Thread: Tree Crushed 2500HD Silverado Crew Repair

Originally Posted by Rojo

3M is my go to headliner glue and I will be going back to it. Their nozzles are far superior to the glue here. With 3M you have to buy the right glue as they offer two. Off the top of my head I don't remember which I have always used but will check and follow up. I only bought this glue from the AutoTrimStore.com because I wanted to try it. I does work well but if you move the can too fast the spray clumps together in the air before landing on the target spot. A pain for me as I work at a higher speed than most.

"I work at a higher speed than most." ain't that the troof!

Originally Posted by Slab

"I work at a higher speed than most." ain't that the troof!

And usually he's working on more than one thing at a time.

My nickname was One Wire for one thing at a time but I keep a few projects going continuously. It's time to strip down the spare Cab section for parts to finish the repair on mine.



The first thing I had to do was get the Cab section off the dolly I need for doing the fiberglass repairs on the Camper Cap for the truck. It is heavy so I rigged lifting equipment.



I bought a couple of professional Windshield removal tools a while back so the Purple handle tool is to cut out Windshields and the long utility knife tool is for cutting out Pickup Back Glasses.



You have to really "Man UP" to pulling the Windshield Urethane Cutting Tool. I took breaks.



You can see it in the glass trench here. You pull the black handle while holding the tool square to the work so the blade doesn't dig into the glass or the metal.



This tool is used to cut the Urethane seal on the bottom of the back glass. once you have the rest cut with the Windshield tool you have to just keep making cuts to the Urethane from the inside till the glass comes loose. The way the glass is installed there is no room for the Windshield tool blade between the glass and the Cab body.



I rigged a safety lanyard to the back glass just in case it tried to "Pop" out on me.



Now I will need to clean all the Urethane off every part I plan on reusing.



Got the glass on the table. It is darker than my original so I'm going to use it.

Every time that I see someone cutting out a windshield or back glass, I wonder how many scratches need fixing in paint repair before the vehicle comes back for a glass reinstall.

Originally Posted by jjue1979

Every time that I see someone cutting out a windshield or back glass, I wonder how many scratches need fixing in paint repair before the vehicle comes back for a glass reinstall.

Well the steel wire wheel I took to the channels so I can see where the spot weld are really didn't improve the condition of the paint. Since I didn't care about scratches I wasn't careful at all except to not break the glass. I can't imagine what you deal with in a production environment.

I didn't get back on the truck till late this afternoon. Other projects needed attention. One is I have 105 bottles of wine to bottle. It's All ready to be bottled so all the preparation for that was worked in today too. Between JumgleJim & Ketchn I had to pour 250+ jigheads today. Once I get to pouring, the lead is hot, the molds are hot, I just don't stop so that ate the morning. When I get tired in the afternoons and can't focus I clean & paint jigheads or tie a few jigs. Anyway back to the truck I ran out of the ability to focus on all the rear spot welds. You really gotta look close, I use a very strong headlight along with strong glasses to see how much I have cut but you must pay attention to how the cutter feels as well as listen if the panels split.



So auto manufacturers put this urethane called Seam Seal over all the body seams and it all must be removed before you cut the spot welds (best time to do it). I rigged up a aggressive Twist Wire Wheel to do the cleaning and man did it do it's job.



You can easily see the Spot Weld now and every one must be cut out without damaging the panel as I need most of these parts (or some part or section of each).



This is a Blair Spot Weld Broach with the "No Walk" tip. Works fantastic at cutting the spot welds.



I did all the spot welds on the back of the Cab Section now I have to flip it over to do the others.



Like the Volcanic Ring of Fire. Real tedious to cut each one perfectly.



This is way too heavy for me to pick up so using some hooks on body holes I first got the heavy end up so I could set it down on the dolly with the lower back glass flange hooking the dolly to hold it in place.



The lifting straps will remain hooked while I work so I can't pull the thing off the dolly while freeing the panels cut loose. I need the inner superstructure as well as the skins so this is going to take a while then I have to remove the damaged parts on the truck before continuing.

After a long day of drilling plug welds, splitting seams, Harvesting Parts like a Organ Thief. Anyway this post will be more pictures than words. In the different layers of sheet metal I need different lengths of each to accomplish a complete and proper repair. This is slow going to say the least.






First things first was to strip all the extra stuff out.




As you can see three layers of sheet metal must be carefully stripped without bending out of shape. Since I planned well I only need most of the metal for the passenger rear area.






I had to rig a strap to hold the dolly from rolling away while I was cutting the spot welds. Sometimes you just have to rig something up.



Serious surgery needed so I rigged a serious cutter.



I really don't need the ends so to save labor I trimmed off what I don't need.




Pictures of the pieces along with the process follows











All that work for these pieces but if I went to GM to buy the panels you have to buy the entire panel. Working on a Crew Cab the panels would be large and Expensive!



All loaded up for the scrap yard.