Oh, btw, here's the area I have to work in.
IMG_20171206_200500951 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
About 3 feet on the passenger side, and
IMG_20171206_200514218_TOP by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
and about 18" on the driver's side...at least until I get the transmission supported, then I can push it out and move it over. Then I'll have about 2.5 feet on either side! lol
Jay
WOW. It's been a while.
Back around Christmas, I was really busy with work, and went a couple of weeks without Facebook and most of the Forums I spent a lot of time on.
After remote start season calmed down, I founds myself with some time to work on my truck, and after that I just tried to keep the streak going. lol
Recently, I tried to log on here and on DIYMA, and couldn't get on over there...talked to Nick (Apicella) and he said that the owners of DIYMA cracked
down on people in the industry and want like $500 (a year, I think he said) for us. No thanks.
Anyway, since the last post above, I managed to get the transmission mount welded in (not completely, I need to pull the cab to do the top and do some touch ups) and started
on the driver's side floor replacement...
IMG_20180311_134603188 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
I ordered a bunch of parts:
Walbro 255lph in tank fuel pump
HotRodFuelHose -6AN PTFE lined fuel line and AN fittings
AN wrenches
Fuel Filter
Transmission Dipstick
Floor pan
etc.
IMG_20180116_145619026 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
Then I embarked on a side project. I built a custom steering column.
I started with the stock '89 S15 steering column I had from the cab that came with the green truck.
Swapped in the shift bowl from a floor shift '81 Firebird (without the mount for the column shifter)
Used the upper stub shaft from an '08 or '09 Buick Lucerne and the leather wrapped steering wheel
from an '07 Cobalt LS with stereo and cruise controls. In order to get those to work, I grabbed the
lock plate, turn signal cancellation cam and clock spring from a '94 Grand Prix with steering wheel controls.
I need to make a cover for the part right under the steering wheel (the upper stub shaft is about 7/8" longer
than stock.)
I also body worked and painted everything satin black.
IMG_20180415_125133525 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
On to rust repair...
Jay
So, I knew it needed a driver's side floor pan. And the area at the bottom of the fender well/kick panel.
IMG_20180413_113013407 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
So, I cut the floor pan out and started fabricating patch panels...
IMG_20180413_115455992 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
Then I got more in depth...After I got the floor pan out, the top plate on the body mount was shot...
IMG_20180413_114610026 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
So, I cut that out, cleaned all the loose rust out of the inside of the body mount and treated it with Rustoleum Rust Reformer.
Then I did 3M weld through II primer on the faces that got welded. Everything has a coat of SOMETHING on it, so hopefully it will be a while before it rusts again,
IMG_20180413_191723359 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180425_152650380_HDR by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180425_164327029 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
All ground down
IMG_20180425_164327029 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
Then I opened up the kick panel some more and found the inner structure was very rusty.
I also found out that even though the lower A pillar looked mint, I could stick a screwdriver though it. Sigh.
IMG_20180413_194515047 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180413_194748565 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
Which meant I needed a new rocker panel. So I cut it open to see how it looked. It had minor rust bubbling on the outside.
IMG_20180509_182324099 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180513_164658831 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180509_175729112 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
It was pretty rusty inside...So....
I used skills learned from pressing grills to make a jig so I could make a replacement panel for the main part of the inner rocker.
IMG_20180603_140720232_HDR by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180603_143144928 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180603_175249883_HDR by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180605_212809368 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
I also replaced the part of the inner rocker that attaches to the body mount.
IMG_20180610_175323218 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180611_070529770 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
IMG_20180612_210647241 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
And then there was more rust...
While I was poking around, I noticed the area under the lower hinge was soft. So, I pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to remove the hinge to repair the area behind it. I made a jig that bolts to the fender mounts (part of the hinge) to position it, so I can make sure to get it in just the right spot.
IMG_20180509_124309074 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
That's pretty close to where I'm at now.
I bought another rocker panel, so I could section it up to rebuild the inner structure...because most of the inner structure was missing. lol
IMG_20180606_185201537 by Jay McGraw, on Flickr
I envy you guys who live in the south, and west. lol
Jay
dassa lotta rust. Your repairs are impressive.
Yes it is. I've had several people tell me I should just get another cab. But this is the third cab I've had during this project,
and I don't feel confident I could do better. This one looked really good except for the floor rust, which I've come to expect
to find on S-10's of this vintage in my area. It was all the hidden stuff that got me. At this point I'm going to finish it up,
and probably cover the entire floor/firewall/kick panel/rear wall with Soundskins.
I'm really hoping the passenger side isn't this bad. I almost don't want to check, but I don't want to fix it after paint, either.
Also, I filled in the shifter hole in the floor, removed the foot parking brake, mated the gas pedal from the S10 to the base
of the drive-by-wire pedal from the Silverado. I'll be using the floor shift and hand parking brake from a Trailblazer.
I need to open up the passenger side front body mount to (at least) fix the captive nut that has broken loose.
I don't take that as a good sign. lol
Jay
Nice to see some progress getting done,and nice to see you back.
Thanks. I had a couple of months where car audio was just not interesting to me. Burnt out, probably. But I've gotten to do a few jobs that were fun since then, and it's helped re-focus me.
Jay