Draker's 1979 620 King Cab Deluxe

[iceman510]

7 hours ago, datzenmike said:

No signal, engine not running.

 

You misinterpret and have to interject as always.  Of course there is not an actual ignition signal, but I am suggesting it is something else that is activated in the on position seeking to complete a circuit but doesn't have a clean path (of least resistance...) to ground.

[Draker]

1 minute ago, iceman510 said:

 

You misinterpret and have to interject as always.  Of course there is not an actual ignition signal, but I am suggesting it is something else that is activated in the on position seeking to complete a circuit but doesn't have a clean path (of least resistance...) to ground.

 

I would agree. Wiggling some other components seemed to affect it briefly. I'll dig around and see what I can find. Not sure where the ground for the tach is, I'll start with that.

[banzai510(hainz)]

I sprayed this stuff on under my 521 and better yet Jeep I have before the rust starts.

 

spray areas of concern if your never going to paint there.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTV41O0/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01MTV41O0&pd_rd_w=btzyV&content-id=amzn1.sym.7446a9d1-25fe-4460-b135-a60336bad2c9&pf_rd_p=7446a9d1-25fe-4460-b135-a60336bad2c9&pf_rd_r=X0AJGXQR1TM308XGFR9A&pd_rd_wg=5raA9&pd_rd_r=10e8121d-b3a5-466f-8a4e-aa97a5b5984d&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

[Draker]

3 minutes ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

I sprayed this stuff on under my 521 and better yet Jeep I have before the rust starts.

 

spray areas of concern if your never going to paint there.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MTV41O0/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01MTV41O0&pd_rd_w=btzyV&content-id=amzn1.sym.7446a9d1-25fe-4460-b135-a60336bad2c9&pf_rd_p=7446a9d1-25fe-4460-b135-a60336bad2c9&pf_rd_r=X0AJGXQR1TM308XGFR9A&pd_rd_wg=5raA9&pd_rd_r=10e8121d-b3a5-466f-8a4e-aa97a5b5984d&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

 

Oh nice. I might snag this for the inner body structure!

[banzai510(hainz)]

wear gloves and a hat to cover hair. the mist gets into everything.

 

Paint first before this stuff goes on. 

On my 521 the under bed is same as yours and I just sprayed where looks like alot of water goes ect. the spare tire rim chain .chain hoist for tire I get the spray on there.

get at least 6 cans. 

I did in back of the brakes hoses(dont dry rot) ,shocks as they rust also.

[Draker]

3d printed glove box liner. I already have one, but I thought this would be interesting to try. It's a two piece, I'm gluing it together here.

 

 

Pulled the door off and disassembled it. The game plan at the moment is to chop the door skin right above the lower body line and graft on a new section entirely from a good door. Yes, I could replace the entire door, but I don't want to paint the entire door if I don't have to so that I keep some of the rattyness that matches the rest of the truck. It's going to be a bit tricky to do that, but I'll try. Worst case, new door.

 

This section is rusted through both sides of the door. So I'll end up replacing a bit of the inner door metal as well. Kind of hard to tell how much damage there is to the lower part of this door. It's a lot. Both of rust, and multiple dents. Should be a fun one to try to fix!

Edited March 6 by Draker

[Rustbin]

Cutting the door skin about 1/2" below the line will give the panel more resistance to warping and you could use whatever 20 gauge metal you have handy. With the lower part removed you will have access to bump out the dent, and depending on the damage to the inner structure you might want to fix it first to retain the shape of the door bottom. When things are too far gone I like to make a jig.

I like the glove box too, no worries about water damage.

[Draker]

3 hours ago, Rustbin said:

Cutting the door skin about 1/2" below the line will give the panel more resistance to warping and you could use whatever 20 gauge metal you have handy. With the lower part removed you will have access to bump out the dent, and depending on the damage to the inner structure you might want to fix it first to retain the shape of the door bottom. When things are too far gone I like to make a jig.

I like the glove box too, no worries about water damage.

 

The inner structure Is pretty straight I think. I was trying to decide above or below the body line. Above removes the dent, but warping is a real problem. I did some exploratory work on another parts door.. and it might be best to do a combo approach, but I think below the dent would be safer. Plus its good metal, just bent. My spare doors are pretty rusty also.

[Draker]

I tried to take a picture of just how dented this door is. Basically pushed in from one end to the other, right on the body line.

 

Right below the body line it also caved in and pretty wavy.

 

Flap disked one corner of the door to see how much rust we're dealing with. This is the better of the two corners. So I took a spare rusty door, with a decent corner and attempted to gently remove part of the door skin. Super painful process.. but I got the corner.

 

 

Now this patch is way too big, but I was trying to get a sense of going above or below the body line. I think for this section, I'll be going below the line.

I have a stud welder, so I'll probably try to pull some of these dents out a bit before I make a decision how to repair the rest of it.

Edited March 7 by Draker

[datzenmike]

On 3/5/2026 at 1:46 PM, Draker said:

 

I would agree. Wiggling some other components seemed to affect it briefly. I'll dig around and see what I can find. Not sure where the ground for the tach is, I'll start with that.

 

The tach has it's own 6 wire plug.

 

Black wire is the ground.

Blue wire it the tach signal from the coil negative.

Black/Green is ignition switched power from the fuse box.

Blue/White is a power supply also for the interior lamp and cigar lighter. Does the interior lam and cigar lighter work? These are  connected to the battery and are hot at all times. 

 

Red/Blue and Red/Black are for illumination. 

[Draker]

6 hours ago, datzenmike said:

 

The tach has it's own 6 wire plug.

 

Black wire is the ground.

Blue wire it the tach signal from the coil negative.

Black/Green is ignition switched power from the fuse box.

Blue/White is a power supply also for the interior lamp and cigar lighter. Does the interior lam and cigar lighter work? These are  connected to the battery and are hot at all times. 

 

Red/Blue and Red/Black are for illumination. 

thanks Mike! I’ll check and follow up. 
 

the good news is the wiring is in good shape and fairly untouched for the most part.

[Rustbin]

For sure work out the dent first, the curvature of the panel might return with the dent fixed, if not put a board in the door and pry the skin out till its good. Find the dolly that fits the shape best then tap the high spots, working around til the low spots come up, if you use a flat faced hammer it should come up pretty smooth. Usually you work the wrinkles and folds from the furthest away to the point of impact but this looks like a centralized hit so you don't need to work the whole door skin. The other little wrinkles don't look associated to the dent so they can be done one at a time but I would still do them before cutting and welding in the rust repairs. Go slow when you tack things and check for straight frequently, easier to cut a tack or two and adjust then to try to fix it afterward. Good luck.

[Draker]

13 minutes ago, Rustbin said:

For sure work out the dent first, the curvature of the panel might return with the dent fixed, if not put a board in the door and pry the skin out till its good. Find the dolly that fits the shape best then tap the high spots, working around til the low spots come up, if you use a flat faced hammer it should come up pretty smooth. Usually you work the wrinkles and folds from the furthest away to the point of impact but this looks like a centralized hit so you don't need to work the whole door skin. The other little wrinkles don't look associated to the dent so they can be done one at a time but I would still do them before cutting and welding in the rust repairs. Go slow when you tack things and check for straight frequently, easier to cut a tack or two and adjust then to try to fix it afterward. Good luck.

 

thanks for the tips. I’ll give it a shot!

[Draker]

A better look at the rust. It's through both sides unfortunately. Going to have to dig into some donor doors. Unfortunately they might all be rusted out here, so I may have to just make it out of sheet metal.

 

 

 

I chopped out the other rust spot so I could see what the inside looked like. It's pretty decent, should be able to salvage most of it. Maybe one small spot will need cut and replaced.

 

 

Better side profile of the door. I pulled the dent a little with my stud welder. It came out a little, but it was difficult. So I just bought a better unit that should really help with this repair. Went with the Vevor 90E, should be a game changer for this type of work. Only $167 shipped!

Edited March 9 by Draker

[Rustbin]

Is there access from the inner panel? Tapping those high spots above the body line, while pushing the low spot of the dent should help it come out. It looks like something flipped upward and into the door to cause the dent.

[Draker]

54 minutes ago, Rustbin said:

Is there access from the inner panel? Tapping those high spots above the body line, while pushing the low spot of the dent should help it come out. It looks like something flipped upward and into the door to cause the dent.

There is a hole in the door by its not super accessible but any tool I have to push it back out and tap at the same time. The dent puller I bought should work pretty well for this. 
 

I agree, if I can pull the lower dents, the top should relax a bit. 

[Draker]

New shocks front and rear. New swaybar end links.

 

oddly enough these raised the back end about and inch due to the rebound force. So i removed the 2” blocks and replaced with 2.5” blocks.

[Draker]

Need to take it for another test drive. Might need to trim the front bump stops. 

[Draker]

For the new spot welder. Trying to figure out how to use it properly.

 

[Rustbin]

That new setup is perfect for the dent in the lower right but the center impact pushed the metal upwards above the body line, that has to be tapped back into place while pulling the dent out. I have taken some pictures of an old body work text book to help you to read the metal, and repair it in the reverse order of deformation from the impact.

I hope you can zoom in enough to read it, also there are some good videos on YouTube, if you can find them.

 

    

 

  

 

 

[banzai510(hainz)]

On 3/11/2026 at 9:33 PM, Draker said:

these raised the back end about and inch due to the rebound force.

Yes Gas a Just do that(or the new MONOMAX KYBs.  Dont cut that strap untill you got the bushing on and aim and shoot. I put the gas a just on front of my 521 to keep it from bottoming out since I lowered it down.  Put cheap regular shocks in back Gabrials I think.

[Draker]

got a good portion of the dent worked out. Pulled the lower part first, that did relax the top part quite a bit. The metal is stretched in a few places causing some high spots. Going to work it a bit more, but may need to attempt to strink a few spots.

 

[UnderControl]

Perfect use case for a shrinking disc.

[Draker]

1 hour ago, UnderControl said:

Perfect use case for a shrinking disc.

it’s on order. 👍

[Draker]

On 3/17/2026 at 8:47 AM, Draker said:

it’s on order. 👍

 

People always complain about Amazon... and knock off products. While looking at shrinking disc's I found a the domestic OG of shrinking discs while researching them on youtube. I looked around on Amazon and found the chinese versions.. 2 day shipping. 1/3 of the price.  

But no.. I was like the original guy posted videos, put a lot of thought into the product and R&D. So I paid up and ordered the original AND paid for shipping.

 

... 5 days later the fucking thing hasn't even shipped yet.