[conoco]

full Disclosure: This is my first attempt at actually contributing something to the board. I hope it helps someone and sorry if it is not as organized as some others who have posted builds. Thanks again for all the help



First I would like to start by saying thank you to everyone here on the board that had great advice and direction with some of the question I have had or problems I ran into doing this work. This forum is hands down one of the best tools I have to use.

Pro's

-When taking off all the massive amount of spot welds the fastest and cleanest thing for me was to use my PLASMA Torch on them. I did this by setting my torch at (5 AMPs) which is the lowest it will go, I then tilted the torch at a slight angle and very quickly kept pulling the trigger. You can see the penetration and you will not blow through the back side if you do it quick. I spent a combined 10min for all the spot welds throughout this project. I did the first one with a spot weld cutter and laughed!! I was not going to spend that much time per spot weld.

When preping for plug welds do yourself a fovor and get a combo FLANGE and Hole Punch Tool, amazon has them for 30 bucs and it is worth the money. Everything looks so clean and easy.

-I ordered all my parts from Ray Buck, Floor pan, pillars, inner and outer rocker and cab floor supports. All the pieces fitted almost perfect for my truck. There was very little modifications I needed to do to make sure everything fit. I was lucky from what I have read and seen. I hope the other side is the same.



-Tig welding was awesome, I had no warpage and everything went smooth



- Having everything out and disassembled, allowed me the ability to coat everything with sound deadener and also spray all the areas with rust prevent paint and also replace all the silicon sealer while everything was open. It was well worth it and I recommend anyone going this far into the work, to take a couple extra hours and prep things and make it fit right. It will benefit tremendously in the future.



Cons

-Measurements were key, but I took a lot of them. I measured everything before I cut anything out. I took measurements that I thought at the time were pointless but ended up being useful when the new pieces went it. It was time consuming and I had to make sure my notes were organized.



- Once I cut everything out I began to get side tracked with wanting to replace and fix everything now that I had access, with the fender and everything else removed and wide open. I had to stay on task and finish everything in order, but it was worth it. I can tell you if I would have had to replace my heater blower motor with the fender and everything on it would have been a complete pain in the ass. Also replacing the heater core with the bench seat out made life so much easier!



-I replaced all my body mounts after I had made all the cuts. I should not have done that. I should have done the mounts 1st, before anything else. Luckily it worked out for me.



- Cleaning, painting, prepping everything seemed endless. I wire wheeled EVERYTHING. inside of the fender, front and back of the wheel well, around the entire front passengers side frame, under the cab on the pass side, radiator mount SO MUCHHHHHH! but it again was worth it and everything looks new and clean, it was a lot of damn work and I was dirty as **** for a couple days even though I wore a Tyvek suite and googles.









Back story, like many other the rockers were shot on my 72. It wasn't until I cut out the outer rocker that I knew (like everyone else) that my inner rocker was also shot and I would also need to replace the A and B pillars along with the cab supports. After I cut everything out, I really thought I just bit off more that I could chew, as this was my first time doing any type of body work. I thought I had just ruined my truck and it would sit in my garage from this point on. Luckily, I took my time and have what I believe is a great finished product. I know there are many different ways to do this job, some of my steps may be wrong, but I am very happy with it. I also used FLEXSEAL on every area that water would possibly leak into, or around any exposed area. Most of the factory sealer is long gone and I thought it would be a perfect time to replace all of that now. Then everything was sprayed with rust prevent paint along with the rubberized sound deeding on top. Now to the driver’s side!! I hope it last for another 50 years!!



While I have the fender, bumper ,grill, and everything else taken off I decided to sound proof the back side of each one with sound proof coating, I also put the sound proof coating on the top and bottom of the inner wheel well and also the radiator support, I also sprayed under where the cowl will be installed and under the entire cowl. I then sprayed it with acrylic enamel on some of the spots because I preferer the shine in some of the areas. Other areas I left as the flat black color. I am hope that the sound proofing on this parts helps out a little bit and also limits the vibration a little.



The interior of the cab I will be using lizard skin. I will also be going all the way up to the gas tank line with it and sure that will help also. All in all it took me 22hrs combined to complete this one side. I know that is probably a really long time but I enjoyed it and learned so much. Most of the time was spent sanding and wire wheeling the different parts for paint and sound deadening. Again, thank you to the many people for all your help throughout this process. I would still be working on it had I not had everyone's expertise.



One of the things that took the most time was making sure all my lines matched. Not only the doors but the hood.



While I had the fender and everything else off, I also replaced my heater blower motor and I also replaced the heater core. I tried to replace everything I could possibly replace with my truck wide open and easy access. That is also what took a lot of time, but I think it was well worth it and will not be a headache anymore in the future.



Last thing- I know everyone is partial to MIG welding for this type of work. I decided to TIG welding everything. I butt welded everything and I was able to do it in 1.5 inch runs. For me this was faster than a hundred spot welds that I have seen be completed from other people doing the same work. I think it looks great being MIG welded. I just preferred the cleanliness of TIG welding and the fact that TIG welding absolutely makes you fit everything close to perfect. There is little room for error so I figured if all the fitment for the various pieces were good enough to TIG weld then I was close to how it needed to sit. It forced made me take my time on the cuts and grinding to get the fit that was needed. Here are the weld setting I used in case anyone needs them.



I hope this helps someone doing this job for the first time. I was very nervous at times and thought I really screwed my truck up at a couple points. Just stick with it, take your time, think about how things go together and try to visualize everything. I must have taken my door and fender off 20 times a piece throughout this process. But all the lines are great so it was worth it.



Prime weld 225 Tig/stick welder

61 amps ( I used foot pedal and also trigger finger depending on the location) DCEN

Pulse settings- 1.5 Pulse per Second- 30% back ground amps and 90% base

# 6cup - gas lens ( Gas lens gave me the ability to stick my tungsten out over an inch while I did plug welds and hard to reach areas!!

12 CFH for everything

-1/16th seriated tungsten

.45 ER70s-6 filler wire and also 1/16th silicon bronze in some locations.