Sunday, August 14, 2005  -  Well, I spent the day in the shop, taking care of little things. I started out rounding up all the fender bolts and got them poked into a cardboard box with the heads sticking up, and then sandblasted and painted them. I also sandblasted and painted the radiator support shims in case I'd need them when I start aligning stuff.

I then got started getting the front fenders cleaned up. I spent almost 2 hours cleaning the rubbery undercoating off one fender before noticing that it had a rust hole in the typical area behind the wheelwell. So I tossed that one aside and grabbed another that was from the 27,000-mile '67 CS I recently parted out. The fender was rust-free but had a few dings in it, so I spent a little time getting them tapped out. They're almost perfectly smooth now, so it'll just take a very thin coat of filler to make it totally straight.

I then got the backside of both front fenders cleaned up with the angle grinder, alternating between the composite stripper wheel and a wire wheel attachment. When I'd gotten about as far as I could go with the grinder, I got started sandblasting the back. Got one fender about 80% done before having to come home for the night.

Monday, August 22, 2005  -  I had a few hours to kill after work tonight (which is actually pretty rare for a weekday) so I ended up at the shop. Didn't feel like firing up the sandblaster to finish the backs of the fenders, so I spend about 4 hours getting the interior floorpans cleaned up. It's completely down to bare metal now. I also got the rear cab wall up to the fuel tank mounting flange stripped...and now all that remains is a good soaking with MetalReady and the interior will be ready for it's shot of POR-15.

Fig. 6  -  Here you can see the difference in how the two fenders line up to the cowl panel. The '67 fender sets flush, like it's supposed to, while the '71 fender protrudes almost 1/4"! Both fenders are completely bolted down in this picture.

Fig. 7 - Here's the rust hole in the R/S of the '67 fender that will need to be repaired.

Fig. 8  -  Here's a shot taken after rinsing off the MetalReady from the interior floorpans.

Fig. 9  -  In this shot you can also see the other sandblasted swaybar pieces and battery tray hanging from the stepladder.

Fig. 10  -  The 'before' shot, prior to cutting out part of the fender brace with the air cut-off tool.

Fig. 11  -  These dirt clods, trapped behind the brace, are what caused the rust hole in this fender. The '71 fender I WAS going to use had even more garbage than this, just not as much rust.

Fig. 12  -  Here's the 'after' shot, which was taken immediately after sandblasting. The metal doesn't feel thin, but it IS pitted pretty badly.

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2005 (Labor Day weekend)  -  Well, even though we have a three-day weekend, I only get one day for the shop, due to my wife's work schedule....and today was the day. All week long I've been planning on getting the interior floorpans coated with POR-15, as well as the other parts I sandblasted last weekend. However, I ran into a slight snag today.

I took Thursday afternoon off work to spend time in the shop, getting things prepared for today. One of the things that needed to be done was a trial fitting of all the front-end sheetmetal. Once I got the fenders mounted and lined up, I could then tighten down the cab and radiator support. Of course, I'd still have to remove the fenders for the MetalReady and POR-15. I ended up drilling a couple holes in the '79 radiator support to line up with holes in the '67 inner fenderwells. However, the support was already dimpled where I needed to drill, so it was a no-brainer. Once I got the inner fenderwells lined up and bolted down, I started on the fenders.

Just for the record, I was planning on using a '67 L/S fender and a '71 R/S fender, since both were rust-free. I got the driver's side bolted in and got everything adjusted, and it lined up great. However, once I got started bolting in the L/S fender, there was something wrong. When the fender was bolted completely in, it wasn't setting flush with the cowl panel (see Fig. 6). It actually stuck out almost 1/4"! I removed and reinstalled several times, trying different things to get it to line up correctly. However, I wasn't able to figure out why the heck the '71 fender was protruding. The R/S '67 fender has a rust hole in it (Fig. 7), so I wasn't going to use it....however, I grabbed it and trial-fitted that one, and it lined up perfectly! WTH???????? Anyway, at that point on Thursday I had to leave.

So I came back today, figuring I'd find whatever was keeping the '71 fender from lining up and then just continue with the day's plans. I spent almost an hour but could NOT get that fender to fit! Finally, I decided to just bite the bullet and use the '67 fender, although it does have the rust hole. Using it also meant I was going to have to take the couple hours to cut a portion of the fender brace away to gain access to the backside, in addition to getting it cleaned up and sandblasted...which in turn meant I wasn't going to have time to get everything coated with POR-15 today....dammit. Oh well....

So I went ahead and rolled the truck outside and coated the interior floorpans with MetalReady. While it was soaking, I set the stepladder outside in the driveway and hung all the swaybar pieces and battery tray from it and coated them with MetalReady, and set the L/S fender outside and sprayed it as well. Then back to the truck, to rinse the floorpans out really well with a high-pressure nozzle (Fig. 8)....and then I spent a good 30-45 minutes off and on blowing the floorpans dry with an air nozzle, paying special attention to the seams, since they tend to hold water. In between breaks to allow the air compressor to catch up, I rinsed off all the other pieces (Fig. 9). Then back to the truck to blow-dry it some more. (I guess I was manually drying it trying to speed things up, thinking that MAYBE I'd have time to apply the POR-15.) I then decided it was time to tackle the R/S fender.

I first had to cut the access hole in the fender brace with the cutoff tool. (I had the camera with me this time, so I took 'before' and 'after' shots.) I marked the fender brace where I needed to make the cut with the cut-off tool (Fig. 10), and then went to work. It took about 20 minutes to do the job. Upon finishing it up and removing the chunk I'd cut out, I found a collection of large dirt clods trapped behind the brace, which is what caused the rust in the first place (Fig. 11).

Then the fender went back to the sandblast booth. It took several hours for this task. I initially tried to just sandblast all the factory paint off the backside of the fender, but that stuff was baked on too well, and was taking too long. I found it was actually a lot faster to use the composite stripper disc in the angle grinder to clean most of it up first, and then use the sandblaster for the nooks and crannies. The area behind the brace was pretty badly pitted, as can be seen in Fig. 12. However, I picked up a tube of POR-Patch with my last POR-15 order, which is basically a thicker POR-15 in a tube, to be used as a filler material. It dries rock-hard, and I decided this would be a great time to give this stuff a try. After soaking the fender in MetalReady for 15-20 minutes, I rinsed it off, blew it dry with the air hose and then got started on the rust repair. I taped some plastic (something the POR-Patch wouldn't stick to) on the front side of this hole, then taped some thin cardboard over it for support (Fig. 14)...and then coated this pitted area liberally with the POR-Patch (Fig. 15). It's about 1/8" thick, and should give me something to work with when applying filler to the front side down the road.

Fig. 13  -  Here's the front side. I lightly tapped the sharp edges down and bent them to the inside, to give the POR-Patch something to hold onto.

Fig. 14  -  The front side of the fender, prior to using the POR-Patch. I covered the rust hole with plastic...something the POR-Patch wouldn't stick to...and then taped a thin piece of cardboard over it for support.

 
Fig. 15  -  ...and here's the back side after the POR-Patch application. It's about 1/8" thick here. This stuff has the consistency of slightly watery toothpaste, and is fairly easy to work with.

After I patched the fender and it was drying, I then used the POR-Patch to fill in the seam between the floorpan and firewall, and also to fill the seam along the sides of each floorpan (Fig. 16). (You can also see the flash rust that appeared when the MetalReady was rinsed off and the metal was drying.) When I'd cleaned out the factory seam-sealer along each side, I could see daylight, due to some sloppy welding in this area. The POR-Patch should take care of that. My next day at the shop will be spent completely coating the whole floorpan area with POR-15, then topcoating it with paint, and then hitting the seams again with a standard brushable seam-sealer. I definitely shouldn't have to worry about seam rust or leakage!