52 chevy pickup

[bluetweedsuit]

Hello everyone! New to the forum here and thought I would show a little of my car life and my current project

Here is my 73 mini. It's my summer daily. Bought the car in 07. It was in pieces and much larger project then I had anticipated. I rebuilt the motor. Put on a new front end. Painted it. new interior. Built a adjustable front suspension for it. Installed a wideband. It has been a great car. Raced it in autocross and spent many summer nights cruising around in it.





Still own the mini. Its getting to the point were It needs some more love. Couple years a go I bought a 76 bmw 2002. Cut the coils and drove it around for a while. After about 6 months I started wrenching on it. Wanted to fuel inject it and turbo but the car was in rough shape and was needing a truck. Once I bought a truck my dad's grace had run out and said I need to get ride of something. Sadly I tried to sell it but no takers. Ended up parting out most of the car to another enthusiast and sent the rest of it to a scrap yard.





All to make way for this beauty!





These are just after I purchased it. Pretty much complete. Had a registration. Front end was seized. Floors were swiss cheese but all in all pretty nice for 500. Plans are to make it a usable truck with air ride and original patina. So first things first I bought I minty 86 olds calais. No pics of this other than my instagram ones but I can't figure out how to get those off the internet. It had no key and no carb. Bought it for 300 took the frame and sold the rest of the car for 500. Could have got more but one guy wanted it all and I didn't want to store everything. So as of now I have just been working on welding up the new front clip. Couldn't find any internet help so I have just be going one step at a time.

Built a jig which would hold the clip and allow me to adjust all 4 corners to get the right hight and level.







And that is pretty much as the truck sits now. Hoping to get the front all boxed in this week so I can start putting the 4 link in.





Also bought some tools to help along the way. Scored a old bandsaw for 100. Variable speed so I can cut steel. Nice not always having to use cutting discs.



And a miller diversion TIG I bought a while back and built a stand out of old bed frames for.



I have got everything I need to continue working for a bit so now its just finding time to get out to the shop.

[Bronzit]

So stoked for this.
This summer I had helped a buddy with his 46' Ford project. Very similar to your plans, too. Original patina and bags.
Still searching for the right truck for me.

[milano_red]

Sweet!

I think I want to build an old American truck next!

[Nick475]

dis gon be real good

[parttimeprojectionist]

super fucking rad ewan mcgregor!

[P78]

sweet

[guglielmos]

They are large, but they are also sold.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

This is relevant to my interests.

[Evil Panda]

Cant wait to see where this goes. Love the Mini.

[A4crn]

Sick!! A patina'd truck on bags is at the top of my wish list, subbed

[bluetweedsuit]

Got out to the shop for a few hours today. Decided to try out some new products

First. Weld through primer. Part of the frame is going to be completely boxed in and just wanted some protection after grinding the rust away for weld.

This is what I used. About 18 dollars a can. Does it work? Not to sure. Did a test piece and it seemed to work after I realized I ran out of argon. Having a really problem with contaminates when welding. Welder been acting funny too so not sure if it's the welder or contaminates or the primer. I've been grinding away the rust and sandblasting my plates but it randomly bubbles up into a mountain. Very frustrating as this has to pass an out of province inspection once done and that will not look good. I'm going to do some maintenance on the mig before I weld again just to make sure that it is not part of the problem.

Also tried this.

Rust converter. Only put one coat on before I left and it seemed to work almost instantly. Turns the rust to a sort of blackish grey coating on the steel.

As for actual work. Continued welding the new clip on and boxing in the frame. Going to have to grind out some of the welds that will be visible once done and try to get them looking nice a smooth. I would like to try to tig most of it once all the plates are on just so it looks nice and tidy.


Here's the bottom section. Required I little more forming to fit properly



Added a layer of weld through.




And welded it on. You can see were I was having issues. So disappointing.


Didn't get as much done as I wanted to but hopefully I can just figure out what is causing the inconsistent welds.

[zeissxbxr]

dis gon be real good

[bluetweedsuit]

So I have been getting some work done. So first things first I started trying to get the MIG running better. I had run out of argon so I went and got the bottle filled. He had told me to get pure argon and the guy at the place also said pure was better. So I got the bottle filled then went home and did some investigating and found out you are suppose to use 75/25. So I went back to the store and got the bottle exchanged. Then I changed the liner and the tip. It welds much nicer now. A lot less spatter and a lot more consistent.





Also did a little TIG practice on some thinner stainless. Still not very good and haven't been able to put much practice time in.

Still learning and figuring things out. Want to try to get just a good couple hours with some practice pieces but it is always hard to give up project time.

Weld through primer seems to work pretty well. To me seems like a pretty weak primer protection wise but its better than bare metal. It also makes spatter removal easier. Anyways finished up welding the outside plates. Starting to feel really solid. Getting quicker at the whole process

Make the template


Transfer it and cut it out


To bend these guys to fit I just tacked the flat piece on. Then heated it up and bent it. Then using a scrap piece of pipe as a form, re-heated the steel and beat it with a hammer. Then welded it up




Removed the old battery tray, which is under the floor. It had obviously be "repaired" before.


I heard that using copper as a backing would allow you to just fill the holes with weld and not have to cut little circles to fill the space. So I found a piece of copper pipe. Flattened one end. And cleaned it a little bit to prevent contaminants.


Then I plugged up all the old holes in the frame. Copper worked great. The piece got super hot quite fast. Just have to remember to use a good glove.


Also had to weld the nuts for the side step mount on the inside of the frame as they are now longer accessible due to the frame being boxed in.


Used the rust converter stuff on the inside of the frame. Seemed to work super quick. Turned the rust like a black/grey, but then after a day turned white. Not sure if it really worked. I gave it a good brush and then a coat of the weld through primer. And to end the day got one of the inside plates cut out, trimmed and tacked on.


And one "artsy" photo from my wife


Its that time of year when I have to start bundling up to go in the shop. Nights are starting to get close to 0 degrees celsius. Shop doesn't offer warmth but keeps you dry and out of the wind. Pumped to get this thing back to a roller but finding time seems to be my biggest problem.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Man I had no idea about that with the copper.

[bluetweedsuit]

Man I had no idea about that with the copper.

Yeah it worked great. I also turned the amperage down and the feed up a bit. Made it easier to fill.