I dropped the seat off this morning, went with a diamond pattern, removing the headrests. they couldnt use my vinyl but thats ok, I got it free years ago and at least now I can pitch it. they said that type of vinyl wasnt made to have stitches that show. someday I will recover my own seat, just to try it.
did some measuring and decided to take 9 inches out of the longbed. my reasoning is that the 41 wheelbase is 116 and the s10 longbed is 118. on fenix the bed gap was pronounced by the curve of the back of the cab.
IMG_8139 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8140 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8142 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
I will weld it up when I have a little more room inside, the front clip has to come back off to do the steering and the air pan mods.
the glass will be here tomorrow, aside from some glass setting tape I think I have everything I need now. the windshield frame was in pretty good shape, just a little bit of rust, so just like all my projects
here is a how to from someone who has never done it but thinks he can!
I separated the halves and got the glass out, pretty easy. the rubber gasket was just like stone, but luckily I had something like this on the last truck so I used a slicer blade on a grinder to just cut it down the center and it almost fell out.
IMG_8143 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
what happens is, water gets in between the glass and the steel and freezes, splittng it and exposing it to rust. only one side has cracks, and I have a good plan for welding it up. the water also rusts the joining bars, luckily they repop those.
IMG_8145 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8146 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8147 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8148 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
here are all the parts after wire brushing them and getting the cracks ready to weld. I need to pick up a narrow wire brush wheel to clean the inside channel where the glass goes, and some glass setting tape. the glass will be here tomorrow and I need it to know what size tape to buy. you can see the repop bars there on the pile. I think I will pick up a new center bar too, the rubber in the original one is pretty hard and the screws are snapping.
IMG_8150 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
edit: glass showed up today WITH rubber setting tape already on it! woot! not bad for $110 bucks
IMG_8182 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
got a little more done. since I didnt need to find glass tape, I went and picked up the center bar from bowtie bits. at the price, its cheaper than buying JUST THE RUBBER! and its billet aluminum so a little more durable than stainless. I stopped by homer derpo and got some channel cleaning tools, a wire brush for the drill (and a new drill!) which worked just ok. the hero was the wire brush for the grinder, holy crud that cleared out the.. crud. I also picked up a thin grinding wheel to cut the welds back after I made them
IMG_8198 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8196 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
I did the worst half first, the other half I didnt think was cracked turned out to be cracked after wire brushing. before and after pictures of the two ends
IMG_8193 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8194 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8192 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
IMG_8195 by
Joe Doh, on Flickr
I still need to squeeze the open ends shut a little more but the bottom is the right size. one thing, these things are stronger than you think, I was grunting like a caveman to get them shut that much. that means ice is a lot stronger than you think, stretching them out like this.
adding it up, it was $35 for the gasket, $36 for the connectors, $85 for the division bar and $110 for the glass. I spent about $50 on materials at homer derpo, and have about 3 hours in stripping it and welding it. I will have another hour in drilling out the stuck screws and another hour in assembly. so maybe $500 all in? all I have learned is that the rebuilt one is $750 and a freaking bargain haha. but hey! I did something new.