1971 Cheyenne "One For the Road"

[thirdstreettito]

Looks good! Keep goin!

[Clyde78]

I can proudly say that I was the first passenger to almost die in this contraption. Yay!

It's coming along great, man. I'm going to honor you with the official title of "Turd Polisher". I guess you can do that after all

[67mater]

did you remove the roof markers? if so I think they are the same and need a lense. let me know if you have em and would sell. thanks and looks good! you might be welding a little cold; did you see good penetration through the backside?

[68GMC454]

ey thats not to bad of rust for utah.. i was looking at one that needed about ever body panel replaced, then i looked and saw it had almost no floor left. he wanted 500.00 for it, not really sure what was left to use on it..lol
your truck looks good..

[19723DR]

Originally Posted by thirdstreettito

Looks good! Keep goin!

Thanks, I'll keep goin' 'till it's done and on the road.

Originally Posted by Clyde78

I can proudly say that I was the first passenger to almost die in this contraption. Yay!

It's coming along great, man. I'm going to honor you with the official title of "Turd Polisher". I guess you can do that after all

Die!?! We weren't going to die! Maybe just take out a tree. As far as the turd thing, I am positive there is a diamond in the rust. I really wasn't expecting this turd bucket to be fast. I did put new brake pads on and they'd been tested that day, promise. Maybe we should've gotten a better seat rather than using a bucket.

Originally Posted by 67mater

did you remove the roof markers? if so I think they are the same and need a lense. let me know if you have em and would sell. thanks and looks good! you might be welding a little cold; did you see good penetration through the backside?

Yes, I still have the marker lights, I pulled the lenses off, I've not decided whether or not to keep them. I've never seen a truck with marker lights slammed, other than a dually. As far as the welding, I had pretty good penetration for the most part. I'll try cranking up the heat on the other side and see if I get better results.
I know LMC sells the marker lights for $10 each on page 156.

Originally Posted by 68GMC454

ey thats not to bad of rust for utah.. i was looking at one that needed about ever body panel replaced, then i looked and saw it had almost no floor left. he wanted 500.00 for it, not really sure what was left to use on it..lol
your truck looks good..

Thanks, I feel lucky, it could always be worse. The best part about the floor is I'm half-way done.


If you've noticed my pictures aren't coming up, my server will be down until sometime Monday.

I got my airbags and valves on Thursday. I spent Friday and Saturday cleaning up the frame and rear suspention and painted it black, I spent today cutting the drivers side rockerpanel and floor. I'll post pictures as soon as the server comes up.

[19723DR]

Here are some pictures of my airbags and valves, I bought them from airbagit.com:





They are AIM 2600's with 3/8 gold valves. I've used these bags on two other trucks and haven't had any problems. Plus they were buy two get two free. I'll mount those a little later on.
I also got the core support and rear frame cleaned up and painted. I call it rattle can magic.

[19723DR]

Sunday I did some work on the drivers side. I cut the rockerpanel off and cut the floor out.
The rockerpanel is in really good shape, just everything underneath is gone.












Flinstones, meet the Flinstones. . . .


This weekend I'll work on putting it back to together.

[Clyde78]

Fred Flintstone in da house y'all! You'll make it all better, I'm sure. My farmer floor board job on my truck is still doing great. It looked a lot like this one on the driver's side.

[big_al_71]

That is a great build you have going on here. Man I wish I had the time to learn how to weld.

[19723DR]

Originally Posted by Clyde78

Fred Flintstone in da house y'all! You'll make it all better, I'm sure. My farmer floor board job on my truck is still doing great. It looked a lot like this one on the driver's side.

Feel like some cartoons Saturday? 'Turd Polisher' over and out.
All kidding aside, Your truck turned out great and I'll be willing to bet that you have one of the only trucks that have zinc coating.
Congrats on your new ownership on life. Not many people have been through what you have been through. I look forward to many more years of hanging out.

Originally Posted by big_al_71

That is a great build you have going on here. Man I wish I had the time to learn how to weld.

Thanks a lot, I have learned how to weld by trial and error. After all, don't they say that there is no sucess without failure....

[msgross]

wow, lots of panels....

you know that they make a complete floor that only requires half as much welding that you have done so far!

keep up the good work...

[19723DR]

I've been really busy this week, at work I say. But I did manage to get some progress on the Cheyenne this past weekend.

I pulled the gas tank, I started with the drivers side door, I moved on to the front cab support, rocker pannel, the kick pannel--that's one good thing that's gone right.

Once I had that done, I cut the cab corner off and welded in the new one. I took a picture of the inside, it seems that I am getting fairly good penetration.

Tonight I put the new gas tank in and started it up to make sure it runs. It started right up and ran like a champ.

I need to order my new front brackets, I am not going with AIM indurstries because their brackets suck. They do have good products such as their bags and valves. Their brackets just aren't up to new technologies. This time I am going with lower cups so that I will sit as low as possible.

[19723DR]

MORE:

[19723DR]

Originally Posted by msgross

wow, lots of panels....

you know that they make a complete floor that only requires half as much welding that you have done so far!

keep up the good work...

I didn't think the damage was going to be this bad, I'm keeping this project of the low $$$ side. I checked out your build and I see you choose to go with the entire cab floor. That should unboubtedly get rid of the rust. Keep up the good work, I'm gonna keep checking on yours to watch your progress.

[67mater]

I took a picture of the inside, it seems that I am getting fairly good penetration.

Excellent!! looks good. Iwish I had done a full floor, actually a different cab would have been in order.

[msgross]

you're making great progress, I figure that $400 for a floor vs. $250 in patches is worth it. I had rust growing under the main supports and big holes in the rear corners that don't have patches made... I also wanted to keep something original to my truck (THE CAB) since everything else is aftermarket or donor parts. getting a better cab is worth the $500-600 that some guys pay, if you can find one and it's in good shape.

Did you use a patch on the front A-pillar (in front of the rocker)? I have the area with the big fender mounting hole but the rest is gone.

I'm actually using a lot of your pictures so that I can see how it goes back together! nice work..

[19723DR]

Originally Posted by 67mater

Excellent!! looks good. Iwish I had done a full floor, actually a different cab would have been in order.

Thanks.
I should have known how these trucks start to snowball! The parts truck that I was using, the cab was worse than this one. I'm not turning back now because the floor is already done. Hind-sight is 20/20.

Originally Posted by msgross

you're making great progress, I figure that $400 for a floor vs. $250 in patches is worth it. I had rust growing under the main supports and big holes in the rear corners that don't have patches made... I also wanted to keep something original to my truck (THE CAB) since everything else is aftermarket or donor parts. getting a better cab is worth the $500-600 that some guys pay, if you can find one and it's in good shape.

Did you use a patch on the front A-pillar (in front of the rocker)? I have the area with the big fender mounting hole but the rest is gone.

I'm actually using a lot of your pictures so that I can see how it goes back together! nice work..

I agree with you, the whole floor is worth the money. The rear cab supports only had surface rust (lucky for Utah). The cab corners had only small rust through, with a little bubbling on the spot welds.

Yes, I patched on the front A-pillar, but I did keep the part where the bolt hole for the fender goes. I had a problem on the other side lining up with the fender properly, it seems that these patch pieces aren't perfect. They are terrible!
So I decided to cut the rest of the rust through out and cut the patch piece and weld it in. If you are going to cut the whole thing off make sure to use a template to ensure that everything will line up after wards.
On the front A-pillar, there is the floor, kick pannel, lower support that all have to bolt together, make sure they will all line up before you weld the rocker pannel and you will be ok. Also make sure you test fit your door to make sure the rocker pannel is lined up. I had to do it twice before everything lined up.
measure twice--weld once

[msgross]

I think i'm gonna keep the fender hole as well then. They line up and are rust free, it's the area behind it that's missing, if you look at my build thread then you will see what I mean.

[19723DR]

Originally Posted by msgross

I think i'm gonna keep the fender hole as well then. They line up and are rust free, it's the area behind it that's missing, if you look at my build thread then you will see what I mean.

I do see what you mean. Wow.

Yeah, when you say everything, you mean EVERYTHING behind it. At least when you are done, you will be 100% rust free!
I noticed you put your unistrut to good use as well.

[19723DR]

I had a half day off on Friday and I decided to make a relief cut in the back of the rocker pannel. It seemed to have a curve inward in the back.

I simply made a peice welded it in, ground it off and sanded it smooth.

[19723DR]

I also did some work on the cab corners and small dents in the cab.

[msgross]

unistrut?

[19723DR]

Originally Posted by msgross

unistrut?

At least that's what sparkys call it. You used a deep slotted unistrut to brace your cab. I used an old piece of shallow I had layin' around. We use them to suspend pipes in the ceilings. I've also used them to make shock relocators.

[19723DR]

Today I spent working on body work, still working on little dents on the back of the cab, I always forget what a pain the small stuff is.
I primed the back of the cab and that's about it. I then picked up some oven cleaner and sprayed down my engine and rear end, gunk came off--that stuff works pretty good.





Next weekend I will begin bodywork on the bed. I'll have to flip it over and see what the damage is on that.

[msgross]

oh ok, didn't know the name of them, thanks. I used those to convert my boat trailer into a flatbed. Allowed me to bolt the deck right down to it... only $13 for a 10 ft section at Home Depot...

cab corners look great.