The86manche Posted July 4 Author Posted July 4 Happy 4th everyone! I had nothing going on today so I decided to put my nose to the mj grind stone! Ive been peeling back the unibody rail to clean up the rust and I had one last spot to remove for total clean up and clean out. This little guy. It wasn't too far gone thankfully so I didn't need to make any more patches and the ugliness behind it.
The86manche Posted July 4 Author Posted July 4 Broke out the hand held sandblaster and worked away. Blasted the piece i removed and cleaned up scale on the crossmember where it bolts to the unibody. Will need that installed when I need to weld in my patches and don't want rust touching my work lol And everything ive been cleaning up ive been coating in rust converter primer.
The86manche Posted July 4 Author Posted July 4 And then clean up time. Whatever tool i could fit in the rail went in to try and clean up any rust. Underside. I battled with a lip I couldn't quite see. At the start of the clean out. after.
The86manche Posted July 4 Author Posted July 4 Gave it a good vacuum clean, blew it all out, wiped it doen with brake clean and then a nice thiiiick coating of rust reformer primer. And this is where i have left it for today. Letting the primer set up and dry and then the patch pieces will be going in! Will likely brush on some epoxy and after that sets up enamel over that to complete this side of the unibody... uh.. in the cab at least.
The86manche Posted July 7 Author Posted July 7 Finger painting with epoxy! I brushed on a coat on the backsides of the pieces I made. And up in and around the rail. Its okay that its not perfect, it will get an enamel coating when everything is pieces back together in there.
The86manche Posted Sunday at 12:19 AM Author Posted Sunday at 12:19 AM Happily burned away my saturday! Gave that epoxy plenty of time to dry and went right to putting that uni-rail back together. Reamed out some holes, dremeled the notch at the top center, and punch some plug weld holes. Preparation! And I sprayed zinc weld on all weld spots too. Dry fit the crossmember and everything lined up nicely. Sandwiched it all together with the correct M10-1.5 hardware and some clamps for extra support.
The86manche Posted Sunday at 12:24 AM Author Posted Sunday at 12:24 AM Cleaned the metal around the nuts and burned them in to the top plate and it back in to the unibody And definitely had to dial in the welder... new torch handle really brought the welder back around. A nice dry fit of the bottom plate. Spent a lot of time marking and smoothing and notching and cleaning..
The86manche Posted Sunday at 12:27 AM Author Posted Sunday at 12:27 AM A little motivation to keep me going. Burned in that small little piece and dry fit the rest of the sections for the inside. I also finished welding it, cleaned it up and coated it in enamel. Prep work for the bottom plates including the one that helps support the crossmember. Zink weld and tacks.
The86manche Posted Sunday at 12:31 AM Author Posted Sunday at 12:31 AM Wrapped up the inside smoothed out the bottom and put the crossmember brace back on. Welds aren't perfect but if the factory welds held this long then mine will too. And thats where I left it for the night. Will come back another day to smooth it all out fill the frame rail in enamel till its oozing out every seam.
The86manche Posted Monday at 12:27 AM Author Posted Monday at 12:27 AM Put my nose to the grind stone today! So. Much. Grinding. Cleaned up my welds from yesterday and finished cutting out my driver floor. Ground down all my drilled spot welds and surface rust and coated with zink weld. Took some 220 to the inside and outside of my uni-rail and brushed on two coats of epoxy primer. Its looking really really good. It will never have a chance to rust again.
The86manche Posted Monday at 12:35 AM Author Posted Monday at 12:35 AM Some touching up here and there and the underside of the unibody. And look, can hardly make out any pinhole from the welds! this will all get a good sanding and either straight to enamel or some paint and then enamel.
The86manche Posted Monday at 12:43 AM Author Posted Monday at 12:43 AM And turned my attention to the engine I'm going to need to clean up and dry fit the parts to make sure things clear other things. And back when I pulled the engine out to get the body sandblasted the hoist ended up tipping and the engine toppled into the dirt. Thankfully it was the dirt but it still did damage. Crank pulley is wasted, fan clutch, fan blades, waterpump, vacuum advance got bent on the dizzy. Thankfully! I have a set of Serpentine belt pulleys but I worry if it may be a problem with the supercharger. don't have the full kit yet and not sure whats the recommended pulley setup.
coheed Posted Monday at 02:05 PM Posted Monday at 02:05 PM Not, sure how I missed this one up until now. Fantastic job so far on the truck. Love to see someone else putting in effort to an 86 and keeping a 60 degree v6! Alos, very jealous of those Hedman headers you scored. I'm thinking I may grab a set of these headers at some point for my 3.4.
The86manche Posted Monday at 04:26 PM Author Posted Monday at 04:26 PM 2 hours ago, coheed said: Not, sure how I missed this one up until now. Fantastic job so far on the truck. Love to see someone else putting in effort to an 86 and keeping a 60 degree v6! Alos, very jealous of those Hedman headers you scored. I'm thinking I may grab a set of these headers at some point for my 3.4. The project had been on the back burner for a while, but thank you! Feels good to finally be moving forward instead of back. And I love the oddball engine! That and I like being different. Ls swaps are boring, everyone has done it. 4.0 is just as common. Ill be different and supercharge a 3.4 haha and not with an m90 either. I also scored a set of pace setters I found on a camaro that hit the local junk yard a while back too. From what ive seen there's not many header options left for these engines. Both sets I have are discontinued, unsurprisingly.
coheed Posted Monday at 04:32 PM Posted Monday at 04:32 PM 1 minute ago, The86manche said: The project had been on the back burner for a while, but thank you! Feels good to finally be moving forward instead of back. And I love the oddball engine! That and I like being different. Ls swaps are boring, everyone has done it. 4.0 is just as common. Ill be different and supercharge a 3.4 haha and not with an m90 either. I also scored a set of pace setters I found on a camaro that hit the local junk yard a while back too. From what ive seen there's not many header options left for these engines. Both sets I have are discontinued, unsurprisingly. I got a set of Pace Setters with the donor Camaro and 3.4 I used. They seemed nice, but there was no way I could use them on the Comanche without chopping them up heavily. I settled for chopping up the Camaro y pipe for the time being. This website also makes headers for this engine platform, again meant for swaps into an MG car but they don't list them separately on the website. They'd probably sell them separate if you called, but I'm sure they'd be a pretty penny.
The86manche Posted Monday at 04:37 PM Author Posted Monday at 04:37 PM 2 minutes ago, coheed said: I got a set of Pace Setters with the donor Camaro and 3.4 I used. They seemed nice, but there was no way I could use them on the Comanche without chopping them up heavily. I settled for chopping up the Camaro y pipe for the time being. This website also makes headers for this engine platform, again meant for swaps into an MG car but they don't list them separately on the website. They'd probably sell them separate if you called, but I'm sure they'd be a pretty penny. Yeah ive discovered that for both sets of headers. One side does fit but the other won't on each set. Thinking about using one from each set to make it work. But also why I'm dry fitting the engine before the floor goes in so I can tweak anything and avoid cutting up rare parts. I also thought about messing with fiero headers as those are still available and semi easy to get. I know one banks goes over the transmission but id be less upset modifying them than the other headers. I think WOT tech makes headers for these engines. I know they have cams and other good stuff.
The86manche Posted Monday at 04:40 PM Author Posted Monday at 04:40 PM No, I stand corrected. They sell header flanges so you can make your own headers for these engines
The86manche Posted 7 hours ago Author Posted 7 hours ago It was bring your floor pan to work day today! I ran out of hardener for my epoxy and it was too big to prime at home so I brought it in to shoot. Two coats each side.
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