83 Longbed project for son's 16th birthday

[1981lt1]

Good news!  I was able to get my tank swapped from my local AirGas company.  And, since I'm prior Army, they gave it to me for free!  I didn't even ask.  What an awesome company.  I've always used Matheson Tri Gas so I may be switching where I shop in the future.

[1981lt1]

Got the firewall pretty much done.  I still have to patch a few spots where the heater core was but I will do that when I replace the floor pan since all that area is rusted.  As you can see from the pics, it's still a bit wavy but it's not going to be a show truck and it's the firewall so it's not gonna be seen that much anyway.

[Mike81K10]

Making fast and nice progress. My rear window had some bad rust spots and I cut the metal frame (area) out around the rear window from a truck at a junk yard. You might be able to do the same for the front window and weld in a whole new windshield frame (metal).

[1981lt1]

I wish I could find a cab that isin good condition that doesn't cost a fortune.  Here in Texas most people know what they have and still want way too much money for trucks in worse condition than mine.  Fortunately I have plenty of time so fixing the rust is not ideal but it's nothing I haven't done before.

[JohnnyPopper]

Bro, it is painfully obvious that you know what you're doin!! 

Painful for those of us who don't!!

[VileZambonie]

Nice job. You should lay glass over those welded areas before regular body filler. Body filler tends to crack over areas that are welded.

[1981lt1]

started working on the passenger windshield pillar.  got the worst of it done and now I moving up the pillar.

[1981lt1]

Just killing the rust today!!!

[1981lt1]

[1981lt1]

This truck has been way more work than I thought.  Every time I start scraping I find rust holes!  I ordered my passenger floor pan, outer rocker, inner rocker, and inner kick panel and I called my buddy who is the GM of a body shop to get some pricing on getting the frame straightened.  Once I get the windshield area repaired, I'll spray the truck with some epoxy primer and get it trailered to get the frame fixed.

[JohnnyPopper]

POX on the beard of the slime that sold it to you!

[chewy92]

Looking great man! Good score on getting a tank for free.

[1981lt1]

This week has been rather ridiculous.  I ran out of welding wire on Sunday.  Went to Home Depot Monday and the line was around the building.  Ended up doing a curb side pickup from Lowes on Tuesday.  Ran out of welding gas Tuesday night and couldn't get a refill until today.  I now have three spools of welding wire but I'm still running only 1 tank of MIG gas since the supply store quoted $155 for another tank.  No thanks!!!  I'll just drive the 20 minutes to get it refilled every couple of weeks. 

Either way, I was only able to get the driver windshield pillar patched and rough body work today.  I also picked up a shrinker/stretcher from a buddy today so we'll see if that helps with the radius curves on the upper corners of the cab.  I plan on getting the windshield area done by Sunday so can move on to the passenger floor pan/rocker area since I got those panels delivered this week.  Having to make these patches is so stupid.  I can build a camaro out of a catalog but I can't get common rusted parts for a C10?  Somebody is going to make a killing when the start making repair panels for those areas.

[Mike81K10]

You are getting a lot of welding experience. You are coming along at a good pace and your restore on the truck saved it from the salvage yard and/or crusher. Your doing well and there will be a great deal of pride having your son drive a truck you restored.

[1981lt1]

I wish there wasn't so much experience being gained from this project.  Thankfully I'm almost done with the hard parts.  I was able to get the driver pillar completed today.  The compound curves of the roof made it very difficult so I had to stitch multiple pieces together so everything looked right.