Jump to content

512 cid C series on Dakota chassis- build thread


Recommended Posts

The sides and front of the seat riser are welded in. The upper panel for the back is cut and mostly fit but I ran out of time and had to go open my shop. Supposed to be terrible weather this week...

 

I also got started making a template for the passenger toe board. 

4C19D5B5-8C1D-43A2-AECD-26F59BBE0A3B.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Jomani said:

Looking good. How did the weld through primer work for you? I have been tempted, but never tried it.

 

Thanks!

 

I meant to get some while I was at the welding supply but I forgot so I got some rustoleum cold galvanize at lowes while I was getting more spraypaint. It’s not the $20/can stuff and definitely not the good copper based stuff. 

 

I found it coated really nicely but came off exactly like the stuff on scratch off lotto tickets- a fingernail or coin takes it right off. It also is zinc so I didn’t want to burn and breathe any of it if possible even though I was welding outside. 

 

I did try striking an arc thru some of it and it worked OK but not half as good as clean steel. So I ended up using it only around the welds and where is would be sandwiched between the layers of steel. I cleaned most of it off through the holes becore welding. I would use it again for the backs of things like maybe a wheelwell patch on a more modern car that has inner fenders- spots that will be inaccessible for the purpose of painting but murphys law says water will get in. It just doesn’t have the strength to use where it could get scratched off by road debris.

Edited by Radarsonwheels
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It’s supposed to snow later and I am cringing at the salt on the ground in my driveway but it’s better than black ice!

 

The pedestal is finished and tied in to the rear wall of the cab. The under side of the central plate was painted before welding it in. I have to check the fit of the seat frame and see if I want to weld bolts sticking up to use as mounting studs or what. 

 

The corners behind the B pillars are not fully welded and I think I might lay a curved rod in one corner to make welding it in easier- there is a 1/8”ish gap there. All in all I really took my time with the fit ups of all the parts and the welding was much easier for it. 

 

I still have to tackle the odd openings in the corners around the rear cab reinforcement stampings (bottom pics) and make a filler plate for where I got a little overzealous clearancing the body and cab for the driveshaft. I cut the tombstone shape about four inches too high! 

 

Unfortunately this is all the easy part. If you all were wondering what the trans hump and firewall are going to look like I’m right there with ya! I have some ideas but I think I’ll just put it together a piece at a time.

4198B721-AAE6-4815-A9D7-36FAD6F45F4D.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got the back wall of the cab all sealed up and when I went to get some paint to protect all the fresh welds it started snowing. By the time I got all the new seams sprayed I could barely see the house across the street! 

 

Looks like mother nature wanted me to take a break ;)

 

E4173FA0-81E1-431F-849A-988E00A8FF0F.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven’t tried to re-gasket the cowl vent yet and my door seals are just scraps hanging on by a thread and my floor is coming along but still fred flintstone style. Somehow I still get moisture in the cab?!

 

Haha well these problems are all on the list to get done- the sheetmetal first, then the cowl vent gasket, then eventually the door seals. In the meantime I am contemplating floor treatments. Nothing has the comfort or luxury of a nice carpet over dynamat but for now I think I’m gonna go with a nice sheet of rubber flooring and no underlay. I ordered some tonite off amazon that looks like it will have a cool vintage work truck vibe and be easy to maintain. With my console I am able to do it in two sides that don’t meet in the middle and I measured just under 5’x3’ for each piece. Should give a finished look and some small amount of protection and insulation. 

 

27CF8BD2-8A81-4E2C-BA8F-58924176DE53.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made the console out of poster board and blue tape then flattened it out into the fewest pieces possible which ended up being three- two little guys and one big crazy shape. I don’t have a brake so I bent it by hand and with a body hammer over a plate clamped to my table.

 

It actually fit pretty well and only needed minor trimming before marking and cleaning the metal all up and welding it in. 

 

I have been lamenting my failure to tap the shifter mounting plate holes when I originally made it, thinking that I would need a helper underneath to install the shifter with nuts & bolts or maybe I could weld nuts under it all uncomfortable and out of position which makes for bad welds.

 

Duh! There is no reason the shifter needs to be flat on that plate! It just has to bolt down solid and flat to the mounting surfaces. 

 

 I am going to cut out rectangular lugs from heavy plate, drill and tap those 1/4”-20, and have a nice amount of metal to weld that’s away from the threads and sticking out from under the shifter body where I can see them to tack them in. Then after they thread through the lugs the bolts can stick down through the generous holes drilled in the existing plate. 

 

Anyway, the console is done and I can continue fabricating sheetmetal up to the firewall the next good day I get. 

 

It was 7° this morning but I had to go do to work till around 1:00 so by the time I got in the driveway it was a comfortable 10° with a balmy high of 14°. A 60° garage is sounding pretty nice right now but the world really disappears when you’re welding so it wasn’t too bad ;) 

933A5463-DB0C-409C-BAC0-937227C0792D.jpeg

BDA94442-E6C8-4B11-8962-AFAD7DCC4BFA.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really like your new seat. I will have to add some extra stitching to mine when I get it redone. Looks better than the old bus seat look. (Mine was actually owned by the school district for many years and the bottom of the seat has that ugly green/brown school bus upholstery)

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spent a couple hours today making patterns for the rest of the firewall and passenger toe board. 

 

I’m getting close to having it figured out in paper. I want to make it with the least number of pieces possible without losing any usable space and keeping generous pockets around the heads for maintainance. I am not sure about doing access panels or a removable section- I might not need it.

 

85529F70-ED39-4FFC-A532-B3E371E259E7.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow how bout this MōPār model 65 TRUCK MASTER heater? What a nice unit. 

 

I wonder if I can’t just get a 12v potentiometer to put before it and run this 6v fan motor? I remember the motor was good when I made the truck 12v but I tried one of those resistors on it off ebay and it just ran way too slow and I didn’t bother messing with it again. 

 

The design is so tight and nice- instead of just a hamster wheel like a modern heater it has a regular fan that blows out the front and a centrifugal style behind that to run the defroster vents or open the door and shoot hot air at the passenger. 

 

This thing is really neat. Now that I cleaned three pounds of mud wasp homes out of it I will test it, wire it up and get it ready to re-install. It definitely needs disassembly, some blasting and paint. I kinda want to leave it as-is but it will start to really rot if I don’t clean and protect it. Sure wish the paint on the inside of the front was how the whole thing still looked!

3024E54C-95C3-457A-87C0-D37F6287E017.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got the passenger floor and transmission hump done today. The hump swoops up into the central stub of firewall that I left which holds the front of the cowl vent. 

 

I was able to do all that with one big piece but the complexity of the remaining firewall was messing with me because of the floppyness of the poster board. I wasn’t confident it would work out so I decided to get the first piece of steel installed then start over on paper templates. Sure would be nice to have a real brake to fold this all up but clamped steel works ok.

 

I also drilled and tapped my seat pedestal and seat frame for four new bolts so when the time comes I can just bolt that in. I still have to extend the tabs on the top of the seat frame a little- my fresh stuffed upholstery makes the seat back ride a touch higher than stock. 

 

My rubber floor is here and has been sitting out to remove its curl for a couple days. Fitting it will be interesting since it has vertical ribs and the cab narrows toward the front. I think it will look best parallel to the truck’s center line even though the ribs will not follow the door openings. 

2CDF7C01-862E-4AF8-AFFF-A7A784974970.jpeg

B422F5E1-A078-424B-AEBA-220C849372D7.jpeg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cut out the rubber floor today. I think I will smooth the welds on the console and leave the rest under the rubber. It isn’t all perfect and beautiful but there aren’t any bad boogers or holes. I gotta work on sinking my tacks in better so I can run over them without a bump.

 

493A044C-C61D-4AF5-9A9E-6FD7AEFA0D33.jpeg

0696716A-F09A-4BA2-8546-0F4DB21298F8.jpeg

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The flooring looks good.  Simple, and easy to clean in the future. Maybe a bit of sound deadening stuff on the bottom to help with cab noise, heat transfer, and cushioning to not destroy the rattle can floor?

My 2 cents.....

car-carpet-backing.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sound deadening sounds good and definitely makes the ride more luxurious. My thing from riding old harleys was always that as long as everything was tight and nothing rattled or vibrated I don’t mind hearing all the engine noises- sweet music! I’m hoping the new solid floor and bed all polyurethane iso-mounted to the frame will keep the ride solid and only transmit the kind of noises I like. 

 

Plus I still get some water through my passenger lower corner windshield gasket when it rains and also somewhere on the driver’s side. Nothing in there can be absorbant and I hated removing the dynamat this summer which I had put in around 2005.

 

I made a new gas pedal tonight that fits much better. I needed it to angle up to 11:00 to match my firewall. The knockoff lokar pedal I had on there angled more like 1:30. The farther to the right I can get the foot controls the better. The barefoot pedal was clamped to the lokar one and did move it over some but it was too big and flirted with touching the brake pedal- not cool. 

 

Now that the gas is using my limited space much better I might make a brake pedal that Ls over the the right a little more- the arm swings just left of the steering column and I want to set it up so I can gas/brake without lifting my heel if possible. 

984D2476-57AC-4C10-BF0B-AB76993987CE.jpeg

2536348A-174E-41F7-887A-8E0A0E33265F.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today I got the passenger side 10” firewall setback patterned, cut out, bent, welded in, and painted black. I got it done in two pieces- the right most side panel coming back off the firewall, and all the rest of it.

 

I’m Psyched!

 

The pictures suck but it basically looks like a giant cartoon big block shape. There is plenty of room to work on the motor and footroom is better than a lot of vans I’ve tried to ride shotgun in with my size 14s. 

B2F08E52-21D9-4B3D-BC83-45F79EDC7CEA.jpeg

2D8DABBB-2BEF-486A-BE4F-A66F74D4098E.jpeg

67F22CC0-B4D7-4ED4-B220-DE81D312AAB9.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Terms of Use