Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Had purchased a few 3/4 ton hubcaps that were rough and had surface rust. I decided to remove the rust before I begin the restoration process on the hubcaps. Back in one of the other builds "68 Second Chance" I tried the process using a Home Depot storage tub and Oxalic acid to remove rust from a set of seat tracks and a few other items. The process is inexpensive and simple solution.

How I learned about the process is I was reading an article about a gentleman that restores old bicycles. Somewhere in the middle of the build he proceeded to strip the bicycle down to the frame. He then put some Oxalic acid and water in a large tub and threw the bicycle frame in for a few days. Later in the week he pulled the frame out of the tub and all of the rust was removed from the frame and it exposed the frames red paint and all decals still present. Prior to putting it into the tub it the frame had no hint of what color it was.

Oaxlic acid is used for items like bleaching wood so it is available at home improvement stores, I purchased mine from Amazon for about $13 for a few pounds. When using it I just sprinkle a few caps full and add water. When pulling the part out of the solution I wear latex gloves, then proceed to was or power wash the part to rid it of any remains of the solution.

Pic 1 - 5 3/4 ton hubcaps
Pic 2 - shows the rusted backside and the bottle of Oaxlic acid
Pic 3 - shows the 26 gal tub with a little bit of Oaxlic acid sprinkled in
Pic 4 - hubcaps inserted into solution
Pic 5 - putting the lid on and allow the solution to go to work

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

This morning I went out to the garage to pull the lid off of the tub with the hubcaps soaking in the Oaxlic solution. Below is a picture of when I inserted them into the tub and another photo taken this morning about 24 hours later.
The solution is working and my best guess is that the hubcaps will probably be free of rust by the weekend. As I go through this process I will take photos everyday until the rust is gone.

After I get them out of the solution and cleaned off I will go through the process of working the metal to get any of the dents and dings worked out the best I can. Then I will probably do a chemical strip of the paint with a citrus stripping solution I buy from Home depot. Then I will attempt to cut out the centers of two of the hubcaps and roll the edge over to make it look right. After all of that if all is good I will finally move onto the paint process.

If anyone knows of a good link to show the process doing the center portion cut out to turn them into a 4x4 hubcap.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Did not work on the K20 this weekend. Did some planning and parts collecting. Going to be pushing to paint the back of the cab and back of the bed front panel so I can install the truck bed back onto the truck while I am finishing the body work and getting ready for paint. Going to try and paint the back of the cab to the top roof separation line and to the rear door jambs. Then shoot the front of the bed panel portion that faces the cab. After it is back on it should be easy to tape of those areas so I can paint the rest in small chunks. Doors and hood painted off the truck, fenders painted on the truck. Shoot the rest of cab while I have those off. Then shoot the bed outside and Raptor line interior bed to wrap up.

This is not the best way to do a paint job but it works for me in my small make shift spray both. Also I am using a single stage paint so color sanding and buffing paint will really make this a nice paint job.

Here is an updated photo four days into the Oaxlic acid soak with the hubcaps. I would think maybe a couple more days and all of the rust will be gone. Notice the color of the mix has changed to an yellow tint. I also moved the tub outside the back of the garage since it was getting in the way where it was.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Nice metal work! Crazy how much of the rust is coming off hubcaps.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Had a set back on the truck this weekend, found pinholes in the roof. Trying to figure out the best way to tackle this repair. I have posted the picture on the standard forum here to see if I can get a few suggestions since I have never had to do this type of repair before. Anyways here are pictures of the area to repair, stay tuned i will be back with a plan shortly.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Never seen that before I would think cutting a used cab roof off another beat up cab would be quicker and cheaper but iam no expert

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Finally got around to cutting out the pin holed area a day or so ago. After removing the piece it took a bit to get all of the tar paper off and as much of the tar that was stuck to the bottom layer of metal. What I saw did not leave in a very good mood thinking that the roof might be shot or that I would at least need to cut the whole top skin off and order a repop skin and replace.

Went back inside and started doing research on buying that part and what was the best way to tackle the project. After a day or so of reading a few articles and forum post I remembered that someone was taking about they thought their roof was toast also when they opened it up. Then when they got further into the cleanup stage found that the lower layer of metal that looked rusted was actually the tar with surface rust from upper layer stuck to it. So I went out in to the garage and sprayed a large section Rustoleum rust dissolver on the left side and let it sit over night. When I came back out the next morning it did nothing to the area, so I grabbed an old chisel that I use to scrap old gaskets and such and started to scrape the area and found that after the tar was taken off the metal underneath was as good as new.

Well that made me happy so I will proceed with repairing the area and treating the metal top and bottom best I can.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Over the weekend I jumped on Facebook Marketplace and found someone close by selling a couple of complete chopped off roofs. I never see these for sale and thought it might be worth the while to go take a look and possibly use one for this build. If not at least I can drill out all the spot welds and have the skins for future repairs.

Went over and decided to take the better of the two roof that the guy was selling. Before I could pay him said that he really did not need the other roof and I can have both for the same price. So we loaded up both of them. Got to talking trucks and he mentioned that he had a few more items and wondered if I would be interested in looking. We went back into the back shed on the property and he had several items that were very usable so I made and offer for the following parts and the deal was done.

So for $140 dollars I got these parts:
-2 Complete chopped off roof sections
-1 Behind the seat gas tank that has nothing wrong with it, he put a new one under frame
-2 Sets of visors
-1 Pushbutton AM radio and broken speaker
-2 Rear view mirrors
-1 Emergency brake handle and a few steering column brackets
-1 Complete heater control that was not broken
-2 Cab courtesy lights
-1 box of miscellaneous nuts, bolts, lighter, etc

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

So I decided to salvage what was good from the two cab tops I purchased last week. The one had a really clean and dent free skin so I thought I would attempt to remove the skin from the cab and save it for future use if needed. The repop skins are about $250 plus another $100 or so for freight. It took a while to drill out all of the spot welds and get it freed from the cab. After I removed it I knocked down any sharp edges then wrapped the edges in masking tape to avoid any sharp edges.

Then I brought the other cab top in the shop which was not as good as the first but the top skin portion I needed was not rusted up or dented so I marked out the same location as the cut out portion from the 71 K20. Cut it out with a 4.5 grinder and a metal cutting bit. Once it was cut out I did a little touch up grinding on the sides to get the fit ready for welding in. After that I flipped it over and cleaned of any debris that was there with a wire brush and gave it a good coat of Ospho to convert the surface rust with phosphoric acid.

Then I moved back up to the top of the truck to finish scrapping the tar solution off the metal and give it a full coat of Ospho and lay down some insulation that I use on the floors before installing carpet. Got the welder hooked up and did a few tacks and ran out of gas on the welder. To be continued after gas bottle is changed out.

Pict 1 - cab top number 1 skin removed and saving for future use
Pict 2 - under side of roof skin from cab top number 1
Pict 3 - Cab top number 2, cutting out replacement piece for 71K20
Pict 4 - Under side of replacement piece before Ospho treatment
Pict 5 - After treatment

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Well welding in the patch section to the top of the roof was an epic fail. Had a few places where I must have got it to hot and caused some severe shrinking of the metal so it created a few rolls in the panel.

Now is time to will move forward with plan B and use the entire skin that I removed from one of the cabs tops I bought last week. I am going to take my time and try to remove the upper skin in the rain gutter areas without drilling through. I will probably cut the back of just before the seem about 1/2" away from factory seem where it is ridgid and less prone to shrinkage. Hopefully all goes well and I can get back on track for painting back of cab and front of bed so I can re-install. I do always plan a few setbacks on every build but this is one I did not see coming.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

So this morning I was having trouble getting back to sleep so I decided at 4:30 to get out of bed and get out in the shop early before work and get the top of the cab skin removed. My number one goal was to not drill through the rain gutters. So with a knotted wire wheel I went around the edge of the roof gutter to cleanup and help expose the spot weld locations. Then I used a 5/16 drill bit to drill on top of the spot weld just a little bit. Then used a sharped chisel and hammer to pop the skin lose from the gutter. Then once I was all the way around the gutter section on both doors and front window area I just cut about two inches along the back before the factory seam. I will go back and do a measured cut and match that on the donor skin I saved from last week.

Took out the sacrificed wood chisel and scrapped off the rest of the insulation and tar that remained on the roof from the factory install. Then fired up the vacuum and tried to clean out all the areas and debris to get it ready for the next step. I have a few spots that I will need to grind down to make a flat matting surface for the new skin. Clean everything off and then give the inner top roof and structure a full coat Ospho as well as the underside of the top skin for rust treatment. I purchased a can of 3M cavity wax and a wand application kit. So I will be treating the A-Pillars and top of the inner roof locations just behind the windshield and door channels. What is leftover from the cavity wax will go into the rockers on each side down below.

Then plan now is to tack weld the skin onto the gutters and slowly tack weld the rear section of the roof skin to the area 1" from the factory seam. Paying attention to going slowly so I do not warp the metal like I did on the first repair.

Pict 1 - shows the carnage from removing the roof
Pict 2, 3, 4 - shows the inner roof sections

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

U don’t think it would have been easier to cut it down low on the 4 post I know the glass would have to come out

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

No, I am in this about 1.5 hours removing, cleaning and treating. Should take about another hour to install skin. Not having to mess with taking glass out and reinstalling is worth the effort. Also the rest of the structure is solid and had no signs of rust deterioration just some minor surface rust.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Again was able to get out in the garage this morning before work and get the measured cut done along the back of the skin. Used 3/4" 3m yellow masking tape butted to the rear section that starts to turndown and made the cut on the outer edge with a 4.5 grinder and a Diablo metal cutting blade. These blades seem to not heat the metal up as fast as the others.

When that was complete I cleaned up any cutting dust and blew it off with a few squirts of air from the compressor. Then put on a full coat of the Rustoleum Rusty Metal primer over the top of the cured Ospho coat. Did not put any primer over the areas that will be welded will be using the 3m weld through primer I purchased with the cavity wax.

After work I will be getting the insulation cut out and secured in the center of the roof, then treating the underside of the roof skin. Hopefully if all goes well I will get it tacked in and ready for finish metal work for tomorrow morning.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Really nice work!

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Thanks for the shout out. By the way I still intend to use the winch plate drawing you sent. Probably won't be working on that until paint is done. Thanks!

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looks good, I'm watching. How do you get to the back to weld it?

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I made the cut 3/4 of inch in front of the factory seam, that is where I will weld along the back. On the repair I first did I rushed the spot welds and warped it. Hopefully this time around I will go slower between each weld and skip about 12 inches to the next weld in a rotation fashion. Fingers crossed.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Finished getting cutting the used roof skin to match cab and treated the other side with Ospho. Installed the insulation to the top of the cab roof inner.
The product is from Home Depot has self adhesive backing with a layer of high density foam and a aluminum type outer backing, it is used for HVAC duct work. I use the product when I redo the floors in the trucks and put it down before laying the carpet.

Got everything fitted up and ready for spot welding sometime today when I get break from work. Will be working these spot welds slowly and planishing the welds as I go.
The new goal for the week is to have the back of the cab and front of bed front panel painted so I can mount the bed back on the truck.

Also had another K20 I bought about a week ago show up in town this weekend. I still have not had a chance to see it in person, hopefully by the middle of this week I will get a chance to go over and get it off of the trailer and do a once over. This truck is a 72 K20, Medium blue (510) paint, matching camper, Custom deluxe blue cloth trim, belt line trim, sliding rear window, tow hooks, tach, tilt, 350/350, posi-rear end truck. This truck comes with protecto-plate, build sheet and all of the maintenance records.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Was able to get about 75% done welding in the roof skin. So far no warpage at all on the skin. Taking my time and skipping around about a foot or so apart on spot welds. Pushing to wrap the rest of the spot welds sometime late morning or on my lunch break. This evening I will knock down the spot welds with my small air grinder with metal cutting blade and follow up with a 80 grit flap disk.

Once the metal is finished I will go through with a thin coat of filler over the weld areas and wrap up with self leveling seam sealer in the rain gutters.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looking good, keep it up.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Nice.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looking good!

Greg

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Thanks for all the positive comments. First time doing a roof skin, was not that hard to do just time consuming. When the repair is done I will have about 7-8 hours total into including cutting and drilling out the donor roof versus buying a reproduction skin. I guess it would be trading time for money. Again thanks for the positive comment.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Was able to finish up all the tack welds yesterday and this morning. Got out in the shop a bit this morning and finished knock all the spot welds down and got the first coat of filler to make a seamless blend.

Now I need to finalize the big parts order that I need to get this truck wrapped up. Try to push to get this thing done and out of the garage before the end of the year. Have several weeks of vacation coming up and will use most of the time to get this project wrapped up. Would like to start the year off with another project that will be getting an LS swap into it. That will be a new adventure to learn all the ins and outs of LS swapping into this era of trucks. As of right now I have one motor already in the garage and ready to go, and another that I bought that I still need to go pick up.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I’d like to try this my self can u sometime show your welder and your favorite tools I use to weld for coke but that was 40 yrs ago and it was heavy metal u must u a tig Eastwood has them but to many choices

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I have an old Lincoln Weldpak 100 amp mig welder that I have had for twenty years. I dont think they make this one anymore so if I was going to get the same type I would go with the Lincoln Weldpak 140. It plugs into regular 120 volt house socket and comes with everything to add the gas setup that you will need. I would suggest getting a unit that has at least two knobs, one for adjusting wire speed and the other to adjust temperature. Again I am no expert on welding I just do this as a hobby and this setup works for what I need it to do on these trucks.

Other items that I find helpful are the following:
-gas tank that is 75% argon 25% Carbon Dioxide
-Lincoln .025 Superarc wire - excellent for welding sheet metal on these trucks
-set of good quality Neodymium Disc Magnets - 1 1/2" to 2" excellent for hold metal where you want while welding
-set of panel clamps
-various vise grip clamps
-self tapping sheet metal screws for temporary holding a panel if needed
-set of wire snips to cut of wire to the proper length
-welding hood that is auto dim
-welding gloves
-weld through primer
-knotted wire wheel, flap disc, etc to clean up metal before welding

Photo 1 - is my setup
Photo 2 - is screen shot of Lincoln 140 WeldPak from Home Depot

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

It looks good, you made it look easy.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Thank u for taking the time to do that when do u sleep besides not often

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Great to see such progress.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

No problem glad to help where I can. I usually get two hours in the shop from 5am to 7am before I login to work. Then I try to get out there a little in the afternoon when I am done with work. Now I am starting a 9 day vacation from work so things are really going to move forward.......stay tuned

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

I'm definitely staying tuned......

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Spent all day Sunday in the shop working getting the roof and other areas ready for some primer. Kept on finding areas that needed attention so the usual routine, sand, hammer and dolly, then fill, then sand again. Hopefully by the end of the day on Monday I will be ready for primer or have some of it in primer. Then sand, sand, sand again.

Removed the front bumper and push guard so I can address the core support paint and the lower cups on the fenders. Have the seam sealer ready to go down on body seams and around the newly installed roof skin.

I only found one area that will need some attention with rust repair on this truck. The passenger front cab support had a small rust spot about the size of a quarter right next to the debris exit hole. I will cut out the area, treat the inside and patch with new metal and 3m under coating. The other supports are all in good shape and the cab mount bushings are brand new.

Last thing on cab body will be to finish stripping the drivers door I removed a while back. Exterior side has been completely stripped of al paint and some of the interior side paint still needs to be finished. Speaker hole has been completely fixed and mirror holes welded shut.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Looking good, it will have paint in no time!

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Wrapped up a few items on the bottom of the cab corners that need attention before painting. Used some UPOL glazing filler to fill a few areas that had some pin holes in the filler. Then went over a few of the repair areas with some spray can SEM high build primer to fill over some of the sanding scratches and catch any of the pin holes also. After getting this knocked down i will get things ready for primer hopefully.

Positioned the bed on the cart so I work on the front of the bed panel and get it ready for primer and paint while the other areas on cab were drying. Noticed that there was two areas that had grease pencil markings from the factory. The one on the passenger side top was a capital "D" in cursive, on the other side near the top was a "22-NL2". They were both done in black grease pencil underneath the Ochre paint. I noticed it because it was slightly raised and the paint was a little thin in that area. As I began to sand the paint with a DA and went over these locations it knocked the paint off and exposed the grease pencil markings even better.

This panel will need to be sanded down and about three or four small areas will need some glaze. The areas that have natural waves or indentations from spot welds I will leave alone and paint over. This is the way it came from the factory and that is the way it will stay in my build.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Got some of the high build on the back of the bed and lower section of cab. Went with the UPOL 2253 high build primer. Shot it with a turbine setup and literally had no over spray on the ground. Going to let it cure out over night in the heated garage and start blocking it out on Saturday.

Will probably go ahead and shot the rest of the back of the cab and roof section after I get it seam sealer laid down in the morning. While items where drying I forged forward with getting the drivers door ready for primer and paint. Stripped all of the felts and rubbers out of the door and working toward getting all of the door stripped down to bare metal. This door had several coats of paint, like three different colors. Had a hole in the lower door panel where speaker was installed, a few dings and one small spot in the bottom rear corner where rust was present. Cut out that section and replaced with new metal. Overall the down was in great shape with no filler areas or no major whamo's. Hinges where in excellent shape and the internal working parts all in good shape.

In getting the truck ready for primer I used a trick with the back window rubber I thought was posted by Joe's Junk at some point. By using a curved pick style tool and some rope/cord that I had available I worked the rope/cord under the rubber keeping it off of the metal so that primer could go under and making really easy to tape off.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Well I had a few set backs on the truck. Over a week ago when I was on vacation I had a goal to get the back of the truck and front bed panel painted. As it was winding down to the end of the vacation and the work on the truck I was able to sand down the first spray of high build primer on both areas. When I sprayed it either I had the settings wrong on my gun or I just did not thin the primer enough and it caused textured finish. As it was coming out of the gun I could see that it was a little textured but I thought it would flatten out. Well it did not and I basically had to sand it down which took another full day.

After that was wrapped up I thought I would take a break from the truck for a day or two and then attack it again. The mishap with the primer would not allow me to reach my goal on finishing before the end of my vacation. So I have always found when I get set backs or things don't go as planned like the roof skin replacement that I did not plan on, I take a day or so to let things simmer. Come back with another plan and forge on.

So last Friday I went a head and sprayed another coat of primer and this time I actually added some reducer to thin it out a little bit and it went on better but still not great. I let it set on the truck for 48 hours to let in cure in the heated garage so it would not gum up the paper like last time. Spent all day Sunday knocking down the primer with wet/dry 400 grit paper. After I was done with that I drove the truck out of the garage so I could do a really good job of cleaning up the shop and mopping the floor to get it ready for the paint.

Next up will be to start taping areas off and getting my plastic put down on floor and setting up my temporary plastic drapes to contain the area I am painting in as my make shift paint both. Once I get that done I will let it cure a couple days then get the bed back on the truck like I wanted to do over a week ago. Hopefully in the next few days I will be posting pictures of the paint on those areas.

Here are a few pictures of round two with the primer and a picture I stubbled across of a book written about the largest mule deer shot in Idaho. The picture has three or four mule deers strapped to the top of GMC truck in the snow.

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Awesome progress!

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

You may not have gotten to where you wanted but you still made progress. Cool pic of the GMC with California plates..

Re: 71 K20 Idaho Edition
 

Thanks I really appreciate the mention.

Thanks again, I did not catch the California plates until after posting it.

So yes I am making some progress but there always seems to be a degree of project creep happening and another issue I call the "Fight". What the Fight means to me is that these old trucks seem to fight back as you are trying to bring them back to life. Little things along the way will pop up and send you down another path or journey. Like this truck I have been trying to get the back of the cab and front bed panel painted so I can put the bed back on and use truck since it is a running functional truck. Every time I think I am ready to go something develops as a set back. Went through issues with having to replace the roof skin, then having to sand down the primer two separate times because of the texture. Went out this morning at 5 A.M. to tape, wipe down and get ready to shot paint this morning on cab and bed panel and found a newly added ding on the back of the cab side that was not there two days ago. Looks like somebody might have carried something into the garage and banged into it.

This left me with that Fight feeling again and started to really get me wondering why the truck was fighting me back. So I decided to just spray the bed panel a make a little progress and fix the ding and shot the cab another day. Also tried placing the largest order I have ever placed for parts for this truck and right in the middle of trying to do the check out the site crashed. Tried again for the next two days and site was down. Finally a week later I was able to place my order over the phone and the customer service rep honored the 40% discount that was available on Thanksgiving day. Tried to make a metal repair on the drivers door I have off the truck and the grinder's bearings went out. Grabbed the spare grinder I use as a backup and that one also gave up to the Fight.

Pict 1 - This is the Single stage paint I am using on this project ( UTech 500 )
Pict 2 - A pile of broken grinders
Pict 3 - Shows the dent and scratch in the cab side
Pict 4 - Bed panel right before shooting
Pict 5 - After a couple coats of paint, about 10 oz of paint used