72Jimmy 1st attempt at rust removal

[PD1292]

I have been looking at this site for a while now and have finally decided to get on the forums to post my Jimmy build. Hope this works. I started this many years ago (slowly, very slowly) as funds are hard to come by.
By the way, below this text box it says something about "Tags", not familiar with this as this is the first forum i have ever been on.
thanks for the help. Ill try to post some pictures.
I am only going to load one picture for now to see how big it is.

[no moa]

Sweet project. I love those GMC jimmys.

[PD1292]

Ok, stupid question, sorry. To add stuff to my own thread do i just reply to the thread and add pictures that way or do i post stuff another way? Thanks Barry

[no moa]

Just type in the box below. Then to add pics, click "go advanced" that will get you to the screen for pics and what else you need.
For just answering, just hit 'post quick reply'

[PD1292]

Ok Thanks, Ill post more pics as i go

[PD1292]

Ok, bought this Jimmy from my brother about 5 years ago. I was living in Houston and was back to San Angelo for a visit. He asked if I wanted to go and look at a truck he was thinking about buying. I already had a 1970 Chev truck that i had bought in houston and did a small amount of repair to so he knew i had some (limited) knoledge about these trucks. We went to look at it and i observed it had factory air, power brakes, power steering, 4 wheel drive and a factory tilt column. 350/350 205 (i think on the 205 part). My brother worked at a pool hall and knew of the person who owned it and knew his grandparents had bought him the truck. As with many things we dont have to work for, the kid did not take care of it. He went 4 wheeling and hit some trees, crushed some rocker panels, thew mud around, dented every possible surface, broke a back side window, I am guessing he also broke and then threw away the lift gate, replacing it with a plastic snap on cover (lets water in), cut the A/C belt (pully froze up), and drove it until the transmission began to have problems and the engine was smoking. I think then he either gave it back to the grandparents or they were fed up with it, took it away and then they were going to sell it. Happy Day!!!!! (for us!!)

[PD1292]

Can you believe this thing cost him $380, and drove it home!!. It did not have these wheels and tires on it at the time. It was taken to his house and he parked it in his back yard where it sat, and sat, and sat, tires going flat and water getting in. He began to have some personal problems and needed money, so I swooped in and helped (myself, I mean) him out, and bought it from him for what he paid for it. It again sat and sat and sat, still in his back yard until I took it down to a friends shop, where a friend built me a new transmission, 350c, and again it sat and sat and sat.

[PD1292]

The last picture in the last post was all the badly damaged metal from the PO that i removed. It had a large grill guard on it too you can barely see it under the pile-o-parts. I am posting a pic after we installed the new engine, compliments of my friend. I help him when he has paying customers (he does mechanic work on the side)mostly just to learn how to work on vehicles, but i guess he appreciated the extra hands. Free rebuilt 350, cant beat that!!!
Its nothing major, just wanted a reliable motor that i can get in start up and go with no problems.

[PD1292]

Also bought the wheels tires trim rings and center caps that are pictured on it from the same friend. He had an older 4x4 suburban with 3/4 ton running gear which was beginning to have body rust, so he bought a newer suburban which had 1/2 ton running gear with these wheels and tires on it. He was going to transfer over the running gear from his older suburban and did not need these wheels and tires, so he sold all 4 to me for $400 Goodyear wrangler mtr yeah for me!!!

[PD1292]

Grill on the original was damage due to having a Chev front bumper mounted, and it wore a hole in the turn signal areas, as my luck goes, i found one at work one night just lying in a back yard. I returned the next day, jumped the fence, and..... just kidding i met with the lady who stated it was left there by her ex husband and she just wanted all that stuff gone. i gave her $35 for the grill.. yeah again!!!

[PD1292]

With a now running vehicle, i began to knock out some dents. Some of the dents went the length of the sides and i could not get to the back to beat them out, so i went to the pawn shops in search of a stud welder. Again my lucky day!!!! I found a matco stud welder with a box of studs and a very nice slide hammer all for $75!!!

[PD1292]

In the next picture you can see the drivers side which still had all the dents in it. The White lines indicate all the damage that needs to be pulled out. Also good picture of the wheels and tires. I plan to build this truck for my girls to drive when they are able. Only 14 and 11 now but i plan to get them to help work on it so hopefully they will value it more than the PO did.

[PD1292]

As you can see on this picture, the passenger side rocker panel is crushed in, this is a new door, the other was smashed pretty bad as you can see what the rocker panel looks like. Yes it is still there its just flat.

[PD1292]

Ok, continuing to post stuff to catch up to where it is today. 1st picture is when it was still not being driven and mostly used as storage for all the parts i had been collecting. Next pictures are up to date pictures of what I am replacing now, We found a property with a 20x30 metal work shop it sits in the back yard and it faces a very wide alley so it is easy access, i bought a large air compressor, a welder and many other items to outfit the shop, oh yea, there is a house or something on the property, but lets keep talking about the shop... haha... I began to check the floor boards and found som rust and i took the crushed rocker panels off and found it the pillars were rusted as well. I thought it was bad until i began to search this site and found what some of you start with (truely amazing the stuff some of you are able to fix, hats off to you). now i feel better about mine though.

[PD1292]

more

[Effeckt]

Doing a great job on this build! Thanks for keeping us all up to date with the pics.

[my90k5]

I envy your ambition, awesome build. Keep it up and feed us lots of pic's. I'm in the same position as you (just starting and learn as I go). There are a lot of great body techs on this site and "ALL" give whatever help they can without hesitation. Amazing site I must say.

[PD1292]

I have taken the interior out now and took it to the carwash to get all the dust and dirt out. Also found some small stress cracks in the back mount areas.

[PD1292]

Originally Posted by my90k5

I envy your ambition, awesome build. Keep it up and feed us lots of pic's. I'm in the same position as you (just starting and learn as I go). There are a lot of great body techs on this site and "ALL" give whatever help they can without hesitation. Amazing site I must say.

Thanks, I am sure i will need plenty of help.I agree on the site, really cool to have this kind of reasource.

[PD1292]

Well I read on someone elses post about some electronic rust removal (also known as magic). I tried it and it is great. Here are some pictures of that.
It is washing soda and water and then some rebar electrodes and a battery charger. Before and after pictures of rocker support.

[PD1292]

I am also going to try my hand at some more sandblasting. I do not want to mess up my shop or waste the media so i am building an enclosure inside the shop to allow for the blast media to be contained. it is made from 1/2 metal conduit put together with some mounts i made. When I finish the braces it will be covered with plastic.

[PD1292]

Here is the inside blast area, semi finished. Blasted a bit tonight as well. Wow, what a mess...Still need to put the plastic on the top, front and back, it did contain the mess pretty well though.

[madkmart]

awesome start great job what are ur plans with it

[PD1292]

Originally Posted by madkmart

awesome start great job what are ur plans with it

Pretty much just stock, cant afford to do much over that, At first. I need to get the rust out of the body and patch it up before it begins to look like what some of the others here start with. once i get that under control I am debating if i want to take the body off and sand blast the whole thing and then paint it off the frame, or just get to what i can and paint it sitting on the frame. I have an extra rolling blazer frame and I was thinking of transferring it to that to do the blasting, body work and painting, and then transferring it back on this frame. Not sure which way to go. I am leaning toward taking the body off due to it being so far taken apart anyway.

[PD1292]

Did some more blasting last night. The driver side looks better than it did before the blasting, i am now considering not replacing the pillars on that side, but am not sure. Here are some more pictures. Did not know my daughters put the camera on black and white.. sorry.