I’m nearly done fixing the cab floor on the passenger side. It had some rust-cancer behind where the seat will go. It always seems like as soon as you touch it the holes get huge. Here is the first pass of welding smaller holes and patching bigger ones. The rot (on the far se by the body mount needs more attention.
Below you can see the body mount rot a bit better.
I tend to fix the smaller stuff first to help stabilize before I cut out the bigger problems:
After cleaning, cutting, and priming what was left I welded this in as a floorpan replacement piece…
Then started forming a piece to replace the back wall of the support piece.
Slowly coped and bent it to fit.
Finally, weld, grind, and paint!
This will all be under the carpet… so functional is more important than pretty. This pretty much finishes the repair. There are a few places which will need to breach the firewall, and a few other patches but that’s most of it!
So much rust. So many patches. On my last post I’d started the inside of the bed. I started with the worst. The driver’s side front of the bed only needed 4 small patches and one bigger one.
Some of you may see the next picture and think I have poor taste in beverages. You’ll have to get over it. I know it’s like “sex on a boat”. You can ask me what that means if you don’t already know. Regardless, it’s not about taste. This isn’t a box for beer. It’s a template kit!
It is just the right thickness and stiffness for making templates!
Here are a few:
After cutting out the templates, I cut some patches out of my sheet metal.
Here you can see the drivers front part of the bed support all finished up.
Onward to the passenger side! There were a few holes to plug weld here and there. they aren’t very interesting, but I took care of those things as I traversed around the bed.
Never underestimate how many times the floor gets swept… and yet it always seems to be covered in grinding dust and welding bbs.
The bad part on the passenger side was where the fenderwell meets the bed. The inside of the “hump” if you will.
By “bad” I mean part is missing completely and what was left… isn’t much better.
I decided to basically just cut this section out.
I cut a strip of sheet metal to replace the “wheel well” part. I used some fancy clamps that give a good gap for butt welding body parts. They hold the metal alignment right while you weld it in.
For this kind of patch, stich weld it in. Do a little inch long weld here, a little weld there, letting it pretty much cool before going back and filling in more. Here are my crappy (not quite hot enough) welds. I know they weren’t hot enough because I could see the back side wasn’t fully fused. I’ll have to go back and weld inside the wheel well. that can be for another day.
I also needed to make the “lip” part that the bed panels lay on top of. I don’t have a brake big enough to bend the sheet this long, so I had to do it by hand on my welding table.
Here is’t almost coaxed into place.
I’ll use these holes to plug weld it to the strip I added on the “hump”.
Looks pretty good fitted up there…
Nearly seamless…
…and as murphy would have it! As usual! I ran out of shielding welding gas just as I got started welding it into place. Probably a good stopping place for a bit.
In 1963 I don’t think they cared that much about seat belts. Originally The J200 had a bench front seat and I’m pretty sure the seatbelts spent most of their time below the seats. How many times did folks actually fish them out of the crack in the seat just so they could wear them?
I’d like to make it a bit safer and more comfy. There are a few challenges to face.
As stupid as it might be, I want to keep the original steering wheel. Those things are face smashers. At least a good shoulder belt is needed.
I don’t wanna die. I will have seatbelts. I won’t have air bags.
As cool as the original bench was, I do like the comfort of more modern seats.
there’s no mount point for a shoulder strap in the Gladiator. I could figure all that out
…orrrrr… it turns out that the donor truck seats have a built in shoulder and lap seatbelt with mount points!
Other than funky-smelling-as-heck and the mounts don’t directly fit I think they might be a win! I can get them reupholstered to get rid of the funk and since the donor is relatively new I may be able to get not-totally-custom skins. Even if I can’t get skins I’m 100% sure the upholstery shops around will be able to do something awesome with them.
So, can I make the mounts work? Is the height off the floor and away from the ceiling ok?
Well, the donor truck didn’t have a drive train tunnel (aka “the hump”) so that’s an issue to figure out.
Yup, it’s a pretty hefty hump
After removing the “bottom” cushion, I set the seat in just to see what I’m facing. This has the original mounts on, sitting on the flat part of the cab floor.
It’s a bit angled
It’s leaning on the door frame I’m pretty sure that won’t work as it sits
I’m thinking 4″ inboard might work?
To be sure I need to get the door on as well to see how that will interact with it. It’s also clear that the inboard slider will have to relocate “somehow”. I’ll need to keep it parallel with the outboard slider, but it can move up and/or outboard I think? Let’s get it apart and see.
Can it actually move outboard without conflict with the seat? I think so? The seatbelt buckle mount may need to mount to the body instead of the seat? That’s not ideal, but it looks like there will be a conflict otherwise.
In the next image I’m pointing to where the “bottom” cushion mounts to the frame (it’s on the other side of the seatbelt buckle. It is higher than the hump! Hooray! It looks like I can leave the outbound rail “as is” and just figure out how to make the rail work.
Also, it looks like the head space is good. The rails were “all the way back”… so headspace is good, front-back is good. I think this might just work? I won’t be very sure until I’m sitting in it in the cab and see if the headspace feels claustrophobic or comfy.
So then I went about seeing what it takes to get stuff apart…it wasn’t terrible.
I think I can cut the seat belt buckle mount off here. I can probably reuse the mount point, just weld some support under the body and such.
Then move the slider outboard like this:
This front mount for the bottom “cushion” would need to move from my index finger to my thumb for whatever offset is needed … but that seems totally doable.
I was totally surprised at this thing… it’s the bar you use to adjust the seat. It’s hollow! Even though it felt solid and hefty, it’s an illusion. Heck, it might even be aluminum! Not sure how I’m going to shorten that yet if it’s aluminum… maybe remake it in steel? Let’s see what it’s made of! Time for the magnet test!
Drum roll please! Oof… sorry for out-of-focus.
that means I can shorten the adjustment tube without big isues…
So looking from above with it back in the cab…
I’m feeling increasingly (probably overly) optimistic that it’ll work.
I think before I do all the work, I should put the pedals, door, and steering back in to see if the height works.
Looks good with the door on. I even hopped in and the open window is the perfect arm-rest height.
Comfy thus far:
Yup, steering in place is also good!
Next I set about getting the underlying slider structure finished. It’s a pain, but somebody has to do it. Meaning me. ha! I need to relocate the front support …thingy so I cut off the current support and tab and relocate/weld them onto the other side of the inner slider. Basically I need to get the other side similar to this side, but in the right spot to pick up the right spot for the seat support hole. Below you can see my crappy weld on the far slider.
Also, the tab that used to go this way:
Won’t work as is, it needs to be cut and relocated.
In the next few pics you can see me failing. I’m cutting out we welding back in ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE SEAT… I find I always do better if I mark things while I’m fitting it… then I cut/fit the right thing. In this case I over-smarted it.
Here it is the finished cutout and orientation after realizing I was doing the wrong side and fixing it.
I also need to build a support for the back right on the slider such that the support doesn’t touch the center hump…
The seat should rest on these.
To get this to work I need to clearance everything from my pinky to my index finger.
After a cardboard template and cutting out some steel, I tacked it into place. I’ll need to cut away the extra stuff and fully weld this in place. It’s kind of tough to see as we’re looking at it from the bottom after I pulled it from the truck.
After pulling it back out of the truck, it looks like I can trim off a bunch of stuff. I should get this better tacked in before hand to avoid losing dimensions.
After a test fit, it looked like the right front support needed a little more height.
It also looked like it could use some more gusseting…
Also there were some rather large gaps that needed some fill…
During (yet another) test fit I realized I cut off the rear seat support on the right side. whoops. Gotta glue that back. (Can you ever get enough test fits?)
Finally! It’s so hard to “see” where it’s going until you get almost complete! Here is the center-most slide for the driver side seat. You can see all those wonky angles were to help that side avoid hitting the “hump” in the middle of the truck.
Not shabby:
I think it might actually work! It’s not 100% done yet. I still need to add some under-body support to keep the seat from just pulling through the sheet metal.
I think all that’s left is the adjustment lever. I need to narrow it. 5″ reduction later and here’s what you get… a badly focused picture!
I’m pretty sure I can make similar alterations on the other side as well. Now I have a plan for seats!
After media blasting and primer it was apparent it needed to be replaced.
There is no “direct fit” available. So, I will make due with some patch panels. They came on a pallet and were oversized.
So, I cut them down to size:
Here they are close. I did need to make a few little clearance cuts.
Now that they are fit it’s time to get most of that old rusty crap out. An important thing to do is to avoid warping things. Keeping it structurally sound is a key. It’s time to start cutting out the rot!
I cut sections out between support cross-members. Then I used hammer/cold-chisel along with a die grinder with a sphere carbide bur to grind/break spot welds.
So much rusty grinding dust… oof
Almost done with removal.
Driver side still has the most rust/cancer. The rear behind the tire hump is going to have to be 100% replaced.
Here are the pieces I cut out (note it’s in 2 pieces, the rust was all the way through) and the replacement patch piece I’ll need to bend/craft.
After weldingup the holes and giving it a spot of primer, here is the hump support parts.
In the picture above you can see there is still some runs holes to deal with.
After a bunch of grinding/cleaning/”negotiating” here is where I got the outer panel and am still reacting to bad rust where the tailgate is near the bed. I’m welding up holes and grinding smooth.
Here is the inside view of the same (after filling/grinding/paint)
Here is a weld-in patch for this area.
After some quality time with a hammer and dolly, welder, grinder and giving it a small cut to relieve the warp in the panel the driver rear behind the hump looks better. I still need to build up the inside structure to keep it stable. So much rust.
Don’t look at the next photo if you have a sensitive stomach. I think this is the moral equivalent of feeding liquor to someone with a stomach virus. As bad as the “rusty” bits look, it’s actually solid… it is just jagged where the sand blaster got the rust away. It is true that I didn’t grind it down to shiny steel before welding. I was just adding a strip under it to add strength as while I was hammering it was basically just bouncing. It needed some rigidity.
As bad as that looked, it was so much better once welded. You might also notice the relief cut that I put in the fender. With all that hammering the metal is expanding. It has to go somewhere or it will bow out.
So after I welded that strip in, I welded one to the top half of the bed body as well. That also made a huge difference in strength. Here it is after a coat of pain to hide all evils…
Now I need to form that piece which was in 2 pieces.
After some time cutting sheet, and some time on the press brake, I have the bent piece with the rusted bits layed on top. Gawd.
Now let’s put it in place…
Not terrible!
i still need to fill the holes to the left and right of where the piece goes…let’s do that.
She ain’t perfect but it’s well on the “good enough” path.
After some welding:
Primed… and I think it’s ready for some seam sealer and the bed panel to overlap it.
Just 3 more of these corners to go… oof… I think this one was the worst… here’s the next one…
wrenchingseason 