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| Project: 1978 Chevy 4X4....make it safe! |
| Rusty old truck gets new brakes and axle seals. 11-7-07 |
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| Next....hood, fender, and door must come off to do the rocker panel and floor pan on the left side.11-14-07 |
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| As you can see, there's not much metal left, and it didn't take much time to trim away what I needed to make room for the new panel. 12-5-07 |
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| New panel riveted in place. It will be welded in as soon as I 1) buy a welder, and 2) learn how to use it! Cab had stretched due to being weakened by all the rust.... I had to pull the cab corner back into position to get the rocker to line up correctly. 12-13-07 |
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| Moving right along..... my new Hobart MIG welder arrived, now to get it set up and.....practice, practice, practice! 2-27-08 |
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| Well, after much practice, I was able to attempt actually welding on the truck. Not pretty at all. But very strong. Looks don't matter much with this project....just has to be safe. Still have more panel fitting and welding on the other side, but hopefully I'll be ready to re-assemble the truck soon. 3-26-08 |
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| After checking out the passenger side more closely, I ordered new floor pan and rocker panel for that side as well. Just need to cut out the old, and weld in the new. 4-3-08 |
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| This project is getting more expensive, and labor-intensive, every time I open something up. Jered and I removed the right front fender and found that the inner fender needs lots of help, battery acid had corroded it badly where it attaches to the radiator support. I can fix that by welding in some new steel, and ordered a new battery tray to hold in the battery. 4-6-08 |
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| What's left of rocker panel cut away, ready to tack in new one 4-13-08 |
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| Modified bumper jack, from '88 Lincoln that I junked, is used to align cab and rocker panel before tacking rear of panel into door jamb. 4-13-08 |
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| Rockers and floor pans installed, everything sealed up. Took weather stripping from a '85 2WD Chevy I'm parting out (will make a trailer out of it for my next project) 4-17-08 |
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| New battery tray will replace old one which needed to be cut out. New one will be installed after fender is put back in place. |
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| Carpet is from the '85. I'm not willing to spend the $$$ for new. While the '78 and the '85 cabs look similar from the outside, there are enough differences in the floor and mounts to not allow me to simply swap cabs, which is why I chose to repair the '78 cab. Which is also why the carpet does not fit well. The doors will swap, and eventually I am going to change the driver's door. 4-22-08 |
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| New battery tray bolted to fender, welded to support bracket. Can actually hold the battery in as originally intended, rather than with a bungee cord. 4-23-08 |
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| I tacked in the new cab corners, but cannot finish them until the box is removed. That will wait till later. After all, looks don't matter with this project. |
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| Almost ready for Jered to drive to school, and work, when he finds a job. Not pretty, but safe. Runs good, the 400 small-block makes neat sounds when the back barrels are opened up. Think I'll disable the rear barrels on the carb. Maybe it just might help him use less of this $3.47-a-gallon gas. 4-23-08 |
| page updated 6-2-08 |
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| Truck has been running fine, although sucking fuel at about 10 mpg. Fortunately, he doesn't drive it far. Above, somehow he broke off the turn-signal lever , it was hanging by the cruise-control wires (which doesn't work anyway). So...... being cheap, and always looking for a challenge, I took a worn-out screwdriver and welded it to what was left of the old lever. Then, when I found that the angle wasn't right, heated it and bent it to shape. 6-1-08 |