is a bit cheaper and I'll simply reuse everything from my old cab.
All I had to do is drill a few extra mounting holes, cut an extra opening and make a heater core cover plate. The nice thing about this is that if you ever need to replace the heater core, you can do it in about 10 minutes. Sweet deal huh?

Here is what the firewall looks like now. The middle opening is what I had to add.


Here it is with the heat only blower box but no cover plate on the heater core yet.


And here it is with the blower box and cover plate temporarily installed. I'll finish it with a sealant when I install it all after painting the cab.

[firefighter]

Only thing I might have done differently is welded the holes shut before you bondo'd. Otherwise looks good!

I understand what you're saying, but I'm still going to use those original holes for the factory drip rail. Is that the holes you're talking about?

[jdl71]

Maybe so. Just saw a couple in the pic that were half full of filler. My bad, sorry.

[firefighter]

Maybe so. Just saw a couple in the pic that were half full of filler. My bad, sorry.

No worries friend.
Yeah, those are the holes I''ll keep and use for the rain rails. I tried to keep most of the bondo out of them and the rest sanded away as I blended it in.
I'm actually surprised how nice the original metal pulled back up to an almost factory position.
I am not a body man. Ha Ha !!

[firefighter]

A little more progress today.
I had a broken tooth on the flywheel (flex plate) and it's way easier to split the motor and tranny this way than when the truck is together. 
I got it changed and also adjusted the linkage rods on the transfer case. It was always hard to shift from 2 high to 4 high. I found the instructions here on this site on how to adjust the linkage and now it shifts like a dream. Again, way easier to do this when the truck is in this condition.
This is as far as I will take the chassis down. I will coat as much of the frame as I can. The back 2/3 is worse than the front as that's where the salt spray hits and damages the metal most.
This week I'll add the 4" suspension lift kit. Body work is done on the cab. Now it's time to gently set the cab on its back to I can totally clean and undercoat the bottom.
Thank you for all the help and comments to my other questions. You guys have been extremely helpful and I really appreciate it.

[bake74]

     The frame did not look all that bad from the picture.  Did you catch it in time before it really got rusted ?

[firefighter]

     The frame did not look all that bad from the picture.  Did you catch it in time before it really got rusted ?

I work with metal quite a bit. The frame is definitely rusted but the integrity is not compromised. Good thing Chevy made these frames thick though. Ha Ha !!   

The frame surface just had loose scale on it. I'll do a hard wire wheel clean, power wash and the coat it (this time).
I had only put about 35,000 miles on it since I rebuilt it 15 years ago. I do drive it in the winter (hence the rusted sheet metal with no undercoating) but not that often. I work about 1/8 mile from home and most winter days I just walk to work. No sense driving for 60 seconds and shutting it off for the day.

[bake74]

     Wow, that would be nice to live that close to work.  I live 10 miles, but I do ride my FJR all year to work.

[firefighter]

Working on adding the 4" suspension lift.
The rear was simple. The front end so far.... not so much.

I was actually surprised that I got the 35 year old steering arm off so easily. I thought to myself, "this ain't gonna be so bad".
That's when the problems started. 
I found a few of the leaf spring mounting bolts were seized inside of the steel sleeve they slide through at the ends. That means you can't remove the leaf spring bolt which of course means you can't remove the leaf spring. I tried cutting through them with an electric construction saw and metal blade but something in there must be hardened. I'm guessing the steel sleeve.  It was just eating up the teeth on the saw blade.  I ended up having to use a cut off tool to grind through the bolts and sleeves on both sides of the leaf spring. Just time consuming!!
Hoping to have it completed this evening if all goes well.

[thirsty]

I found a few of the leaf spring mounting bolts were seized inside of the steel sleeve they slide through at the ends. That means you can't remove the leaf spring bolt which of course means you can't remove the leaf spring. I tried cutting through them with an electric construction saw and metal blade but something in there must be hardened. I'm guessing the steel sleeve.  It was just eating up the teeth on the saw blade.  I ended up having to use a cut off tool to grind through the bolts and sleeves on both sides of the leaf spring.

If you have a good impact try spinning the the bolts with that then use an air punch to push them thru. I've used a ball joint press also.

[firefighter]

Lift kit is complete.
I found I will definitely need longer flexible brake lines front and back so I ordered longer ones yesterday.

Last night I had some buddies come over and we lifted the cab on to the 4' x 4' roll around cart I made. We positioned the cab on its back so I could wire wheel the whole bottom side, and seal any necessary areas.
Tonight I'll powerwash the entire bottom side and in a few days I'll undercoat it.
You can really see where I had to patch in the new taller area for the transmission/transfer case and new floor panel.

I feel like I'm beginning to make some progress.

[firefighter]

Warm outside days are getting limited so I took advantage of our mid 60 degree sunny weather today. I got the bottom of the cab and box undercoated today.
I had purchased some POR 15 for the truck frame but got nervous about trying it on the bottom of the cab or box. I read too many comments about it not sticking very well to smoother painted surfaces. I used a spray on rubberized undercoating. I hope some of you have had good success with this type of undercoating? Does it work and will it last? It sure took a lot of cans but it turned out well.
Looking forward to getting things back upright and ready for paint here soon I hope.

[79 chevy]

looking nice

[thirsty]

Great job. That's is the next step that I have to do.