Lol thats nothing did you see my 68 before I started. Half the cab was litterally misssing!!! Everyone thought I was nuts. Haha.
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Cut as much of that rust out as you can. Then treat the remaining rust with something preweld. I would just stitich weld it in place probably 1 inch welds every 2 inches apart. Then use a good body caulk, then seal it, then undercoat seal it and then paint it. Yeah seal the crap out of it!!!
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So you’re saying to just cut out the worst and weld the replacement on top of the old sheet, or cut the replacement to fit what’s left of the floor?
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Luckily that tunnel is mostly flat. I’m thinking of skinning the top with some 16ga to stiffen it for my side detent shifter.
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I’ll probably hit all this with my wire wheel sometime this week if I’m feeling froggy. This heat really takes it out of a guy and my truck is parked in the most sunny spot on the property.
On the plus side of that I can report my PETG carbon fiber printed gauge pod has survived direct sunlight on the dash during these 90+ degree days.
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If you can you just want like an inch over lap. But yeah on the chassis you are limited to what you can do. And if possible cut all the rust out.
Use sheet metal screws to pull the two together and then remove them one by one and spot weld those holes. I generally drill the side Im welding from larger like 1/4". Then once all the spot welds are done stitch weld edges. The bottom I would not attempt gravity wont be very friendly. So just seal it the best you can. Caulk, undercoat, primer sealer then paint top coat seal it. If moisture can get in it wont last.
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Get a rust converter. I cant never remember what that stuff is called. A body guy will know what Im talking about. It turns the rust black and converts it to something else. Im not a body guy expert.
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Thank God my floor supports seem fine, so I’ll just clean those up and do a couple spot welds there. Looks like I could just kiss the top of that with my air chisel to clean the old floor off of it. Definitely going to need new rockers, that part of the seat area I can just cut a piece of sheet for that.
Also need new door skins at the bottom.
Y’all can see why I weighed the option of figuring out how to swap this engine and transmission into the Mazda donor body.
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I don’t think Fred Flintstone is going to be happy with that mod, but it will be a lot nicer for you. 
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I was totally impressed with your restoration job when you posted it Matt. Cody will not reach nearly that level with the cab still on the frame. He will have to settle for good enough. All Matt’s suggestions are right. Butt welding patch panels is extremely difficult. Much better to overlap them and do as Matt detailed using small self tappers to pull the metals perfectly tight against each other. Any raw rust will sooner or later start eating away at new metal if it contacts it. I’d cut out any that I see and reform and reseal the stuff that can’t be reached.
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Turns out Rustoleum has a two in one Rust reformer and sealer branded for automotive use, ordered two cans of that. I’ll try to lightly wire wheel all the rust today.
Edit: Rain out, but I did manage to get my new resonator on the truck. The muffler will take some more logistics since it’s an offset but I’ll figure something out.
I think the resonator I got is a little short for this big of an engine but any bite out of the exhaust is still something. I’m not looking for whisper quiet, just neighborhood friendly. The Walker SoundFX should take up the rest of the scream out of the note.
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Looked a little into AFR and I’m actually fine idling in the high 13:1 range. Once the engine is warm I’m idling about 13.3-13.6:1 and the exhaust sounds happy. No random lean pops or lopey rich sounds.
So while 14.7:1 is optimum stoichiometry, being in the 13:1 range of afr gives you some wiggle room for power.
I’ve got it tuned to this with my muffler and resonator hooked up so I’m happy with this.
Edit: also one thing that could be throwing off my AFR at anything after idle is my EGR. I noticed when I give it some throttle it goes way lean for a moment then super rich. People that put Holley Snipers on these mid 70s engines will delete the EGR purely for that reason.
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Oh yeah I forgot to mention I’ve drilled one of the gas pipe holes in my passenger fender.
I’ve got a Uniseal just there as a rubber cushion and prevent rubbing.
I’m wondering if I want to go for symmetry and drill out the driver side, or have two running down the Passenger side.
If I drill for the driver side, my windshield wiper fluid reservoir is going to be relocated. I could use the old charcoal canister mount with a plastic jar to hold that.
One pipe would be longer since it’ll have to go out and around to the driver’s side.
If I do both on the Passenger I could have the pipe come in right at the battery in that other trapezoid shaped hole, or have it right next to the other one and just relief the one the current pipe is sticking through.
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Doing a little research in a fuel tank swap for this truck. Going to remove my one 20ga side saddle tank and swap to a Suburban tank in the spare tire compartment
I’ve got a couple choices to make. I can either go for a 25 gallon, 31 gallon, or the honking huge 40 gallon tank from a Suburban! I’m leaning towards the 31 gallon tank since it’s the middle option and I’m sure my liquid fuel economy still won’t be stellar even with the smaller carb. 25 gallon would probably give me more room for a condensate tank under the bed, though.
Getting rid of the old fuel tank means I could build the gasifier on the Passenger side for safer refilling and match WK layout a little better.
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I like the way it looks exiting threw the fender. Very clean look with the uniseal.
I dont think its a big deal having them both exit the passanger fender if thats what you decide. Yes one pipe would be longer than the other. But so are mine and probably others too. The differeance is not under the hood on mine. Its in the back where the one pipe crosses over to the passanger side before headi g to the front.
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I think I’m gonna go with the symmetrical pipes, one passenger one driver. Also planning to use 2.25" stainless exhaust pipe at least for outside, and make some water traps once the gas is under the hood. Get that little bit more gas cooling and not worry about it baking in the sun or looking tacky.
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this was wonderfully laid out to me in a uncle tony video with his “plan z” 6 cylinder dart where he went in depth to plug reading at the track. the car had a 4 barrel holley on it and if i recall correctly he had to up size the jets nearest the outside cylinders and down size the closer in to get a somewhat even burn. a lot of fiddling to get it in the exact right burn color plugs he wanted with that combination, even for an 1/8th mile car
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One 3" pipe over the roof and then split into two 2" thru the passenger fender would give enough gas without having to go symetrical.
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That’s true enough, or I could use the same idea for the symmetrical layout.
Both ideas seem good to me. I guess I’ll need to try and sketch it out to compare.
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Honestly I’m a little tempted to plug one of my narrow band sensors in the Driver’s Side manifold to see what it’s reading with a second gauge just for testing. I’m pretty sure I have my Wideband at a safe/good distance. Someone said to take your exhaust tube size and multiply by 10 and that’s your best distance to not cook the sensor. I put mine right at the end of the Y Pipe, a few inches after the two banks are connected. Distance from Passenger and Driver banks are different, since on the stock Y Pipe the Passenger bank goes down and then to the left, and Driver bank just goes down and back. That shouldn’t matter too much I would hope.
After I block off the EGR I’ll let you guys know. I should probably also clean my spark plugs to be on the safe side.
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