Severance Day: NOT what You think!

[Ranman72]

this is bad ass

thanks for sharing your progress

[wayno]

This is going to be nice.

This blending of fiberglass into metal is a LOT of work.

[Steroid]

ANY of You that get into My area PLEASE let Me know ! ! ! My barn is open to You ! ! Wayno, I am headed now to hopefully finish up the sides today. If You look close in the photos You will see the sizable gap that occured between the doors and the yellow gelcoated fiberglass cab extension. What Rich did was to weld pieces of rod that I formed to contour close to the door ends. You can see that He then welded in metal to fill that space as seen when the door is open. Now I have to countersink poprivit the sides to the metal and fiberglass into the rods. After that i will "float" bondo over the poprivits and feather it down the sides. This is the same process I do when I glass in a hood scoop to a metal hood. It should hold up because now that the extension is dramitically strengthened there should be no vibration now. Also, I have NEVER had any of My fenderflares or hood scoops seperate doing it that way. You can see tremendous amounts of vibration on My hoods but none have ever seperated yet. I'm not saying that I do any of this "right" for those that do glassing as a living or that I proclaim to be an expert but nothing I have ever fiberglassed in 35 years has ever failed. More pics tonight to show what is hopefully the last day of glassing. It is supposed to be over 105 today so I just made My "window" before Fall hits.

[Steroid]

Here is what I did today. First I seperated the extension using screwdrivers and agressively roughed the inside surfaces for the fiberglass to hold. You will notice that Rich used washers to weld the rod pieces which the fiberglass can also attach itself to:

 

 

 

 

Next I drilled many holes and then countersinked them for the poprivits, then squirted 3M weatherstrip adheisive inside:

 

 

 

Next I applied poprivits:

 

 

Finally I filled the area between the rods and forcing the cloth and resin inside behind the extension:

 

 

You can see how I kept building up the fiberglass to the rod contour. Notice how the rod follows the door end nicely:

 

 

This will now dry for a day or two and then a feathered coat of bondo will cover the poprivits, fiberglass and area over to the rod. I am almost done ! ! !

[wayno]

I guess I really don't understand what I am looking at here.

On the 521 the body corner makes its turn across the back of the cab about a quarter inch after the door gap, I left that metal in position to give the door pillar strength, and to have metal to weld my sheet metal door panel sheets too, to fill in the cab extension hole/gap, but I had to cut the inside of the pillar with the interior body line, then weld a flat piece into position to box the pillar again for strength, otherwise the pillar could twist and/or collapse from slamming the door to hard, anything that would push or pull on the door could become an issue.

This is where I start to get confused, it looks like the rear corner of your pillar has been cut away, then it looks like you welded washers into position for the fiberglass extension to connect to, and you say there are rods connected to the washers, so the rods are there to keep the washers from bending in towards the door lock jam area?

I wish you had a clear photo of these rods, I don't understand there function yet.

I guess I need to look at a 620 in this area, as I have never had a reason to look at a 620 closely, which in the big picture :lol: :lol: :lol: is a very good thing, as would be totally screwed if I was interested in 620s or 510s also. :lol: :lol: :lol: I used the word picture, I have used this word maybe 3 or 4 times on ratsun in the last two or more years, I have to laugh everytime I use it, I use oic. or photo, never that word.

When you say, "You can see how I kept building up the fiberglass to the rod contour. Notice how the rod follows the door end nicely", this makes me think the "rod" is something else differant again, I am so confused. :lol:

[Steroid]

Hi Wayno. The rods are the new corner which if it was just fiberglass or bondo, would chip away in time when bumped. If You look at the yellow gelcoated extension end You will see that it is straight up and down, not following the door contour correctly. The rods I bent make about a 1/8th inch gap now like a common vehicle, not the almost one inch gap I had before. I hope that explains better.

[wayno]

I understand now what the rod is, the rod goes up and down following the rear door line.

I call where the door lock/jam plate is mounted the pillar, lets just assume the pillar is the shape of a quarter piece of pie standing on end that goes all the way to the roof for simplicity, now I understand you cut the piece of pie off at the top of the door level, who cut the rounded corner part of the pie off leaving it a 90 degree piece of metal with no strength, or is it cut?

Was the rod put there because you had to blend the extension in as it stuck out a little, and the filler was chipping away?

Since you had to put a rod there shaped like the side of the truck, this is why I beleave the rounded part of the pie was cut out, I don't touch that part when I extend my cabs, but this photo below from the inside made me think that pillar was intact.

See how the back of the pillar goes all the way to the outside sheet, this is why I am confused, it looked like a complete closed pillar tube till you pried the fiberglass extension away and put goop in there and then pop riveted into position.

Here is a couple photos of my extension from the inside, see how the corner of the original cab is still there, except for the inside was cut and a flat plate was welded to the hole, the welding is only so so, I think there was a gap from cutting to much, and I tried filling the gap, but it will be hidden when finished, or I will continue filling it up.

 

[Steroid]

Yes Wayno. Where You put sheetmetal Rich put a thick wall pipe. You still have Your roof for structrial integrity. Mine was totally gone and the corners wobbled when the doors were closed. They are as hard as a rock now ! ! !

[]2eDeYe]

Need updated pics! :D

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Allright with Steroids permission Im updating this thread. We spent most of the day working on it with me doing bodywork & steroid working on the rear seat brackets. Myself & Steroid both know that this time of the year is convertable weather in Bullhead city & the goal is to get the inside in primer very soon.

The sheet metal work was done by Rich & i capped the tops of the extended cab earlier this year...some surface rust developed that had to be removed 1st...

after a few coats of filler...

& then a test fit of the back seat..its from a V W...

its all ready for a few coats of Laquer primer including the inner doors & ill add that Rich did a kick ass job on the sheetmetal work !!

[Steroid]

Thanks Mark ! ! !  It was nice once again having a "bondo party" like years gone by. A lot was accomplished yesterday ! I had let the truck set for months and stupidly not covered the fresh sheetmetal with a tarp. Rain from a few storms got on it and first all the rust had to be removed. We are so much closer now to the goal of painting it the stock yellow. After it is primered I will check into having that done. I DO plan, however, to get the seats upholstered next. They will match what is being done to the boat seats. When finished the dually will be yellow with orange accents to match My boat. More on this later.

 

 

BY THE WAY, next month is an AWESOME show in Needles, Ca. with drag boats and duallys. The plan is to have the truck and boat there. I will post the show in the events section. COME ON OVER ! ! !

[]2eDeYe]

That looks great, love the bug back seat they are pretty comfy. :)

[Charlie69]

I can not wait to see this finished loading your boat into the river.

 

Mark what brand of filler are you using?.

[Steroid]

Hi Charlie. I don't know the brand right off but for this area We are using something or other with the nickname "kitty hair". It should reduce cracking I hope between the metal and fiberglass. You will notice I did something that I don't think has ever been done on a 620. The doors were welded in. Due to the fact that there are no door regulators or moving parts other than the inner door latch releases My plan is to totally detail them smooth in every area and paint them yellow. Later on I will have an airbrush artist do each door with a "river" scene. When the truck is shown the doors will be open to show the scenes. Also one day it will get one of My fiberglass dashes which will also be yellow. The floors and the inside of the bed will be "Rhino" coated in matching yellow. There will be no carpeting. The reason for that is when it is used to launch the (also yellow) boat wet swim trunks will just drain on the coated floor.

[Charlie69]

Sounds great Steroid.  I love the smooth direction you are going.  How about a picture of your yellow boat on the river with a beautiful AZ sunset on the doors complete with your boats name!

 

I am thinking on a dually 520 in the future to haul my 66 around on an aluminum trailer.

 

Hope to see you Sat or Sunday, Gene and I are bringing Mark Grimace for some smoothing.

[wayno]

So Charlie is going to be looking for dually fenders?

[Charlie69]

Most Likely I will be.  What do you have in mind Wayno?  PM me with your ideas can't wait to hear them.

[Charlie69]

Went for a cruise in this dually with Steroid and Gene.  It is a fun ride.

[Pacific coast Datsun]

I agree Charlie it's a fun ride especially when its not 115 :devil: BTW the filler i used for the tops of the cab is Evercoat figerglass reinforced  its green in color. Yesterday was a big step in that now the bare metal is now no more..i shot a few coats of Laquer primer on the doors  back cab walls. Still needs a few spots massaged but its ok for now. OK onto the proof [pix]...

Mike "digging" around LoL...

[Steroid]

It all started with one cut from a Sawzall ! ! ! !

[wayno]

It all started with one cut from a Sawzall ! ! ! !

 

It really started with your imagination, I am pretty sure you were not on your way to cut it up, trip and make this by accident. :lol:

[denmarkboy]

It all started with one cut from a Sawzall ! ! ! !

In one word " Awesome " !

[Charlie69]

Looks great Mark.  Please do not leave tools laying around, Steroid might hurt himself! LOL

[Steroid]

A phillips screwdriver is the ultimate tool for removing bondo dust and primer residue from the nasal cavity ! ! !

 

 

Wayno, I agree. As some of You will remember, the dually project started with the fourdoor cab. Now, don't get upset, but the cab is resting on a 1979 front frame section which was grafted to a 1975 rear longbed section. The original fourdoor frame is intact (and restored) awaiting the fourdoor cab and bed. The fourdoor will be a restoration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the dually is NOW is the front end of a fiberglass 2+2 Crew extended 620. When it became available for purchase the dually project shifted gears.

 

 

 

 

I decided to build a roadster dually instead of a hardtop dually. The fiberglass extended cab, although somewhat rare but not as rare as a true metal fourdoor cab, was trimmed off and the construction photos show all of what was done. So there You have it.......... the saga of the long journey to building the ultimate 620 "boat hauler" dually !

 

[Pacific coast Datsun]

Steroid & myself took our 620's out today for some pics around town. We went to Laughlin ranch & the veterans memorial @ the Riverside hotel / casino.....