Last Minute Project

[Rzeppa]

Every year, it seems I have some kind of last-minute wrenching project before Moab. This year, I vowed to fix the rusted rear sill. Ian had given me a section of 2x2 square tube at the packing party a couple years ago, and last year at Moab, Bob Brown, who was following me on a trail, noted that every time I went over a bump, he could see air between the rear of my body and the frame crossmember.

Here's what I had to start with:

 

[Rzeppa]

First I measured and drilled holes for the body mounts in the square tube:

 

[Rzeppa]

I had to fit the body mounts through the back of the square tube somehow, so I cut some openings:

 

[Rzeppa]

Cutting out the old sill. As you'd imagine, the body mount bolts just twisted off, even after soaking with liquid wrench. What the hey, I got new ones! You can see the condition of the old sill - it's history!

 

[Rzeppa]

After that, I posted up on the LCML, asking for advice on how to mount the spare carrier latch. I got a lot of good suggestions; in the end I cut openings through which I could install nuts and washers onto bolts. I was thinking of welding nuts in there, but wanted to make sure I had a little slop in order to position the latch just right. It was late, I was tired and this project was already taking WAY longer than I planned.

Due to parallax of the camera angle, it doesn't look like the cut-outs line up behind the holes. They actually do.

 

[Rzeppa]

Here's a couple other angles of the finished square tube:

 

[Rzeppa]

Next up was to cut the "wings" for the ends. I "cheated" and used my CCoT channel on my 76 as a template. Cutting 4 of them with reasonable precision took quite a while.

 

[Rzeppa]

After I had all 4 cut out, trimmed and ground, I welded them to the ends of the square tube:

 

[Rzeppa]

Next, I cut some rectangles for the curved outside, and welded them in:

 

[Rzeppa]

Some poor-light photos of the whole thing:

 

[Rzeppa]

I decided that I wanted plenty of surface to weld the old floor pan to, so I added a length of 1/2" angle iron:

 

[Rzeppa]

The moment of truth! Fitment...yep, it fits!

 

[Rzeppa]

Now for some Zero-Rust inside and out, with weld-through zinc where it's going to be welded:

 

[74fj40]

wow! great job

 

[Convert]

Nice work Jeff

 

[subzali]

Amazing what you can do with some sheet metal and a little ingenuity! Nice work! Want to see the finished product!

 

[Hulk]

Looking good dude! Great fab work. You'll be looking cool in Moab.

 

[IanB]

Looks good. Where did you get weld through zinc?

 

[Rzeppa]

Looks good. Where did you get weld through zinc?

The first can I got at a body shop supply store on Broadway in Denver. Then I discovered that regular "cold galvanizing compound" from any hardware store is actually the same stuff, something like 95-97% zinc. It's half the price and saves a trip into the middle of Denver. I use it on inside surfaces which will be welded and can't be subsequently accessed.

Hey Ian, thanks so much for that square tube you gave me! It's been a long time, but I finally got around to using it.

 

[Rzeppa]

For the skin, to replace what I cut out of the quarter panel, I cut some strips, then drilled them. The holes are to weld them to the wings in the channel. After I cut and drilled them, I sprayed what will be the inside surface with cold weld-through zinc.