To deal with the cowel rust, I needed donor sheet metal to graft in in place og the metal I cut out. I could have shaped new steel to form patches, but I have part of a cab from the '93 donor vehicle that gave up the power train for this project. This half cab is the full extent of the sheet metal that was on the truck when I got it.
Looking over the shape of the metal, the '77 and the '92 are virtually identicle, so I will use pieces of this red cab to make patch panels for the Ramcharger.
Using the sawzall and way too coarse of a blade, I hacked a big chunk of the firewall and cowel out. I debated removing the whole firewall and replacing the one in the rc with it. That would give me the correct hole for the style heater box that would fit the style dash I am using. Specifically, I am talking about the heater controls and ducting. I have not yet looked to see if the newer style controlls will work with the old heater box. Nor have I looked at how the ducting will work. If I need to, I will cut the firewall to fit the new style heater and be done with that issue.
I did not take any pics of the precess of laying out and cutting the patch panel. I basically just took some rough measurements and cut it out a litle too big, on purpose. Then i held it in place and marked where aditional cutting needed to be done. i did the cutting that I could reach with a cutt-off wheel on a die-grinder. The parts in behind the column/brake pedel hanger, I did with a 12" blade in the sawzall. This final pic is the finished panel in place. Since, I have welded the top edge and the hard to get parts behind the bracketry. Some of the welding I had to do through the hole where the wiper post comes through the cowel. It is not easy to get to. For the welding, I started by stitching at about 3/4" intervals, then, since I am not worried about warpage, I filled the space between the stitch welds all at once. Hopefully, I will finish this and the small patch tomorrow and I can start putting the dash in. Along with the heater issues, I will also need to change the rectangular hole where the harness plug passes through the firewall. And, yet to be resolved is the compatibility between the old style fuel guage sending unit and the new guage. I am guessing it will be a non-issue. Famous last words.
Looking over the shape of the metal, the '77 and the '92 are virtually identicle, so I will use pieces of this red cab to make patch panels for the Ramcharger.
Using the sawzall and way too coarse of a blade, I hacked a big chunk of the firewall and cowel out. I debated removing the whole firewall and replacing the one in the rc with it. That would give me the correct hole for the style heater box that would fit the style dash I am using. Specifically, I am talking about the heater controls and ducting. I have not yet looked to see if the newer style controlls will work with the old heater box. Nor have I looked at how the ducting will work. If I need to, I will cut the firewall to fit the new style heater and be done with that issue.
I did not take any pics of the precess of laying out and cutting the patch panel. I basically just took some rough measurements and cut it out a litle too big, on purpose. Then i held it in place and marked where aditional cutting needed to be done. i did the cutting that I could reach with a cutt-off wheel on a die-grinder. The parts in behind the column/brake pedel hanger, I did with a 12" blade in the sawzall. This final pic is the finished panel in place. Since, I have welded the top edge and the hard to get parts behind the bracketry. Some of the welding I had to do through the hole where the wiper post comes through the cowel. It is not easy to get to. For the welding, I started by stitching at about 3/4" intervals, then, since I am not worried about warpage, I filled the space between the stitch welds all at once. Hopefully, I will finish this and the small patch tomorrow and I can start putting the dash in. Along with the heater issues, I will also need to change the rectangular hole where the harness plug passes through the firewall. And, yet to be resolved is the compatibility between the old style fuel guage sending unit and the new guage. I am guessing it will be a non-issue. Famous last words.
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