Project MEGA rust! "the beast"

[amodedude1]

Hey everyone, new here and wanted to share my first project.

It's a 1979 3/4 ton GMC Sierra 350 4-BRL and I've been working on it for around a year and a half on and off between school and work.

My goal here is to do as much as I can to get this truck restored. 79' Might not be the best/ most desirable year, but this truck is over 30 years old, and I'd love to have a nice old truck to use on occasion. I'm 19 years old in college and have never partook in such a long term and in depth project before, so I'm looking at it as a learning experience and am hopeful to see how it all turns out.

The engine is in good shape from what I can tell (despite it's outer appearance) and runs great now that I have gotten it going. I replaced the oil pan not too long ago and the internals seemed to be looking good. It doesn't burn oil or make any out of the ordinary noise other then being extremely loud running on open headers. I'll eventually need to replace the clutch though.

As far as I was told, she served as a plow/ landscaping truck her whole life and clearly has seen some better days in terms of the body. The millage is at 60,000 on both the truck and the title, but for some reason that is very hard to believe. I'm thinking more along the lines of 160000 haha. Who knows, it was a plow truck and did take a beating so I guess 60 is possible?

It sat in my driveway for quite some time until my neighbor graciously took pity on me and let me use his garage.

I'm starting from the rear and working my way up removing rust with a wire wheel first(lots and lots of rust) then sandblasting. Will be getting her ready for paint.

If I'm able to get down to bare metal on the frame I'll be shooting an epoxy primer and then a few coasts gloss black. (maybe some filler over the epoxy to smooth out the insane amount of pitting.

So first lets give you a tour of the truck as it is. Unfortunately I didn't start taking pictures until after I began work....

Here is a pic of the truck getting ready to be towed over.





In the shop...






Notice the Plow/front bumper... 2 for 1 deal!






The engine bay. I'd like to note that this is after an extensive amount of work. The engine bay looked at least 2x worse when I started. Just to get it running I needed to replace flue lines front to back, brake lines front to back, brake master cylinder, calipers, all pads, almost all wiring ext... NOT FUN haha (and I've even cleaned some of the rust off believe it or not)










Can you handle looking at all this rust!?!!

[amodedude1]

Good, here's more....


















Some cell phone pics of the rust....









Typical rot of the cab floor supports. This was a bad design on GM's part.



What used to be an inner rocker panel



Front fender



Bottom rear section of cab



4x4



Last but not least.... the rust bucket.... or should I say box?

[amodedude1]

So now that I have established that this has a lot of rust, let's move on to what I'm doing to fix it.

I've taken the the bed off just a few weeks ago, dropped the fuel tank, un-bolted the rear suspension and pulled the rear axle. I did just a little wire wheeling on the frame just to get all that nasty loose rust off her. I went crazy on a small section and was able to get down to some solid bare metal surprisingly, so things are looking good. After sand blasting, I should be down to a solid surface ready for paint prep.

[amodedude1]

So the bed is off and out of the shop ready to be picked up by the scrap yard since is is just too far gone to repair.

With that out work began to take out the suspension and axle. The U-bolt was rusted in place so me and my neighbor took an acetylene torch to then to break it loose. One of the bolts holding the spring to it's shackle needed to be cut off. It's that bad




Spring shock and tank out...





After brake lines and drive shaft were removed we pulled the axle.







FYI, that white stuff on the frame is phosphoric acid, it removes rust and is the same stuff that's in that Pepsi you are drinking. (You might want to reconsider finishing it. haha)



I made sure to mark each spring so when I was done with them, I would be able to put them in the exact same spot. IDK if that is really necessary or not but it can't hurt.

[amodedude1]

I also went ahead and took apart the leaf springs so I could get at some of that crust in between the leaves.

Wire wheeling worked miracles in them. Their now down basically to bare metal.

The final treatment for the springs will be a good one to two week soak in molasses.

Yes you read that right, the stuff you use in the morning for your pancakes. I bought 3 gallons of sulfured horse feed molasses off of eBay a few weeks ago. This stuff will kill your rust and is super cheap. It mixes about 1:9 ratio so I'll be able to make up to 30 gallons of homemade rust dissolver all for about $27 plus whatever shipping was. cant be beat!

They will soak in that coffin like thing you saw in the previous post.

BTW if you don't believe me check out these videos...

YouTube- How to Remove rust from metal and...

The springs once clean will be powder coated.


springs taken apart..



One spring that was wire wheeled and old worn bushings removed.

[amodedude1]

One question for anyone that knows, see that small metal ring in the eyelet of the leaf? Does that come out for installation of new poly bushings or should I leave it in? I still haven't bought the energy suspension bushings so I want to know before they come in.

[1980c-10 mybaby]

Originally Posted by amodedude1

One question for anyone that knows, see that small metal ring in the eyelet of the leaf? Does that come out for installation of new poly bushings or should I leave it in? I still haven't bought the energy suspension bushings so I want to know before they come in.

the eyelet comes in the new energy suspension bushing set i purchased it and love it... also consider possibly poly graphite bushings apparently they are better for 4x4 trucks... not personally sure never tired them.... all my trucks have energy suspension products

[amodedude1]

Thanks, I was just wondering, still don't think I'll take them off until I receive the hardware.

Ohh, yes, I'll be ordering the black ones, which energy suspension's website says are "graphite impregnated". For whatever little benefit it gives, that is.

[GMC91]

And I thought my truck had rust problems. I love my truck now lol.

[amodedude1]

Just do your self a favor and don't park your truck under a tree in NJ for years and just forget about it... haha

[hickracetruck]

Your truck reminds me of mine, rust in the same spots but mine has 650 000km on it and wasnt a plow truck, just a farm truck. But mines also a Dodge. Good work! And im only 16. Kind of in the same boat good luck

[amodedude1]

Hey thanks, well we might not have years of experience or bag loads of money on our heads but hey, at least we have plenty of time on our side right? haha Good luck with your project too man!

[amodedude1]

Here's a small update. I've been working on the new dash at home for a few days, it's not finished yet but the gauges are almost all in.

I used to have the idiot lights in these spots and thought they would make a great place for some gauges. Just need to mount the rpm gauge.








Once mounted it will look something like this.




This gauge cover was pulled from a suburban that was being junked so I had to make something to cover up the automatic gear indicator since my truck is a stick. Bent up a piece of aluminum and stuck it in.

Also replaced the Plexiglas mine was getting old and yellowed.

[amodedude1]

Okay, got my mig welder in the mail the other day that I bought off eBay for a good price.

As soon as I saw it on my step I had to bring it in and open it up. It was Christmas in July for me~

It's a Clarke 190EN 220V gas mig, just have to go buy an argon/c02 bottle for it.

I tried it out with the flux core wire and it seems to be working okay, I just need to practice my welds a little. So now I'll be able to weld up my cab corners, floor pans, and exhaust and what not.

Here's a few of the unit..

[amodedude1]

I've been busy lately so I haven't had much time to work on things, but here's a small update.

Media blasted the DANA 60 rear, and it came out real good. Completely down to bare metal (amazingly) , just needs to be gone over once more to get some spots I missed then shot with primer and paint.

[ERBSIX]

Something is wrong with some of your images...?

I can open them in a new window but they don't show up in the thread. Is this just me?

Either way, your truck should give everyone hope.

Because the rust can't be much worse than this...

Keep up the good work.

[grayharville]

Damn, very rusty, and to think I was complaining about my dry east Texas truck having a quarter sized hole in the cab corners! this takes alot of determination to be into a project this in depth, but itll be worth it! BTW im 17, there seems to be alot of us younger people on here...

[str8axle55]

Nice project you got there, keep up the good work. That bed didn`t look to bad. The rear is a 14 Bolt Full Floater, not a Dana 60. You`re gonna need to make a hole for the wiper switch in the dash bezel, or update to a switch on the column.

[amodedude1]

Originally Posted by str8axle55

Nice project you got there, keep up the good work. That bed didn`t look to bad. The rear is a 14 Bolt Full Floater, not a Dana 60. You`re gonna need to make a hole for the wiper switch in the dash bezel, or update to a switch on the column.

Hey thanks. I'm not sure what the rear is, I looked at LMC truck catalog and I thought the bolt pattern matched the DANA, but I looked at that real quick, so you are probably right, I fix that in my original post.

Originally Posted by grayharville

Damn, very rusty, and to think I was complaining about my dry east Texas truck having a quarter sized hole in the cab corners! this takes alot of determination to be into a project this in depth, but itll be worth it! BTW im 17, there seems to be alot of us younger people on here...

Yeah man, I think all the rust can really get to your head! I've made sure to invest in a good respirator.

Originally Posted by ERBSIX

Something is wrong with some of your images...?

I can open them in a new window but they don't show up in the thread. Is this just me?

Either way, your truck should give everyone hope.

Because the rust can't be much worse than this...

Keep up the good work.

It's the first two pictures right? Or is it all of them?? I noticed the first two don't work for me all the time, I'll get that fixed.

It doesn't get much worse, I wasn't sure what type of results I was going to get, but the axle came out VERY good all things considered. (after about a 1/4in rust came off that is, that rust box is sure getting heavy haha! )

[cable666guy]

Hey, don't know what part of Philly you're from, but there is a similar truck to yours for sale on County Line Rd. in Southampton. The fenders and doors are shot, the bed is just OK, the cab looks perfect though...just puttin it out there...

[amodedude1]

Update? ..... Sure thing!

Well, a small one....

I've taken the springs out of the drink , and they're spotless.

Here's some more bad cell pics!












As you can see the molasses works like no ones business, and it is dirt cheap. + there is no ill effects to speak of. This is a project that I have very little time to work on, I soaked each spring pack separately. The first one I soaked for around a month, maybe less. (I'd say give the molasses at least a week to remove a significant amount of rust.) The second pack I left in for about SIX@! I was really crammed with homework this semester ( calc 2 was hard to say the least! ) As you can see you can't do damage by letting it soak too long. Believe it or not, the solution does not start to smell incredibly bad either. I must have mixed at least 10gal, and over the six months, the smell was minimal and hardly noticeable.

I wire wheeled the springs before I put them in since they were so heavily rusted. I didn't go crazy, just got the loose stuff off. After the soak, you just pressure wash, and dry asap to prevent flash rust. I actually held my springs in front of a kerosene heater to help them dry up. Some parts seem to flash rust much quicker then others. after it is all dry, I decided to use a soft wire wheel one last time to remove any gunk as the molasses likes to stick to the metal when you are done washing.

They come out shiner then a new quarter!

I then sprayed them with a wax based rust inhibitor as I cannot be sure I will have time to get them powder coated right away.

Hopefully you guys will be seeing some fresh paint very soon.

I can smell it coming!

[amodedude1]

Originally Posted by str8axle55

Nice project you got there, keep up the good work. That bed didn`t look to bad. The rear is a 14 Bolt Full Floater, not a Dana 60. You`re gonna need to make a hole for the wiper switch in the dash bezel, or update to a switch on the column.

You're right, it is the 14 bolt FF, I really didn't know and was told wrong that it was a Dana 60.

The bed probably was doable, but I had to get rid of it for a number of reasons, one being I had no where else to put it, the other being that I am hoping to find something that requires a little bit less work. The old bed would have required quite a bit of fabrication and welding to patch up the holes.

Hopefully, in the end, getting rid of it will have saved me some time. It's long gone in the trash now.

[amodedude1]

Okay guys, I have some sad new news. This project needs to end. I'm in need of money and this project has gone on for far too long. I need a car (240sx) more than I need this money pit.

I hat to see it go.


If anyone wants anything let me know I'll ship it out if its small enough or you can come pick it up.


PM me for anything you want!

What doesn't get sold goes to the scrap yard.
Thank you!