My 99 K2500 Suburban

[Jman95]

As for the other side, I had a similar rust situation on the lower fender bracket on the d/s as well as that lower rot where salty boots happened.

Here is an interior shot,

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Rust is so annoying and time consuming, but now is the time I guess..

Outside shot,

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The 3 holes above the rot where the steel is kinked is where the bracket was located on this side, it wasn’t quite as through as the other side but was surely getting there.

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Drilled out the spot welds with a standard 5/8” bit I believe, and was able to peel the flange apart easily with a chisel, wanted to slowly move the bad to see all that was still good.. don’t want to remove anymore than I need to.

I will be replacing the firewall flange and lowest part of the actual firewall and then cut and weld a new flange onto the floorboard piece, the floor panel is immaculate besides the rust on that flange section.

 

[Jman95]

So here is the patch I made for the firewall side, I don’t have a metal brake, so this was all done in a vice with a hammer and patience, and I don’t much of that left lol. The piece of scrap I made it out of was a little short so welded two together, gotta work with what I got lol

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I purposely leave it big, can always remove some, but it’s a pain to add it. I also don’t like cutting anything out unless I absolutely have to, like to have the existing metal to use as reference.

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Got the angle right, upon further inspection on the inside the flange is a little rusty barely going up into the trans tunnel, so will have to make a piece for that too, but just starting here.

All my patches I make from 16GA. I believe the existing metal is actually 18GA, so it leaves me room to grind.

I haven’t got this welded in yet, been busy this week, but will be posting more as we progress.

 

[Jman95]

Had to cut more off the quarter panel/wheel arch then I wanted too, but I had to be able to get behind it to clean it up and see what panels I needed to order/replace.

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I wanted to cut so that when I welded the patch in, the weld would have landed on the curve around the mounting of the flare band holder thing (sorry). Figured that would help minimize warpage as the metal is stronger where it’s bent (in my mind at least).

However, there was too much rust activity and I needed access into the inside of the fender area.

So here we are,

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I ordered the outer fender skin, as well as the outer wheel house, that piece with the 2 holes inside the fender.

Here is a pic up inside the fender,

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Not too bad up in there, that spot of rot is popped through on the interior, one of the reasons I wanted to see up inside here to make sure it wasn’t worse. Now I can heat my seat belt bolt too lol.

Figured I’d start with the firewall to get used to the welder and any complications that may arise when I goto do the fender. The raptor liner paint job and fender flares should hide most of this but I still don’t want to hack it.

I purchased some POR15 products to treat the inside of the fender with, so this will be a true test to see how well that stuff works also.

 

[Jman95]

While messing around with the fender, I found a soft spot down by the bottom of the door. After knocking on it softly with my hand it dented so I cut it off.

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It looked immaculate from the outside, and was clean on the inner structure. There was a gap in the fender well that was leaking water down here and there is a drain relief bent into the flange on the bottom that had gotten clogged with some pine needles, I would say that is to blame for this.

A pic of the backside of this piece,

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Purchased some panel bonding adhesive since that is what held it in place in the door jamb along with some spot welds I drilled out, want to put it back to original.. don’t want anyone to know I was there lol.

pic of my brother telling me I’m crazy,

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I cut it below the body line, didn’t want to get into that. The patch I ordered has that line in it already, but I made a good call because when the patch showed up that body line is kinked and looks like crap.. That would have been a nightmare to work out.

Will be posting more as I continue to work on this. Please be patient, bodywork is very time consuming especially if your not sure how to do it, I literally winging it and teaching myself with help from YouTube videos.

 

[letitsnow]

Rust sucks lol, got myself a new Hobart Handler 140 welder for Christmas, so onto body work. This is my first time ever doing bodywork and welding sheetmetal so be easy guys lol.

Are you using argon with your new welder, or flux core wire?

 

[Jman95]

Are you using argon with your new welder, or flux core wire?

0.24 solid wire with standard 75% argon/25% co2 mix.

 

[Erik the Awful]

This is my first time ever doing bodywork and welding sheetmetal so be easy guys lol.

Then does a better job than I can do. Humblebrag much? Nice work!

 

[Jman95]

Then does a better job than I can do. Humblebrag much? Nice work!

Wasnt trying to brag haha, I’ve done a lot of research. Just stressing that I’ve never done it, a lot of patience and anything can be done though. Takes a long time for me though for sure, that first patch took me probably around 12 working hours start to finish, which is slow to me lol

 

[Supercharged111]

Man that's a lot of work. Could have just gone to TX and bought a clean one! For your converter, you could be a cheapass and get the B82 converter. That's the one that came on the small block trucks. It stalled around 2000 in my 1500 before the blower, probably stalls higher now. Would definitely stall north of 2000 on your application if that's something you want to pursue. If you don't mind me asking, how much was it to blast and coat the frame? I've thought about that for the 1500 if I'm ever able to find myself an 8 lug ECSB frame for cheap.

 

[Jman95]

Man that's a lot of work. Could have just gone to TX and bought a clean one! For your converter, you could be a cheapass and get the B82 converter. That's the one that came on the small block trucks. It stalled around 2000 in my 1500 before the blower, probably stalls higher now. Would definitely stall north of 2000 on your application if that's something you want to pursue. If you don't mind me asking, how much was it to blast and coat the frame? I've thought about that for the 1500 if I'm ever able to find myself an 8 lug ECSB frame for cheap.

Yes lol, lots of work. Thanks for the info on the converter as well. It cost me $800 to sandblast and coat the frame with that Amershield stuff by PPG.