Squirrelly Dan: Coheed's 86 Custom

[coheed]

On 10/10/2024 at 9:42 PM, eaglescout526 said:

Oh yeah, love the original brush guard look.

 

 

I understand this one. Course its easier to lower the crossmember and trans to get at the bleeder if you can't get to it installed.

Well, I think it was the same person who wired the blower motor to a house light switch so I usually don't give em too much grace lol

 

On 10/11/2024 at 11:17 AM, JZLAJeep said:

Call me weird, but I like the factory front bumper better than aftermarket bumpers too.

 

I love the way the ARB looks, but I don't want to pay ARB prices and the used ones disappear real quick. Aside from that I think the factory is the best looking bumper.

 

Well, I guess I spoke too soon and put my foot in my mouth. All that heinous seam sealer was hiding rot.

 

 

Went searching for firewall patch stuff to see how others did it and stumbled on this thread from earlier in the year. This made me want to remove every bit of seam sealer and check every crevice for rust. I really only want to do this once.

 

Good thing I did. There's rot up to the cowl on the drivers and rust is starting on the passengers. I poked a bore scope into the cowl and looks like there's no rust up there so I'll spray a good bit of the Eastwood internal stuff into the cowl and it should prevent it in the future. In addition, there's a rust hole underneath the heater core inlet, a hole in the bottom corner of the pass firewall and a big patch of rot under the fuse block bulkhead. The firewall also has a sizeable crack next to the clutch master mount holes. Not sure if I want to just weld over that or patch it. I think I may just weld it since I'll be going auto with the 3.4 swap.

 

 

Would really like to have a nice discussion with the person responsible for deciding this truck need this much seam sealer.

 

I did manage to get both braces off the drivers side and the inside of the frame looks great. Yay for small victories.

 

Using the Blair spot weld cutter and these things like to skip around a lot. I was wedging the cold chisel in between panels and when the cutter got deep enough it usually gives a little pop.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't realize I only had one of the cutter bits. It got me through the drivers side braces, the small one on the pass, and about half the big pass brace before losing all the teeth. So, here's where we wait for a bit.

[eaglescout526]

4 minutes ago, coheed said:

house light switch

Wait. What? Lol. 

[coheed]

3 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Wait. What? Lol. 

Yeah, when I first got the truck the blower was wired to a house switch. At least they also put it in a box lol

[eaglescout526]

Just now, coheed said:

Yeah, when I first got the truck the blower was wired to a house switch. At least they also put it in a box lol

Hahaha theres clearly a point when home depot is your automotive parts department.

[coheed]

Just now, eaglescout526 said:

Hahaha theres clearly a point when home depot is your automotive parts department.

From what I know this truck used to be an estimator truck for a roofing company. So I'm not all that surprised lol

 

The patch over the slave cylinder access hole was glued in place with dicor. 

[eaglescout526]

1 minute ago, coheed said:

The patch over the slave cylinder access hole was glued in place with dicor.

This one baffles me. youd have to drive the truck around with no carpet or a hole in that spot with a trap door to keep the heat and road noise out. Plus taking out the seats and interior when it only takes 15 min to lower a crossmember haha. 

 

Should be an easy patch though. Dont forget to grab your neighbors broken washer or dryer for cheap floor panels.

[Eagle_SX4]

You

8 minutes ago, coheed said:

Using the Blair spot weld cutter and these things like to skip around a lot. I was wedging the cold chisel in between panels and when the cutter got deep enough it usually gives a little pop

Seems like it is common for those spot weld cutters to loose teeth. Harbor freight sells spot weld cutters. They have worked well for me.

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-double-sided-rotary-spot-weld-cutter-63657.html

 

[coheed]

16 hours ago, eaglescout526 said:

This one baffles me. youd have to drive the truck around with no carpet or a hole in that spot with a trap door to keep the heat and road noise out. Plus taking out the seats and interior when it only takes 15 min to lower a crossmember haha. 

 

Should be an easy patch though. don't forget to grab your neighbors broken washer or dryer for cheap floor panels.

Well it's been missing carpet since I've owned it. That's why I drive it more in the cooler months. Which admittedly is kinda lame since I live in the South. The firewall patches are gonna be interesting with all the complex curves on them.

 

Luckily I actually cut that section of trans tunnel out of my grandad's truck before the rest went to scrap so I have an OE piece to through over that particular one. 

16 hours ago, Eagle_SX4 said:

You

Seems like it is common for those spot weld cutters to loose teeth. Harbor freight sells spot weld cutters. They have worked well for me.

 

https://www.harborfreight.com/38-in-double-sided-rotary-spot-weld-cutter-63657.html

 

Yeah, I've been cutting with them dry and that's probably not helping. I may get some cutting fluid from work and see if that helps. I got a pack of 3 of the blades on eBay for $12 with 2 day shipping so that should more than get me through this job.

[coheed]

This week I spent my little spare time tearing down the steering columns I have to make one good one. Now I have a freshly cleaned and greased tilt steering column to go back in the truck. Also, removed the shift interlock so I don't have to worry about that. I'll also gain intermittent wipers with this swap.

 

Last night I got the pass side 99% cut out. Will need to drop in the new pan and mark where to trim on the tunnel. Gonna devote all of tomorrow to that and getting the drivers side out.