Project: 1992 Michigan Comanche

[Carl'sMJ]

Some progress on the replacement floor pans today... I got the front floor pans prepped for welding. I still need to make a couple patch panels to supplement the new pans up front, but this it what things look like right now.

 

First, I set the pans in place and then crawled underneath the truck to trace the outline of the frame rails on the bottom of the floor pans.

 

 

 

Once I had the pattern traced, I started marking where I needed to drill holes for my plug welds. I also needed to flatten out a couple sections of the rib in the pans so that it would sit nicely on the frame brace that extends from the frame to the inside rocker. While the pans were in I marked where holes needed to be drilled for the seat mount studs and two holes for bolts that help hold a bracket on the frame that has mounting points for the transmission crossmember.

 

 

Here's how they look in place ready to be welded.

 

 

 

I'm pretty happy overall with how things are turning out. I know this project is taking some time and progress is slow, but this is my first time doing anything like this and I spend alot of time planning and researching as I go.

[Carl'sMJ]

Got another patch panel done today... I've got another similar one to do on the passenger side and I think that should be the last one. :D

 

I think it's time for some new gloves for me too! :rotfl2:

 

[terrawombat]

Any updates on the floor repair? I started drilling out the spot welds on the upper frame support on the drivers side last night. I can't see where half the spot welds are located because the rust has pitted the metal so badly. Your truck is WAY worse than mine so I can't even begin to imagine how you were able to find them all LOL.

[Carl'sMJ]

Time to resurrect this build thread... I've been away for awhile, but I'm back to work on my '92!

 

My priority is to get the new floors welded in so I can get the interior put back together and have this thing back on the road, but first I am going to take the opportunity while it is all tore apart to clean up the frame and underside of the cab. Once I have the frame cleaned up and the floorpans welded in I will be painting the frame, undercarriage, and inside of the cab floor with POR-15. The frame and underside of the cab will get a topcoat of POR-15 ChassisCoat. Hopefully this will adequately seal things up well enough that I will never have to do this again!

 

Here are a couple pics of the progress I've been making on the frame. So far I've been using an angle grindernand an assortment of wire wheels and sanding discs. It's been alot of work. I recently purchased a 20 lb. abrasive blaster from Harbor Freight to help clean up around the seams and contours I cannot get with the angle grinder... Hopefully it will help speed up the process. This also would have been easier if the drivetrain were removed to free up some extra space to work, but since I plan on keeping it in place until I get a chance to do a 4WD conversion I'll have to work around the transmission and driveshaft.

 

 

[Carl'sMJ]

Continued to work on cleaning up the frame today for a few hours. I spent most of the time on the driver side using my new abrasive blaster to clean up some of the spots I could not get to with the angle grinder. Progress was a bit slower than I had hoped, as it took me some time to get the blaster adjusted properly and even then it seemed that the abrasive flow was inconsistant... I don't have extensive use with these blasters, so i might have to spend some more time working with it to get a consistant flow at the proper rate... I used the blaster sparingly just to get the spots I could not get with other tools mostly because it just makes such a mess. Maybe if I could have gotten a better more consistant flow rate with the media I would have used it more. On the plus side I really liked the finish it left where it was used and it will definitely make a nice surface for the POR-15 to bond to.

 

Here it is... It's the 20 lb. Harbor Freight pressurized abrasive blaster. I used my small 20 gallon Husky compressor at 90 psi to run the unit. My compressor is rated at 4.3 SCFM @ 90 psi and ran fairly constant while I was using the blaster... It's definitely a little underpowered for sandblasting, but since I was not continuously using the blaster it worked out alright. I used Black Diamond media, 30-60 grit, and was very pleased with this stuff... Good price at only $8 for a 50 lb. bag and it did a nice job removing the rust scale and paint. I ended up using a 3 mm nozzle in the deadman after trying the 2.5 mm nozzle and having it clog too often.

 

 

I'm not going to lie, cleaning up the frame has been a real pain and I still have quite a bit more to do. I can't wait until all this prep work is done and I can get on with welding the new floor pans in!

[Carl'sMJ]

Got a little work in this morning before the Thanksgiving celebration. Worked on prepping the the inner rocker on the driver side for a nice clean surface to weld the new floor pans to. Got rid of all the old seam sealer and rust... Keeping up slow but steady progress.

 

 

[Carl'sMJ]

Well, I came across a small setback... More rust!!! What I thought was just some surface rust bubbling up the paint a little turned out to be straight up rotted metal after I started poking around. I ended up with a number of small holes in the forward part of the of the floor board under the fuse panel.

 

 

I ended up having to pull out the fuse panel and parking break pedal to get a clear shot at the rust for repair. After some work with the grinder I was able to see what all I was dealing with.

 

 

Here it is after cutting out the bad metal... I'll be cutting out some patch pieces next.

 

[Carl'sMJ]

I finally got around to finishing cleaning up the remainder of the frame and what is left of the cab underbody. What a dirty and nasty job this has been. It took alot of work and elbow grease to get all the old undercoating and loose paint and rust knocked away, but between my angle grinder, sandblaster, and a variety of scraping tools to get in all the different contours of the underbody and frame I made it happen. Next step, was to role it out in the driveway and give the underside and inside of the cab a thorough bath with Marine Clean, the first step in the POR-15 3-step paint process. There was still a fair amount of dirt and residue left from the old undercoating particularly in the places where I had to scrape versus using the grinder or blaster, but the Marine Clean worked great for removing it. I used a 1:1 solution and kept it wet for about 2 hours with this solution, then I got underneath with a scotchbrite pad and with a little light rubbing easily to off the remaining residue and grime. If I had let it set about another hour I may have been able to just wipe it off with a sponge, but I ws losing daylight and needed to get things wrapped up. I hit it with with the POR-15 Metal Ready the next day after everything had a chance to dry. Now everything is nice and cleaned up ready for some real progress and getting some metal welded back in. Here's some pics of the end result of all the cleaning. I wish I had some before pics to go along with it, but considering what the cab of my Comanche looked like before I started all this, I pretty pleased with how things turned out.

 

 

 

 

 

[92tanMJ]

Looks good! It looks like youre doing everything right the first time!

[Carl'sMJ]

Looks good! It looks like youre doing everything right the first time!

 

Thanks... Trying to do it right this time anyways. The goal is repairs that actually last. This has been a real bear of a job at times because of the amount of rust I have, so I really don't want to do it again. :laughin: