The way I went was to add turbos to the Buick 350 in my 70 Skylark and make it look
like a stage 2.

 

Well F***!





Looks like I did a **** poor job of inspecting the two tone when I bought it. I saw one small rust spot on the outside of the frame, but totally missed the inside which is much worse. Granted, these pics are after picking at it bunch and cleaning the mud off, but still. Guess I bought myself a parts truck with a really nice body. No wonder why he let it go for $1000.

Probably going to try to cut it out and weld some big supports in to hold it over until I can find a frame to swap. The frame on the black one is very solid and the body is junk. The body on this one is very solid and the frame is junk. Lovely combo.

And because I have a sickness and can't stop, I'm going to get another one tomorrow for a gambler 500 build. 95 reg cab short bed V8 4x4 not running for $500obo, gonna try to get it for a little over scrap value. It even has a nice tailgate and bumper I can use on another truck.

 

It's not a problem until you start missing work and stealing stuff to keep the fun going.
if you treated that with Ospho inside and out you could probably weld on some 1/4x3x3 (or whatever size it needs) angle to repair that.

 

Yeah that's my plan for now. I have a different brand than ospho, but same stuff. It's awesome. I'll spray it and weld some reinforcement in, but overall it's disappointing and definitely changes my plans for the truck.

Now that it needs a new frame, that's basically sending it down the road of being a full frame off resto. If I'm going to take the frame from another truck, I may as well fully clean it up and epoxy coat it. All new suspension bits while it's apart, probably SAS. I've been wanting to rebuild a motor as a fun exercise, so may as well put something fresh in it if it's all apart. Then it's just a matter of having my pro bodyman buddy prep and spray it for me and it'll be a show truck.

The black one can still be my winter beater/in town short trip runner.

The 92 RCLB is getting done up tuff truck racing style for local dirt track fun.

If I get it, the 95 RCSBl be a trail toy for Gambler 500 and Rousch Creek.

That should cover most of my midsize truck bases... At least until I see another one I have to have lol

Finally got my Cummins mostly sorted to my liking. My box truck/work van has been solid. Only other work truck I'd like to build would be a third gen Ram 4x4 with a dump bed for getting debris out to my bonfire pit a little easier. I have a nice aluminum bed for that project sitting in the yard, but the Dakotas pushed it back a bit.

So many trucks, so little time lol

 

The 'rona is giving me lots of time to work on stuff, but the uncertainty doesn't make me want to blow my savings on truck parts. So, I've been cleaning up the fleet.



polished this turd and it actually doesn't look half bad for what it is. I used mother's spray on ceramic coating on the wheels, hopefully that helps make cleaning them easier. I do like the juxtaposition of shiny Cadillac wheels on a faded old truck. I want to find another set so I can make two squared sets.

I also did some chassis cleaning on the two tone. I sprayed the whole undercarriage with rust converter, then let it cure a week, then hit it with flat black Rust-Oleum. Next up is welding in some frame reinforcement.


I picked at it some more and this is the extent of it. It's pretty bad but I'm not expecting this frame to do much other than hold over until I find a replacement. Some 2x2 angle ought to help it.

 

You probably don't need to be told this but you should cut out (cutting wheel not torch) all the rusted metal that is bent in and grind to bare steel where your welds will be.
It cleaned up nice.

 

Yep, I'm just getting started on cleaning it up. I was tapping it with a masons hammer to find the decent edges before getting the grinder out. Plan is to cut it clean out, wheel the edges down to bare steel, slip 1.5" flat bar in behind it as a backer piece, then run a big 2x2x1/4 angle along the whole length to tie it all together. These frame rails were paper thin from the factory, so hopefully a little reinforcement will hold this over for now. I have a buddy that is a professional welder, I'm going to have him come over and help me with the welds since they're pretty damn structural and I trust his skills in that department more than my own.

 

Well, my welder buddy couldn't get over any time soon, so I just tried my best with a harbor freight stick welder, some 6011 and 6013 rods and not a lot of welding skill...

NSFW: Weld Gore below




I cut out the thin rusty areas, slipped backing plates of 1.5" flat bar in behind them, welded those in as best I could. Then I welded patches over each of those, followed by the 2x2 angle on both sides up front and on the inside a little further back. It's pretty far from perfect, actually it's pretty bad. This frame is barely a notch above scrap metal and this is a temp fix.

So, frame swaps. I've got the black Dak with a solid 4x4 frame. A bit of a pain, but I could swap the good two tone body onto the good frame. This would leave me without a working backup truck for the duration though, plus I'm happy with the black Dak for a beater truck as is.

I've also got a 2wd Dak with a frame that is absolutely spotless. It's basically parked at this point so dismantling it wouldn't cause downtime on a drivable vehicle. I know it's missing a couple cross members and the brackets aren't all in the right spots. If I want to SAS it anyway, maybe starting with a clean 2wd frame that I can convey to solid axle 4x4 is the better way to go.

Or I can keep searching for another truck with a good frame to strip down...

 

I feel safer already and I'm not even riding in it

 

Working on the two tone some more.

added lift keys in the front, cranked em all the way down, picked up about 2.5" of height. Gave it that Carolina squat without a rear lift. Then a picture with it jacked up to our goal rear height, with my son strategically blocking the rusty fender lol

I felt like playing with the rust removal contraption I made, basically reverse electro plating the rust off my parts and onto a sacrificial anode. Testing it out on this brake drum, I'll post the after picture in a few hours after it's had time to cook.