Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

are you just using the yellow crew cab as a guide to build a new one ?

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

Nice progress Jon :thumbs:

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

pretty much, as far as I can tell right now I will salvage the "B" pillars, some of the upper roof rails and part of the roof. Also the rear doors.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

Looks kinda Partridge Family with all the different colored panels. lol
you must be so happy with this project. You make it look easy.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

nice progress .....

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

nice work ..rhino lining will work ..make sure you do the perp for it

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

I thought the cops got the perps?? LOL

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

well, some steps forward,back, and forward again.....

next, before I set the "B" pillars I need to get the doors on and lined up.
Of course I let the driver door freeze to the ground... so I was waiting for a thaw, and then remembered that I had brought a few sets of doors home a few years back, when I was ambitiously thinking of starting my own crew build... lo and behold, the front set I have behind the shed were not frozen down, and much better than the green set I was going to use.....

so now I get the doors hung, and I see that the driver rocker is definitely not going to work...I checked it with a straight edge, and it was pulled in about a 1/4 inch where the orange , and seafoam green piece meet up., the passenger side is perfectly straight.

so, I ripped all the tack welds on the edge of the new floor panel, re-drilled my spots on the green piece and used a friction jack to push the rocker out to the right place.
now it is all straight and the door fits, so now I can get started on the "B" pillars...

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

I hate it when that sort of thing happens. Glad to hear you got the issue fixed. Looking good Jon :thumbs:

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

:metal:

Looking good Jon ...


I know this will turn out to be an awesome crew !!

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

looking good ..stay at it

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

wanna see some scary sh--??

I couldn't see in there , but the camera could.. this is the spot above the driver door.

I am trying to figure out how this roof piece was made. Unfortunately it is so rusty I can't tell if it is 2 pieces, or 1.
If it is 1, then it starts (as a cross section) 12 inches from the edge of the roof, comes to the drip rail, and folds in: like a 1/4 inch tall backwards "C", then continues in as the top of the door jamb, and down, to end at the edge of the weather strip.
It seems like a rather complex piece compared to some of the others that were made. if it is 2 pieces-which would make more sense for the ease of forming, it would end at the "C", but I can't find the weld if it is there due to the rust.....

in other news, I did get a rear axle hung in there so I can roll it around. It is resting on the bump stops....

picture 3 is inside the door jamb looking forward to the seam with the factory roof skin
picture 4 is looking towards the back.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

I don't know for certain but I would think that the easiest, simplest way to fabricate that piece would be how it was done back then. And probably the easiest and less costly for you as well.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

You should make some patterns of the pillar once you get to that part of the project , I am wondering what gauge metal they used for that ....

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

here is the upper portion of the "B" pillar, you can see the stock windshield pillar from a 61 that was used, and the little filler piece that they fabbed to tie it together.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

here is the lower inside, it is all wet, because I have soaked it down with Lysol, there was another mouse nest in here about 8 inches deep at the bottom.
this shows the support plate that was used for the hinges, it also shows the "cages" that were put in for the hinge bolts to make them adjustable.

the last shot shows a cross profile of the outside edge, judging by what I can see from the inside , the rear portion of the pillar that they fabbed (front of the back door jamb) had a 90 degree bend on the outside edge. it was about a 1/2 inch in from the edge of the front portion (which is a rear door pillar), the nice curved portion that you can see is all lead.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

1) at the bottom of the pillar , the coach builders just cut it off level with the rocker, since mine is going together a bit differently in the rocker area I was able to use the factory brace that bolts to the mount/rocker, this also solved a rust issue.

2) at the top my upper roof rail will go together a little different, so I used the orange piece, since it wraps under the gutter.

3) the white piece was used in the back to fix a rust issue, and to better mount it to the jamb- when I took this piece apart, at the top there was just lead, 1/2 inch X 1/4 inch thick molding all this together, and covering the hole!

4&5) here is the rain gutter/ upper door jamb that I had a metal shop bend up for me.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

here it is mocked up:

pic 2: the lower rear portion is going to need a new piece fabbed, there is rust in between the inner plate and outer sheet metal, and the part that welds to the rocker must have busted loose and been re- welded several times when this truck was being used.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

Wow...About the only thing i haven't built is a crewcab.....but your doing some good work there . Steel replacement is one of those things ya can't rush and it eats up a bunch of time....good job

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

Your friend did a nice job on that upper sill plate .. how thick is the metal they used to reinforce the hinges inside the pillar ??

I guess you wont be using much of the original cab , you needed it mostly for measurements and the pillars .....

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

looks good Jon. they had lots of lead in that ambulance to
ron

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

your metal work is looking good.

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

thanks!

yeah I wasn't sure if it could be bent, but I gave him a cross section, and he whipped it up in less than a half hour!
as far as I can tell it is 1/8th inch, or maybe 1/32nd less than that, the sheet metal part is the thicker gauge, like what gm used on the pillars and braces, 16 gauge I think?
... and it killed me to cut that pillar out of the cab!! kind of a point of no return. I'll use the doors too. However just seeing how it is/was/can be done was worth it.. lot of stuff that I just couldn't figure out from the pictures I have.

I pulled the door/pillar off as one piece, and I couldn't believe how heavy the unit was ! I could barely lift it.
thanks! hope some of this helps you as well, you have about 1/2 the repair I have to do :lol:

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

Great metal work. Inspiring to watch

Re: My 1961 crew cab- XRMYCRU
 

man oh man, just read your thread and what a project. big kudos just for undertaking this beast. your work looks good but the noodling you've done to fix stuff is beyond me.

great job... now i want a crew too...