After media blasting the right cowl area there were a number of places where the metal was so rusted it blew holes into it.



The bottom of the cowl vent surround was eaten up so I fabricated one and welded it into place.




Epoxy primer on everything inside to stop the rust.


The kick panels and new floor supports are on their way.
I also ordered some A-pillar patch panel since these are toast.

Man, that thing is eaten up....I'd almost think it grew up here in Ohio.

DarrelK wrote:Man, that thing is eaten up....I'd almost think it grew up here in Ohio.

From what I am reading this is a pretty common area for rust on these vehicles.
Leaves and debris enter through the grill and settle in these vent surrounds thus plugging the drain holes.

I am think the heater core may have been leaking at one time as well since the damage on the passenger side is much worse than the driver's side. Also, it appears something was done to the heater box since there is caulking around the edge.

Oh, yeah, heater boxes....unfortunately I had some horrible experiences with old Jaguar cars and the "slow leak" damage done by the heater cores. My wife even had an early 80s sedan that would do a faint "hiss" at start up which would go away....yep, heater core....paid like 10 hours of labor with an $800 part....

Welded the outer cowl vent surround patch in place and then covered the bare metal in epoxy.


Cut off the rusted portion of the lower A-pillar and then cut and test fitted the patch panel. I won't install this until later.



Removed the rusted kick panel metal and revealed the rusted back side of the A-pillar. This will need to be media blasted and epoxied prior to welding new patch panels in.


Disappointed to see how short the kick panel patch is. I will have to add metal to fill the gap above prior to installation.


Ordered a floor pan patch for this side so it's back to drill out spot welds.

Ordered a new floor pan for the right front and decided to cut out the rusted floor support while waiting for it to arrive.


Went ahead and fitted the new floor support that will be installed later.


Removed the transmission cover and found a real mess:


Took almost an hour to get it to look recognizable.


I plan to start drilling out the spot welds on the floor pan next.

When we started in on Skips Chevy it had the same rust plus some ended up finding a good cab, cheaper than all the rust repair panels and welding supplys and grinding stuff, not to mention my labor. just made sense to replace the Cab in the end.

Man, I'm never going to complain about old fiberglass kit car bodies again....we just saw out what we don't like, make up, graft, cut, bend stuff. I even just make parts using modeling clay sometimes. I could see where this would get so overwhelming that you'd just replace that whole cab.....

Well the owner's mindset is to keep it original but not spend a lot of money on it.

In fact, at first he just wanted me to replace the rust, remove the dents and then just clear coat the truck. He would drive it that way until he had enough money to paint it.

I talked him into letting me cover the metal with two coats of black epoxy so the metal would be better protected from rust and a solid foundation in place for future painting.

Skip and I had the same plan, But we added up all costs of all the Patch panels and then the costs of welding/grinding supplies. we Ended up returning all the patch panels buying the new Cab. I wanted to save the Cab myself, as I love Rust repair so much! lol he was the one who saw reality.
His was ate up a bit more than what your dealing with, his needed both right and left inner AND outer Rocker panels and some floor on both sides as well.

Problem is the Cab he bought is an early 70s Cab and his Truck is a 77 or a 78 ?
We have to change a few things but its a doable project.

We picked the Cab up for $500 in Kingman AZ.