Attempt/Mistake #2

[El Campo]

So I was an idiot when I built this truck the first time and thought I wanted a totally shaved truck and I shaved it clean. This included cutting a big hole into my very good conditioned, no dents, not bowed factory OEM gate. Now I decided that I don't want a smooth tailgate and am having to try to find this piece from someone. Anyone have this piece that they want to sell out of some junk gate?
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[El Campo]

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[El Campo]

And the outside of the gate
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[El Campo]

I DID have a little shred of insight and held into the factory grill shell surround. Had replaced it with a poor fitting aftermarket one as it was a bit oxidized but since I have learned a lot about polishing since then I will pull it down from its storage place of the last 10 years and put it back in service.
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[TchncnDen]

I have an old gate laying around. PM me your address and I'll get a piece cut out and in the mail this weekend.

[El Campo]

Awesome man, I sure do appreciate it. Obviously you can just cut the piece bigger and I will whittle it down to fit (please don't think I am trying to tell you what to do, rather it is a doubt that I have in my measuring abilities) You don't happen to have the handle also by any chance do you? I will be glad to pay you if you just tell me how much you want. PM sent.

[TchncnDen]

Yep, I have the handle too. It's just an old junk gate, no payment needed. I can still make a bench or something out of it if I ever get the motivation. Do you need other parts such as the pull rods and latches?

[El Campo]

I have some latches that will probably work but the pull rods would be nice if u don't mind. You are going above and beyond and if at ANY time u would like some payment please let me know as you are helping me out tremendously. If you need anything that I might have let me know and I will return the favor.
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[El Campo]

I was looking for a roof skin and a member on here recommended a supposedly NOS one that had never been installed for only 40 dollars on eBay. Jumped on it as the guy has sold almost 2000 items and has 99.9 percent satisfaction. It appears shipping will be around 140 dollars so even with shipping it is still less than an "almost guaranteed NOT to fit" aftermarket one. We will see when it gets here just how original it actually is.
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[El Campo]

Ok folks I need some opinions from you all. On my old silver cab I had meticulously smoothed the firewall to go along with the shaved outside of the truck. It took me a very long time to do it all correctly. Now looking at it I do not know that it looks much, if any, better than my new cab's spot welded firewall. I am wanting opinions as to whether it is worth me smoothing this one (remember that the outside of the truck will not be smoothed this time) or if I should just paint it black and be done with it. The reason this is coming up now is because before long I will be priming this cab. I do not want to be priming it anytime soon BUT in order to get the rust out if the roof cavity I will have to media blast in there and do not want to blast rest of cab after having put the outer roof skin on. The reason why is because I will be installing 3Ms acoustic Thinsulate insulation up there and due to the nature of its composition it would trap the dust and media and therefore haunt me forever.
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[Xeen]

I don't understand your thought process.
Once you replace the roof skin it will be sealed up again and you don't have to worry about anything getting in there.

[El Campo]

Ok let me try to explain it more clearly. I may have the incorrect reasoning. When you take the roof skin off and look down the B pillars you can see daylight. So there is a way that sand can get up there. Especially if you were to blast the inside of the B pillar which I would be doing. The depressions around the perimeter of the cab cavity seem like they would be channels that would funnel that high pressure air and media into the space and then it seems it would sift down or make noise while it moved around. The Thinsulate is composed of a fluffy sort of material so I will not feel comfortable attempting to blow out the roof space via the B pillars (by blowing air up pillars attempting to blow out retained media). Does this make more sense or am I over thinking this? Thanks for looking and thinking on my behalf!
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[Shoeboxsean]

Looking good
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[Xeen]

My thought is if you are going to blast the inside of the pillars you need to do it before you weld in the roof skin.

[El Campo]

I have no kind of luck!!! I manage to find a cab that has no rusted out cab corners but the cab corner is bent and torn to the extent that I STILL have to replace the driver cab corner!!! I guess I'll give Tabco a call and see what they have for me.
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[El Campo]

Brian like you say I am planning on blasting and then priming the inside of the roof and then the cab portion of it also. I will then use some CLD tiles and the Thinsulate from Sound Deadener Showdown and then will gingerly and very slowly weld in the roof panel. Where the seam is pinched for the flange of the windshield light is visible through the seam so will seam seal that first also.
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[Xeen]

Originally Posted by El Campo

I have no kind of luck!!! I manage to find a cab that has no rusted out cab corners but the cab corner is bent and torn to the extent that I STILL have to replace the driver cab corner!!! I guess I'll give Tabco a call and see what they have for me.

LOL you are still way ahead of the game though, because you dont have to do the entire corner you can just do the bottom half.
You also don't have nearly as much floor to fix as most people.

[knomadd]

OK, I'm thinking that you are over thinking the blasting part, after the roofskin is installed. Think about how many people have their cabs blasted without ever taking the roofskin off. How would you get the media out of it then? you wouldn't avoid blasting it if you hadn't taken the roofskin off would you? Or at least if you had a more typical, somewhat rusty cab I assume you would still be blasting it. I see your logic though.

If you're worried about the firewall, but the blasting concern is just for the interior, could you just blast the interior and not the exterior? Save the exterior blasting for later? Use some cardboard or something to block the window areas and not have to worry about getting media in the pillars? Just a thought...

[mcbassin]

Bummer on the cab corner. I think you have a plan for the new cab. Sounds like you are a lot like me, planning every detail before you actually do the work. Sucks about that pristine tailgate you hacked back in the day. Those things are hard to come by. I may have a patch for you, have you located one yet?

[El Campo]

Duane you have a good point about utilizing cardboard to block off the windshield etc. I had not thought of that. I believe that would probably work but I am worried about maintaining the integrity of the primer that would be on the INSIDE (only 0.03 inches away) while blasting the outside. The vibration and heat from exterior blasting would surely be substantial. I know that would not be TOO much heat but still worry about it. As to how you get the sand out of a roof skin normally when I did it and have seen it done in the past air from blaster (without the sand being fed into it) was directed up the B pillars to try to blow all remaining sand out. Unfortunately doing this on an insulated roof would seem to me to be a disaster waiting to happen. I continually imagine having a loose piece of insulation rattling around immediately above my head that I can do nothing about, etc. Mcbassin, I appreciate the offer, at this time it sounds like Techndan was nice enough to send me one. It is a disease sometimes to think about stuff as often as we do! It consumes and complicates things. I only can hope that this project turns out half as nice as yours is!
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[El Campo]

I purchased this supposedly NOS roof skin off of eBay. It had about 5 dents in it but was only 105 dollars DELIVERED. That's about half of what an aftermarket skin is and at least I know that the OEM skin will fit. I would rather fix a few dents than have to fiddle around with pie cutting and welding and filling a new roof. I have my shrinking disc on the old Makita ready to go.
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[Xeen]

You will find out very quickly if it really is NOS when you push it up against the rear seam.

[knomadd]

Nice score! I hope it really is OEM.

[El Campo]

EXACTLY! I am highly suspicious of whether it really is OEM but the guy swears it is and he has sold thousands of items with 99.9% positive feedback so I suppose it is theoretically possible even if not plausible.
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[mcbassin]

It is a disease sometimes to think about stuff as often as we do! It consumes and complicates things. I only can hope that this project turns out half as nice as yours is!

I purchased this supposedly NOS roof skin off of eBay. It had about 5 dents in it but was only 105 dollars DELIVERED. That's about half of what an aftermarket skin is and at least I know that the OEM skin will fit. I would rather fix a few dents than have to fiddle around with pie cutting and welding and filling a new roof. I have my shrinking disc on the old Makita ready to go.

No kidding about how it complicates things. It wouldn't be too bad if these trucks were all we do, but if you're anything like me you have a busy life so the truck ends up being my ventilation at times.
Thanks for the compliment. I hope the finished product turns out as planned. I'm getting close to paint on some panels

Nice score on the roof panel. I hope its NOS too, that will speed up the process for sure. I need to try one of those shrinking disks. I have been using a torch. It works good for nice uniform hail dents but sucks for the real deep stretched dents like my tailgate has. I ended up just tack welding the pull studs with a mig to pull them.

Looking forward to new updates.