Re: Restoring Rusty - The 40 Yard Dash
 

snuck out for a few in between kids piano lessons and Halloween haunted house rehersals

a little wire wheel, a little acid, a little more wire wheel, and a bit more acid and it will be all clean and rust free

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Did you decide which way to go with it?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Well since I already am a proud owner of sum JB Weld (if I can find it) I will stick on some backing plates behind the round and oval holes and fill them even with bondo, then shoot the entire dash, both sides, back and belly with my favorite paint over rust primer, and then go with the textured spray paint in black

chose not to go with fiber glass since it would mean I would need to cover the entire dash otherwise there would be mole hills where I attempted to cover the holes, and that just sounds like too much work, even for The Greg.

going for good enuff for goberment work type of result !!!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Cool, looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I've used a similar spray paint, I think it's from Rustoleum, they call it "hammertone". It hides flaws well and looks good.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I can't wait to see it

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

hid in the garage for a little while in between, Greg, Greg, and Daddy, Daddy... I swear I just want to be left alone sometimes to wrench, look I aint hurtin' no body so just leave me alone

someone mentioned they would like to see the dash installed to make a decision on which finish to pick, and I thought that made sense so today I popped it back in, and I must say this here might could work

first you will notice how much that dash bar covers, it covers both AC vents and two oval holes right off the bat

and really when you is sitting down in the seat all you see is the two oval holes in front of the passenger and well maybe that third oval hole on the ramp to the gauges

I'll share some big shots then some close ups

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

ok here are some close ups so we all can see the four round holes section, the six pac hole section, the defrost/heater vents, and the in dash speaker area

so the plan is to cover the speaker with a 4x10 speaker grill of some sorts

now were there defrost vent covers in 1974 or did they come into play in the 80s?

and I aint gonna worry about those 1/4 inch square holes where the clippy clips go cause it's hip to be square!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and here's a looksie from the outside looking in, or as I like to call it the Pebble Beach Concours de Elagance Judges View

whats up with that raised square section above the steering column, thanks a lot GM, The Greg almost pulled this off

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

You have solidified my thought regarding doing this to my truck so thanks a lot lol.

I'm wondering what that bump above the steering wheel is for myself.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

wondering myself if the skeleton from the 81 and up is the same, as mine is pretty toast.
wonder if a little time spent with a body work hammer and dolly could flatten out that square patch
by the way i vote black.with or with out texture is chefs choice.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Pretty interesting!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Are you going to have it covered? Leather maybe?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I like it. Luckily years ago I pulled a pad from a truck and it was in great shape. Now I really like the looks of yours. Dog gone it.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

The factory 4x10 speaker grill would work pretty good there.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

would you know who sells one, I recon my truck didn't have one by the time I got it, perhaps it disintigrated in the sun, and I think same would go for any used ones in the wreckin' yards

Re: Restoring Rusty - Pick N Pull 50% Off Sale
 

this is where I'll be trick or treating tomorrow

we will be hunting for seat foam cushions, since LMC Truck wants $480 bucks for a new set

Now wait a minute, is there really a difference between the 73-80 pads and 81-87 ones?

LMC Truck says the 81-87 ones have molded openings for the seat belts to come through, is that it?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I think he means the grills for the cab corner speakers. The dash "grill" was molded into the pad.

There's a couple of them on ebay. Don't know what your hole spacings are, or if they match.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SPEAKER-GRIL...-/111584815167
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-1980-Che...-/231653724751

Looking back at your pictures, that looks more like a 6x9 opening. You can just get a generic 6x9 speaker grill. There's a zillion kinds of those out there.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/64-77-Rear-D...VRQhQX&vxp=mtr

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/elAAAO...QX/s-l1600.jpg

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

That's the one I was thinking of. Cheap and easy, but tall.

That would look better than the one I was thinking of.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

me likes, but it comes up as a 6x9, oh well might could work

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

this one was nice, but dummy over here allowed the eBay auction to expire, cheap too $6.99 (I liked the low profile) and it said it was a 4x10

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Wow that dash is gonna be sweet! I had no idea all that metal was behind the foam. I may mess with my old crusty pad since its sitting in the corner after I scored a NOS one.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so found a seat in good nick from an '85 (that should knock off 11 years of farts off mine) for $25 bucks, take that LMC Truck, either this will be the deal of a century or it won't fit, ha ha

the donor seat looks better in pics than it was, it was pretty crusty, also it wasn't gray but a faded blue color

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I took my time with some basic tools and decided to take the burlap like backing material also, I just used some old pliers to undo the hog clips

Re: Restoring Rusty - Have a Seat
 

some more pics of the extraction process - maybe we will refer to these pics later when we put ours back together

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and here it is at home posing for a close up photo shoot

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I have no idea what LMC was talking about this '85 seat has no holes in the foam for the seat belts

hey check out that part number

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

That isn't the original seat for that donor truck every truck I have been in from 81 up has holes in the seat for the seat belts to pass through. And from the pics it looks like the interior colour for that truck was a tan colour judging from the door panels.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Nice find. I have a late model seat just like that from the donor truck my daddy had. It was one of the first things I swiped. I took the complete seat.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

nice, did it bolt right up?

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

on the way home from the junk yard, we swung by Blue Collar Supply or as I like to call it the Dash Pad Hospital

I love Mom n Pop shops like this, and this is like Home Depot for you know blue collar guys, not your neighborhood yupies pretending to be craftsman, ha ha (myself included when I do honey do lists for the wife)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so we splurged .50 cents on four 3x12 (approximately) strips of 22 gauge bandages for the dash, and since for that price I felt like I was robbin the place I decided to buy some sheet metal sheers ($20 bucks), first pair I ever bought, wasn't gonna cut these with my trusty angle grinder, found out that indeed they are directional, ie what some folks call right handed vs left handed, I got the ones with the arrows pointing straight and merging to the left as if to get on the freeway, lol

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

we came home victorious, the sun was shinning and the birds were singing (or so I think) I couldn't hear them over the neighbors lawn mower - ha ha

we once again removed the dash pad (or what is now left of it) the skeleton I guess, and we made a list of tools we will need for this operation

Sharpie
Scissors
Penne Pasta box (though any pasta box will do)
and Jay Bee Weld
all the C clamps we got (not shown)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

our mission is to use the cardboard to make templates for cutting the sheet metal patches out of, ready, get set, go

first up was the Six Pack - we drilled some 1/8th inch holes in the patch for extra stickability, and so that the extra JB Weld goop had somewhere to go

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

then it was on to the Fab Four holes

same process as before, rinse, lather, repeat...

the magnets I am using are stupid strong, they are from an old computer hard drive, they will crush your thumb if you are not careful, ask me how I know

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

you can skip this part, these are the pics of all the 11 patches (well minus one tiny little square one, I missed one and had to make it last minute as I was glueing them on - hey full disclosure)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

yes I decided to patch the little stupid square holes too, what can I say I'm anal

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I give you the 11 ... [oops] 10 patches

for sanity reasons, I decided to double up with some patches so that one patch could span / cover two holes

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

anybody still with me, ok good, then it was time to make a mess

not sure if using a brush is the most efficient / effective means of spreading this JB Goop but maybe it will work

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

prepare to use every thing you got, C Clamps, magnets, heavy stuff to weigh things down with